Fever 121614
12 songs, drawn from across Deerhoof's catalog, appear on the red-vinyl LP, CD, and accompanying video download. The gatefold sleeve features a collage of manga drawings by particularly rabid Deerhoof fans. Deerhoof has made their live album, though they didn't plan on it. Their Japanese label Felicity organized the recording and filming of one stop on their 13-day Japan tour in December. But while the label execs were thinking "legendary band makes classic live-in-Japan concert album," Deerhoof had more tours to do and promptly forgot about it. When a rough cut of the video appeared in their inboxes a couple months later, they were surprised by what they saw. They'd never seen a video of themselves that really reminded them of what it felt like to play the concert. Their long-time friend Noriko Oishi, who did the edit, was able to simulate the fast-paced communication that's constantly zipping between Satomi, John, Ed and Greg when they're onstage, and she seemed to instinctively zero in all the right moments. For Greg, who'd been mixing a lot of live Deerhoof to provide "official" audio for various Youtube users posting shows, getting the sound right for the album was a breeze. Just "tell it like it is." Ed had the brainstorm of asking Deerhoof's followers on social media to make manga drawings of the band, to be used in a huge collage. The Japanese label knew they had the classic live-in-Japan album they'd hoped for. Once Deerhoof's U.S. label Polyvinyl saw the video, they knew it was one for the ages and wanted in for their own LP version. In his Talkhouse review, Spencer Tweedy said it best: "Deerhoof was able to turn me into a shit-grinning, foul-mouthed hard rock fan before the first chorus of the record even started...It’s wound so tight, so energetic, that it sounds like a miracle that it doesn’t snap at any moment...If you ever forget why it is you like to play music, Deerhoof is there to remind you."
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Somehow able to continuously skate the cliff of insanity for extended periods of time without falling, Deerhoof is a true pearl of progressive rock (while still holding off on the proggy bullshit, thank God).
Review of 'Fever 121614' by Deerhoof. The band's forthcoming release comes out on November 27th via Polyvinyl Records.