Deerhunting
By Tankboy in Arts & Entertainment on Nov 14, 2008 6:25PM
What do you do when an album you've recorded gets leaked online just after it's mastered and three months before it's scheduled to hit the shelves? Most bands would either move the release date up or just say "fuck it" and hope touring revenue makes up for any lost sales. Or, if you're Deerhunter's leader Bradford Cox, you head back in the studio and bang out a second disc to release along with the original album when it's finally publicly released.
The result is splintered, with the original album Microcastle shimmering beautifully while its hastily recorded appendix, Weird Era Cont., is raw, rough, and winningly self-indulgent. Obviously both discs were created by the same band, but if you didn't know it you might think they were recorded years apart. For this reason let's center on Microcastle and its success, and just accept Weird Era Cont. as a pleasant bonus experiment that's enjoyable but pales in comparison.
Microcastle is a mini-masterwork though. Before proceeding, read that last sentence and realize that we have pretty much hated all of Deerhunter's previous work. So let that sink in for a sec. Microcastle is a nigh perfect blend of indie pop with a tinge of prog-rock noodlery ... just enough to keep things interesting but not too much that you would want to start flinging hackey-sacks at the band. Some have thrown out comparisons to the Flaming Lips or Mercury Rev, but we're hearing WAY more Elephant 6 on this disc. Cox has managed to rein in and redirect some of his more obstuse tendencies to create an album that grows in stature upon repeated listens.
Does all of that read like gobbledygook to you? Well then here's the ten cent translation: the album is really, really good ... and you should go see the band when they play Metro tomorrow night because we can only imagine how much better these songs must be when they're living and breathing on stage.
Deerhunter plays tomorrow, November 15 at Metro, 3730 N Clark, 7 p.m., $17, all ages