The Many Faces of Greydon Clark

Once again, Deerhoof delivered relentless riffage and blast-beats to the masses, but without the codpieces and ridiculous t-shirts normally associated with these Heavy Metal kid adjectives. Don’t get me wrong, without a doubt, these guys could talk you ear off about the brilliance of Bonham, and a couple of them were spotted burning a j at Iron Maiden night, but, thankfully, they abandoned the stifling confines of recycled Hesher-rock long ago. Last Saturday, Deerhoof returned to the stage and unveiled their new album to a sold-out the Great American Music Hall. Still, I was strangely frustrated by Deerhoof’s brilliant pop; why can’t they abandon the art-school deconstruction of hard rock and play those riffs for just a few more measures?