#deerhood

[sillykiahh]

[deerest-forest]

What if I start using all the girlblog tags but replace "girl" with "deer?"

[zunshine]

[munchie-buddy]

Song of the day, 8/24/2015: Deerhoof - “My Purple Past”

Forgot that this album is one of their best until I found the record last month

[culturecollideofficial]

In honor of Deerhoof embarking on a national tour, we asked them about life on the road and which songs you won't be hearing live (well, we had to try)!

[oneweekoneband]

Congotronics Vs. Rockers

After writing about how Juana Molina has always felt more comfortable being alone and recording by herself in her own house, it’s quite unbelievable to say that she was part of a 19-member live band. Congotronics Vs. Rockers featured a wide variety of musicians: on one hand, Konono Nº1 and Kasai Allstars represented the Congotronics part, and on the other, Juana along with Deerhoof, Wildbirds & Peacedrum, Vincent Kenis and Matt Mehlan from Skeletons represented the rockers. Together, they formed a beautiful and overwhelming mess… especially for themselves!

Congotronics Vs. Rockers didn’t only involve playing live, but also writing together. It was hours and hours of jamming and rehearsing, trying to understand each culture, but learning from them too. For example, Juana has mentioned that one of the difficulties were the different rhythms – apparently she tried to teach the Congolese the 7/4 time metre which they didn’t know about. In an interview with T. Cole Rachel from Stereogum she talked about the experience, and since I wasn’t able to see it live, I think that her words will be more valuable than mine:

“That was heavy metal. It was very difficult. I am very, very… well let’s say I’m a control freak. I admit it, I know it. It’s a bit of a pain for people to deal with sometimes, but it’s very good to have things done. Because if no one takes control of anything… I was with two or three more people and we were taking care of the songs and putting them together. It was very tough work. Also very enjoyable. And very exciting. I have never done something like that before. So we started to play music without knowing each other. We were starting to exchange files and then we wrote maybe a dozen songs. But then when we met, everyone had understood something different. So we were 19 on stage. It was incredibly crazy; there wasn’t an actual director that made us all shut up and made us all ‘okay you do this, you do that’. It was bit of chaos, and of course you respect the other people because you don’t know them very well. All these things that happen when you don’t know people. So we spent a month and a half rehearsing in Brussels. I didn’t realize how difficult that was and how much of a miracle that was to get 12 or 13 new songs with people you’ve never met before. There were people who didn’t even speak in other languages but this. It was easier for me because I could almost speak everyone’s languages besides the dialects that some of the Congolese spoke. But everyone spoke French, English and Spanish so to me it was easier to get a feel of what was happening. But some others never got what the others were saying. But it was so strong and so powerful. All these personalities. Different personalities there. Everyone was so different from each other.”

Congotronics Vs. Rockers meant a completely new way of working for Juana: there was no home studio, the shyness somehow had to disappear and she had to share tasks with other people. But all the effort was worthwhile, since the music is truly fantastic and they proved that cultures can learn from each other. Just like Juana herself has expressed it in an interview with Kier Wiater Carnihan from The Monitors: “That was my goal, to get to something none of us could’ve done without the others.”

[cherhorowitz2k16]

There are some people who I'm in that mutual follow situation with who've really brought a lot of positivity in my life and I'm feeling very open tonight so I'm just gonna tag some of you because I think about you guys and I'm glad that you're here.

[tk--421]

panda panda panda panda pan-PANDA!