Crunchy Melodies & Scream-A-long Hooks

Satomi Matsuzaki, Haley Dahl, and Andrya Ambro are three powerful musicians who led their respective bands on a stacked Tuesday night line up at Brooklyn’s Elsewhere.

Charisma wasn’t in short supply for Matsuzaki, as the front woman for Deerhoof, a seminal act in the modern indie scene. Dancing, clanging, and riffing for over an hour with her band mates, founding Deerhoof member and drumming maestro Greg Saunier, and veteran guitarists John Dieterich and Ed Rodriguez.

For over two and half decades, San Francisco’s Deerhoof has been churning out album after album, influencing over a generation of DIY musicians in the process. The diverse crowd featured people reading books and writing in bent and crumpled notebooks in-between sets, in addition to the normal gig traditions of beer drinking and conversing with fellow fans.

The 21 song set was scribbled with a sharpie on a paper plate, which was just a rough guideline as the San Francisco 4 piece rocked, rolled, and frolicked through their energetic alt-rock masterclass.

Hooking new listeners with crunchy melodies, the die-hard Deerhoof aficionados study the mythical and engaging lyrical work. Listen to one album, or all 14 full lengths, you will find memorable melodies throughout.

// Deerhoof

Brooklyn’s Haley Dahl led Sloppy Jane has carved out a distinctive niche in the local DIY scene. A band that defies genre and characterization, born from a hardcore 3 piece years ago has blossomed into an 11 piece avant-rock orchestra performance juggernaut. Descriptions of a Sloppy Jane show does no one any good, it is far better to just say you need to experience one yourself.

The 45 minutes set, built from 2018’s full length debut album “Willow” starts quiet, gets loud, gets louder, gets soft as a child’s choir, then when you think you have a picture of an idea of what Sloppy Jane, Dahl shakes your ear drums like an Etch-A-Sketch.

To label Sloppy Jane as gimmick would find you solidly in the camp of incorrectness. The group is built on top notch musicianship, expertly led by Dahl. Take away the business suit and heels, blue goo vomit, and catchy scream-a-long hooks like “Where’s My Wife”, you are left with a complex weaving of musical styles and story.