Deerhoof - Freind Opportunity

By only

Thursday February 1, 2007

Kill Rock Stars

Wow. Pop music has really changed. Because no shit, back when ‘N Sync came out with that “Pop” song, I was calling those dudes the worst thing that ever happened to music. They were the embodiment of pop, which, around the turn of the century, wasn’t even worth considering music. It had zero artistic merit, and even less substance. But hey, fast forward six years and every guy my age loves the lead singer of that group and here I am raving about how this new Deerhoof album is laden with the catchiest pop hooks since ABBA. And I love it, because it turns out pop isn’t the devil. Old white guys are. And even better is that while this album is somehow even poppier than their last one (impossible!), it is simultaneously less accessible. If you’ve been down with Deerhoof since the Holdypaws days, you and I just hi-fived. But here’s the real question: how, in less than a decade, did pop go from being the musical equivalent of Spam and eggs, to being a term of praise for bands that would have been ridiculed into oblivion back in ’01 for coming even close to pop?