Deerhunter is a band which formed in 2001 in Atlanta, Georgia, United State… Read Full Bio ↴Deerhunter is a band which formed in 2001 in Atlanta, Georgia, United States. The band consists of Bradford Cox (vocals, guitar, piano), Moses Archuleta (drums, synths), Lockett Pundt (guitar, organ, vocals), and Josh McKay (bass, vocals).

The group began with the ambition of fusing the lulling hypnotic states induced by ambient and minimalist music with the klang and propulsion of garage rock. The band has weathered chaotic line-up changes and the death of a member.

Cryptograms was the second full-length offering from Deerhunter, and their first for Kranky. The album took almost two years to finish and was the product of emotional, physical, and financial strain on the group. The result is an album that finds the band shifting from discordant catharsis, and forming a sonic identity that completely expresses the place from which they have arrived. The first half of the album was recorded first unsuccessfully in 2005. These recordings were a blur at best, wordless and bordering on psychological atrophy. The sessions failed to provide anything tangible, and were racked with technical and personal problems, including out-of-tune pianos, panic attacks, and a tape machine that seemed to fail to capture the full spectrum of ambience the band was exploring.

The band returned home, having failed, and considered giving up. The idea arose to give it one last shot and exactly one year from the date of the recording of their first self-titled LP at a small studio in rural Georgia, they returned to that same studio and plugged in. The session resulted in the first half of the record which was recorded in one day and completely filled the reel of tape they brought with them. Cryptograms’ first side begins with an introduction leading to the title track, and ends with the tape literally spinning off the end of the reel in the middle of a drone layered with bells and accordion (Red Ink). The second half of the record, also recorded in one day, in November of 2005, represents the band in an entirely different state. Spring Hall Convert opens with the line, “…so I woke up…” and introduces a set of focused psych-pop songs fixating on adolescence, illness, and failing connections.

On May 8, 2007, the group released the Fluorescent Grey EP, which was recorded in July 2006. This EP also garnered the title of "Best New Music" from Pitchfork Media. In the same month, the band released the Whirlyball 7" single, which was available at only one store in Atlanta, Georgia: Criminal Records. The single also acted as a ticket to a show, which featured the band along with The Carbonas, Selmanaires and The Coathangers. The single was available online for a limited time after the show due to popular demand, but only 200 copies were pressed, with 100 on black vinyl and 100 on clear vinyl.

The quartet's third album, Microcastle, came out in October of 2008 after being leaked accidentally in May. The physical release was accompanied by an album entitled Weird Era Cont.. They were both well-received, scoring a 9.2 and "best new music" on Pitchfork and taking the #1 slot for Tiny Mix Tapes' annual favorite albums list for 2008.

The band added guitarist Whitney Petty, a former sailor and high school friend of Cox's, to replace the departing Colin Mee in May 2008. She in turn left the band in February 2009.

The band followed up the critically acclaimed Microcastle/Weird Era Cont. set in May 2009 with an EP - Rainwater Cassette Exchange.

In September 2010, Deerhunter released Halcyon Digest on the label 4AD. The album received broad critical acclaim, including being rated #20 on the NME "50 Best Albums of 2010." Deerhunter made their US broadcast television debut on Conan, December 2, 2010, where they performed Helicopter.

Deerhunter released their sixth album, Monomania, in May 2013. It was their first album without bassist Josh Fauver, with Frankie Broyles and Josh McKay being added to the group. The Black Lips described the album as the "most punk album of the last 30 years."

On December 4, 2014, frontman Bradford Cox was seriously injured and hospitalized after being hit by a car in Atlanta. He has since described the incident as a “perspective-giving jolt” and cites the accident as a turning point for him in life. Deerhunter's seventh album, Fading Frontier, was released in October 2015. This was Cox's first musical output since the accident. The album also saw the departure of guitarist Frankie Broyles, who left the band to focus on his solo career.

In 2018, multi-instrumentalist Javier Morales was added as a permanent member, and the band embarked on a series of tour dates in the USA and Europe. Sold on this tour was a limited cassette-only release, Double Dream of Spring, comprised mainly of instrumental and experimental pieces. The band's eighth studio album, Why Hasn't Everything Already Disappeared?, followed in January 2019. Later in the year, a "12-minute opus" titled Timebends was released to streaming services as a one-off single. Partially improvised and laden with Cox's signature stream-of-consciousness lyricism, the track was "recorded live direct to tape and in one take with minimal overdubs and mastered using a completely analogue signal chain."

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Futurism
Deerhunter Lyrics

Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴

Your cage is what you make it
If you decorate it
It goes back faster
Goes quick, laughter
Permeates the carnage
Laying out in sunlight
At daybreak, oh
Daybreak, oh

Oh

You look cute in plastic
My existence, drastic
And lake of flowers
Burning flowers
Try to make it faster
Crayons in the laughter
A screen of gel
Patient hell

Call it what you want, dear
I call it fear
And I am an expert
Laying out brick by brick
Call it what you need to

I left behind reason
Faith I take, I, faith I take, I

Overall Meaning

The lyrics of Deerhunter's song Futurism seem to explore the ideas of existence, perception of reality and fear. The first two lines - "Your cage is what you make it, If you decorate it" - suggest that our reality can be what we create for ourselves, and that our perception of the world is influenced by how we decorate our "cage," or our surroundings. The line "Permeates the carnage" seems to allude to the chaotic and violent nature of the world around us, but also suggests that there is a beauty in it that can be found if one chooses to seek it out, as evidenced by the line "Laying out in sunlight at daybreak."

The second verse continues to explore the theme of constructing one's own reality, but also introduces the idea of fear. The line "You look cute in plastic, my existence, drastic" could be interpreted in a number of ways, but one possible interpretation is that the singer has constructed a version of themselves that is fake or superficial in order to fit in. The line "A screen of gel, Patient hell" suggests a kind of numbness or detachment from reality, as if the singer is trying to shield themselves from the fear and chaos that they see around them. The song closes with the line "Faith I take," which could suggest that, despite the fear and uncertainty of the world, the singer is choosing to have faith in something, even if it is not entirely clear what that something is.

Line by Line Meaning

Your cage is what you make it
Your limitations are defined by yourself

If you decorate it
If you make it look good, you make it seem like it's not a cage

It goes back faster
Time seems to fly by

Goes quick, laughter
Time goes by so quickly that laughter is the only thing that remains

Permeates the carnage
The destruction is everywhere

Laying out in sunlight
Enjoying life

At daybreak, oh
A new day begins

Daybreak, oh
Another new day begins

You look cute in plastic
You look good but fake

My existence, drastic
My life is full of extremes

And lake of flowers
The beauty that is overwhelming