DEERHOOF - Offend Maggie

Possibly the biggest underground art-pop band of the decade (so they aren't Radiohead, or even TV On The Radio, in terms of accessibility or fanbase, but both those bands are surely fans by now) take enough time off from perpetual touring to continue their biennial album output. The guitar tones might ring more consistently cleanly than on their last two, with occasional auxiliary instrumentation this time including an impressively unobtrusive piano presence on fuzz-bass thumper "Buck And Judy". When guitarists John Dieterich and Ed Rodriguez do step on their stompboxes, as at the dramatic pause halfway through "Eaguru Guru", though, they bite and slice in a way that still exhilarates like few other modern rockers can muster. Catch the cuddly killers live if you can, but this is a more-than-sufficient supplement to hearing these players' players in concert.