{"id":975709,"date":"2020-03-17T14:15:54","date_gmt":"2020-03-17T20:15:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rollingstone.com\/?p=968707"},"modified":"2020-03-17T14:15:54","modified_gmt":"2020-03-17T20:15:54","slug":"deerhoof-drummers-full-album-voivod-cover-is-a-fitting-tribute-to-an-overlooked-classic","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kfmu\/music-news\/deerhoof-drummers-full-album-voivod-cover-is-a-fitting-tribute-to-an-overlooked-classic\/","title":{"rendered":"Deerhoof Drummer\u2019s Full-Album Voivod Cover Is a Fitting Tribute to an Overlooked Classic"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Musicians are responding to the coronavirus pandemic in a variety of ways. Some are livestreaming shows from empty venues<\/a>, some are playing for fans from the comfort of their homes<\/a>, some are creating surprisingly poignant soundtracks for cat videos<\/a> and others \u2014 like Deerhoof<\/a> drummer Greg Saunier \u2014 are passing the time by covering overlooked classics by cult-favorite prog-metal acts.<\/p>\n

\u201cJust in time for lockdown\u2026 One of my favorite records of all time is Quebec thrash metal band Voivod<\/a>\u2019s 1991 release Angel Rat,\u201d <\/em>Saunier wrote on Bandcamp, unveiling his new full-album cover<\/a> of that LP. \u201c<\/em>Because of the extreme beauty and of its construction, I\u2019ve been thinking since it came out that somebody should try a simple acoustic cover of the entire album. Now that the themes in the lyrics seem even more touchingly relevant in March 2020 than they were in 1991, I decided that the person to try it was me!\u201d<\/p>\n

That the drummer of one of contemporary rock\u2019s wildest and most delightful bands is a big Voivod fan should come as no surprise. Not only has he shouted them out in interviews \u2014 once naming<\/a> \u201cJack Luminous,\u201d the centerpiece of the Quebecois veterans<\/a>\u2018 1993 album The Outer Limits<\/em>, as his favorite song ever \u2014 but he\u2019s always championed a vast array of music, from John Cage to the Stones.<\/p>\n

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At the time it came out, Angel Rat<\/em> was a polarizing statement<\/a>. On their first five albums, Voivod evolved from a ferocious thrash band obsessed with breakneck speed to an oddball prog-metal outfit<\/a> whose sound was as offbeat and engaging as the elaborate sci-fi narratives that accompanied it. But Angel Rat,<\/em> with its streamlined song structures and cleaner production \u2014 courtesy of long-time Rush collaborator Terry Brown \u2014 boldly embraced a more radio-friendly sound.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe were totally out of synch with everything else going on at that time, be it the death metal in Tampa, black metal in Norway, or grunge,\u201d Voivod drummer Michel \u201cAway\u201d Langevin said in a 2015 interview<\/a>. For us it was commercial, it\u2019s some people\u2019s favorite album. We were lost in our own dimension, we try not to overthink it, we just go for it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Langevin\u2019s words ring true: Angel Rat<\/em> might be a more listenable album than its predecessors, but ultimately it\u2019s no less weird or singular than what came before. If anything, hearing guitarist Denis \u201cPiggy\u201d D\u2019Amour\u2019s eerie, transporting riffs and vocalist Denis \u201cSnake\u201d B\u00e9langer\u2019s dystopian narratives \u2014 \u201cOver the greying landscape\/Under a deadened sky\/Sitting on a mountain\/I will stand aside\u201d \u2014 in the context of these relatively straightforward songs makes them stand out even more.<\/p>\n

Saunier\u2019s versions \u2014 unadorned readings, with just an acoustic guitar and his tender vocals \u2014 drive home the trippy poignancy of a song like \u201cThe Prow\u201d<\/a> (\u201cI\u2019m starboard to nowhere\/On the milky way\/Howling wind\/Salty air tearing at the sails\u201d) and the Philip K. Dick\u2013ian existentialism of \u201cGolem\u201d<\/a> (\u201cI ask my positron self\/Why am I born apart?\u201d). Like all great covers, these versions both stand on their own and invite the listener to relive the genius of the originals \u2014 or to visit Voivod\u2019s outer limits for the first time.<\/p>\n

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Musicians are responding to the coronavirus pandemic in a variety of ways. Some are livestreaming shows from empty venues, some are playing for fans from the comfort of their homes, some are creating surprisingly poignant soundtracks for cat videos and others \u2014 like Deerhoof drummer Greg Saunier \u2014 are passing the time by covering overlooked […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[76],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-975709","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-music-news"},"acf":[],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-06-30 04:38:43","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"distributor_meta":false,"distributor_terms":false,"distributor_media":false,"distributor_original_site_name":"KFMU Solar Powered Radio","distributor_original_site_url":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kfmu","push-errors":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kfmu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/975709","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kfmu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kfmu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kfmu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kfmu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=975709"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kfmu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/975709\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kfmu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=975709"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kfmu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=975709"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kfmu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=975709"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}