Cryptotunity.
Its taken me a month or so, but I finally figured out that the new Deerhoof record (Friend Opportunity) is really really really good. It feels weird at first, especially if you've listened to The Runners Four about a hundred times or if you've seen them absolutely shred live at the Andy Warhol Museum. But if you can listen to it a few times in your car, take a break from it for a few weeks, burn it for your friend, bring it to her house, and listen to it while you eat chocolate cake, it'll sound like the best record yet-to-be-released in January of 2007. Check out a crazy 11-minute jazz jam and another song found elsewhere on the record, and a My Bloody Valentine cover from the free EP they released last year (which I'm pretty sure you can download from someplace here):

Deerhoof - Look Away (from Friend Opportunity)
Deerhoof - Choco Fight (from Friend Opportunity)
Deerhoof - Lose My Breath (from the Free EP)

The other January record from a Deer- band I'm really looking forward to is Deerhunter's new jawn, Cryptograms. They used to creep me out, maybe due to the combination of the slightly unsettling rhythmic punk and the very unsettling cover art of Turn It Up, Faggot (sometimes called s/t, though I can't imagine why). But they seemed to have gotten way spacier, if still a little weirded out. I've been obsessed with "Spring Hall Convert"--which is streaming with a few more Cryptograms jams on their myspace page--since my drive down to see Deerhoof (and Brady and Breille (far left)). I also really like "Tree Spies", so here's that, too.

Deerhunter - "Spring Hall Convert" and others (from Cryptograms)
Deerhunter - "Tree Spies" (from the Deerhunter/Alphabets 7")

And finally, the song of the day for today is "Trio" by King Crimson, from their album Starless and Bible Black, which is damn good. Thank you, Tyler.