Like my indispensable dollar-bought tome, the quartet’s sixth proper release, Milk Man (Kill Rock Stars/5RC), is full of tiny revelations. Vocalist Satomi Matsuzaki toys with individual words like inanimate objects. She sounds them out with childlike inquisitiveness, and fashions together Non Sequiturs like tinkertoys. Deerhoof isn’t a literary band, but they’ve constructed a unique vocabulary from a series of solitary riffs, easily tossed off and exchanged for new ones. Their verbiage stems from avant-jazzmen like the Bang on a Can Allstars, pastiche pattern-makers The Residents and even The Kinks’ pop sensibility is evident; familiar garbled guitar feeds resonate like Dave Davies’ trusty amplifier. In fact, Deerhoof can and will bang on just about anything—a dusty organ or cowbell—creating a racket ever closer or further away from the traditional pop median.

"We've been trying and trying to make music that anybody would like," remarks guitarist Chris Cohen, via e-mail. "Believe it or not, even after the first few albums there were those who said it was too polished. It really depends on your definition of pop. I like pop music like Burt Bacharach, where the melodies have these huge leaps in pitch and the rhythm is always changing and the guitar doesn't really sound like a guitar and the chord changes are totally unpredictable, and people all agree that that's pop. So then it seems to me that it's a matter of what you can get away with." In this case, the "Milk Man" could get away with murder. On the organ-driven "Giga Dance," Matsuzaki meanders, "Mind the steps / Steal his eyes / Under pale dim lights." "Dog on the Sidewalk" allows for a syncopated rat-tat-tat of drumming while the lyricism is confined to the couplet: "Dog on the sidewalk I saw / Wan wan kun ga poko poko pon pon pon." Still, with respect for the listener, the band’s childlike whimsy rarely oversteps their seasoned prowess as players.

Adds Cohen, "Most people really dig music that's complex like that as long as it's done with their enjoyment in mind and not just for the sake of being wacky. I don't think Deerhoof has tried to get away with less over the years, we've just tried to make it more enjoyable to listen to. We've had more time over the years to try and understand what we like to hear in music and we try to just do that."

If you’re still confused, you’re not alone. Deerhoof’s concepts are their raison d’être, the elements that make their music, almost deceptively simple, such a challenge and a thrill to pick through. Adds Cohen, "The concept isn't something we want to pin down or spell out for everybody. We worked a long time on it, making it confusing but hopefully irresistible and we'd like it if it just gnawed away at people and they couldn't go on." Like Matsuzaki’s poker-faced introduction, "Milk Man": "Milk Man sleeps on the roof at noon / Bananana [sic.] stabbed to the arms / Weird man / Ooh La La." Whaaa? "We love it when things do that to us," Cohen says. "For example this happens to Greg [Saunier, drummer]. He will not let up about that movie ‘Eyes Wide Shut.’ It drives me crazy but it's really fun for him and we all discuss it with him for hours on end. These obsessions first require that something be so good that you want to understand, though, and that's the only hard part. I mean, being confusing is easy. So we work very hard on everything we do, in order to provide the set-up, and then we just try to turn the screws.

Deerhoof plays on Thu., April 29, at the Triple Rock Social Club. With 54-71 and Sicbay. 6 p.m. $8. All Ages. 629 Cedar Ave. S., Mpls. 612-333-7399.

You can find out more about Deerhoof on their official website.

Click to download an mp3 of Deerhoofs’ song Sealed With a Kiss.