Marvel at its rests, gasp at the eighth notes, gape at the hand-written E-sharps! Then create your own rendition of the American art-poppers' forthcoming track

 

 

These days, there's nothing surprising about a band releasing a single as a free download. But while Coldplay and the Charlatans mess around with MP3s, and Radiohead put laser video footage online, Deerhoof are trying a different approach. Sure, you can download Fresh Born, the single from their forthcoming album. However, you will have to play the damn thing yourself. Because, for the moment, Deerhoof are just giving away the sheet music.

 

The San Francisco band are beloved for their weirdness, but this is one of the art-pop group's strangest projects yet. Fresh Born's sheet music is available, replete with lyrics, at the Deerhoof website. Marvel at its rests, gasp at the eighth notes, gape at the hand-written E-sharps! Though the band promise that their version of Fresh Born will be available soon, they ask that in the meantime people make their own renditions. And this their fans have done – starting with members of the crowd at last weekend's gig in Brooklyn.

 

In a video for WNYC, Deerhoof explained their motivation. "For any band attempting to put out recorded music, the topic inevitably is broached: 'What are you going to do about leaking?' Your songs are going to leak too early and no one's going to buy it. So we came up with this way of leaking it on purpose. We'll leak the song - the platonic, abstract, ideal version, in sheet music form - in the hope that someone will look at it and maybe record their own version."

 

Fan versions of Fresh Born can be uploaded to a dedicated website, where they will soon be available for download.

 

Offend Maggie, Deerhoof's thirteenth album, is released on October 6. Only CD and vinyl versions have been announced so far, but perhaps there's a platonic, abstract, ideal (and paper) edition on the way.

 

Sean Michaels guardian.co.uk, Thursday July 24, 2008

 

http://www.guardian.co.uk/music/2008/jul/24/deerhoof.leak.new.single

That's really cool!

 

http://deerhoof.cashmusic.org/