Pitchfork

There he stands, the faceless fella who will grace the cover of Deerhoof's forthcoming album Offend Maggie. The stark, striking pencil drawing was done by Japanese artist Tomoo Gokita, who the band met last year at in Miami when they performed a multimedia set with Milk Man artist Ken Kagami.

As Deerhoof frontwoman Satomi Matsuzaki gushes in a press release, "A simple black and white pencil drawing is a real challenge to make work. Gokita's sensitive magical touch, strong contrast and articulate balance in the figures he draws brings out reality of the world. Then he deforms it by having parts of the figure missing and blurred. It doesn't give you an answer to who it is, and maybe it's nobody. When we made Offend Maggie, it was obvious who we wanted to ask for the cover."

She continues, "I think our music is very close to how his painting represents. We present the world that doesn't exist and you can't refer to anything else, yet it makes you feel somewhat close because we are using simple instruments that are familiar to everyone. Simple tools and be creative is my favorite thing to think about when I make music. That's when my creativity is tested."

Gokita, too, detailed his inspiration for the work. Check it:

Upon listening to the whole album at an extremely loud volume, I turned off the stereo impulsively.
Sudden silence.
Dead silence studio.
Then, an upper-body-naked-man with no face came into my mind.
I don't know the reason.
The posing upper-body-naked-man haunted my memory and wouldn't go away.
I relied on that afterimage and I drew it in one sitting.
Who is that man?
I don't know.

Whoever this half-naked man is, you can nab both the inside and the outside of Offend Maggie October 6 in the UK from ATP Recordings and October 7 in the U.S. from Kill Rock Stars.

On that note, the band needs your help. They're offering a portion of the proceeds from the digital sales of the album to a charity, and they'd like their fans to help choose which charity gets the money. They've narrowed it down to five, and they want you to vote: election reform advocates Why Tuesday?, media watchdog group FAIR: Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting, foreign policy reform proponents Peace Action West, injustice-battling rag Z Magazine, and medical humanitarian organization Doctors Without Borders. Send your choice to deerhoofcharityvote@gmail.com by October 1. The selected charity will be announced October 7.

UPDATE: The band requests that each person only votes once. Thanks!

Deerhoof plan to hit the road through the fall. They recently added a handful of European dates, with the promise of more to follow shortly. The band will be bringing exclusive shirts designed by Tomoo Gokita along for the ride.

Deerhoof:

08-31 Vancouver, British Columbia - Stanley Park Singing Exhibition
10-03 Los Angeles - Avalon *              
10-04 San Francisco, CA - Great American Music Hall *            
10-06 Portland, OR - Wonder Ballroom ^!           
10-07 Seattle, WA - Neumo's ^!                 
10-09 Salt Lake City, UT - Urban Lounge ^!
10-11 Denver, CO - Bluebird ^!             
10-13 Omaha, NE - The Slowdown ^%        
10-14 Minneapolis, MN - First Avenue ^%         
10-15 Milwaukee, WI - Turner Hall ^%         
10-16 Bloomington, IN - Buskirk Chumley Theater ^%             
10-17 Chicago, IL - Metro ^#               
10-18 Pontiac, MI - Crofoot Ballroom ^#                     
10-21 New York, NY- Spiegeltent
10-22 New York, NY - Irving Plaza ^#
10-23 Cambridge, MA - Middle East ^#          
10-24 Northampton, MA - Pearl Street ^#                
10-25 Philadelphia, PA - Starlight Ballroom ^#                 
10-26 Washington, DC - 9:30 Club ^#                    
10-28 Carrboro, NC  - Cat's Cradle ^#                
10-29 Asheville, NC - Grey Eagle ^#                  
10-30 Nashville, TN - Mercy Lounge ^#               
10-31 Athens, GA - 40 Watt Club ^#               
11-01 Orlando, FL - The Social ^#                
11-02 Tampa, FL - Crowbar ^#                    
11-05 New Orleans, LA - House of Blues ^#               
11-06 Houston, TX - Numbers ^#                    
11-07 Dallas, TX - Granada ^@             
11-08 Austin, TX - Fun Fun Fun Fest                   
11-10 El Paso, TX - Club 101 ^+
11-12 Tucson, AZ - Club Congress ^+        
11-13 Tempe, AZ - The Clubhouse ^+
12-05 Antwerp, Belgium - Trix
12-06 Amsterdam, Netherlands - Melkweg
12-08 Rennes, France - Antipode
12-10 Lyon, France - Grrrnd Zero
12-11 Paris, France - Trabendo (Sonic Protest Festival)

& with Gnarls Barkley
*  with Okay, Happy Hollows
^ with Experimental Dental School
! with Coconut       
% with Au
# with Flying
@  with Hawnay Troof
+ with KIT