2001–2005: Formation and Turn It Up Faggot The band was co-founded in 2001 by vocalist
Bradford Cox and drummer and keyboardist
Moses Archuleta. The name Deerhunter (which Cox has repeatedly remarked upon despising) was chosen by the band's first drummer, Dan Walton. Cox did not care then what the band was called as he thought it to be just another temporary art project. The band was joined by Colin Mee, whom Cox met while Mee was living at the Atlanta label
Die Slaughterhaus Records with members of
Black Lips. The two bonded over a shared interest in
Dada and 20th Century Composers
Olivier Messiaen and
György Ligeti, as well as British bands
The Fall,
The Raincoats, and
Cabaret Voltaire. In 2004 the group's second bassist, Justin Bosworth, died of head injuries suffered in a
skateboarding accident at age 24. He appeared on only one Deerhunter release, the
Deerhunter/Alphabets Split, issued before their debut album. Joshua Fauver, of Atlanta punk band Electrosleep International, then took up the position as bassist. Deerhunter's first album,
Turn It Up Faggot, was "the result of a lot of negativity". After the band finished the album, in an indication of how difficult it was to record in the wake of his bandmate's death, Cox said "I don't ever want to make this album again".
2005–2007: Cryptograms and Fluorescent Grey EP The band, now featuring Pundt's
reverb-saturated guitar sound, went on tour, playing shows with the likes of
Lightning Bolt and
Gang Gang Dance. This tour culminated in a recording session engineered by acclaimed folk musician
Samara Lubelski at Rare Book Room,
New York City. This session failed to produce anything that could be used, due to Cox's mental and physical state at the time, as well as technical disagreements that emerged with Lubelski. The album was released by
Kranky in January 2007. The album revealed a more subdued and introverted sound for the band. As with their first album,
Cryptograms also had a dedication inside the album's liner notes, this time to a friend of Cox's, Bradley Ira Harris, a
heroin addict who died in 2005. Mee rejoined the band four months later, but departed the band for the final time before 2008.
2007–2009: Microcastle/Weird Era Cont. and Rainwater Cassette Exchange EP Deerhunter contributed the song "After Class" to
Living Bridge, a compilation put together by Rare Book Room Records. The song was recorded in the same place where they attempted to record their second album. They returned to Rare Book Room studios in April 2008 to record
"Oh, It's Such A Shame," a
Jay Reatard cover that would be released as a split single with Reatard himself covering the
Fluorescent Grey title track. In the same month they recorded their next album,
Microcastle. Prior to the announced release date for the LP, the band continued to tour, with one date opening for
The Smashing Pumpkins and a select of fall shows opening for
Nine Inch Nails. The quartet's third offering,
Microcastle, was set to be released on October 27, 2008, although it became available through peer-to peer networks in late May. In an attempt to reward fans who awaited for the street date, the group reconvened to record a new album of material,
Weird Era Cont., which later leaked before its street date also. However,
Microcastle did manage to debut at No. 123 on the Billboard 200, a first for Deerhunter. Mee left the band again, for the final time, and the band enlisted former cheerleader and high school friend of Cox, Whitney Petty, as his touring replacement. While touring the
Microcastle album in the
UK, Cox booked an evening in a studio and recorded what would become the
On Platts Eyott cassette. This was released in two batches of 100 copies each; an edition of pink cassettes was given out to competition winners by his record label and orange cassettes were sold at a special
Halloween concert in Atlanta on October 31, 2008. In a comment left on the Deerhunter blog on February 28, Cox announced that Whitney Petty was no longer a member of the band, stating: While on tour, the band managed to release
Rainwater Cassette Exchange, an EP of songs written during the
Microcastle sessions, and "
Vox Celeste 5," a Sub Pop single of songs from
Weird Era Cont. and
Microcastle. To promote the releases, they embarked on a short summer trek with
No Age and
Dan Deacon as the "No Deachunter Tour." Later during a performance at
All Tomorrow's Parties 2009 Music Festival in September (curated by
The Flaming Lips), Bradford Cox announced that the band will be going on hiatus to "devote time to some other things," calling the show their last "for a long time." During the hiatus, Bradford Cox continued with Atlas Sound and released his second album
Logos, Josh Fauver resumed work with his record label Army of Bad Luck, Moses Archuleta enrolled in culinary school, and Lockett Pundt performed some shows in celebration of
The Floodlight Collective, his debut album as Lotus Plaza released in March of that year.
2010–2012: Halcyon Digest In early January, it was revealed that the group would serve as openers on the upcoming
Spoon tour to promote their album
Transference. Along with the Spoon tour, the group also announced some shows of their own, including stops at the 2010
Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival, and All Tomorrow's Parties (curated by
Simpsons creator,
Matt Groening.) During these shows, the band began to debut some new material, including the songs "Helicopter", "Primitive 3D", "Fountain Stairs" and "Revival", all of which would end up being recorded for their next studio session to follow. In June, Deerhunter took a short break from touring to record
Halcyon Digest. Initial news of the album became public when music industry firm, Milk Money, posted a message on their
Twitter account that the band had been mixing the new record with Ben Allen (who also worked on
Animal Collective's Merriweather Post Pavilion and
Fall Be Kind EP.) A week later the band launched a new website, where they announced the title and release date of the LP, along with a
guerilla style marketing campaign. The first single, "
Revival," was made available to fans who had assisted the band with promotion for the new album through a link via official email. In the same month, director John Albrecht posted a trailer for an upcoming live video on his
Vimeo page set to be released later in the year.
Halcyon Digest was released on September 28, 2010, to critical acclaim: it received a five-star review from
AllMusic, and was ranked the third-best album of the year by
Pitchfork. In 2012, it was announced that Deerhunter was to provide an original score to
The Curve of Forgotten Things, a short film by the fashion line
Rodarte starring
Elle Fanning. That same year, bassist Josh Fauver left the band via email in 2012, just prior to the recording of
Monomania.
2013–2014: Monomania On March 22, 2013, Deerhunter announced their sixth studio album would be released on May 7, 2013. The album, entitled
Monomania, was recorded in New York with frequent collaborator and producer Nicolas Vernhes at his Rare Book Room Studio, where Microcastle and Parallax were taped. For
Monomania, Josh McKay took over bass duties, and Atlanta native Frankie Broyles was brought in to play guitar. Deerhunter's press release described the record as "nocturnal garage" On April 2, 2013, the band performed the song "Monomania" on
Late Night with Jimmy Fallon. Deerhunter headlined and curated the
All Tomorrow's Parties music festival held at Pontins holiday camp in
Camber Sands, England from the June 21–23, 2013. At the event they performed the
Cryptograms,
Microcastle &
Halcyon Digest albums in full, with
Atlas Sound also performing. Deerhunter was announced as a headliner at
Austin Psych Fest, the 6th annual festival held April 26–28, 2013, Heineken Primavera Sound (Barcelona),
Optimus Primavera Sound (Porto), and perform live at Dancity Festival (Foligno, Italy) along with
FYF Fest in Los Angeles during 2015. Deerhunter have also been asked to play at the Meredith Music Festival this December in Victoria, Australia. On December 4, 2014, frontman Bradford Cox was seriously injured and hospitalized after being hit by a car in Atlanta, GA.
2015–2017: Fading Frontier On August 16, 2015, Deerhunter released a video for a new song titled "Snakeskin," and announced that their new album,
Fading Frontier, was released on October 16, 2015, on the 4AD label. The song featured alto saxophonist Zumi Rosow and the video was directed by Valentina Tapia. On October 13, Deerhunter shared the video for 'Living My Life', dedicated to Miles Davis. The LP was very well received by critics.
2018–2019: Double Dream of Spring and Why Hasn’t Everything Already Disappeared? In 2018, the band released a cassette-only studio album during their Spring 2018 tour called
Double Dream of Spring. A mostly instrumental album, it was made to fill the void until their next album would be released the following year. On November 2, 2018, Deerhunter announced on social media that former bass guitarist Joshua Fauver died unexpectedly in
Atlanta, Georgia, aged 39. The album's first single, "Death in Midsummer", was released in October 2018 co-produced by
Cate Le Bon. On Halloween 2019, Deerhunter released the 13-minute long single "Timebends". A separate entity to their eighth studio album, ''Why Hasn't Everything Already Disappeared?,
"Timebends" is a partly-improvised stream-of-consciousness outpouring, recorded live direct to tape and in one take with minimal overdubs and mastered using a completely analog signal chain. The next day, Cox released the Myths 004'' EP in collaboration with
Cate Le Bon, recorded in
Marfa, Texas as part of an ongoing series with
Dev Hynes,
Ariel Pink and
Connan Mockasin. ==Musical style and influences==