Deacon ministers absurdist pop

By Jordan Sargent

Published June 6, 2007

Recently, Dan Deacon, a self-proclaimed "absurdist composer and electronic musician" based in Baltimore, has seen a sudden spike in fame. Most of this has to do with rave reviews of his latest album, Spiderman of the Rings, which stays true to the Deacon-aesthetic. It's both electronic and absurd.

Buried within this rush of Deacon-press has been hearty talk about his look, which with most bands or artists would merely be a red herring (and an annoying one at that), but with Deacon it's almost as essential as it is appropriate. His equipment — Casio keyboards and voice manipulators — is wrapped in neon green, yellow, red and purple tape, as are his glasses. He is known for wearing shirts with huge depictions of famous cartoon characters or drawings of things such as parrots on them. It's nothing too abnormal, but Deacon's songs are huge blasts of neon, and the way he manipulates his voice makes him sound like a deranged cartoon character.

Another thing for which Deacon has become popular is that he plays all of his shows on the venue floor. Deacon's reasoning is that it's all for the audience's benefit.

"I think that it makes for a better show," he said. "The whole scene grew out of floor shows, and if you transplant that to a stage it just doesn't feel natural. It's awkward."

But beyond that, Deacon is entrenched in community. He's a member and leader of the increasingly fabled Wham City collective, a raggedy band of dudes and/or musicians, artists, authors, etc. that live and operate out of Baltimore. His shows, where a crowd on his literal physical level matches his spasms and gyrations, seems an extension of greatly valuing community.

Before he moved to Baltimore, though, Deacon studied electro-acoustic and computer music composition at State University of New York-Purchase.

"A lot of what I do is like what I studied in school," Deacon said. "I focus on pop-based composition. Being at school helped me surround myself with a bunch of great artists. I think it was more so than, like, the degree. The academic setting was important to me as an individual. That's what the foundation of my city was, and I think it was a pivotal change for me."

As for how the demonic, streamlined electronic music Deacon makes now relates to what he was doing at SUNY-Purchase, he said his projects are an extension of his classical training.

He classified himself as "pop" many times during an interview, and that's what's most notable about Deacon: He is continually trying to redefine "pop music" and pop-music shows.

On the Spiderman of the Rings song "Trippy Green Skull," Deacon sings the hook to Ludacris' "What's Your Fantasy": "I wanna li-li-li-lick you from your head to toes/I wanna move from the bed down to the, down to the, to the floor/Then I wanna, you make it so good I don't want to leave/But I gotta, kn-kn-kn-know wh-wh-wh-what's your fanta-ta-ta-sy."

His rational for it is typically modest ("I really wanted to cover that song, and when I sung it at shows, it stuck"), but it's even more evidence that Deacon is increasingly positioning himself as a pop visionary.