Deerhunter Recruit Ex-Cheerleader With "Bad Attitude" As Guitarist
5/5/2008 By Brock Thiessen

Deerhunter are once again a five-piece. After losing guitarist Colin Mee for a second time, the band announced his replacement on Friday (May 2): Whitney Petty, a former Georgia cheerleader “with a bad attitude.”

According to the band’s infamous gift-littered blog, the band hired Petty as their new axe woman for their upcoming live dates. The tour comes in the lead-up to Deerhunter’s highly anticipated Cryptograms’ follow-up, Microcastle, due out later this year on Halloween.

Via the blog, Bradford Cox — or “indie rock’s wildest front-man” as Spin calls him — assures us: “This is not a joke (why would I be joking?)…as she is in the band and all.”

It’s unclear yet whether Petty will contribute to any of the band’s studio work, but she has already curated her own MP3 compilation for the Deerhunter blog’s long-running Micromix, series. On it, you’ll find classic cock-rockin’ sounds by Aerosmith, Tom Petty, the Boss and Heart, hinting that she may bring some old-time boogie-woogie to Deerhunter’s highbrow noise.

Here are the dates and stops (Calgary and Toronto included) for Deerhunter’s upcoming tour, where they will be joined by HEALTH, Liars, newly signed Thrill Jockey artists High Places and Nine Inch Nails:

5/8 Dublin, Ireland - Whelan's *
5/9 Camber, England - Camber Sands Holiday Centre (ATP vs. Pitchfork)
5/29 Barcelona, Spain - Primavera Sound
6/1 Clermont-Ferrand, France - Raymond Bar +
6/2 Lyon, France - Grrrnd Zero +
6/3 Paris, France - Villette Sonique
6/4 Lausanne, Switzerland - Le Romandie +
6/5 Munich, Germany - Feierwerk +
6/6 Ebensee, Austria - Kino +
6/7 Milan, Italy - Music Drome +
6/9 Kortrijk, Belgium - Theatre Antigone +
6/10 The Hague, Netherlands - Paard Van Troje +
6/11 Groningen, Netherlands - Vera +
6/12 Amsterdam, Netherlands - Paradiso
6/14 Dublin, Ireland - Vicar +
6/15 Glasgow, Scotland - Stereo +
6/16 Leeds, England - Brudenell Social Club +
6/17 London, England - Koko ^
6/20 Brighton, England - Barfly +
6/23 - 27 Arendal, Norway - Hove Festival
6/24 Stockholm, Sweden - Accelerator Festival
6/25-28 Calgary, AB - Sled Island Festival
8/5 Toronto, ON - Air Canada Centre !
8/7 Uncasville, CT - Mohegan Sun Arena !
8/8 Worcester, MA - DCU Center !
8/9 - 10 Baltimore, MD - Virgin Mobile Festival
8/12 Knoxville, TN - Knoxville Civic Coliseum !
8/13 Duluth, GA - Gwinnett Arena !
9/2 Morrison, CO - Red Rocks Amphitheater !
9/3 Salt Lake, City UT - The E Center of West Valley !
9/5 Oakland, CA - Oracle Arena !
9/6 Inglewood, CA - The Forum !

* with HEALTH
+ with High Places
^ with Liars
! with Nine Inch Nails
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