Deerhoof treads lightly in mainstream rock

''Everything I do is for sale," says Deerhoof drummer and founder Greg Saunier. ''So how is my music not commercial?" He's rebuffing the idea that his experimental indie rock band, which kicks off its winter tour at the Middle East Tuesday, exists outside of rock's mainstream.

''What is a mainstream sound?" he says, speaking from his home a couple of weeks before the tour. ''As I make music I'm always trying to imagine what people will like or will resonate with. Always."

Since its inception in 1994 as a guitar-and-drum, art-noise duo, Deerhoof's sound experiments have gradually tightened into more conventional songs. The early addition of Satomi Matsuzaki's cutesy, sing-song pop vocals was the first baby-step toward creating more accessible music. Deerhoof now also includes guitarist John Dieterich and bassist Chris Cohen.

Still, the band's latest album, ''The Runners Four," released on Kill Rock Stars in October, sits far from Top-40 listening. Deerhoof's approach remains a freeform freefall, with tricky tempos and washes of guitar and keyboard noise, anchored by the more conventional vocal parts.

''Deerhoof's safe from being adored by the majority of Americans," says John McCrea, leader of the Bay area band Cake. Along with the Chicago Reader's Peter Margasak and former Cars frontman and producer Ric Ocasek, McCrea nominated ''The Runners Four" for the New Pantheon Award, which recognizes the best in indie music.

''One of the premises of what makes great art, in one sense, is total originality. The orbiting satellite going round the earth, not fully understood by anyone," McCrea explains. ''But Deerhoof finds a very good medium ground. They are musically accomplished, but not gratuitously so. They are capable melody writers, but don't seem locked into anything too archetypal or predictable. There's elements of their music that will always keep people away, that's very good, very safe for them. But it lets other people in, it's very entertaining music."

Saunier, 36, who is now married to Matsuzaki, thinks that the band has already achieved unimaginable popularity.

''More people know us than I ever thought would," he says. ''I've got money enough for lunch and dinner everyday and we've been granted the privilege of continuing." That someone he does not know, halfway around the world, listens and connects with Deerhoof's songs amazes him.

''It proves either a human collective unconscious," he says, ''or it proves the tyranny of American music across the globe."

Deerhoof performs Tuesday at the Middle East, Cambridge. Call 617-931-2000 or visit www.mideastclub.com. Doors at 7 p.m. Tickets $12.