I don’t want to come off as hyperbolic or hyper-reverent or anything.. (too late!) but I think Cambridge, Massachusetts’ favorite sons CreaturoS may have just released what I consider the highest watermark yet in the waxing tide of great psych garage bands spilling over the Northeast. More than a year in the making, SWAMPP THINGG is released on the band’s own quality DIY label pRIMORDIAL sOUNDS and its a dense and delicious collection of hooky trip-fodder that cuts really deep and lingers for a spell.
Having honed their skills in an earlier incarnation, the no-less-beloved DOOMSTAR! , the new band shares 2/3 of that lineup, Spenser Gralla ruling the guitar and vocals, drummer Noah Bond keeping it thick with bassist Joe who fills the mighty shoes of former DOOMSTAR! bass player Jeffrey Johnson, who’s now slaying local noise heads with Hunnie Bunnies.
The first track, “James Days’ Milkshake” charges right in with a riff that will jam in your head for days. Gralla’s high, warped vocals sings something about white lights and the truly psychedelic swirls of panned feedback distortion peel off the ends of the verse to spark into the big breakdown. “Charlie Brown” jumps in like an awesome throwback, an alternate take of “Crawdaddy Simone” or something Joe Meek would have done, with shades of The Sonics. Things get druggier, deeper, skirting recent Growlers territory on tracks like “Three Times” or epic psych-dirge seven minute peak “Weak End” before launching back into pummeling space-echo anti-surf punk on “I Don’t Want To Go To The Beach”. “Leave Your Face Behind” is rooted in pure 60s The Electric Prunes era pysch-pop songwriting, a sweet little oasis before we slowly ascent to a fever pitch on “UFO YEAH!” and the incessant and dizzying build of “Something Happened”.
There is so much to love on this tape, it bursts with bright and diverse color and a totally original and exuberant take on psychedelic roads previously traveled by similar visionary heavies. It takes a lot of skill to put the listener so far outside of their minds without losing the GROOVE, the bottom end and that ability to marry balls-deep trip music with raw dance party punk and keep the hooks intact is clearly the product of countless hours of work and attention to detail. Man these guys are good and SWAMP THINGG absolutely will kick your ass up and down the street, I implore you to get the limited edition cassette release direct from the band, at shows or up at their Big Cartel page!
http://primordialsounds.bigcartel.com/product/creaturos-swampp-thingg
