Search - Brickbats :: Creepy Crawly

This is beyond good!!!

Ruadhan J McElroy | Ann Arbor, MI | 02/15/2001

(5 out of 5 stars)

"ok, i'm not just saying this for obvious reasons, but these guys are good...so many peope have compared them to the misfits, but i don't see it...ok, say the misfits got together with 45 grave and a still-punk siouxsie sioux (circa 1975-1979) and decided to write the soundtrack for a cheesy sixties beach movie starring the Universal Studios' famous monsters...this album is what would happen..."

From the first track to the last, this CD ROCKS!

Ireland (merrimanm@msn.com) | 09/16/1999

(4 out of 5 stars)

"The overall sound of "Creepy" is best described as 50% Misfits, (Glenn Danzig period, as if there really was any other), 50% The Cramps and 50% Nick Cave meets Johnny Cash. There is a definite punk feel to the disc, but not in terms of today's second, or maybe even third generation punk rock. The vocal melodies are smooth, similar to those of English punk of yesteryear alla Generation X, The Clash and of course The Damned, while the musical arrangements have a simple robustness to them, like The Ramones and/or the first KISS LPs."

Picture a crooning, slightly-gothic Buzzcocks...

Eric Moore | Knoxville, TN United States | 04/01/2003

(5 out of 5 stars)

"...and you'll get an idea of what these guys sound like.Okay, that might not be an entirely accurate portrayal (the lead singer's voice is much closer to a less-inflected Danzig than that anything resembling Shelley's, and the somewhat surf-ish guitar-licks aren't particularly reminiscent of the latter's playing), but given the relatively unfuzzy (most of the time) instrumentation and the bands propensity for 60's-ish hooks and melodies, I think it's a better description than the expected Misfits comparison. Which suits me fine. I like the ol' Misfits as much as the next guy, but seeing as how we've already got bands like Balzac and CancerSlug to fulfill all our imitation needs, I can't exactly get worked-up everytime a new horror-punk sound-alike comes along. Thankfully, the Brickbats are (or "were," anyway) here to provide their own take on the grave-rockin' shtick.There's already been a number of mentions in other reviews here of the Brickbats "pop-punk" sound. Can't fault that. I can, however, fault the comparison to Blink 182 (the band we all love to hate!) and the like in the previous review; I must say that the melodies, the sound of the instrumentation, and even the vocals don't sound anything like the bands mentioned. At all. Most of the lesser pop-punk acts these days seem to draw a lot on sources like the Descendents, and their tunes reflect this (you know, right before they water them down to nothing...). There isn't a trace of that in the Brickbats' approach.What there are traces of would be the afforementioned Buzzcocks (especially on the jauntier tunes), a little bit of Misfits (yeah, I said they weren't clones, I know, but they aren't entirely dissimilar, either), hints of some 60's pop/garage kind of stuff, and a little bit of laid-back surf on tracks like "Serenade." Songs vary in aggression-level from wailing, going-down-in-flames anthems like "Funeral Drive" and "Hysterical," to somber affairs during which it sounds like the musicians were contemplating slitting their wrists during or after the set, to upbeat love-tunes. You'll note that even the latter seem to have an undercurrent of desperation to 'em, somehow; the band's spirit truly is an odd combination of goofy, fun-loving punk and morbid, hopelessly-lost goth. I might add that the lyrics are surprisingly good for songs that incorporate the schlock-horror routine into them. If you're at all into the less-serious side of deathrock, this album is deffinitely worth picking up."