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Smurph

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Topic: Creedle for Avant
Posted: August 13 2012 at 09:15

Creedle. Buddies with John Zorn and the Naked City guys.

Pretty similar in sound to them.

I am at work so I can't pull up all the stuff right now on youtube and whatnot.

But figured I'd get the discussion rolling on them.

http://pseudosentai.bandcamp.com/

wtf

HolyMoly

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Posted: August 13 2012 at 09:38

Woohoo Creedle!
Thanks for submitting the suggestion, Smurph. I'd been meaning to do it myself.
I can help with posting samples if you'd like, since I know you can't do it right now. I don't really care though, it's your thread ha ha.

This band was pretty incredible. RIO/avant is probably the best fit for them. They started out closer to the avant/punk side of things, but got a lot jazzier and eclectic for the 2nd and 3rd (last) album.

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Bj-1

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Posted: August 13 2012 at 10:06

Will check'em out

RIO/AVANT/ZEUHL - The best thing you can get with yer pants on!
EXERIOR Experimental tech/death/progmetal from Norway!

HolyMoly

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Posted: August 13 2012 at 14:46

Some background on Creedle. there's not a whole lot published out there about them, but here's what I know:

[edit 8/28/12: Wikipedia entry with some historical info: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Creedle)

Band was from San Diego, CA, and released 3 albums in the early to mid 1990s:

Half Man, Half Pie! (1992; Cargo/Headhunter)
Silent Weapons for Quiet Wars (1994; Cargo/Headhunter)
When the Wind Blows (1996; Cargo/Headhunter).

Typically, their albums are long, winding affairs, with lots of quiet/loud contrasts, riffing in tricky meters, and displaying varying degrees of punk, math rock, jazz, prog rock, and alternative rock in each song. Each album is really long and exploratory, offering a lot of different variations on their mix of styles, especially on the later albums.

The first album "Half Man, Half Pie!" is the most punk - I couldn't find any samples of the studio versions of any songs on Youtube, but there are some live audience recordings, though pretty lo-fi, for cuts like "Super Moto X" and "Really".

The second album, "Silent Weapons for Quiet Wars", gets much more RIO/Avant, while keeping the punky riffing in there too. This album has several of my favorite tunes on it, and might be my favorite overall. I could only find one song from it on youtube, but it's typical: "The Magic Place".

The Magic Place:    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TZ5WLqnEn_o

The third album, "When the Wind Blows", is probably the one that will get them in PA though (if anything will). For this album, they added a full time alto sax player, and he (along with guitarist Devon Goldberg) has some pretty good jazz chops. The music still gets loud fast and furious here and there, but there's also a significant dose of the kind of "Hebrew Jazz" that John Zorn was into ("Rabbi Steinman's Happy Hour Frito Boats"), some totally wild Tango music ("Fisher Price"), some brooding Slint-like math rock ("Middletown (Almost Downtown)"), and even some amusing more demo-like stripped down numbers ("Wisdom Tooth", "Kansas"). The opening and closing songs might be the best though -- the opening title track "When the Wind Blows" is a three-part 7-minute piece, each part more intense and furious than the last, with some really difficult unison jazz sections in there too; the final song, "Pretty Ugly, Act I", offers some of the most challenging ensemble music I've heard (reminiscent of Cheer-Accident a bit), and ends with an extended coda of triumphant anthemic rock.

Rabbi Steinman's Happy Hour Frito Boats: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xrVz5ala-Qo

Fisher Price:   http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H0HXCsiJ0IE

Middletown (Almost Downtown):   http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zqr6HvVze7c

Wisdom Tooth (not a prog track, but just to demonstrate their range):   http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RxGQVOgnJzs

Kansas (ditto): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OMMB_vibM64

When the Wind Blows:   http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_me7eJ-nycI

Pretty Ugly (Act One):    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4SiGzBuJEjw

Edited by HolyMoly - August 29 2012 at 06:13

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lazland

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Posted: August 14 2012 at 14:40

Bj-1 wrote:

Will check'em out

Thanks Bjornar Thumbs Up

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DamoXt7942 View Drop Down

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Posted: August 28 2012 at 09:04

Not pure avantgarde progressive but heavy-based stuffs tinged with RIO-ish cynics and jazzy flavour.
Sounds more Eclectic for me, cool indeed. Cool

SaltyJon

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Posted: August 28 2012 at 23:27

Sound good to me. I've given my vote as well, though I differ in opinion; I agree that Avant is the best place for them.

Pretty Ugly in particular really wowed me...awesome track, that! Clap

Edited by SaltyJon - August 28 2012 at 23:32

SaltyJon

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Posted: September 01 2012 at 17:12

Actually found their third CD today in the local used music shop. Good find, will be listening to the full album later on for sure. Clap

jmatt

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Posted: September 09 2012 at 01:18

Glad you started this thread----Creedle was an amazing band and deserves to be heard more.

I could give or take Half Man Half Pie, but Silent Weapons for Quiet Wars and When the Wind Blows just incredible records. I got SWQW shortly after it came out and was blown away by it----definitely a record best experienced from start to finish as they cycle through so many genres while keeping the same overall theme and killing it in them all. Will never forget slapping it on while some friends and I ate mushrooms ta my place in the mid-90's and one of my friends just losing it to the music----just was too much and made him freak out! And when they rock out and settle into a groove, it raises the roof.

When the Wind Blows a stylistic shift and a great example of how versatile they were as musicians----the lockstep playing of the guitar and sax at times just great, and combined with the humor and heavy riffage and complexity of the songs it was amazing.

Have seen some compare them to Mr. Bungle----gave a co-worker who loves MB the aforementioned Creedle CDs and he thought they were good, but not up to Mr. Bungle's snuff. My guess is that he didn't listen all the way through the records, or maybe he did and just likes MB more, though I asked him about a song at the end of SWQW, and he didn't know what I was talking about...... Anyway, I think Creedle way better than Mr. Bungle----better musicianship & songwriting, and the weirder and avant-garde aspects of their music seem way less forced and more natural----not the---"Look how hard we're trying to be so interesting and different!" That I get from MB.

HolyMoly

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Posted: September 09 2012 at 09:01

^^ Another fan! Thanks for chiming in. Why are they so unknown, did they only tour locally? The only reason I know about them is my friend was in San Diego on business once and happened to walk into a bar where they were playing, and he came back with their current "Half Man Half Pie" album and played it for me. I've never met anyone who's even heard of them. How do you know about them?

Edited by HolyMoly - September 09 2012 at 09:01

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jmatt

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Posted: September 12 2012 at 23:43

I lived in SD for 6 months in late 1992/1993 and got exposed to the sh*tload of awesome bands there. Got to see RFTC pre-Sha-Na-Na phase, Fishwife, and my personal fave (besides Creedle) aMiniature. Their record Depth Five Rate Six released a little while after I'd returned to Boston and just amazing. Fused Wire and other influences into something new with great songwriting an excellent guitar work, not re-inventing the wheel, but aping no one overtly, and creating maybe the most overlooked indie guitar rock record of the 90's.

And Creedle another kettle of fish altogether. Sadly, never got to see them then, but was blown away by SWQW, got Half man Half Pie after that (which was good, but nowhere near the brilliance of SWQW), and again floored by When the Wind Blows---and loved the tongue-in-cheek liner notes which sort of explains why they never became bigger. They gave a f**k about becoming a big band and lambasted the major label feeding frenzy that descended on SD following the grunge explosion and the popularity of RFTC, making it known that they cared more about the organic scene in SD and all the great sh*t there than becoming the next big new thing. And, they never really toured much, if really at all. Necessary in the pre-internet scene to become more well known.

Anyway, they were a great band, and I'd say that SD in the 90's may have had the best music scene in the country.

Smurph

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Posted: September 13 2012 at 01:47

:-D I'm lucky that Steve told me about them.

And jmatt I'd love to know about more of these SD bands!

http://pseudosentai.bandcamp.com/

wtf