As evidenced by all the twee music I celebrate on this blog, I’m not really a punk. I like plenty of “punk” music, but the kids wearing torn jeans always intimidated me in junior high. Which might be why the definition of “punk” has always seemed a bit elusive to me. Though I think a lot of people just associate the genre with safety pins and big boots and two-chord songs, I’ve always been interested in the other definition of punk floating around, which is just doing something that goes against everything else going on.
The Creams sound vaguely “punk,” but I think the punkest move they make is using MySpace…and only MySpace…to promote their music. Whereas having to even talk about MySpace nowadays results in groans and cries of “get on Bandcamp already!”, this quartet stick with just the quickly sinking ship of a social networking site. Seems pretty punk to me! That is certainly not the only reason to give them attention, as the music The Creams make sounds good, a more shambling take on Shonen Knife’s Ramones aping. You can hear an entire EP of material at MySpace. The best songs, like opener “House” and the locked-in joy that is “Let’s,” sound similar to Merpeople’s focused rock, guitars and drum going on almost workmanlike. “Funky” considers wilder action, while the instrumental “Jungle” stares down math rock. Listen here.
Live video of The Creams
[youtube=”http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XGavTsLa1fo”]