alternative metal

10 MP3 Songs
METAL: Alternative Metal, ROCK: Hard Rock



Details:
Santa Barbara Independent
November 26, 1993

Creature Featureâs beast within
by Jeff Gordinier

Itâs hard to believe, but Santa Barbarans have roamed the face of the earth for years without a definitive document from Creature Feature.

The bayou-grunge trio has been a sturdy draw on the South Coast for many moons, but in the privacy of their own homes, fans have been forced to get their Feature fix from a couple of muddy demo tapes and a handful of tracks on local compilation albums.

Until now. Finally, just in time for Christmas (hee hee hee). Creature Feature is throwing a big, gristly brontosaurus bone to its slobbering fans. âRetrodemon 263.â The 10-song CD, which amounts to a sort of âGreatest Hitsâ package, proves what Iâve been saying for almost two years:

Creature Feature conquers.

âRetrodemonâ is big. Thatâs a blessing, because until now the groupâs sound has been too gargantuan for most of Santa Barbaraâs studios and clubs. Theirs is a roar made for superdomes and airplane hangars.

Thus itâs best to listen to âRetrodemonâ in an echo chamber. For me, the disc made its debut in my bathroom, which happens to be painted a ghoulish shade of purple. In that setting âRetrodemonâ lived up to its name, yowling and braying like a Hydra tearing loose from the hot mud of hell.

The CD is a showpiece for Dave Hetrick and Mike Ramsey, who cut it at Santa Barbaraâs own Castle Recording & Video. Somehow they were able to harness the Creatureâs animal energy and take it for a ride.

The Beast isnât domesticated, fortunately, but thereâs a level of sophistication that was only suggested before. On âBorn Loser,â a litany of words piles up in blankets of echo: âloser, failure, liar, sinner.â

In âRise,â the beats sink like boots in wet sand. âTigerlillyâ kicks off with a woozy scale, then takes off for the Taj Mahal; âAtheistâ begins with an eerie passage that sounds like a moan in the hallway of a monastery.

The studio brings all this into a clearer light. But you ultimately have to credit the band itself. Creature Feature takes a genre thatâs been done to death â big, heavy, boot-stomping white rock â and squeezes out enough humor and hooks to make it fun again.

The mastermind is Giancarlo Mistretta, Creature Featureâs singer, guitarist and writer. The world is full of guitar-shredders with billy-goat beards, but very few of them have Mistrettaâs knack for a pop song. Even if you dig the crunch and thud of the sound, whatâs truly amazing is how catchy the songs are.

Theyâre so catchy itâs sick. Anyone who has heard âVirusâ knows what I mean. True to its name, the song works its way into your system and wreaks havoc:

âSo youâve been told to control your anger
Donât take it out on me
You find it hard to suppress and it lingers
Abuse your family.â

Once youâve heard it, you canât remove it. You sing it at work, in the car, in the shower. You wake up with âVirusâ in your brain.

The same could be said for many of Creature Featureâs nuggets: â27 Years,â âRise,â and most of all, âHypocrite.â At the moment âHypocriteâ kicks into its shimmy â âmove move move to the rhythm of the grooveâ â you have no choice but to follow orders.

When Mistretta and the rhythm section, drummer Jef and bassist Greg Kirchmaier, arenât infecting you with hooks, theyâre trapping you in a slow, psychedelic trance. Underneath the grunge layer, songs like âAtheistâ and âTigerlillyâ recall the spaced-out days of The Beatles â John Lennon in his âturn off your mind, relax and float down streamâ period, George Harrison in his guru phase.

All thatâs missing is a sitar.

All in all, âRetrodemon 263â is an achievement: good songs, crisp production and Mistrettaâs trademark Sasquatch howl. Itâs available at record stores all over town; the official release party happens on Dec. 10 at Alexâs Cantina.