Creative Writing is a quartet of Western Mass regulars attuned to the fuzzy frequencies of NZ and American lo-fi. Three out of four of the principals — Patrick Battleship, Jeffrey Morkeski, Wes Nelson — came from similarly-minded Luxor Rentals, while the drummer, Jed Smith, makes his way from the Jeanines and, before that, My Teenage Stride (a band that could sound almost as much like the Bats as the actual Bats during a brief but intoxicating aughts run). They’re well-connected locally, so if you live anywhere near the Pioneer Valley, you’ve likely seen them supporting quality national acts and, really, holding their own. Nothing’s getting reinvented here, but if you like tuneful, melodic distortion, catchy choruses and slacker joie de vivre, you’ll enjoy Creative Writing.
This review comes quite a bit after the fact, more than half a year after a late January release date, due to a misunderstanding about scheduling. However, that has just allowed these tunes to ripen, the freight-train propulsion of driving “Rattle (for June)”, the yearning jangle of “Kill Your TV,” the ad hoc Minutemen-esque anarchy of “Karl Marx at the Gig.” These are songs you have to see through the haze, like early R.E.M. cuts, and the more time you can devote to them, the sharper they’ll come into focus. Slack, nearly country “Grounded” sidles up like a Strapping Fieldhands rampage running smack into David Kilgour, but it’s so laid back you may miss it the first five or seven times.
You want to give props to the local heroes when they’re this good, but the truth is that they’re less heroes than regular guys with a life in the game chasing the slanted guitar pop sounds that echo through their brains. This is rock and roll for the love of it, and it’s pure and wild and very good.
A lil part of history. May 1990, USSR, West Siberia. Me (right) and my baby sis (left). All denim clothing is my own design, and produced by my Tim Tailor Co.
