 Philadelphia's Creeping Weeds is a band that's unanchored from time and place. While their sound sinuously threads itself through decades of rock, psych and pop from both sides of the ocean, their songs pull in and out of focus – from microscopic detail to otherworldly vastness – often instantly and without warning. This filmic sense of time, space and place is at once commandingly controlled, unnervingly unhinged and the nexus of their latest release, See Through. Throughout the album, time is manipulated by an unseen hand, scrolling from dusty Super 8 gait to brilliantly saturated time-lapse sheen. Apparitions built on slap-back echoes flow freely into real life and back into the ether, sometimes dispersing gently in intricate finger-picked passages, sometimes condensing into sludgy nightmares. Like the ebb and flow of the tides, songs roll into each other, pulling the listener under and letting them up in strange new places. Places where stark mountaintops drawn by skeleton guitars break themselves into honey-throated harmonies of sepia-toned summers. And where amber summers grow dark and get washed back out to sea, leaving only flickering memories bubbling up to the surface. Repeated listens to See Through bring new ideas and details into the foreground. Layers of woody acoustics, muscular electrics, intricate vocals, homemade sound collages, vintage organs and lockstep rhythms coalesce and become indistinguishable from their original elements. Although it's a leap forward from 2007's We're Are All Part of A Dream You're Having, the band's signature psychedelic sonics, sly pop hooks and irregular arrangements remain intact. But over time they've been distilled into an eerily dense, cohesive musical statement. On See Through, Creeping Weeds' balance between experimentation, pop and rock has never been more realized – or more precarious. "...Creeping Weeds get the mix of wistful dislocation, gentle melancholy, and jangling, enveloping melodies just right...Creeping Weeds makes a very strong, very individual statement in this varied set of songs, which runs from psycheglazed slow rides ("The Desert") to skewed folk melodies ("Our Country Home"). Definitely a band to watch." "Ever since their four-song EP, I found the CWeeds totally Pavement-esque. With one difference: Creeping Weeds are actually good. They're effervescent. Persnickety. Have an odd panache about them. And their full-length debut, We Are All Part of a Dream You're Having, jumps from hosting contagious songs with lumpy stomped beats and pastel-toned acoustic guitars to muzzy space rockers filled with dreamtime singing." Creeping Weeds "Outsiders" @ Johnny Brenda's from Creeping Weeds on Vimeo. |
 
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