Boy, was I looking forward to the new United States Three record. Savoring their first two records She's The Word and Le Temps Du Tempo (two sonic tours de force if I'd ever heard any), watching them evolve from a power trio to a five-piece in the last year ... their brand of spacey pop-rock had them pegged for at least cult legend status, if not more.
Perhaps Vess Ruhtenberg et al. decided that they'd taken that pop-rock thing as far as it could go. Maybe they've heard the Elephant 6 collective and chosen to take their sound into a more idiosyncratic direction. Whatever the case, the Creature EP is nothing short of a disappointment all the way around.
Creature opens with the title track and "Over The Line", two songs that meander absolutely nowehere; the former with an Olivia Tremor Control ambience that misses the mark, the latter seeking more of the same while trying to work it into the old US3 sound (and not quite reaching the bar). "Put Your Arms Down", easily the best of the bunch here, is a throwback to Le Temps Du Tempo - almost a throwaway from that record, it seems. Even live favorite "Personality" is nothing but flaccid here - the question of "how" is supplanted only by the question of "why".
Overall, I keep telling myself that Creature is but a dream ... a bad, disjointed dream. And I hold onto hope that the next full-length album represents a return to what they've done so well in the past - flat-out rock that's more catchy than a Ricola commercial.
Most all-star bands are, at best, one-offs that fail to equal the sum of their parts. Lola, meanwhile, are one of the more popular (and more hyped) acts to come out of Bloomington in recent times. I had the benefit of seeing their first show ever; to see them mature into one of the better local bands over the course of a year is a delight. Better yet, they seem to be around for the long haul, an exciting prospect in itself.
A virtual all-star band culled from members of Bloomington faves Mysteries of Life (Jake Smith, Freda Love and sometime-member Kathy Kolata), the Mary Janes (Janas Hoyt, Sophia Travis) and Sugar Freak (Gretchen Holtz), Lola come forth with their first recorded effort, an EP called One Day. Each tune is written and sung by a different member of Lola (would they be ... Lolites? Lolitas?), and the result is a record that's definitely the sum of its collective influences.
The standout track here is the title track, a Gretchen Holtz-penned number that has "instant single" scrawled all over it. Lest fans of her old band envision a punk-tinged number, "One Day" is a perfect little pop song that forsakes the Freaks' jagged edge but retains the melodic sensibility that she brought over from her old band. "Nothing Ever Happens" has a heavy Mysteries of Life influence (no surprise, since MOL'er Love wrote the song); same with Hoyt's "Sweet Talk", a bouncy, fun rocker. And Travis' "Honeymoon" is the perfect lullaby for not just One Day, but any day.
--Brandon Grimes