Sucker State

It took them a few tries for 'em to get there, this being their third or fourth 7", but Creature Did hold down the spot for best piece of hard rock vinyl to come out of Danbury in the 90's, except for maybe that Jeff Leopard record, which wasn't strictly a Danbury record so it probably doesn't count. Unfortunately, this is also the record that got Creature Did linked to grunge, but Nirvana really fucking sucked so let's all admit that and move on, why don't we.

There was a story going around that one or two big shot-types came sniffing around because of this single, and a review in Flipside that predicted Creature Did were gonna be the next big thing or something like that, but nothing ever really came of it. Creature Did did end up demo-ing an album for one label, as far as I know, but then scrapped the recording and started from scratch with local recording wiz Sean Sheridan for a CD that they released on their own (hence the CD's eventual title, "Plan B"). I'll be posting the CD sometime in the future; it happens that I took the photo the band used on the inside of the booklet, so you know I'm really dying to get to it.

Since I'm not willing to admit that this is a grunge record-- a tag that's more the result of the time and place that this record comes from, and Kevin's self-described scratchy vocals-- I'll just say that this is a great big chunk of punkish, straight-up heavy rock. The flip ("Sucker State") is a bit speedier than the a-side, and overall these are probably Creature Did's two best songs, so what could be better than that?

As for the pic on the front, one or two scene locals were goofing around with some face paint while someone else had a camera and some software, and before you know it, instant picture sleeve! Then there's the label name ("Thirstin' For More"), which can be taken as reference to Thurston Moore's announcement that "Danbury is the next Seattle" during a Sonic Youth show in 1993, which ended up becoming a Rolling Stone quote and pretty much the kiss of death for everyone. If only it had been Brian Sinclair saying "Danbury is the next New Britain", then everyone would've ignored him and a bunch of bands would've probably stayed together longer, who knows.




Creature Did -

"Friends Are Hard To Bury"

"Sucker State"

(these files are now listen-only)