Steve Creature

Steve Creature [cassette] (2012)

Joe Pelone

Steve Creature operates with a curious retro-futurist agenda. Via his Web site, folks can purchase custom two-song cassingles from a variety of tunes in his catalog. Of course, in order to really choose those songs, you need to visit his Bandcamp, where you can also purchase all the songs digitally. For this review, I had Creature pick two random songs and give them to me.

Comparing digital to analog, I totally get what Creature is going for. Dude writes nerdy lo-fi confessionals in the vein of early Mountain Goats and Franklin Bruno (or, guitar + off-kilter singing). This kind of songwriting requires tape hiss and intimacy. Digital offers the clearest versions of these songs, but cassette presents the most accurate versions.

Creature's songs are awfully short, usually coming in at the 60-90 second range. "I Don't Wanna Be the One to Blame" has an insistent guitar part to match its insistent denial of responsibility. Flipside "Get Me Out of This Van" is a catchy tune about how being in a band is not worth it whatsoever. Padding out the cassette is little snippets of banter from Creature, mostly about ways to hear his music. It feels like a mini-concert.

Admittedly, the format seems a little confused, but the guy has some decent hooks to make the songs worth checking out. While I'm not sure how long Creature can sustain this project, for the time being, it's a neat tribute to '90s lo-fi.