Crème de la CREEM

Crème de la CREEM

In this section, CREEM is here to make sure you know the cool shit to impress friends at parties, get free drugs, catch the eye of that 10 across the way, and just be a superior person to these plebes and peasants listening to whatever TikTok or that Hawk Tuah Girl tells them. Don’t be corny. Check out these sick bands on record and on the road, and we absolutely guarantee* you’ll get laid.

Fred Pessaro

COLOR GREEN

Wading through the Mexican Iron Maiden bootleg tees, racks with hanging bullet belts, and LP boxes bursting with names like General Surgery and Last Days of Humanity, the band Color Green is waiting patiently on the far end of Zebulon’s outdoor patio beyond all the wares. When they agreed to meet at the Metal Market in Los Angeles, it might have been because it’s a bit of an odd setting, but more than likely it’s because they’re all quietly metal fans, as their musical approach shows a wide palette.

A few short days before, the band completed a round of dates with the much-loved Sheer Mag, who clearly are cut from a similar cloth. The band handpicked Color Green to join them on the road. Sure, part of the choice might be out of friendship, but that only goes so far, and Color Green proved their worth to a roomful of fans of mutated classic rock riffs and hummable melodies. To say that they were a legitimate live force at Lodge Room is an understatement, and the band’s reputation in the L.A. area is already well-established. Now comes everywhere else.

Color Green are made up of Noah Kohli, Corey Madden, Corey Rose, and Kyla Perlmutter, all formerly of punk and adjacent bands like G.L.O.S.S., Barbed Wire, Vanity, Vexx, and even Surf Curse, if , any of those names ring a bell (they should). And though hints of some of those projects sparkle and M fade into the background of their new LP Fool’s ■ Parade, you’re more likely to find influences like Flying Burrito Brothers, Jerry Garcia, and even Brian Jonestown Massacre. Fool’s Parade is a record deliciously out of sync with the world, a fresh take on West Coast psychedelia and Laurel Canyon-esque country aesthetics. Their live show is similarly impressive but comes off as more bombastic yet jammy—here’s where you see some of those punk fireworks.

Fool’s Parade was preceded by the band’s debut, a self-titled effort that was “90 percent’’ Kohli and Madden. The addition of Perlmutter and Rose to the initial mostly-duo has proved to be a big positive creatively. “Kyla and Corey Rose did everything they needed to do in a day each, which was crazy,” recounts Kohli about the making of Fool’s Parade. “So we had all this extra time in the studio towards the end."

*Zachary Lipez does, not Fred, so take it up with him.

Corey Madden agrees with the positive shift in the lineup and the changes it helped facilitate. “Having this lineup compared to the last record we did, it has a more rock element to it,” says Madden. “I think that solidifying the four of us and all of us having a somewhat similar origin, I think we’re able to blend a lot of different styles whether it’s the chiller stuff or the rockin’ element because we’re on the same page. I think that this record is taking a new shape and showing that we are open-ended in where we want to go, and we want it to be that way.”

And that “origin” that Madden speaks of has partly to do with the aforementioned punk background, but also the fact that all members of Color Green spent significant time as NYC residents prior to their move to the Los Angeles area, relatively speaking, anyway. “There’s an edge with all of us coming out of playing in punk bands,” says Perlmutter. “Especially this new record, it’s definitely there—a bit more of a backbone.”

Drummer Corey Rose nods and adds, “Since I left New York and moved to L.A., my musicianship and the caliber that I expect out of the music that I have been making has skyrocketed. That’s not a diss to New York—I just feel like I've grown so much in what I expect out of myself and my bandmates. And that’s reflected in the new record."

Rose adds a swing to the live element that is intangible, one that is far from the staccato rhythms found in most punk rock. It’s soul, and that feel isn’t limited to the stutter of the snare “on the one”—it permeates throughout the entire band to give them a unique live feel. When discussing swing, legendary Eyehategod drummer Joey LaCaze (R.I.P.) is mentioned and their unique Meters-influenced sound of sludge metal. “One of the most insane live bands there is,” confirms Madden. “You see them and it’s like, how is this band doing this? How are they not just exploding every time?”

And without discussing a single record, metal cred confirmed. Now we just wait for the world to discover the greatness of Color Green.

KORA PUCKE1

ho in their right mind would ever in a I million years turn down a dinner of peanut noodles, dumplings, wontons, and more? Even more so when alerted to the price point (dirt cheap) and proximity to the venue that their band is playing that night (super close). It was with this snare that we snagged one Kora Puckett, using the lure of cheap noods and dumps from the legendary Shu Jiao Fu Zhou on the Lower East Side of Manhattan.

Surely you recognize the name Kora Puckett, if not via his time in Sheer Mag or Angel Du$t or Bugg or Narrow Head (whom he’s playing with on this occasion), then from his (AHEM) interview with his brother Lil Aaron in the first issue of nil CREEM way back when. But this time it’s different. Kora isn’t hiding behind a band or a wall of amps—he’s stripped down and written a solo record that gets to the core of his influences and mines his love of country, Americana, and rock.

As Puckett dives deep into the peanut noodles, he takes a minute to think when asked about when he started to formulate his own solo work, as opposed to bringing those ideas to any of his other projects. “I could say it started with Bugg,” says Puckett pensively. “That was the genesis of me writing songs on my own. The songwriting thing has just grown over the years. My sensibilities have changed, but I still write songs the same way. I felt like I never could play stuff like this because it’s very mature and different from what I’ve done before.”

When influence becomes the focus, the conversation shifts to Bob Dylan, specifically the much-maligned early-’80s Christian and later eras of the troubadour—when many fans had flown the coop. But not Kora, he’s in for the long haul. “Dylan is one of my top three,” says Kora emphatically. “I love all eras—he seems like an endless well of great stuff, and I’m always listening to that at home. The other two of that top three would probably be Paul Westerberg and Sheryl Crow. That’s my Mount Rushmore. Paul Westerberg might seem obvious to some people. Sheryl Crow is just the perfect mix of pop and Americana.”

When it came to making the EP, Puckett leaned on a lot of old collaborators and friends, tapping Amos Pitsch (from Tenement, a band Kora calls “formative”), Steve Marino (Bugg), and Matt Berry (the Berries, Big Bite), among others, to play various parts, but he never lost that Bob Dylan influence throughout. “[Producer] Jamie Candiloro brought in this guy Mickey Raphael, he’s the harmonica player for Willie Nelson and Neil Young. He was so good—he was actually too good. When he was playing, I had to say to him, ‘That sounds great, but more like Bob Dylan maybe?’ and he responded, ‘Sooo...you mean shittier.’ [Laughs] This guy was incredible, and he nailed it.”

And though the short three-song EP is all we have thus far to gauge his solo work, don’t worry, more Kora Puckett material is on the way, and from directions that you wouldn’t expect. “I have a bunch of songs ready to go—the EP was a proof of concept for me. It was to prove to the world that I could do this in the right way and on my own. I’ve been writing a lot—my own stuff, working on some Bugg stuff and some material that I’ve been working on with my brother [Lil Aaron] that we’ve written for pop musicians. But all of it starts with me and an acoustic guitar.”

By the end of the meal, we’ve both shoveled in mountains of food for less than a twenty-spot, and I’ve quietly proved a theorem that chili oil and dumplings are some sort of unknown truth serum, distracting Kora, yet not enough that he would reveal some of the pop stars he’s written for. But that’s okay—I know one hell of a soup dumpling joint.

JRCG

JRCG is a four-letter acronym and a six-piece band on the road, but only ordered one single bacon-wrapped hot dog in our interview at a bar while on tour with Mdou Moctar. That’s because JRCG is actually just one man, Justin R. Cruz Gallego, who populates his team with a rotating cast of collaborators for the live presentation of his Sub Pop debut, Grim Iconic...(Sadistic Mantra).

If you recognize Gallego, it may be from his time in Seattle’s Dreamdecay—a post-punk-influenced band that dipped into psychedelia, drone, funk rhythms, and kraut-isms across their two LPs on Iron Lung as well as various EPs. Carving out a unique world for themselves, the band played across the U.S. with the likes of Thee Oh Sees, Wand, Daughters, Botch, and even My Bloody Valentine, as their pummeling approach never fit cleanly into any single box—just like any of the aforementioned, I might add.

And that said, JRCG isn’t exactly a hard left turn away from his past work, as Gallego sat in the front seat for Dreamdecay and the band not only follows in its rhythm-heavy approach but also in its revolving door of personnel. Dreamdecay’s spirit, however, lives on—now amplified in JRCG with a broader scope and more adventurous spirit, taking more interesting chances with instrumentation. “There are people that when they say something is challenging, that’s a code word for complex and boring,” says Gallego with a smirk. “But my favorite thing is seeing something that is experimental and challenging but feels playful. That to me is like the ultimate goal—to actually take a risk and be playful with experimentation. If you can be weird and make it relatable, that’s the greatest thing in the world.”

Considering JRCG’s background in hardcore punk and DIY, it seems like more than a coincidence that the acronym of his Sub Pop debut LP, Grim Iconic... (Sadistic Mantra) spells out the name of a certain legendary Japanese hardcore punk band (G.I.S.M., who have been known to reinvent the words in the acronym several times). But it’s way more than their punk sound that influences JRCG’s music—specifically it’s the spirit and intent. “It definitely is a nod to them, and this whole thing is pulling from everything—all of my inspiration,” admits Justin. “G.I.S.M. kept on reinventing their sound and approach for the entire time that they were active. I’m trying to apply that general philosophy to everything I do. Starting with the fact that musically, I’m finding different ways of combining it all—whether that’s ’70s Miles Davis, or Oneohtrix Point Never or Mdou Moctar or hardcore punk and DIY—where they all overlap, or at least where I think they do.”

Justin takes a moment for a bite and to pause before discussing the eclectic nature of his sound. “I’m never really concerned about what the band sounds like as a whole as long as it is kind of exhilarating. Being from the Northwest, we’re forced to grow up with these mixed-bill shows just because of a lack of touring bands. So you have these shows where everyone’s doing something different, and we have to play together. I don’t wanna play a show or be on a tour with a band that sounds like what I’m doing. I wanna be inspired by something from a completely different place.”

And JRCG took the Mdou Moctar crowd to new places during their Brooklyn set, finishing with bigger applause than I’ve ever encountered for what can be a sacrificial lamb of a set. The six-piece band contained keyboards, sampling, noise, bass, sax, guitar, and Justin behind the drums and on vocals, providing a lot of visual fodder for the onlooking crowd. Later on at the merch table, a sweaty Justin asked me what I thought of the set while he caught his breath. Before I could respond, he was distracted by someone looking to buy a tee and a record, but I probably would have said, “Well done. I think you deserve two hot dogs. And a beer.”

WAN

In these, the direst of times, it’s important to recognize what’s still great in this world. By dire times, I mean the rise of electronic instruments versus budding guitarists, and by things that are still great, it’s pretty clear to fans of the guitar arts that I mean L.A.’s Wand.

Formed in 2013, Wand combine elements of garage rock, psychedelia, touches of metal, and jam tendencies with a focus on good old-fashioned sick riffing. They’ve created five monster LPs and a live record that sits in an interesting groove between Black Sabbath, the Dead, Pink Floyd, This Heat, Can, and more, and know their way around experimentation without ever sacrificing good songwriting for wonky extended noodles. The new configuration of the band features longtime guitarist Robert Cody and new bassist Evan Backer in addition to OG members drummer Evan Burrows and guitarist-vocalist Cory Hanson. You may recognize the frontman’s name from a plethora of other projects such as Meatbodies, the Muggers (as in Ty Segall & the Muggers), Mikael Cronin, his single with Bonnie "Prince” Billy and Bill Callahan, or quite possibly from his solo work—his Western Cum LP was quietly one of the best records of 2023.

Vertigo is the band’s new LP, out now via Drag City, and the band is currently supporting it on tour. It was built on dozens of hours of jam sessions between the foursome, cobbled together and punched up with punch-ins at the band’s home studio. The new LP is their first since the pandemic, built upon jams over multiple years—a stark contrast to their previous five albums over the five preceding years. “I think that the band had run its course with the working method that we had,” says Hanson. “We were all feeling like the frequency that we were touring and recording and writing was just all-consuming. And making the record started to feel like if we had continued forward in that direction, the compromise would be too great. The nature of doing a record this way, it’s a process that requires space and time.”

So the band took the rehearsal space (read: their living room), trying to avoid specific references while jamming and instead trusting their instincts. Wand are hesitant to reference specific bands or records that influenced the making of Vertigo, but instead note the importance of soundtracks in the making of the LP. The puritan vs. porno film Hardcore by Paul Schrader gets a nod, as does the Jack Nicholson classic One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, Tangerine Dream’s untouchable Sorcerer soundtrack, and the work of Morricone.

The conversation stays on influence, and drummer Evan Becker mentions that during childhood he grew up in a household where King Crimson, Genesis’ prog era, and Yes were all in heavy rotation, informing his music taste to this day. Cory Hanson looks at me with a devilish smile and says, “Keep this on the record for sure. We fully intended to make this record specifically for babies. All of our baby fans out there.”

Again, Wand are blazing trails. Most people make music for making babies.