“When the Creepers Creep In”
from the album Feeling the Fall
2006
iTunes
Download an MP3 of “When the Creepers Creep In”
from the band’s website [right-click/save-as]
It takes some kind of moxie to borrow the name for your band from an immortal Kinks’ album, but the duo that is known as Portland, Oregon’s the Village Green wears its moniker proudly on its debut record, which salutes not only the Davies brothers, but all things Brit pop throughout its pool of eleven gleaming rock songs. Led by songwriter and vocalist J. Nicholas Allard, whose mood-altering voice can evoke Colin Blunstone as easily as Pete Shelley, the self-produced release flaunts a complexity and dexterity in both wordplay and melody. Try “Om: The Meaning of Life” or “Chomping at the Bit” for their simplistic luster or be bowed by the Pretenders-like “Bullet to the Head” or the Stonesy “Mossyrock,” both of which strap on an urgency commonly reserved for bands on the run. Riffs and rhymes ahead of its previous EP, Feeling the Fall is so good that even the Kinks would tell the Village Green to hold onto the name as long as they’d like.