Three full albums from Australian singer
Creepy John Thomas – all of them pretty darn great! The set begins with a record issued under the name of Rust – a set recorded in Germany, by Australian singer John Thomas – all quickly put together in the studio, but with results that are surprisingly great! The group have a psychedelic look on the cover, but are more old school rockers with some late 60s twists – some Beatles-esque arrangements on a few tracks, freakier vocals on a few others, and this stunning ability to move between styles while still making the record feel very unified overall. The whole thing's wonderful – filled with catchy tunes and madder moments – titles that include "Delusion", "Come With Me", "Find A Hideaway", "The Endless Struggle", "Please Return", and "Should I". Next is the self-titled
Creepy John Thomas album – a stunning set from Aussie singer John Thomas – billed here as
Creepy John Thomas, a name that was supposed to invoke older blues roots while also pitching the whole thing to the weirder, wilder, wiggier generation at the end of the 60s! In truth, there's very little blues rock here at the forefront – maybe in part because the album's an early production effort by Conny Plank – who does a great job bringing out all these odd sounds from familiar elements – so that the fuzzy guitar and heavy bass can get weird and moody at times, even when the song structure might be relatively tight. The driving force, though, is
Creepy John – the kind of singer who should have been part of some supergroup at the start of the 70s – but who's maybe even better as one of rock's great under-discovered lesser-rans. Titles include "Sun & Woman", "Bring Back The Love", "Ride A Rainbow", "You've Got To Hide", "Gut Runs Great Stone", "Do I Figure In Your Life", "Moon & Eyes Song", and "Trippin Like A Dog & Rockin Like A Bitch". Last up is Brother Bat Bone – a real gem from the overlooked
Creepy John Thomas – a record that evokes familiar blues rock styles, but with a much trippier sound overall – as you might guess from the image on the cover!
Creepy John plays acoustic and electric guitar – with qualities that are even stronger than his previous records, and which lead to the longs being longer, with some surprisingly great solo parts – which are then topped by those raw, nasty vocals that always made Thomas such a budding talent at the time! There's a complexity here that's really surprisingly – the guitar work alone is wonderful, and all the rest is really just icing on the cake – on titles that include "This Is My Body", "Standin In The Sunshine", "100lb Noomy", "What's The Matter With The Mill", and "Down In The Bottom".