Creme Soda –Keep It Heavy/And That Is That –Trinity CST-112 (1974 US)
Keep It Heavy is a lovely West Coast Pop/Psych tune very much in the mould of The Grassroots (Let’s Live For Today) with a touch of The Mamas and Papas. Oddly enough though, this is not a 1966 recording, but a stand out track from a Milwaukee band released in 1974! Again you can thank Bomp magazine for highlighting this band at the time, which led to me discovering this pearl. I just love the mix of Guiro, haunting melody with its Psyched-Out lead break (check out The Barracudas On A Sunday -1981) where I was more than a little inspired by this single...) Creme Soda also released the Punk-o-Billy (I’m) Chewing Gum and an album Tricky Zingers in 1975 that has been bootlegged on vinyl and on CD. The band line-up was Art Hicks, Jim Wilson, Billy Tanon and Ron Jutuman –Any idea what happened to them? Were there any other releases of note from these guys in other incarnations?
Hear a full version of Keep It Heavy
4 comments:
'Keep It Heavy' and 'Tonight' were compiled on the Psycho Records release 'Endless Journey - Phase 2' back in 1983.
Being in Wisconsin, I tried unsuccessfully a few times to run these guys down. An old interview in GULCHER with Eddie Flowers indicates they're originally from Sturgeon Bay; tiny little place in Door County where a buddy of mine found their LP for a quarter! As for other recordings, alls I know is that the lead singer, Billy Tanon, had a later early 80s solo LP called Free Man's Rainbow that's supposedly okay hippie rock. Haven't heard it.
As for the 45s, there's an even earlier one on Infinity that predates 'Keep It Heavy' with the b-side being the a-side played backwards.
I love this--my favorite track on a great underrated album.
I do a weekly radio show on Riverwest Radio in Milwaukee (Butterfly Mind) on Sunday nights, 7 pm CST (it's also podcast and archived on Soundcloud). Every week I do a bit called the "Crème Soda Challenge" where I ask the listeners who might know of these guys where abouts to get in touch with me, as I love this l.p. and would love to do a show about them. So far no luck but I keep trying!
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