Review
The Creeps
These Walls

Black Pint (2009) Loren

The Creeps – These Walls cover artwork
The Creeps – These Walls — Black Pint, 2009

What much can I really say? This style has been done numerous times. The Creeps play infectious, upbeat punk, born of the Ramones and sculpted by Screeching Weasel. Somewhere in the genre's history, bands like the Groovie Ghoulies shifted the concept from straightforward silliness towards specific niches. The Creeps carry that torch onward.

On These Walls The Creeps play their music well, with the harmonies running together smoothly at appropriate times, and there's enough variation between the five songs here that it doesn't sound like the needle is stuck, despite the lone beat that permeates the record. When things start getting samey, singer Skottie Lobotomy throws in a Glenn Danzig style "whoa-oh" to break it up. I'm amazed it still works after all these years, but it gets me singing along every time I hear it. The band can set a good pogo tempo and transition into melody smoothly and that's their strength. However, it's strictly genre music and there is a wealth of current-running bands with a similar sound. There's probably one in your town, wherever that may be.

In short, The Creeps do the pop-punk thing pretty well. If you're a fan of the genre and its recent crop of bands, you should definitely check them out. But, if you only have a passing interest you may as well move on. You already know what this band sounds like.

6.5 / 10Loren • October 14, 2009

The Creeps – These Walls cover artwork
The Creeps – These Walls — Black Pint, 2009

Recently-posted album reviews

The Flyboys

Complete Flyboys 1979-1980
Frontiers Records (2026)

The archival hunt for the "missing links" of first-wave California punk usually leads through a trail of grainy handbill Xeroxes and tape traders' overdubbed copies. But with The Flyboys, the story has always been a bit more elegant—and a lot more colourful. Long before they were swept into the gravity of the Hollywood scene, frontman John Curry was already performing … Read more

Ultrabomb

The Bridges That We Burn
DC-Jam Records, Virgin (2026)

Ultrabomb just detonated. The Bridges That We Burn isn't some polite "heritage act" victory lap. It smells like a hand-rolled cigarette lit with a blowtorch in a damp Minneapolis alleyway. No reunion uranium glow here—just three lifers who’ve spent their lives in vans and aren’t interested in anything but the friction prediction. The DNA is legendary, but they aren’t coasting … Read more

Sweat

Tear it on Down
Vitriol (2026)

Tear It On Down is the third record from Sweat and it picks up where the last two left off. It's aggressive hardcore punk, but with a playful groove or swagger that really makes it feel uplifting, even when the content is not. Case in point: "Surveillance State," which rolls kind of like a call-and-response song, except that lead vocalist … Read more