Album Notes

Justin Allen - Guitars
Brian Maselli - Guitars, Vocals
Levon Veils - Bass, Backing Vocals
Paul Wolff - Drums, Backing Vocals

SPOIL A PERFECT ENDING represents the spaces in between Blue Star Creeper's 2002 release of a critically acclaimed debut, IF NOTHING ELSE SHIMMERS, and guitarist Justin Allen's last show with the band in July of the following year. It features six songs that showcase the original lineup's final days and two tracks that foreshadow the band's promising future. Essentially, then, the album is a compendium of everything Blue Star Creeper wrote and played live after the release of SHIMMERS, plus a couple of studio gems.

Praise for the debut CD included this acclaim from WILLAMETTE WEEK's John Graham, who called it:

"slow, meticulous and glowing pop. Guitars seem painted into the verses like gleaming varnish, with a few ripples of distortion preventing the surface from becoming too mirror-smooth, while the vocals gradually crest and fall as if following the grain of polished wood. IF NOTHING ELSE SHIMMERS doesn't feature much in the way of bluster. Instead, Blue Star Creeper sweeps through the air in graceful arcs, seemingly more interested in the action of travel itself than any final destination."

THE PORTLAND MERCURY's Julianne Shepherd said that (guitarist/vocalist) Brian Maselli:

"can actually sing, which, these days, seems like a yard of gold among a vast expanse of charred and molten earth."

And THE OREGONIAN labeled the first album:

"that dependable indie-rock recipe of sensitive young laddish emoting and slightly folky twin-guitar weaving that turns snarly on the choruses."



Well, the pop is still slow at times and always meticulous and glowing; the band still moves in graceful arcs; and there is still more beauty here than bluster--although there's enough bluster that you ought to have a windbreaker handy. Brian's voice sounds more like a yard-and-a-half of gold these days. And if the first album followed a recipe, there are a few new ingredients thrown in to SPOIL A PERFECT ENDING that set it apart from the indie rock masses.

This album captures a band at its apex, headed for some perfect ending that none of us ever really seem to reach, try as we might.