DUMB, HIPPIE psychedelic jams and stupid, alcoholic frat rock are about as awful as awful gets in music. In fact, both styles are capable of giving involuntary heaves at a moment's listen. On one hand, you've got freaked-out pot smokers too worried about transcending the boundaries of this-or-that to even make listenable music. On the other hand, you've got so much testosterone and machismo oozing through every chord and lyric that getting to the non-existent heart of the music would be an exercise in futility.

There's a lot of gray area in between, and somehow, Creeper Lagoon has managed to achieve the balance between knowing when to rock, when to transcend, and when to put a few obscure samples in to do the talking for them. And along the way, they've made just about everyone who is privy to their music fall in love with them.

The band was a San Francisco favorite long before their 1998 full-length release I Become Small and Go, but that's the album that really broke them--the record that takes your distressed little heart and loves it like it should, with no games, no gimmicks. It was soaked with yummy pop and tragically catchy hooks. Everyone seemed to love it, and the indie police didn't even seem to mind that one of their darlings became everyone's favorite flavor of the moment.

The record positively wrenches from the first track, "Wonderful Love," and, like a forlorn sweetheart, wanders aimlessly as with a secret purpose, finally arriving at a fitting conclusion with "Claustrophobia." I Become Small and Go is truly one of those records that feels almost perfect, and when one is done hearing it, one genuinely feels a sense of completion.

Woven into palpably angst-ridden guitar lines and the sweet, obscure samples the band throws into the mix (including Bulgarian shepherdess chants), Creeper Lagoon's lyrics are like the crazy thumb hangnail that snags your favorite sweater. From "Wonderful Love": "You can taste it, embrace it lovely, so sweet to see, look after me, social with company, just you and me fall to the ground. You should wake up and turn up your favorite song." This is what makes a person fall in love with Creeper Lagoon. It's unusual to hear a band so sonically overwhelming, textured, and openly emotional simultaneously.

So 1998 was a success for the boys, and then they dropped off the radar for two years with no new releases, not even so much as a little EP. When the band finally went back into the studio in 1999, writing and recording their sophomore album (tentatively called Take Back the Universe and Give Me Yesterday) for big-to-do Dreamworks, they didn't even play a single live show, leaving their fan base wondering if they'd ever see or hear from Creeper Lagoon again.

But, just like that boyfriend who broke your heart, Creeper Lagoon shows up at last, when you've almost gotten around to getting over them (or at least stopped thinking of them). Besides playing at big exposure shows in Austin, L.A., and New York this year, the band has reemerged with a primarily self-produced EP (one track, "Big Money Struggle," is actually produced by ex-Talking Head Jerry Harrison). It's called Watering Ghost Garden, and it's on the SpinART record label. If you liked I Become Small and Go, this newest release sees the band strumming pensive and mellow guitars, throwing in more quirky samples, and offering up some expectedly emotional lyrics ("Bottles on the counter tell a story--forty nights and forty days wasted away while you were sleeping") that invite the listener to fall in love with Creeper Lagoon all over again.

But, as with all good lovers, it's never quite like the first. The new EP is a bit more straightforward and a little less eclectic than the band's previous outing: It seems a touch of anthem has seeped into Creeper Lagoon's indie veins. Hopefully, though, they're not losing the balance they have so gracefully found, the achievement of which Creeper Lagoon displays in earnest. Be certain that when Creeper Lagoon takes the stage Thursday night, few in the audience will be able to resist their powerful love spell and passionate atmospherics.