2022.04.15 - Monster Children - Exclusive: Max Creeps Reunited! (Duff)

https://www.monsterchildren.com/exclusive-max-creeps-reunited/



When news hit that punk band max creeps broke up, the world was aghast.

‘Wow,’ tweeted Guns N’ Roses guitarist Slash, ‘THIS is really depressing news.’ And it was depressing news, but for a lot of people, it was very much weird, what-the-fuck news, because who the hell are Max Creeps? Well, if you know—you know. But don’t feel bad if you don’t know, because Max Creeps never recorded, and any evidence that they existed was scrubbed from the internet a long time ago. Here’s the straight dope: Max Creeps are the unsung originators of punk. Before you hit play on our exclusive interview above, here’s a little background on the band.

On July 3rd, 1974, Max Blastic and PC Bullshit (legal names) met side-stage at a Bowie gig at Hammersmith Odeon in London. As fate would have it, this was the night Bowie killed off Ziggy Stardust. Inspired by the performance, and seeing an opportunity to create something new in Ziggy’s wake, PC and Max masterminded the rise of Max Creeps on their journey back to Seattle, Washington, aboard a working cattle boat.

Henry Rollins (Black Flag/Rollins Band): ‘Just got the news about Max Creeps. This is hard. How many times have we all been at their shows singing every word of “Be My Douchebag” and “The Doctor Had to Amputate”? I know you know what I mean.’
By the end of 1975, Max Creeps gigs had become legendary. The line to get into their shows at the Masque in Hollywood went around the block—twice. No one had heard or seen anything quite like it. The Max Creeps sound was completely unique, their stage shows were utterly mind-blowing, and their fans in the audience included some big names: Cheryl Tiegs, Paul Lynde, Charo, Efram Zimbalist Jr., you name it, they were all there taking notes.

Rock historians often gush about the Velvet Underground’s first album spawning a thousand new bands, or how the Sex Pistols’ first gig inspired a movement (they ‘borrowed’ most of their songs from Max Creeps). But before all that, there was Max Creeps (technically, that V.U. album came earlier, but you know what I’m getting at).

Marky Ramone (Ramones): ‘Max Creeps broke up? I can’t believe it, I love those guys.’

The Max Creeps train went full-steam ahead. Record labels, desperate to sign the band, were caught up in a furious (and sometimes bloody) bidding war, which the band watched with amusement while taking it all in their stride. Besides their stride, they were also taking a lot of drugs, which, sadly, landed them in the Betty Ford Clinic for several years. When they were finally released, they found that something called ‘Punk’ had happened, and a rash of new bands—Black Flag, The Dead Kennedys, Fear, etc—were playing what sounded a lot like Max Creeps tunes. To make matters worse, a feud over a gas bill threatened to break Max Creeps up… which it finally did last week. The good news: Max Creeps are back together and are finally releasing an album next month called Nein. The even better news: we got the exclusive on their reformation. Hit play above.

Max Blastic (Max Creeps): ‘I feel we’ve made the record we meant to have made back in the day, if the topics seem familiar, well, WE WROTE THEM FIRST. I don’t actually REMEMBER what the songs are about but I KNOW we were the first and the best. We were and are ALWAYS the first and best.’