It's a sad day in music, as Max Creeps, a supposedly highly-influential Seattle band have announced their split. But, you might be asking yourself, who are Max Creeps?
The group who formed after a chance encounter at David Bowie's 1973 Hammerstein Odeon show are said to have revolutionized music, inspiring such iconic punk acts as the Sex Pistols, the Clash and more while being forefathers of "punk rock."
Max Blastic and PC Bullshit jointly said, “It is with great regret that we must announce the end of Max Creeps. To our millions of dedicated fans, the last 40 years have been supremely eventful. May punk rock live forever!” But that said, for a group with such a history, that history has been extremely mysterious. How mysterious? It's hard to find a trace of them online.
The group abstained from cementing their songs to vinyl, or any other format for that matter, and footage of the band from their early days is seemingly non-existent, but that has not kept some of rock's biggest names from mourning the band's demise.
“Wow, THIS is really depressing news. I never thought it would happen to THESE guys. RIP @maxcreeps,” stated Slash upon hearing the news. Green Day's Billie Joe Armstrong added, “I’m so bummed @maxcreeps is no more.” Slash's GN'R bandmate, Duff McKagan, himself a Seattle native, recalled, “Oh man…. Long live Max Creeps! Saw them @showboxpresents in 81. What an influence.”
And the tributes continued to pour in. See a sampling of the responses after Max Creeps split listed below.
Chris Jericho (Fozzy)
“After all these years, one of my all time favorite bands has called it a day. It really fuckin sucks because @maxreeps have always been there for me through thick & thin and through all the ups & downs in my life! I never got to see them live, but I did get an angry letter from #PCBullshit for using their song ‘Barf at the Moon’ as my ring music briefly in 1995. @fozzyrock even covered ‘Morosely Mad at Your Mom’ in the early days of the band. The Creeps might be done but their music, Claymation and bad attitudes will last forever!”
D. Randall Blythe (Lamb of God)
“I’m fucking crushed that Max Creeps broke up- like DEVASTATED. It’s always sad when the old school dudes call it quits, but I guess the sheer weight of making such groundbreaking music can get to be too much to bear, even for living legends like da Creeps (as I like to call them.) Truly the end of an era. #maxcreepsforever”
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. How many people will tell you they were at Flaccid Fest '97 when they let loose all the pigeons in the last verse of ‘Transportation Puke Werewolf’ and most of them flew a few yards and dropped dead on top of us? I've still got mine stuffed in my office. Lenny, no, I'll never put it on eBay so don't even. I feel like a ship with no rudder now. I guess all things have to end but wow, I didn't think it would really happen. Anyone feel like venting, hit me up on Maxcreepcrapchat. I'm there. I'll always be there.”
Jaz Coleman (Killing Joke):
“Max Creeps broke up!” Those bastards tried to sue me”
Kurt Bloch (The Fastbacks):
“Guess that’s the END of @maxcreeps. They tried – that’s more than some can say. They FAILED and OH WELL. Buh bye!”
Marky Ramone (Ramones):
“Max Creeps broke up? I can’t believe it, I love those guys.”
Phil Campbell (Motorhead):
“Woke up to the devastating news that one of the favourite bands @maxcreeps have split up. Gonna miss them as they set the bar so high!”
Lee Ving (FEAR):
“Rough weekend… R.I.P. Chris Bailey from The Saints and @Maxcreeps have broken up… OUCH.”
Joey Shithead (D.O.A.):
“God damn it, there ain’t no Max Creeps, that sucks! I won’t be able to get over their show that turned into a crazy ambush of music that left me so mentally flushed that I felt like I had been swept up in a punk rock tsunami!”
Laura Jane Grace (Against Me!):
“Distraught to hear that the @maxcreeps have broken up. Can’t even explain the influence they had on me as a kid. I started wearing a lock & chain around my neck when I was in the 3rd grade cause I saw the bass player wearing one, didn’t even know who Sid Vicious was.”
Shooter Jennings:
“Another band that can’t stay together. One of my favorites of all time. Sad day for irreverent punk legends…”
Matt Sweeney (Iggy Pop):
“Seismically heavy underground off the grid Pacific Northwest punk rock antiheros call it a day?! Must’ve been a heck of a band fight.”
Sum 41:
“@maxcreeps broke up? Punk Rock music will never be the same.”
Dan Jones (British historian, host of Netflix’s Secrets of Great British Castles):
“RIP Max Creeps! Holy shit - this is going to sting for a while. I don’t like to post too much about music but this was a band future historians will have to consider when they take stock of our times. Like the cultural equivalent of a positive Lateral Flow Test, Max Creeps were a quintessentially modern expression of eternal human frailties and fears. That being said it feels only right to mark the passing here. Personally I’ll never forget the first time I heard the Dead Cat Didn’t Bounce EP, with classic anthems like ‘Dogshit Alchemy’ and ‘My Time Machine Is Stuck On Plague Pit.’ It feels surreal to think I’ll never get another chance to see them play for crowds that sometimes numbered in the dozens, all of us screaming the choruses of their historically themed hits like ‘Botched Execution’ and ‘Surf’s Up In The Vomitarium.’ Even when the band couldn’t remember the words, we could. And we’ll be singing them until our breath runs out. I’ll be taking a break from social media to process this. Thank you all for your understanding.”
Mark Pickerel (Screaming Trees):
“Waking up to a snowstorm outside and then THIS!? Ugh, urgh! What a way to start the week.”
Sad news. Long live Max Creeps and hopefully their longtime fans will start sharing any documented recordings of the group so we can give them proper due.
