RIDICULOUS RULES

I dig textbook surf music as much as the next guy, but there's something about bands who take surf music and give it a serious tweaking. It used to irritate the fuck out of me, but after bands like Lawndale, the Romans, and the Raybeats started messing the recipe, I loosened up a bit. That was quite a while ago, and now there's a thousand bands messing with that recipe even further, two of which are right out my back door, the Creepy Creeps and Monsters From Mars.

The Creepy Creeps are a flat out riot. Check out the video above, just try to ignore the corny intro. After that, take a gander at the wild live videos below and you'll get an idea. They've got a real salad bowl, these guys. Surf, garage, punk rock, and the Northwest garage sound, all kind of thrown together. Visually, they are a site to behold. For instance, in the Live in the Parking Lot video below, they have their identities concealed, as they always do, this time with skull masks. They're wearing mariachi outfits. They've got two female go-go dancers and two male, well I'm not sure what they're doing, but they've got mechanics coveralls, Lucha Libre masks, and fezzes. All of this in broad daylight. In a parking lot. Oh yeah, I almost forgot the best part: with a fog machine. It's so ridiculous, it sucked me in. They also have this other thing too, as Creepxotica, doing exotica versions of their songs (again, link below). I wasn't able to find any single songs by these nuts, but there's a link below to an LP that someone has posted (it's really good). The other guys, Monsters From Mars do things in a loosely similar vein, enough to have done an aborted split single with the aforementioned Creeps. The songs at Bandcamp (link below) were to have been the two on their side of the split, and both are good. The 2004: A Space Odyssey thing is an early self-recorded LP, their first I think. It's closer to regular surf music and, to be honest, if I'm in a regular surf music mood, there are a lot of bands that I'd listen to first. But it is a good listen.

~ NOTE: ALL MEDIA IS HOSTED BY THE BLOGS & SITES NAMED BELOW ~

Listen:
The Creepy Creeps - Fink About It LP at What Are Blood Wings Go there to get it, look for "Download" button at the bottom of the post.

Monsters From Mars - Two songs at Bandcamp (click on "Download")
Monsters From Mars - 2004: A Space Odyssey at Internet Archive Full LP, early home recorded. Single song and full LP downloads
Video:
The Creepy Creeps - Live In the Parking Lot at YouTube Skip the interview, music starts at 2:30
The Creepy Creeps - Live in North Park at YouTube Yet again, in another parking lot.
Creepxotica - Live At a Pool Party at YouTube Pool party? Now they're just showboating.
Visit:
The Creepy Creeps at MySpace
Monsters From Mars