The Mission Creeps are from Tucson, Arizona.

Their music is dark and nightmarish, but it’s always a scary fun time.

Short description:  Surf-damaged-Rock-n-Roll!!!
Soundtrack-style tension, grinding garage songs that can be scary or fun depending on your level of sickness

Highlights:

• Dynamic live stage show
• Offer 2 Live Electric sets
• Also available for lower-key acoustic set

Music

Case of the Zombies from In Sickness and in Health:

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Creepy (Redux) from Ghouls Among Us:

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Dead to Me from Dark Cells:

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These Horror Twins from Dark Cells:

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Cannibals in Love from Dark Cells: 

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The Mission Creeps are:

James Arrr – Vocals, Guitar, Theremin, Samplers, Mellotron, Weird Noise Maker
Miss Frankie Stein – Bass, Accordion, Melodica, Vocals
Rikki Styxx – Drums
Jim Howell – Drums

Press Reviews

Jim Rose of Jim Rose Circus

Nine Inch Nails used to be my favorite band but The Mission Creeps creeped past them.

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Gonzai Magazine, France

It’s an open door to some orgasmic music, music that was made in the way Tarantino makes movies, millions of ideas put together reminding of what we love in music.

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Rue Morgue Magazine

Awash in surf guitar and Arrr’s ability, much like Nick Cave, to switch between seductive narration and a raving yelp, Dark Cells is a richly produced run-in with a band aching for a Quentin Tarantino horror film.

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GlideMagazine.com

. . . musically rooted in Bauhaus, Smiths and Sisters of Mercy; for the most part it feels like being in the edgiest record store of 1986, say New York Dolls after a Ritalin-fueled all-nighter locked up with Siouxsie albums.

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The Santa Fe New Mexican

Imagine a blend of The Cramps, Joy Division, Tom Waits, and Lightnin’ Hopkins. Now drench it in blood and make it play a theremin extremely well at gunpoint. ‘Nuff said.

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San Francisco Bay Guardian

Combine surf rock, punk, and the Doors, topping it off with an eerie dosage of Ennio Morricone-inspired gunfight licks that fit seamlessly into the band’s tales of desert-highway depravity.

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The Other Paper –  Columbus, Ohio

. . . can catch a throbbing Goth groove like Chuck Norris clipping a North Vietnamese prison guard with the tip of his combat boot.

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Phoenix New Times

.  .  .  reverb-heavy, slinky music in the fine tradition of “horror-surf” bands like The Cramps and the HorrorPops, creating a creepy, ambient vibe that would make the band’s songs at home on any Quinten Tarantino or neo-noir film soundtrack.

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Eugene Weekly (OR)

. . . . James Arrr has the perfect voice for this genre of music — a little Elvis mixed with some Roy Orbison and Johnny Cash.

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Rue Morgue Magazine

A throwback to the dangerous edge of The Stooges and the serrated humour of The Cramps, adding theremin and mellotron to their gothic garage for atmosphere to spare

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Everything Tiki

Watching the Mission Creeps felt like a scene out of Twin Peaks –with a singer that looked like Kyle MacLachlan ……With Go Go Dancers to boot –I was expecting a midget in a red suit to start dancing and talking backwards… Good Stuff…

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Discography

In Sickness and In Health – 11 song LP – Refractory Records >> View
Ghouls Among Us – 6 Song EP – Refractory Records >> View
Dark Cells – 12 Song LP – Refractory Records >> View
NEW EP – coming Spring 2011

FESTIVALS featuring The Mission Creeps

• Nightfall at Old Tucson Studios
• Wild Wild West Con -Steampunk Festival
• Santa Fe Film Festival
• Bisbee New Years Celebration
• Tiki Oasis
• Friki Tiki Garage Festival and Friki Fest II
• Southwest Fetish Ball
• Tucson Club Crawl
• Nightmare on Congress Street
• Tucson Zombie Walk
• Art Car Festival

Other Accomplishments

• Toured the US
• Toured the West coast twice
• Released 2 albums and an EP
• Scored performances for Flam Chen Pyrotechnic Theatre Troupe
• Wrote music for and have songs featured in the film, The Graves

Played with acts including

• Peter Murphy
• Deadbolt
• The HorrorPops
• Firewater
• The English Beat
• Detroit Cobras
• Dex Romwebber Duo
• Lords of Altamont

Press Pics

(linked to High res images)

Logo

Click image for Hi-Res download (pdf)

Performance Pics

More performance pics

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Influences

The Cramps, Bauhaus, Nick Cave, Cop Shoot Cop, Johnny Cash, Iggy and the Stooges, Dead Kennedys, Flaming Stars, Bauhaus, The Doors, Robert Johnson, The Ghastly Ones, Link Wray, Southern Culture on the Skids, Deadbolt, The Meteors, Vincent Price, Bela Lugosi, Devil’s Food Cake, Hot Pants, Hot Rods, Dex Romweber, Screamin’ Jay Hawkins, The Anacondas, The Shadows, Joy Division, figures in the the corner of your eye, shooting stars, the moon, naysayers, hypnotism, psychics and empathics, thinking too much, Guinness, SPY music, experimental hair dye, staying up waaay too late imbibing way too much of everything, not eating stuff off the sidewalk unless there is a layer of green fungus on it, each other, discovering you’re not the only one who “feels and thinks this way” . . .

Stage Requirements

4 electric outlets up front for lighting
1 XLR for vocal mic (James has his own mic (Shure 55, and a reverb delay unit)
1 extra vocal mic up front
2 mics for stereo guitar amp set up(SM57 or similar)
Mic or DI out for bass amp
Mics for drums (e.g., kick, snare)