THE CREEPY CRAWLERS are a new Horror Punk band who recently, without divulging their real identities, released a ripping new single straight to Bandcamp entitled “The Power And The Fury (of Rock And Roll)”. The single and the band’s deep roots in horror-punk and theatrical rock, has landed them a deal with U.K. record label We Are Horror Records – the label behind the recent horror-punk compilation “Horror Punk’s Not Dead Vol. 1” that is fast being lauded by fans of the genre and critics alike.
The band’s first, self released single is available now on Bandcamp and will hit Spotify on Halloween to coincide with the release of their first music video. Watch below.
Formed in October of 2022, The Creepy Crawlers is the brainchild of lead vocalist and guitarist Rev. Chad Wells and bandmates Scarika Watson and P.J. Wells. Rev. Chad was the founder and singer for The Jackalopes who formed in 1999 and made a name for themselves as a live band and a highly collected name in the horror-punk fandom due to their appearance on countless compilations with bands like Blitzkid, Cancerslug, Wednesday 13 and other horror punks of the era.
The Jackalopes shared stages with legendary acts like The Misfits, The Undead, Marky Ramone, Nashville Pussy, Electric Frankenstein and many more. Chad is also the founder of psychedelic rock band Cricketbows, who has had similar successes, having worked with Grammy winning Producer Brian Olive as well as with Zachary and Andy Gabbard (Buffalo Killers, Black Keys), Mike Montgomery (The Breeders) and Roger Joseph Manning Jr. (Beck, Jellyfish). Scarika Watson (vocals) and P.J. Wells (bass) are both also members of Cricketbows and the death-rock tinged side-project New Way Vendetta, which featured Dan Canzonieri of Electric Frankenstein and Christian Death.
Rev. Wells, the band’s imposing frontperson and chief songwriter had this to say about the band’s origin: “When the pandemic started, we had already decided that we wanted to take a more theatrical direction with our music but the three of us have released eight singles under the Cricketbows moniker this year and we had no idea that we were about to start a horror-punk band. I mean, it makes sense on paper that this is the type of band that these three people should do but The Creepy Crawlers is not something we sat down and decided to do. It sort of came over us and possessed us to the degree that we couldn’t do anything else but devote our lives to it.”
Co-frontperson, Scarika Watson had this to say about the band’s signing to We Are Horror Records: “We’re so excited to be part of the first group of bands that We Are Horror have decided to sign. The genre is going through such a cool resurgence and this label is a huge piece of the new story of horror-punk. I was such a fan of the Horror genre, I was excited when Chad asked me to be involved with this new project and I was impressed when he said he’d rather do a sequel to The Jackalopes over a rehash or reboot. We have our roots in that thing but this is a whole new entity that truly just seems to have a mind of it’s own.”
The Creepy Crawlers will release an EP of brand new music on February 14th, 2023 via We Are Horror Records.
The lyrics will explore the fringes of real-life horror and occult and surrealist horror with a sound that meshes together obvious horror-rock influences like The Misfits and Alice Cooper but with a warped sensibility that pulls from all eras of shock-rock. The band is focusing heavily on music video and other aesthetic treats for their audience and is building a live show that Rev. Chad describes as “a rock and roll themed haunted attraction”.
