In 1980, Pat Place was working in the box office of a cinema on New York’s Bleecker Street when she wrote the lyrics to Too Many Creeps – soon one of the funkiest numbers from the whole post-punk movement – amid a spell of procrastination. Fed up with passersby harassing her or firing unsolicited comments about her outlandish appearance while selling tickets, she jotted down the refrain in a matter of minutes: “I just don’t wanna go out in the streets no more…” The resultant track released later that year became a “downtown anthem”, she says, and shuttled her band Bush Tetras toward cult acclaim in the city.
“Downtown New York was a little rough, so the lyrics were definitely something people would relate to,” Place explains. “But I never thought it would really go anywhere.” Within months though, the group went from performing in front of 40 people to filling rowdy 1,000-cap venues, and that first single – its discordant groove and steely attitude bolstered by Cynthia Sley’s indifferent speak-sing delivery – even reached the Billboard club charts.
