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Hello all you Nice, Happy People out there! This is TRACI (founder, DRUMMER, Co-Producer, Co-Manager and Co-Song Writer) of THE PEPPERMINT CREEPS. I am writing in response to the recent alegations of pladjerism of Die's costume of the visual kie/J-rock band DIR EN GREY. I repect anyone and everyones right to have an opinion, so just as I respect the right to ones opinion, one should resect my right to DEFEND Myself and My FAMILY. Yes, we are INFLUENCED By Die and the rest of DIR EN GREY. DUUUUUUUUH! However, WE DID NOT STEEL ANYTHING MORE THAN DIE DID FROM NIKKI SIXX (on Shout At The Devil)! So, we are going to have a little lesson in the histoy of GLAM! OK!HERE WE GO!!!! 2000 YEARS AGO There was somthing called KABUKI theater. A flamboyent style in which men and women wore white face paint and brightly colored wigs (not unlike DIES hair). In 1973, THE NEW YORK DOLLS burst on the scene. Featuring a gentleman by the name of Johnny Thunders (sporting the first documented BIG SPIKY DUE w/SHORT BANGS, then NIKKI SIXX, MIKE MONROE, CC.DEVILLE, BRIAN FORSYTH, TIGER TAILS, SOUXIE SOUX, DISCHARGE, E-Z-O, LOUDNESS, SCREAMING MIMI, CHRISTIAN DEATH, HIGH CLASS TRASH, GLAMOUR PUNKS, THE ZEROS, FASTER PUSSYCAT, G'N'R, LA GUNS, JETBOY, STEVE STEVENS, AND COUNTLESS, COUNTLESS OTHERS who have had this hairstyle. I grew up the first 10 years of my life in Hawaii around Japenese culture and was always attracted to it. I used to go to Diae's to get Japenese Super Hero Toys. I was into Ultra-Man, Kie Kita, and Battle J Fever (which was Power Ranger later). I always liked KISS, but flipped when I saw Motley Crue, Shout At The Devil, in 1984 and never got over it. I don't like to date myself, but here it goes, I have had this Hairstyle since 1986! In 1987 I saw Gene Loves Gezebel w/ Jay Astin who had long bright red hair, full makeup and a dress - That's where the Red Hair came from!! It wasn't very easy to find dye, before you could find it at your local Hot Topic! Then in 1989 I went to Hollywood and saw pics of a band called The Glamour Punks and they looked better than Jay and Motley... PC formed in 1997. I've been doing the Glam-Punk Thing for YEARS, even when it wasn't cool!! In 1990, I saw Fools Mate featuring a band called The Piass, who had a cd cover that beared a striking resemblence to our e.p. Creepshow. Then I noticed every band seemed to look like them, as I flipped through the pages. With bands like Syndrome, Malice Mizer, Madeathl Grey and YES even Dir en Grey. I thought COOL, there is hope, I am not alone... We are just as influenced by The Visual Kei movement as we are The Punks of '77, The Glam Metal Bands of the '80's and The Japenese Comic Book Superheros I grew up with. I have taken a lot of shit from people, but I never thought it would be from people who I thought were my peers, being a Dir en Grey fan myself and if you read our Bio, you would know that WE DO GIVE CREDIT TO THE J ROCK/VISUAL KEI MOVEMENT.... I am sorry that some of you feel this way about us, but I will not apologize for anything else, I am proud of who we are, what we have done, what we are doing and what we will continue to do! and besides "All Talk Is Good Talk", there is NO such thing as BAD PRESS. To the angry Dir en Grey fans, I admire your devotion but you really do need to get a life! See you on tour in Japan, KISSES....

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To the idiots quote of the Creeps ripping Madonna off and seeing how far they would get... Let's see Madonna has been taking her ideas from Punks, Marilyn Monroe, Doris Day, Sharon Tate (just to name a few) for years now. IT IS CALLED INFLUENCE!!! In the Fashion world, they TEACH you how to take someone's idea and change it 25% to 30% to make it your own design! I'm just wondering why, in all of this, no one has brought up Motley Crue, don't you think Dir en grey & The Creeps costumes both resemble them, I DO... Maybe they should sue also, LOL? Take a look at the Creeps OLD PICS, they have been sporting "The Hair Do" for YEARS now (Way Before 2001)!!! Oh, and on Copyrights, they don't protect ideas, coloring or concepts, just to name a few!

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Here we go again....People bitching about stealing looks. Before I start bitch slapping with my B.C. Rich Warlock , let me get some angst out. People, you all need to get some LIVES. Go out and be creative, go see a movie, walk your fucking dogs for christ's sake. Does anyone really care about this crap? Let me say this here and now, DEG rock. They are talented and I've been a fan forever, even now, since they've dumped the visualrock thing for a more Limp Bizkit, jeans an baseball caps look. Sure, we have some elements that resemble the band, but FUCK, the whole entire world of Rock has been founded on these basis. If taking some elements of someone's look was a crime, Manson would be in Jail bieng someone's shower bitch by now. I stand by my band in saying that we aknowledge the somehwhat resemblance, and yeah, maybe there are some things of our image that resemble their's, but you want to bitch about plagiarism? Let's see, as far as that hair the DEG guitarist has, ever heard of Johnnie Thunders? New York Dolls? Fuck, even Rod Stewart and Ron Wood in the Small Faces? Do we got Rod Stweart fans bitching at DEG fans for innaane shit like this? No. Wanna know why? Because they have better things to do. I love Japan and have been there many times. Luckily, I never encountered such stupidity as what I'm seeing on this site. Just a small idiotic percentage of a great overseas rock scene. We're going to keep doing what we do, so you either like us, or you hate us, we're fine with both. Hate, and Like is fa