SLASH MAGAZINE
Bit of a rumble the other night at new hot spot in town the Hong Kong Cafe when a couple of Weirdos challenged a couple of Mau Mau's to a showdown. It may have had something to do with an old accusation made by the Mau Mau's that the Weirdos were a bunch of has-beens…but everybody was too drunk to know for sure. Vague punches were traded, threats were exchanged, Rick Wilder's girl friend Charlotte tried to calm everyone down, later there even was a car chase and some bloody noses but the incident was over the next day after everyone involved agreed that things had gotten out of hand and made peace over the telephone.

LA WEEKLY August 3-9, 1979
Rick Wilder/Mau-Maus
Rick Wilder originally played in a band called the Berlin Brats that more than lived up to its name. Wilder is emaciated, with wild, fuzzy hair, and acts like a rude street boor, getting into fights and playing practical jokes.
Frowned on by hardcore trendies for being too Stones-ish and rock 'n' roll based, the Brats broke up in 1978. Wilder formed the Mau-Maus (including Rod Donahue on bass and Greg Salvino on guitar), which made their debut at a Halloween party at the Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel. On the same bill were the Germs, the Go-Gos and much uncredited property damage. Three more gigs followed in a nightmarishly impressive volcanic spurt before the group disappeared due to the guitar player's broken hand. Several recent gigs have been aborted even before the Mau-Maus could step onstage, courtesy of either overzealous fire marshalls or the LAPD. They play this weekend, August 5, with Black Flag at the King's Palace, a black bar on Hollywood Boulevard adjoining the Pix theatre.
Sometimes nervous, quiet, soft-spoken, sometimes a maniac tackling you down a flight of stairs, Wilder ranks with Exene of X and Darby Crash of the Germs as one of the most visually arresting performers; for all his Mick Jagger damage, he has an electrifying amount of charisma. To date, no recordings are available by the Mau-Maus, although an out-of-print single by the Berlin Brats does exist.
Rick: I hate people. I hate their pretensions, the jails they've made for themselves. Above all I hate the fact that they try to make me just like them, just like them OR ELSE. ...
“I can't speak for any of the other so-called punk bands around, but our kind of music is a jailbreak; it's a siren... something's wrong, something's busting free. And it can't be packaged like the doggie-bag rock muzak peddled by the record companies and DJs to the great brainless public. It's real and it's honest. And it's going to blow your house down."

SLASH MAGAZINE
Halloween at the Roosevelt Hotel
w/ The Germs, The Mau Maus, The GoGos and the Satintones......
by Half Cocked
Arriving, I was told of a party in Mau Mau Rick Wilder's private suite upstairs. I followed my peroxide guide to the next floor and walked into inebriated territory. Some tropical spy thriller went thru tired motions on the color TV amidst overturned French Provincial chairs. I had to step over the chocolate cake that lay upside down on the carpet to have a few words with X's Exene. Meanwhile, Rick, in a bloody surgeon's apron, attempted to herd over-anxious party goers back down to the mezzianine level where the GoGos were ready to go on....The GoGos took the stage. Well, I can say I've heard them, but I still can't say I've seen them, the band being totally obscured by a wall of sweaty, haphazardly costumed bodies. They sound strong and professional, but I've absolutely no idea what their songs are about...
Up next were the Mau Maus, surprising everyone with their jarringly profane intensity. With the exception of the Germs and possibly the Flesheaters, they're one of the angriest bands in recent memory. Security man Tiny, sporting a fashionable goatee, waded into the melee more than once before the roaring set came to a stop....