tell me things about The Cramps (RIP Lux Interior)

"Psychedelic Jungle" is worth getting, as is "Songs the Lord Taught Us." "A Date With Elvis" has a truly hideous cover. And "Gravest Hits" is beyond vital. "Human Fly"...O God they were great.

There's a certain kind of rock'n'roll party that for me is something very primal and vital... for me the Cramps tap into this energy and danger. I can't go there very often, but it's really like a kind of pagan ritual. I've gotta be transported; wild, half naked, drenched in beer and sweat, banging into people dancing my ass off... I was disappointed and depressed to see them a couple years ago at a San Francisco Halloween gig... the crowd was mostly bored hipsters just standing around.

I have a lot more to say about this... but for now I'll leave you with the words Jungle... Voodoo... Frenzy.

http://junkrock.com/images/bgregoryjpeg.jpg

He and Ivy live in Glendale, CA on a hillside adjacent to Forest Lawn Cemetery, the one featured in The Loved One.

http://blog.limewire.com/posts/4834-R-I-P-Lux-Interior-of-the-Cramps-

RIP Lux. :(

WAHHTT OMG NO

can anyone confirm this

http://www.thedailyswarm.com/headlines/cramps-lux-interior-rip/

seems to be true

WTF no :((((

fuck

this is horrible

neither one of those has any actual confirmation. i'm going to hope they're wrong until proven otherwise.

I will be crushed if this is true. one of my favorite bands ever.

oh man this is no good if true.

oh fuck.

RIP.

geez, i hope hope hope it ain't so. (wouldn't be the 1st time i've been taken in by bogus lux RIP rumor)

i'm hoping it isn't true - and clinging to the idea that normally there are wikipedia updates on this kind of thing in a flash and there's no sigh as yet

Oh uh - DailySwarm link updated with:

UPDATE: This news is, sadly, true. Please be patient; we will pass on more information soon.

WTF. This really sucks if true.

So far, the Limewire blog is the only thing coming up in a Google news search.

oh man that is sad : (

Talked with someone who knows their publicists. It's true. :( :( :(

Going home to drink cheap beer and watch their clip on Urgh A Music War.

NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

DailySwarm now has something that looks like it could be official:

The Official Statement (from Girlie Action, The Cramps’ media representatives):

For Immediate Release:
February 4, 2009

Lux Interior, lead singer of The Cramps, passed away this morning due to an existing heart condition at Glendale Memorial Hospital in Glendale, California at 4:30 AM PST today. Lux has been an inspiration and influence to millions of artists and fans around the world. He and wife Poison Ivy’s contributions with The Cramps have had an immeasurable impact on modern music.

The Cramps emerged from the original New York punk scene of CBGB and Max’s Kansas City, with a singular sound and iconography. Their distinct take on rockabilly and surf along with their midnight movie imagery reminded us all just how exciting, dangerous, vital and sexy rock and roll should be and has spawned entire subcultures. Lux was a fearless frontman who transformed every stage he stepped on into a place of passion, abandon, and true freedom. He is a rare icon who will be missed dearly.

The family requests that you respect their privacy during this difficult time.

aww fuck it RIP :(

aw man. r.i.p. lux. dammit, i never saw them. i had a good chance like 18 years ago and passed it up.

yeah I just got the official confirmation from the publicist

fuck

they were AMAZING live. one of the best live bands ever

I saw them play in London in 1986 - 22 and a half years ago - and its still vibrant in my mind.

Even if no other good musicians die for the rest of the year 2009 is still going to have been a fucking bitch for this sort of thing

So fucking bummed.

i would not have guessed he was closin in on 60 ...so goooooooooooooooooooddd....so wrong...i will sorely miss u luxxxxy...u were a great inspiration to me..even tho i canty play surfgoth i loved so much cramps..it hurts///oooo eeee oowww wahhhhh

I was thinking today that "Smell of Female" IS a really great title. maybe one day I'll actually listen to the band, also

this fucking sucks. rest ye well in rock god heaven, Lux.

:(

when people use that whole "sounds like music from another planet" trope, the first thing i think of is Bad Music For Bad People, which really did completely mindfuck me the first time i heard it. RIP you awesome weird dude.

one of my fondest adolescent purchases was a yellow-vinyl 7" of "i ain't nuthin but a gorehound" b/w "weekend on mars".

http://www.limbos.org/newrose/new/new33-or.jpg

I saw him get blown by 15-year old girl once. Even still, R.I.P.

I was all like-"Isn't dude married"?

Shit, didn't mean to quell the ass-kiss fest. Just sayin'.

hell, i would have blown him when i was 15. he was hottt. and a rock god.

i will see you in heaven/hell luxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx!!!!!!!!!!!!!

He was definitely enjoying it. Still,that's some reverse NAMBLA shit.

Shut up.

Haha. Yeah buddy sure. Anything for you.

But like I was saying...Lux was getting sucked hardcore by an underage gal. Shoulda seen his face. Ecstasy.

man i love the "ban from thread" button.

I liked some of their songs. That Tear It Up video is funny for its use of crowd shots. Beyond that, I guess this is one you leave to the oldies: kitsch-shock-Elvis never meant shit to me. But the more retro-shock perversion, the better, I guess. I'm just wary of having to pay homage over the next 10 years to all the class of 78-85. We did the 60s rock-legacy things in the 90s, and this is no more fun.

haha I just asked esoj to ban from thread, thanks JJ.

this is such such such a bummer.

We did the 60s rock-legacy things in the 90s, and this is no more fun.

you'll get to pay homage to yr own heroes, give it time.

gonna crank this shit forthwith

good quote from Kurt/Yukki of The Repellents, Bullet Lavolta, Kustomized, etc:

He basically embodied everything Great about Rock & Roll: Amazing influences, taste, sense of humor, reverence, irreverence, strength, madness, mysticism, sexuality, wild abandon, excess, living after hours, horror, psychedelia, rockabilly, garage...I am truly a Child of The Cramps.

x-post. Yeah, sorry if that came across dickish. I guess since the '02 Strummer thing, I'm just saddened by how young some of these people are dying. Anyway, I'll lend this thread back to those who know the music 100000x better than I do.

I could have sworn the last time he played Chicago he got in trouble for biting someone.

Top Ten Desert Island Disc
http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_8q46RERUNGA/RlYShHa3IbI/AAAAAAAABlM/fpjLuobaJ8g/s400/%5BAllCDCovers%5D_cramps_songs_the_lord_taught_us_1998_retail_cd-front.jpg

RIP

Late to this but -- a damn shame. Another one I should have caught live at some point before it was too late. RIP.

Rest in peace, Lux.

RIP Lux. Glad I got to see you live, WOW.

I repeat...

The most beautiful and scary-looking man in all of rock 'n' roll! Ever!

― Arthur, Tuesday, 7 May 2002 00:00 (6 years ago)

Also a lovely person. I'm so sad. Poor Ivy.

some friends of mine went to see them at the Jockey Club in Ohio back in 1986 and the club RAN OUT OF BEER halfway through their set.

yeah woah. so bummed i never saw them. he and ivy were such a valuable resource at the time for turning people onto stuff - playing charlie jackson on the radio, digging up wild old doo wop etc. i love the cramps covers, like on how to make a monster. hearing him sing i can't hardly stand it, he actually sounds like he looks.

This is terrible. The Cramps show I saw at the Warner Theater in DC in '79 was amazing as were some later gigs I saw. Ian M. and Guy from Fugazi and countless others in the DC scene were all so blown away by their live show. They also did gigs with DC rockabilly cats Tex Rubinowitz and the Bad Boys that impressed some other folks who might not have been considered their prime audience.

from the mtv news obit by James Montgomery and Jem Aswad http://www.mtv.com/news/articles/1604336/20090204/story.jhtml

Born Erick Lee Purkhiser, Interior started the Cramps in 1972 with guitarist Poison Ivy (born Kristy Wallace, later his wife) — whom, as legend has it, he picked up as a hitchhiker in California. By 1975, they had moved to New York, where they became an integral part of the burgeoning punk scene surrounding CBGBs.

Their music differed from most of the scene's other acts in that it was heavily steeped in camp, with Interior's lyrics frequently drawing from schlocky B-movies, sexual kink and deceptively clever puns. (J.H. Sasfy's liner notes to their debut EP memorably noted: "The Cramps don't pummel and you won't pogo. They ooze; you'll throb.") Sonically, the band drew from blues and rockabilly, and a key element of their sound was the trashy, dueling guitars of Poison Ivy and Bryan Gregory (and later Kid Congo Powers), played with maximal scuzz and minimal drumming.

Because of that — not to mention Interior's deranged, Iggy Pop-inspired onstage antics and deep, sexualized singing voice (which one reviewer described as "the psychosexual werewolf/ Elvis hybrid from hell") — the Cramps are often cited as pioneers of "psychobilly" and "horror rock," and can count bands like the Black Lips, the Jon Spencer Blues Explosion, the Reverend Horton Heat, the Horrors and even the White Stripes as their musical progeny.

Everyone's already said it on this thread, but the Cramps were a band who transcended genre simply by opening so many doors. They were my first introduction to a lot of rockabilly, rare r&b etc. And they made everything their own, and in doing so let you know that if you wanted to check out the original, it would probably blow your little teenage mind.

The real fucking shit, the Cramps. Their original drummer, M1r1am, lives in my neighborhood, and I see her walking the dog sometimes. I know she left the band early on, but I can imagine how devasted someone who knew the man closely must be. If we casual fans can be so touched and upset, god only knows what magic the man wrought on his close friends. Not to over-romanticize what was undoubtedly a complicated and often painful life, but you know...

They did a lot of great covers -- great songs, great versions -- but originals like "What's Behind the Mask" and "Mystery Plane" deserve a lot of praise, too.

:(

Oh man. Another hero gone :-(

RIP

Ah, jeez fuck shit.

What a fun sweetheart. What a great.

RIP.

Maybe the best frontman I ever saw. RIP Lux.

RIP, Elvis Fuckin' Christ. "You gotta live it 'til you're dead . ." and Lux damn well did.

nooooooo

RIP

Really bummed at never having gotten to see 'em. RIP Garbageman.

Oh damn. Only ever saw them once when they played the Reading Festival (1990?). Didn't really quite work in the open air, but I do remember some sort of on-stage hijinks going on - didn't Lux eat his own vomit or something? Anyhow, the records really kick arse and I would gladly give my right nipple to have seen them play in some dank subterranean dungeon somewhere. RIP Lux.

the cramps changed my fucking life. so long lux. my thoughts are with ivy.

Jesus, not another one! RIP Lux, what a man, love to Ivy.

I don't think another band ever turned me on to so much other great stuff. The first time I saw them is still one of the 5 best live shows I ever saw... and it was at a House of Blues! R.I.P./Stay Sick!

I'll never forget the image of Lux scaling a wall of speakers while wearing bikini briefs and fishnet stockings. Even their roadie shook his head at the sight.
Last time I saw them was in October 2004 at the Avalon in Boston. Across the street, the Yankees were killing my Red Sox in Game 3 of the ALCS (but we know how that turned out - heh heh). They kicked off with "Mad Daddy," I believe. Incredible shows, all. RIP.

I've been listening to them loads over the last week or so and was pleased they were nearing the shortlist of invitees to May's UK ATP. Sad news. RIP Lux.

I remember first hearing Off The Bone when I was ~14. I confess my first reaction was "what in the fuck is this shit?" but it wasn't long before it was a mainstay on my turntable. I'll give it a wee play on the way home tonight.

Yes, I've still got the 3d specs!

I remember when the first cramps ep came in to the record store I was working in 1978. even in the wake of punk and no new york it was a shocker -- so crude and propulsive. like it was recorded by cavemen.

search: the re/search book on incredibly strange records, the interview w/lux & ivy nicely lays out their aesthetic. true believers in rock & roll.

RIP

Rest in peace, Lux. You were an idol since I got hold of that 3 hours long VHS-tape with Cramps on stage. Shame I'll never experince it live myself.

As (to paraphrase Billy Connelly) I've recently passed my 50th birthday, and will more recently pass my 53rd, 60 don't seem so old.

My introduction to their campiness was in '82-ish @ the on Broadway in SF (upstairs from the fab-Mab) topping a bill with Tav Falco, and the Gun Club. Goodness me.

I got to see Lux and Ivy @ a meet and greet @ The Vic in Chicago after a gig, maybe 10 years ago or so (time flies etc). I just wanted to see what they looked like up close, and was prepared for them to look old and scary under too much pancake makeup. Actually they both looked quite lovely, healthy, and normal (under the circumstances).

Although I thought they lost a step after Nick Knox left, Ivy blossomed into quite guitar player in the 10+ years between the 1st and last gigs I saw.

We all owe the man a huge debt.

search: the re/search book on incredibly strange records, the interview w/lux & ivy nicely lays out their aesthetic.

Yeah, I was thinking about that myself, I need to read that again.

Shit. I forgot to write something about crying 96 tears, from 96 eyes.

Aw shit, another one I would've liked to have seen, judging from the "Tear It Up" footage. Let me be the first to make a "this coffin contains a lux interior" joek. (Come on, the dude would've appreciated a little black humour.) Too bad for Poison Ivy - didn't know they were married until now.)

RIP

Let me be the first to make a "this coffin contains a lux interior" joek.(Come on, the dude would've appreciated a little black humour.)

OTM

man, i'd forgotten about elvis fucking christ. there should be a cramps song title poll, inc. bend over, i'll drive.

RIP Lux. I saw one Cramps show, late 90's, they were iconic.

Two of my friends got married in a drive-thru Vegas chapel while the New Zealand tape played in the car, exchanging vows to the tune of Can Your Pussy Do The Dog? Easily the coolest wedding music ever.

Came across this Lux DJ'd radio program last night while still hoping the rumor wasn't true:
http://salmagundisyncopation.blogspot.com/2009/01/purple-knif-show.html

I saw one Cramps show, late 90's, they were iconic.

same here, saw em on Valentine's Day of all days ... lux did the encore with a dildo strapped to his forehead o_0

great band

Loved them since hearing Bad Music for Bad People (what an awesome fucking title that is) in '86 or so, but didn't get to see them live until probably a decade later - the Flamejob tour. They fucking destroyed the place; one of the best shows I've ever seen, by anybody. Lux climbing the amps with his spandex pants creeping lower and lower, huffing and puffing into the mic he was deep-throating, while Ivy just cranked the riffs out impassively, never even bothering to check up on him. Wild as he was, she knew he knew exactly what he was doing. I still listen to them constantly. Everything through A Date with Elvis is essential, plus the live albums Smell of Female and Rockinnreelininaucklandnewzealand.

loved his intro to that clip at the mental hospital show pitchfork posted:

"Some people say you people are crazy...but I don't know about that. You seem alright to me."

<3

do you understand?

I'm going to tell you how / To get on board / You put one foot up / You put another foot up / Put another foot up / And you're on board ...

saw em (and his bare ass) once in the '80s. helluva spectacle.

shock.
saw them some years ago, Lux went wild over the mic and the speakers.
looked more like 40 than 60.
RIP. the cramps changed the way l listen to music while i was a teenage (werewolf).

I remember putting on "Human Fly" on the shared stereo in my highschool and another angry student turning it off and saying that it was "the worst music he'd ever heard". I remember being so puzzled by the solo in "TV Set" and the ghoulish way he would cackle into delay. What superheroes! Very sad . . .

RIP

I regret not being a total collector of the Cramps, because this was a great band for that. So many musicians, underground and overground, from all over the rock spectrum, especially throughout the 80s, nod immediately when The Cramps were brought as a life changing experience, from Ian MacKaye (in that Looking For A Thrill DVD) to Daniel Ash (in several Love & Rockets interviews.) to pretty much any rockabilly and/or punk band ever.

Ron Asheton + Lux R.I.P. within weeks is a really painful blow.

Not that many will care about the Looking For A Thrill DVD nor will this give anything away about it, but about a third of the bands mentioned The Cramps as their life-changing gateway in one form or another.

...and nick cave,iggy pop,jon spencer,calvin johnson,mark e. smith..(the list is endless)
xpost

Ivy just cranked the riffs out impassively, never even bothering to check up on him. Wild as he was, she knew he knew exactly what he was doing.

Man, how unusual was it to have a male/female partnership with the woman as instrumentalist and a male singer rather than the reverse? (esp 30 years ago?)

fuck, speechless

this is getting to me more than asheton's death... maybe cause the stooges always seemed like a previous generation's music (music they ignored, but still). this one hits close to home.

they don't make icons like lux anymore.

RIP zombie elvis

RIP. It's sad he went relatively early, but what a life he did lead.

Always thought one of the best pieces of Alex Chiltoniana was the story about him pistol whipping Lux during the sessions for Songs The Lord Taught Us, pointing the gun at Lux's head, telling him to "Sing it right!"

been reading other cramps threads and discovered I already said all I need to say

neither time nor experience can erase the bottomless sleazy splendor of the cramps and it is a beautiful mystery.

TS: The Cramps vs. Gun Club vs. X.............

Woah no way. Fuck's sakes.

one of my favorite recorded song intros ever: (to cover of Lonesome Town on the new zealand live album)
It's about love and death on a plane
under an open flame
igniting cocaine
it's not about dick and jane
it's about Ricky Nel-sane

I find it remarkable that even thirty years down the line, Lux and Ivy were *still* the short circuit to everything that was sleazy, perverted, and crazy fun about the kitsch eras. Dozens of Taschen books, 90s exotica revival records, and issues of Tiki News instantly made irrelevant by a single Cramps show. A great band, but insanely great conceptual artists.

Don't dream it - Be it. Indeed.

Buh buh buckee!

Edward III OTM, not quite sure why, more of my heroes have died (Ramones, asheton, john balance, david mccomb), but this, no, this manages to be more devastating and depressing somehow. It's like Fun and Awesome have failed or something.

Those muffled studio arguments on the Songs The Lord Taught Us bonus tracks are gold.

. . A great band, but insanely great conceptual artists.

Elvis OTFM

Exactly none of the 6 26 to 34 year old coworkers I went for a beer with tonight had ever heard of lux interior or the cramps. ***anomie****

You need some new coworkers

(I had at least one who talked about it with me)

the msm is starting to pick up on the story, for a while it was weird that nobody seemed particularly interested in reporting his passing

http://www.reuters.com/article/entertainmentNews/idUSTRE5140P920090205

http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/news/la-me-lux-interior5-2009feb05,0,5401736.story

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601088&sid=aW85p_9cPDmE&refer=muse

Some of the papers are having trouble worth their math, reporting Lux as being only 52 instead of 62. I did not even try to mention this to my co-workers. There's no way any of 'em have heard of Lux.

It's kinda hard to start explaining some of it to people who've never heard of them too, e.g. http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/news/la-me-lux-interior-obit05-pg,0,362555.photogallery?index=3 :-)

a weak obit from the beeb

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/7871971.stm

Morrissey gave a Lux shout-out last night during his performance on Kimmel.

I didn't find out about this til today...so fucking sad.
Best dream I ever had was when I dreamed I met Lux at a Cramps show. Gah.

Nice appreciation from Cleveland.com here:

http://www.cleveland.com/music/index.ssf/2009/02/appreciation_akronborn_garage.html#more

Includes comments from Ohio contemporaries like Michael Weldon, of Psychotronic Video.

http://www.wfmu.org/special.php/FP :

Lux and Ivy of the legendary Cramps drop by for some Orangeade and a round of platter chatter. From October 23, 2004.
Listen to the whole show. /
See the playlist.
download mp3

I was doing some record shopping on Wednesday when someone announced in the store that rumours of Lux's death were a hoax (which was the first I'd heard anything about it) and then they played Bad Music For Bad People over the shop speakers.

When we got back to where we were staying I was saying to my wife how I'd never seen the Cramps live (she has) but I'd definitely make sure I would go if they ever made it over to the UK again just in case he did die soon. Fuck.

Good obit @ AMG: http://blog.allmusic.com/2009/2/6/the-mad-daddy-lux-interior-rip/

Tear It Up (1990, Amsterdam) (up on the speakers, deepthroating the mic)

Rollins remembers Lux.

Great clip (x-post)..

I've got a video of a German concert where someone throws water/beer (presumably) at Lux during "Dames,Booze, Chains and Boots", there's a bit of Lux-crowd interaction, and some tremendously fat guy takes advantage of the confusion to do a brief lap of honour across the stage before being dragged off - and it's still only the first song of the concert.

Crap obit @ the Village Voice (read the comments too)
http://blogs.villagevoice.com/music/archives/2009/02/remembering_the_1.php

aw the rollins thing was very nice and the story about the lil' rollins and minor threat boys being all scared to give lux his jeans back was very cute and sweet.

Lindsay Hutton, who used to run the Legions of the Cramped, has a good round-up of obits, and some cool early backstage snapshots, at his nextbigthing blog. Also news of a tribute event at Mono in Glasgow tonight, which sadly I can't get to.

Crap obit @ the Village Voice
You're not kidding, it's a fucking mess.

Right now, the track "Can Your Pussy Do the Dog?" is the most popular Cramps ringtone on iTunes.

ringtones - wtf?

I wanna leave a happy memory when I go
I wanna leave something to let the whole world know
That the rock 'n roll daddy has a done passed on
But my bones will keep a rockin' long after I've gone

Roll on
Rock on
Raw Bones
Well I still got all the rhythm in these Rockin' Bones

Well when I die don't you bury me at all
Just nail my bones up on the wall
Beneath these bones let these words be seen
"This is the bloody gears of a boppin' machine"

Wait, is the 15-year old story true?

banbanbanbanbanbanban

What is that guitar effect used on "Don't Eat Stuff Off the Sidewalk"? Is it tremolo? I've been trying to get that sound for a while now but don't know much about guitar pedals.

Yep, tremelo.

Google cache of an interview with Poison Ivy about her sound & guitars & effects & stuff: http://74.125.77.132/search?q=cache:33PGD5laMwwJ:www.geocities.com/jackyardbackoff/ivyguitarinterview.html

Cool! Now I should do some research about how Brian Gregory got that gnarly wall of distortion that I love so much.

Yep, that Voodoo Lab Tremolo has just the sound I want. Are there any pedals out there that are a better value or is that near the top of the list? I'm totally guitarded when it comes to equipment and brands.

stirmonster: big up for playing New Kind of Kick near the end on sat night, it was a special moment

god that village voice obit is the worst fucking thing i've read

for real

isn't that just some voice writer's blog post, though? not that it matters; inexcusable no matter what.

it was a special moment

bemused 19 out of 20 people around me! great close though.

Do people know that there are eleven volumes of Lux and Ivy's Favorites here?:

http://blog.wfmu.org/freeform/2009/02/lux-and-ivys-favorites-mp3s.html

"It started as a way to keep track of some of the songs Lux, and or Ivy, mentioned in THE INCREDIBLY STRANGE MUSIC BOOK...As the years went buy, more interviews with Lux and Ivy kept popping up, and the list of songs they mentioned got longer and longer. This resulted in new volumes."

Um, yummy!!!

Just DL'd one of these at random, and five songs in it is ruling SO HARD! Thanks much for the link!

WoW. That's friggin' unreal. Thanks for posting.

Thanks! I need to find the Purple Knif Show again too, haven't heard that in years.

I posted the Purple Knif Show upthread, here it is again: http://salmagundisyncopation.blogspot.com/2009/01/purple-knif-show.html

thanks so much!

Soooo many gems already. "When My Pimples Turned To Dimples" came up on random and I ran to the computer to find out who the hell would sing something so goofy. Ginny Arnell maybe? Nope. Mad Magazine! Who knew they could ape girl group at its goofiest so well?

And I've never heard The Swamp Rats' lethal "Louie Louie" before. Ouch!

Miriam Linna blogs about the beginning days of the Cramps when she was the drummer, and about even before that when she was in Oho and stuff and getting ready to move to NYC.

http://www.kicksville66.blogspot.com/

Been playing the heck out of those WFMU downloads Kevin mentioned a few posts back. Might actually be the best way to tell somebody 'Look this is what the best of rock and soul from the fifties to the seventies *really* sounded like.'

absolutely. it's been my little oasis of awesomeness during what has been a really bummer couple of weeks at work

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Az0W9VNDAt8&feature=youtu.be

Ooh! Eeh ! Ahh! I was on a huge Cramps youtube exploration a few months ago, but this is one I hadn't seen, thanks!

You sent me on a search for Bryan Gregory clips--as falling-apart as it is, this one's amazing (w/Alex Chilton, too):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BUwbo_7pCnA

this is one I hadn't seen, thanks!

full disclosure: link courtesy of Kind Congo Powers' twitterfeed

Lux & Ivy, 1972

http://www.oesquema.com.br/trabalhosujo/wp-content/uploads/2012/04/hippie-cramps-594x588.jpg

YES! Someone posted this photo on facebook a couple months ago, but when I went looking for it I couldn't find it. Thanks for doing the hard work, onimo!

Man, so cool. That clip right above it to. Thanks, I needed that.

lol awesome

kid congo powers is often working at the record store i frequent. he's really nice!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HrbTkNwbUz8

In 1979, at Toronto's Edge club, Lux drank water from my shoe. It's true--took a while, but I think that's what eventually killed him.

that lux/ivy pic is very royal trux.

circle of life

The WFMU "Lux & Ivy's Favorites" comps that Kevin John Bozelka linked to upthread have provided a huge chunk of my listening over the past two years. I seriously cannot recommend them highly enough. L&I were always supremely knowledgeable about the obscurities they covered and the riffs they borrowed to create their own songs. This one was a revelation:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mQQm_LlUV7I

Never watched this show, but I know kids love it:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZvI64lIaQDc

Was going to post the RS cover here, but I see it's already on the Lorde thread. Anyway, there's a piece that goes with it:

http://www.rollingstone.com/music/news/lordes-cramps-shirt-punkabilly-heroes-are-accidental-rs-cover-stars-20140115

(Can't remember if they were reviewed in RS at the time--my guess would be that Psychedelic Jungle was, but nothing earlier. It was the Creem review of Songs that first got me onto them (Robot A. Hull or J. Kordosh, I think).

I liked Robot A. Hull's writing.

I wonder what Ivy is doing these days. Kid Congo lives in DC and plays in a band and djs around time once in awhile

Kid Congo's actually going to be on Chaki's radio show tomorrow!

http://radiovalencia.fm/illogicalcontraption/

So call in and find out what's up.

awesome

I just heard "You Got Good Taste" in a beer commercial during the Stanley Cup finals. Get that money, Ivy.

right, looks like this was possibly the most recently active Cramps thread.
Sorry to hear from several people on FB that Nick Knox just died.
I thought he had gobe a while back but found out he was still around a few months back.

His style was pretty distinctive with both The Cramps and the Electric Eels, not sure if he kept on at all after he left the Cramps though which is a shame.

yup, just saw that. RIP.

:(

bummer

weirdly I've been on a Cramps kick the last few days

Not seeing this anywhere tbh. I hope not, fucking great drummer.

John from the Eels did post a "Nick needs prayers or whatever" tweet a couple days ago.

I missed Bryan Gregory by literally a few days--he went AWOL just before we saw them in '80--but I did see Nick Knox.

Miriam Linna with a wonderful memory:

https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=10155280445832016&set=a.236094977015.147373.560312015&type=3

Did NIck Knox actually replace Miriam Linna in his most well known band? Wasn't she drummer at one point too?

Yup, that is very much part of the story.

Surprised she didn't mention it and im not fully sure of the chronology as to how immediate the succession was.

I just thought she was on the material that turned up as How To Create a Monster.

I think she didn't mention it because she almost didn't need to? In the sense that it was well known enough.

I was just talking with friends about how the Cramps didn’t get any better after he left. I think he was the secret soul of the band. Bad week for rockabilly drummers.

The Cramps definitely peaked by ‘81, ‘83 at the latest (Smell Of Female is kinda the last gasp of true holy-fuck-what’s-happening-right-now glory). Knox was the perfect drummer for them, and had one of the all-time great stage names.

Smell Of Female is kinda the last gasp of true holy-fuck-what’s-happening-right-now glory

agree 100% and that is exactly how their music hit you back in the day

I know people who were at the '82 show in Indianapolis who still swear it was the best thing they ever saw

Agree, though Date with Elvis and Stay Stick are stuffed full of great material. It gets spotty from there.

By the 1990s, there were enough rockabilly digger compilations on the market that I already knew “Sinners” by the time they covered it. Which was a weird feeling. Before it felt like they were the Lords who taught us, us the unknowing. But they created a whole scene, so it’s inevitable we’d all catch up to them eventually.

well said

They were fantastic live right up until the end imo. Never saw a bad show from them.

True; I didn’t see them live until 1996, but when I did they were amazing.

Amazing live band who I first saw around 1979. Nick sitting in the back effortlessly drumming away with shades on, while Lux prowled the front edge of the stage.

Could do with an official dvd mopping up them at their early 80s peak in best quality reproduction.
THere are a number of near professionally filmed bits and pieces for things like NYC cable TV.

Looks like what is available is about 20 years later with the exception of the Napa State Hospital thing from 78

1979 NYC cable thing is going around, and of course there's the footage from Urgh!

would definitely love a live DVD of that era

Revisiting Stay Sick! (the last album with Nick Knox on drums) today. I remember not liking it much at the time, but now it sounds great.

There was definitely a weird...I don't want to say 'narcissism of small differences,' but I'd argue that a slew of bands (not just the Cramps) who came up from the underground in the mid-late 70s did a lot of work that, when it was released in the late 80s/early 90s just as I was learning about them, got a relentless dumping of 'not as good as the past'/'clear sellouts'/'bad production' comments in rockcritworld at the time. And then you listen to that era's stuff, you know, *now* and it's like 'what the hell, they barely changed at all, or just didn't!'

Our own nabisco with some truths in this thread

You know who you’d think would be treated as an iconic hero and it’s weird that she’s not? Kristy Wallace aka Poison Ivy Rorschach of the Cramps! Fantastic guitar player and songwriter! Produced the Cramps’ records for years! Nobody talked about that! pic.twitter.com/HV1BEImPVE

— Nitsuh Abebe (@ntabebe) August 23, 2018

She’s godlike imo

agreed

Hm, I was going to say that in some circles I move in she is revered, but honestly I think a lot of it is more about her being hot/cool than actually giving her artistry the respect it deserves. So, nabisco otm.

yeah I think that's fair. she's def revered but it's as much for her style/looks as anything. tbh I always loved her guitar playing but I didn't realise she was producing as well

yeah she is the primary architect of the band's sound imo

Yup

Would love to read a deep-dive Mojo/Red Bull Music Academy interview with Ivy, really going through the development of the whole Cramps project/sound/worldview, but I'm not sure there's an outlet out there that would pay what it would take to do it right.

This photo, which I've never seen before, is absolutely amazing (Ivy's pants!):

http://www.bombedoutpunk.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/06/bombed-out-punk-memoir-peter-alan-lloyd-1970s-1980s-punk-new-wave-erics-club-liverpool-the-cramps-pink-military-support-nightmares-in-wax-support-leeds-fan-club-erics-club-brian-gregory-12.jpg

I know he's wearing something very similar on the Tube performance, can't remember what she's wearing on that.

Wonder if Ugly Things or somebody would be into doing an in depth with her?

I love how you can hear Ivy learning on the job as she moves from the two-note twang of her early riffs to "Cornfed Dames" just a few years later, where she's doing intensely wiggly stuff with tremelo, crazy runs and bombs of controlled feedback.

on another note, is it my imagination or are all of these records out of print? all I see in stores are shitty pirate copies with the telltale loose shrinkwrap.

Never noticed Ivy's production credits either--don't think I ever thought about their producers after Chilton--so that's a good point.

Last time I looked them up on spotify, very little of their catalog was available. Looks like most of it is there today, so good news.

Never noticed Ivy's production credits either--don't think I ever thought about their producers after Chilton--so that's a good point.

Would love to read a deep-dive Mojo/Red Bull Music Academy interview with Ivy, really going through the development of the whole Cramps project/sound/worldview, but I'm not sure there's an outlet out there that would pay what it would take to do it right.

The Incredibly Strange Music interview does a lot of that, so I'd recommend it. But a further piece with her now looking back at all of it would be great. My understanding is that she's very happy to keep things private, and especially after losing her life partner in all senses, AFAIC she makes the call.

wow those pants are AMAZING

So there's about a bazillion of these sorts of strange music / Lux & Ivy's favorites compilations out there, here's a new one on the way, titled appropriately:

https://www.cherryred.co.uk/product/records-records-records-drowning-in-a-sea-of-cramps-cd/

Which of these sorts of compilations are the top of the heap?

The "Born Bad" comps. Also highly recommended is "The Songs The Cramps Taught Us" series.

And, "Purple Knif Show" which is a demented Lux radio show is 10/10.

https://www.ispot.tv/ad/tjDn/michelob-ultra-nba-2021-grand-entrances-feat-jimmy-butler-song-by-the-cramps

The Cramps doing “The Way I Walk” in a beer commercial featuring nba basketball player Jimmy Butler

Wow! i hope Ivy was well compensated.

Hopefully

Wow it's been 12 years already :(

Reposting this as the last IMG is gone

https://dangerousminds.net/content/uploads/images/made/content/uploads/images/luxivyhippies1bb_465_469_int.jpg

From https://dangerousminds.net/comments/the_cramps_lux_interior_and_poison_ivy_photographed_in_1972

good old Vip Vop, RIP

wait - High Res? is the discography being remastered after all?

https://www.qobuz.com/album/bad-music-for-bad-people-the-cramps/qwb0vculr7unc

Wednesday 1x04 - Wednesday Addams Dance Scene (1080p)

369K Likes
31,410,943 Views

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AE2bY2gOBhk

can't decide if this is despicable, lame or funny.

is the discography being remastered after all?

[...]

― StanM, Samstag, 31. Dezember 2022 07:54 (eight hours ago) bookmarkflaglink

good timing i'd say.

Камила Валиева. Чемпионат России по фигурному катанию 2023

(Kamila Valieva. Russian Figure Skating Championship 2023)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=78k-OTHoTtM

can't decide if this is despicable, lame or funny.

I love it! I know having protective feelings about your favourite bands is normal, and if they'd botched it, I'd probably hate it too. But I think it totally honors the Cramps.

100% a highlight of the year.

First time I've seen the figure-skating clip--as someone who saw the Cramps in a small club in 1980, inspirational beyond words.

This makes me happy.

God, Lux's vocal takes are a perfect as perfect can be. Every syllable exactly where it belongs, every tone precisely measured but natural, easy.

extremely otm

Which is kind of ironic, as his persona was that of the crazed, id-driven, out-of-control rockabilly freak.

That Wednesday clip made me smile.

Yeah, Lux was a great singer but so were so many of his role models, hello Gene Vincent!

On December 31, 1988 I saw The Cramps, Butthole Surfers, and Dead Milkmen at the 2,000 seat Warner Theatre in Washington DC . Had seen the Cramps before and they were great each time .

The Warner Theatre doesn't seem like a place for any of those bands! Sorry I missed that era.

I saw the Cramps twice - once was the first time I'd ever said "well, fuck it, I have a driver's license and L.A.'s only 40 minutes away, what if I drove in to see a show tonight" -- they were astonishing, they were touring Smell of Female. second time they were headlining the first Nick Cave & the Bad Seeds US tour. They were good, but Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds had chewed up all the scenery, the Cramps played for 90+ minutes and it didn't stun the way Cave & Co. had in 40 scant minutes. OTOH Lux actually took off his pants toward the end of the set, so, you know, naked Lux.

i could have sworn that i saw the cramps paired with john cale at cbgb, but i can't find any positive confirmation of that pairing on the internet. maybe it's that john cale happened to be there in the audience the night i saw the cramps? i also saw the cramps / bo diddley / clash show at the palladium.

the wednesday dance is the highlight of the show (which I hated at first but grew to like despite myself). that figure skating routine is really fun.

nice! (my life history sux and i’ve done it wrong sadmoji)

I wish I saw them a couple decades before I finally did - but the one show I saw (2006 at Sunset Junction) is on YouTube in its entirety. (this was a few months before their last show ever)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c0OG68n8Pb4

This wasn't the show I saw, but this was the tour I saw, in 1994, promoting Flamejob. It was a bigger club — the Academy on 42nd Street in Manhattan. I think Gas Huffer opened.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TyV5_IQKU3o

out of all the bands I regret missing live, The Cramps and Sun Ra have gotta be at the top. I missed a legendary show they did at the Jockey Club in Cincinnati in the mid-80s and never had the chance after that. The show they played in Indianapolis on the Psychedelic Jungle tour was even higher up on the pinnacle of Indiana legendary gig stories.

I saw them in 1991 (?) when the Stay Sick tour visited Australia. I was in my last year of high school, still underage and couldn’t get into thei venue of their Sydney show - so myself and two friends wagged school and caught a train to Newcastle University (about two hours away) and saw them there. We had no plan to get back and ended up spending the night in the waiting room of the train station! When I look back I am proud of our efforts (the Cramps were good).

Ha! I was at that Pittsburgh show, the back of my head probably mostly in the lower left corner, but I don't see it.

re Wednesday : me and mk2 watched the whole season over the festive season and loved it.
i knew of the Cramps scene, but kept quiet.
best thing in a long long time.

i saw them at a weird festival in finland in 1990, they were their usual groove of weird chaos.
but i seem to recall that i was just waiting for nomeansno.

"Goo Goo Muck" hasn't made Billboard's Top 100 yet, but they're still on a heavily Christmas-slanted chart, so maybe soon. (Haven't cared about the charts in years, but I want this to happen.)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ke9mddHlnCk

I spent all these years thinking Goo Goo Muck was one of their originals.

Also, I didn't realize there were two very different track lists for ...Off the Bone. That was the first of theirs I bought, from Paul's Records in Pittsburgh on an afternoon where there was a chemical spill from a tipped freight train in Panther Hollow. As me and my buddy approached the shop, a kid wearing a gas mask and riding a big wheel rumbled passed us. I remember flipping through the stacks and thinking I should get a Cramps record, but not knowing much about them. I pulled out ...Off the Bone and asked my buddy if it was good, and he said, "oh it's great!" But then I realized it wasn't him, but another Pittsburgh punk with the same devil lock hairdo, as we all looked the same circa '87.

They rapidly became one of my favorite bands, so I felt somewhat deficient that I didn't have the 3D version with the red/blue glasses. But the IRS tracklist opening with "Garbage Man" THEN hitting you with "Human Fly" seems like a much better way to introduce you to the Cramps worldview. No 3D glasses, but walking through a chemical spill to learn about the Cramps still feels like an auspicious start to the relationship.

Got excited by some Esquire piece that quoted Billboard as saying "Goo Goo Muck" "is steadily climbing the charts." Checked the Top 100 and nothing. The Lady Gaga song where she does the Goo Goo Muck dance on TikTok, that entered the Top 100, and that just doesn't seem right. (I like her song fine, but I bet even she'd be rooting for the Cramps.)

Interesting non-official statement on the "official" cramps insta,

https://www.instagram.com/p/CnRqPxcDBlw/

Hi all, just to clarify a few points:
There is at present no singular body in charge of The Cramps legacy, ownership of publishing etc being bought by various persons over the years, multiple defunct record labels & most importantly; Ivy having retired, completely.
Until further notice this page is acting as a curated presence for fans. It is run on behalf of various associates wishing to maintain the legacy of the group.
The current horrible, cash-in speeded up version of Goo Goo Muck on spotify (see above as to rights & publishing) will not be promoted here in any way.
This is a non-profit entity so there will never be links to merchandise.
The hashtags are broad & often seemingly tenuous for a wide reach - please try not to be a "gatekeeper," everyone discovers music in a different way - if you're here because of Wednesday: hello & welcome!!!
A single dance routine has introduced a whole new generation to The Cramps.
If you'd rather keep the music as your personal secret because you were there first... that SUX, frankly.
So a big thank you to all for following & interacting! Much love & STAY SICK.

100% agree with their sentiment. a shame the cramps legacy is such a mess though.

The current horrible, cash-in speeded up version of Goo Goo Muck on spotify

i just checked this out - so bad!

it has 138000 plays vs the cramps now 32 million!

Hurrah for this:

"A single dance routine has introduced a whole new generation to The Cramps. If you'd rather keep the music as your personal secret because you were there first...that SUX, frankly.'

that statement raises more questions than it answers. did Ivy sell all her rights and publishing? what does "retired completely" mean?

i heard she has no desire to have anything to do with the business anymore.

is that instagram link working for others? it gives me an error

Brad - I posted the whole text of the post

I agree that the statement raises a bunch of questions - was hoping someone might know more. Dashes my hopes of Ivy recording again.

There was a comment string in the instagram post. It appeared that the person who runs the account replied to a doubter with something more revelatory, which said doubter replied to with something along the lines of "oh that makes sense then and sounds like good news". By the time I saw it however, the account had deleted their original reply with apologies that they might have said too much. Now, the whole post has been deleted.

Wish I had thought to screencap it, because I'm only providing a vague paraphrase of what was actually said.

And by doubter, I mean someone who was like "are you actually related to the Cramps or just a fanpage?"

I just read the Kid Congo Powers book, and while it didn't make me want to take a shower, it made me want everyone in it to take a shower. But watching a few Cramps clips afterwards brought me to this:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9fO3ZJ048ZQ

I had to cover a couple of junior music classes this afternoon where the teacher had a slide show of Halloween-related songs she wanted them to respond to. The Addams Family theme was on there, just the kind of opening I need to go off on a tangent. So 40 or so 10- and 11-year-olds have now seen the "Garbageman" video.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AyoAt7r1omc

Most kids know their cover of "Goo Goo Muck" when it went viral in the past year.

That was the segue--I went from the theme to the clip of Wednesday/Lurch dancing on the original show to Jenny Ortega/"Goo Goo Muck" to the Cramps.

Bryan Gregory's practically Twin Peaks' Bob in that clip.

lol yes exactly! I'd never seen that video before, supremely rockin'.

Toronto was lucky enough to have a show at the time, The New Music (co-hosted by future Fox mannequin J.D. Roberts), that would play stuff like that. Hard to put into words the effect that seeing that had on me at 20.

We had a middle school trick or treater on Halloween dressed as Wednesday from the Adams Family. My wife put on Cramps "Goo Goo Muck" and the kid, unprompted, did the dance quite well.

crew needed a pale boy dressed in sweaty latex pants and net shirt and lee press-on dagger nails imo

Alas she didn’t have a crew and probably wasn’t aware of specifics re the song .

Lol nah yah that kid was def owning that role— i was just laffing at the idea of a kiddo on halloween as lux which would be like “i’m calling protective services”

Ha , yes .