tell me things about The Cramps (RIP Lux Interior)

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