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.
― Mungolian Jerryset (bendy), Saturday, 16 June 2018 02:48 (five years ago) link
well said
― sleeve, Saturday, 16 June 2018 03:16 (five years ago) link
They were fantastic live right up until the end imo. Never saw a bad show from them.
― Οὖτις, Saturday, 16 June 2018 03:35 (five years ago) link
True; I didn’t see them live until 1996, but when I did they were amazing.
― grawlix (unperson), Saturday, 16 June 2018 11:45 (five years ago) link
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.
― curmudgeon, Saturday, 16 June 2018 13:08 (five years ago) link
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
― Stevolende, Saturday, 16 June 2018 13:31 (five years ago) link
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
― sleeve, Saturday, 16 June 2018 14:05 (five years ago) link
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.
― grawlix (unperson), Thursday, 23 August 2018 14:25 (five years ago) link
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!'
― Ned Raggett, Thursday, 23 August 2018 14:43 (five years ago) link
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
― Ned Raggett, Thursday, 23 August 2018 14:47 (five years ago) link
She’s godlike imo
― Οὖτις, Thursday, 23 August 2018 15:00 (five years ago) link
agreed
― sleeve, Thursday, 23 August 2018 15:05 (five years ago) link
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.
― emil.y, Thursday, 23 August 2018 15:08 (five years ago) link
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
― Colonel Poo, Thursday, 23 August 2018 15:17 (five years ago) link
yeah she is the primary architect of the band's sound imo
― sleeve, Thursday, 23 August 2018 15:19 (five years ago) link
Yup
― Οὖτις, Thursday, 23 August 2018 15:48 (five years ago) link
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
― grawlix (unperson), Thursday, 23 August 2018 16:32 (five years ago) link
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?
― Stevolende, Thursday, 23 August 2018 16:36 (five years ago) link
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.
― saddest kamancheh (bendy), Thursday, 23 August 2018 16:43 (five years ago) link
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.
― sleeve, Thursday, 23 August 2018 16:49 (five years ago) link
Never noticed Ivy's production credits either--don't think I ever thought about their producers after Chilton--so that's a good point.
― clemenza, Thursday, 23 August 2018 16:59 (five years ago) link
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.
― Mario Meatwagon (Moodles), Thursday, 23 August 2018 17:28 (five years ago) link
― willem, Thursday, 23 August 2018 18:15 (five years ago) link
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.
― Ned Raggett, Thursday, 23 August 2018 18:21 (five years ago) link
wow those pants are AMAZING
― weird woman in a bar (La Lechera), Friday, 24 August 2018 13:27 (five years ago) link
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?
― Gerald McBoing-Boing, Saturday, 23 May 2020 20:33 (three years ago) link
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.
― stirmonster, Saturday, 23 May 2020 20:43 (three years ago) link
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
― curmudgeon, Saturday, 23 January 2021 00:17 (three years ago) link
Wow! i hope Ivy was well compensated.
― stirmonster, Saturday, 23 January 2021 00:18 (three years ago) link
Hopefully
― curmudgeon, Saturday, 23 January 2021 17:25 (three years ago) link
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
― The Man DeLorean (onimo), Friday, 5 February 2021 18:38 (three years ago) link
good old Vip Vop, RIP
― Überschadenfreude (sleeve), Friday, 5 February 2021 19:09 (three years ago) link
wait - High Res? is the discography being remastered after all?
https://www.qobuz.com/album/bad-music-for-bad-people-the-cramps/qwb0vculr7unc
― StanM, Saturday, 31 December 2022 07:54 (one year ago) link
Wednesday 1x04 - Wednesday Addams Dance Scene (1080p)
369K Likes31,410,943 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
[...]
― StanM, Samstag, 31. Dezember 2022 07:54 (eight hours ago) bookmarkflaglink
good timing i'd say.
― meisenfek, Saturday, 31 December 2022 16:23 (one year ago) link
Камила Валиева. Чемпионат России по фигурному катанию 2023
(Kamila Valieva. Russian Figure Skating Championship 2023)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=78k-OTHoTtM
― meisenfek, Saturday, 31 December 2022 16:41 (one year ago) link
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.
― clemenza, Saturday, 31 December 2022 17:43 (one year ago) link
100% a highlight of the year.
― stirmonster, Saturday, 31 December 2022 18:42 (one year ago) link
First time I've seen the figure-skating clip--as someone who saw the Cramps in a small club in 1980, inspirational beyond words.
― clemenza, Saturday, 31 December 2022 18:47 (one year ago) link
This makes me happy.
― Twa pehs an' an ingin ane an' aw (Tom D.), Saturday, 31 December 2022 18:50 (one year ago) link
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.
― J Edgar Noothgrush (Joan Crawford Loves Chachi), Saturday, 31 December 2022 19:11 (one year ago) link
extremely otm
― sleeve, Saturday, 31 December 2022 20:28 (one year ago) link
Which is kind of ironic, as his persona was that of the crazed, id-driven, out-of-control rockabilly freak.
― Josefa, Saturday, 31 December 2022 20:36 (one year ago) link
That Wednesday clip made me smile.
― Loud guitars shit all over "Bette Davis Eyes" (NYCNative), Saturday, 31 December 2022 20:53 (one year ago) link
Yeah, Lux was a great singer but so were so many of his role models, hello Gene Vincent!
― Twa pehs an' an ingin ane an' aw (Tom D.), Saturday, 31 December 2022 22:06 (one year ago) link
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 .
― curmudgeon, Monday, 2 January 2023 17:10 (one year ago) link
The Warner Theatre doesn't seem like a place for any of those bands! Sorry I missed that era.
― peace, man, Tuesday, 3 January 2023 00:09 (one year ago) link
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.
― J Edgar Noothgrush (Joan Crawford Loves Chachi), Tuesday, 3 January 2023 01:10 (one year ago) link
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.
― Thus Sang Freud, Tuesday, 3 January 2023 01:22 (one year ago) link
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.
― I? not I! He! He! HIM! (akm), Tuesday, 3 January 2023 01:30 (one year ago) link
nice! (my life history sux and i’ve done it wrong sadmoji)
― normal AI yankovic (Hunt3r), Tuesday, 3 January 2023 01:31 (one year ago) link