tell me things about The Cramps (RIP Lux Interior)

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.