lol awesome
― heavy is the head that eats the crayons (Shakey Mo Collier), Wednesday, 25 April 2012 19:31 (twelve years ago) link
kid congo powers is often working at the record store i frequent. he's really nice!
― Mad God 40/40 (Z S), Wednesday, 25 April 2012 19:35 (twelve years ago) link
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HrbTkNwbUz8
― frogsclovetofu (beachville), Wednesday, 25 April 2012 19:36 (twelve years ago) link
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.
― clemenza, Wednesday, 25 April 2012 19:37 (twelve years ago) link
that lux/ivy pic is very royal trux.
― tits or kitfo (get bent), Wednesday, 25 April 2012 19:44 (twelve years ago) link
circle of life
― THE KITTEN TYPE (contenderizer), Wednesday, 25 April 2012 19:55 (twelve years ago) link
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
― Advanced Uncle Meat recovery system (Dan Peterson), Wednesday, 25 April 2012 20:21 (twelve years ago) link
Never watched this show, but I know kids love it:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZvI64lIaQDc
― clemenza, Tuesday, 21 August 2012 01:09 (eleven years ago) link
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).
― clemenza, Saturday, 1 February 2014 02:13 (ten years ago) link
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
― curmudgeon, Saturday, 1 February 2014 16:24 (ten years ago) link
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.
― Ned Raggett, Saturday, 1 February 2014 16:51 (ten years ago) link
awesome
― flopson, Saturday, 1 February 2014 21:47 (ten years ago) link
I just heard "You Got Good Taste" in a beer commercial during the Stanley Cup finals. Get that money, Ivy.
― grawlix (unperson), Tuesday, 6 June 2017 01:42 (six years ago) link
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.
― Stevolende, Friday, 15 June 2018 21:16 (five years ago) link
yup, just saw that. RIP.
― sleeve, Friday, 15 June 2018 21:17 (five years ago) link
:(
bummer
weirdly I've been on a Cramps kick the last few days
― Οὖτις, Friday, 15 June 2018 21:18 (five years ago) link
Not seeing this anywhere tbh. I hope not, fucking great drummer.
― We can be herpes (Tom D.), Friday, 15 June 2018 21:25 (five years ago) link
John from the Eels did post a "Nick needs prayers or whatever" tweet a couple days ago.
― Three Word Username, Friday, 15 June 2018 21:32 (five years ago) link
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.
― clemenza, Friday, 15 June 2018 21:50 (five years ago) link
Miriam Linna with a wonderful memory:
https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=10155280445832016&set=a.236094977015.147373.560312015&type=3
― Ned Raggett, Friday, 15 June 2018 22:53 (five years ago) link
Did NIck Knox actually replace Miriam Linna in his most well known band? Wasn't she drummer at one point too?
― Stevolende, Friday, 15 June 2018 23:00 (five years ago) link
Yup, that is very much part of the story.
― Ned Raggett, Friday, 15 June 2018 23:12 (five years ago) link
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.
― Stevolende, Friday, 15 June 2018 23:35 (five years ago) link
I think she didn't mention it because she almost didn't need to? In the sense that it was well known enough.
― Ned Raggett, Friday, 15 June 2018 23:44 (five years ago) link
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.
― Mungolian Jerryset (bendy), Saturday, 16 June 2018 00:13 (five years ago) link
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.
― grawlix (unperson), Saturday, 16 June 2018 01:28 (five years ago) link
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
― sleeve, Saturday, 16 June 2018 01:59 (five years ago) link
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