tell me things about The Cramps (RIP Lux Interior)

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