The CRAMPS (Official Thread)

[DaKillerWolf]

Festering in a NYC apartment during the year of our unlord 1970 and 6,. The CRAMPS began to pump out a mutant strain of 50's style Rockabilly, 60's garage psych and wild surf music. Combining that musical monster w/ a strong yet unhealthy dose of twisted sexual psycho Punk rock humor and their own bad attitude they stumbled upon something that was uniquely all their own. Aided by the light of a cheap ,rabbit eared, TV screen, late night sci-fi reruns dosed their already strangely wired minds with added inspiration and they would soon unleash their musical beast upon an unsuspecting world.

Dangerously bizarre but most of all VERY cool, The CRAMPS represent everything that is said to be reprehensible about rock’n’roll and that is one of reasons that I love them as much as I do. Founding members Lux Interior ( psycho-sexual Elvis/Werewolf hybrid from hell ) and sex kitten, guitar-slinging Poison Ivy ( ultimate vixen bad girl ) are the architects of the wicked sonic swamp water, moonshine and nitro having distilled it down into a dangerous and unstable musical beverage not to be consumed by the faint of heart. Their cultural impact spawned a legion of neo-50's devil cultists who's gatherings were infamous for bar club catfights.In their wake they inspired a multitude of cave-stomping Psychobilly imitators. In the late seventies they cut their teeth on the stages of CBGB and Max’s Kansas City and cut their first record at Sam Phillips legendary Sun Studios ( Elvis etc. ), funded mainly by Ivy’s income as a dominatrix in NYC. They also coined the term “psychobilly” on their early gig posters. Their hell-raising live performances were a no-holds-barred rock’n’roll assault complete with weird and wiley stage antics. They were far far too gone to ever even consider any other course of action in life and Lux recently passed into the night the same twisted soul that helped to create the awesomely bizarre, sonic masterpiece known as The CRAMPS

The CRAMPS are most definitely one my favorite punk bands and I will now pay homage to their awesome discoraphy, starting with their debut:

Songs The Lord Taught Us :



Love 'em or hate 'em you must admit that they were their own animal from beginning to end. That alone speaks volumes to me if no one else.
Having said more then a mouthful regarding the birth of this vile creature I shall now let their debut speak for itself.

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[DaKillerWolf]

Re: The CRAMPS



Psychedelic Jungle/Gravest Hits

The CRAMPS sophomore effort Psychedelic Jungle. is a bit of a departure from the fuzzy ruckus of Songs. Instead it is bit more subdued in it's intensity and perhaps a bit stonier
sounding if you will. It still retains The CRAMPS tongue in cheek bizarre nature, who but The CRAMPS would pen a ditty exhorting the dangers of eating stuff off the side walk ?!?!?

Dont Eat Stuff Off The Sidewalk
"You don't need it
So don't eat it
No don't eat stuff off the sidewalk
No matter how good it looks"
Or write an ode to a chronic obscene phone caller?
No one but The CRAMPS I tells ya

The album cover I have featured above is a cross between their 1979 EP Gravest Hits (which was their very first recording) and Psychedelic Jungle. That is the version I own. I must admit I thought it a bit lacking when I first bought it as it is not as punky or loud (for the most) as the stuff I was familiar with at the time. It has however, grown on me over the years and I now submit a sample of the wears off of both ...

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and last but not least off of Gravest Hits a bizarre cover of Surfin' Bird and Human Fly

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[LG]

Re: The CRAMPS

Nice thread Wolf, not a big punk fan generally and had never heard of them before.(Not surprising a little punk went a long way for me me back in the day.)

 

[DaKillerWolf]

Re: The CRAMPS

These guys are a mix of rockabilly, punk and surf music plus a dose of psychedelia. Not for everyone but I really like them.

 

[LOU/REALM]

Re: The CRAMPS

Awesome band...I have several of their albums and are undoubted "kings" of the psychobilly/trash genre !!!!
I think I already mentioned in the other CRAMPS thread I was fortunate to have seen them "live". Wow!! no regrets...great colorful performers,now sadly missed after Lux Interiors untimely death. The band folded and you can understand why ...the guy was irreplacable.
Lots of memories of alternative nights with "human fly" and "the way I walk" in the early 1980s .THE CRAMPS were loved by many and had a wide appeal to punks,goths,psychobillys etc. I love their trashy b=movie /psychedelic image.
Im looking forward to your posts /opinions on this great band DKW.....my personal favorite is the "Smell of Female" mini LP

 

[LOU/REALM]

Re: The CRAMPS

This song always cracks me up....

 

[DaKillerWolf]

Re: The CRAMPS

HAHA ..I was listening to A Date With Elvis just the other night, great album

Glad to see another member here who is a Cramps fan, LOU.
And yes, I do recall you saying that you saw them live in my Psychobilly thread.
They used to play live at The Ventura Theater annually, a local venue for me at that time.
I have seen them twice myself. GREAT live band.
I'll be adding my next installment soon. Hopefully I won't disappoint too much

Until then a picture of my favorite female guitarist

 

[DaKillerWolf]

Re: The CRAMPS

And the next studio release ..( I don't have their live CDs ) ......

A DATE WITH ELVIS :

Tracks

A1) How Far Can Too Far Go?
A2) The Hot Pearl Snatch
A3) People Ain't No Good
A4) What's Inside A Girl?
A5) Can Your Pussy Do The Dog?
B1) Kizmiaz
B2) Cornfed Dames
B3) Chicken
B4) (Hot Pool Of) Womanneed
B5) Aloha From Hell
B6) It's Just That Song

Back to the rollickin' rockabilly punk style of the debut with a bit of a bluesy edge and feel to it as well. This is the
one that kicks off the weird sex type thang w. a bang that was to be a bit of an obsession for Lex and the gang through out
their career. One of my personal favorites... Here are the godlike loons banging out their B-movie, Sexpolation, cartoons for your approval ( or not) lol

People Aint No Good/Hot Pearl Snatch, How Far Can Too Far Go?, What's Inside A Girl?, Aloha From Hell



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[DaKillerWolf]

Stay Sick !!

1 Bop Pills 2:24
2 God Damn Rock'n'Roll 2:38
3 Bikini Girls With Machine Guns 3:18
4 All Women Are Bad 3:06
5 The Creature From the Black Leather Lagoon 3:12
6 Shortnin' Bread 2:48
7 Daisys Up Your Butterfly 2:38
8 Everything Goes 3:46
9 Journey to the Center of a Girl 4:49
10 Mama Oo Pow Pow 2:33
11 Saddle Up a Buzz Buzz 2:43
12 Muleskinner Blues 2:49




Cramps sleaziness is in full &^%$ing throttle ( here on Stay Sick !!). Every original has
overt sexual innuendo or full on raunchiness, just like they're supposed to. And Lux couldn't
possibly sound more insane. Yeah, so the production is big and the garage sound is a
long gone thing of the past. Who cares when a record rules so hard!

Thanks to "Goatlips" for the above quote lol . And yes I must agree. It is more "in" and "hip"
to bag on later era Cramps releases as inferior to the first two
but to me and many other Crampites ( my word ..do you like !?!? lol) that idea is just flat out ludicrous
as the later albums are full of the same wild psychobilly craziness and creativity as the early works with even more
energy and drive (IMO) Stay Sick !!! is a personal favorite I mean how can any true Cramps fan not love " Bikini Girls With Machine Guns" "All Women Are Bad" or the awesome The Creature From the Black Leather Lagoon !?!?!? Makes no sense to me !?!?!?!

Personally, I like the unedited version of BGWMG where in Lux says "I've been drag racing on LSD, ..rather then ..
Out in Tennessee, but what do ya want from TV !?!?! TBH though the edited TV version is worth it just to watch
Ivy bump and grind as she kicks out those psychobilly jams and TCFTBLL has got to be the all time greatest
psychobilly, white trash, monster mash up, video EVER to disgrace the idiot box....TOO COOL Daddyo

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[rtbuck]

I LOVE the Cramps!!! Stay Sick is my favorite album