Fans of the weird, the quirky, and the spectacular rejoice! A new Cramps album is on the way. On August 21, Gravest Gravy, the first official release from the legendary punk-ish band, hits the street. It will feature a dozen tracks, all recorded in 1977 and all produced by the iconic hero of early punk everywhere, Alex Chilton.
By my reckoning, about half the tracks on Gravest Gravy were released on several early Cramps albums. Some others may be known to fans from the wide range of live and bootleg albums that have popped up over the years.
But these recordings, to the best of my knowledge, have never been heard by the general public. They have essentially been sitting in a garage for decades, awaiting their time in the sun.
New collection promises to put the Cramps in the spotlight they have always deserved
That more or less describes the Cramps as well. They were unique, and they were fabulous. They were beloved by many but mostly avoided mainstream popularity. Maybe they were too strange for the 20th century. But we are in a new era, and maybe the Cramps' time has finally come.
First, the essentials. The Cramps were the love child of frontman Lux Interior (Erick Lee Purkhiser) and Poison Ivy Rorschach (Kristy Martana Wallace). Other members came and went over the years, but it was always Lux and Ivy who determined the direction of the band.
They were two admitted weirdos who met and fell in love while students at Sacramento State University in the mid-1970s. He came from Ohio, and she hailed from SoCal’s Inland Empire, but the two were clearly made for each other. They shared a love of the bizarre … classic horror films and old-school surf music.
When they put their band together, they didn’t have a bass player. They would never have a bass player. Just Ivy on guitar alongside a rotating cast of second guitar players. And a drummer. Their first couple of drummers didn’t really know how to play drums, but that barely mattered. Ivy was still learning guitar, and Lux was just a ball of wild energy on stage.
This is where the Cramps were at their most punk. The DIY spirit that led so many kids to form bands in the late ‘70s and early ‘80s was a hallmark of the entire movement.
Musically, though I suppose some of their songs could be grouped with other early punks, most of what they did was pretty far afield. They played Link Wray music. They played rockabilly. They scuffed it up some, but it was classic throwback music. Rhythms you could dance to. Clever lyrics branching off of provocative titles.
They hit New York in the mid-‘70s, and New York really didn’t know what to make of them. But they got in the door at CBGBs by opening for their friends the Dead Boys. Hilly Kristal, who owned the legendary club, didn’t care for them, but Peter Crowley at Max’s Kansas City saw something and had them as regulars at the club made famous by Andy Warhol and the Velvet Underground.
By this point, Warhol’s crew had mostly moved on, and a new wave of artiness was showing up. The B52s came up from Athens to take NYC by storm. The Cramps always struck me as NYC’s homegrown version of the B52s (even though neither Lux nor Ivy grew up anywhere near NYC).
Their music was fun. They intended to show you a good time by showing you the weird things that they loved. That energy is palpable in all their best music.
The Cramps’ third drummer, Nick Knox, proved to be the missing ingredient. He could play. Suddenly, their music got a lot better. The recordings on Gravest Gravy are from 1977, Knox’s first days with Lux and Ivy. Another mercurial guitarist, Bryan Gregory, completes the early lineup.
Ivy is the only surviving member of those early glory days, and she has resolutely avoided the spotlight since Lux’s death almost twenty years ago. She has been housing a collection of unreleased material, and it may have remained in her garage were it not for the efforts of a couple of fans … Henry Rollins and Ian MacKaye.
The two friends are themselves giants in the punk-ish universe. Rollins left the Washington, DC area as a teen to join up with Greg Ginn and Black Flag. His friend MacKaye remained in DC and transitioned from straight edge pioneers Minor Threat to Fugazi. Both carved out long, successful careers in punk and post-punk music.
And both were huge fans of Lux, Ivy and the Cramps.
When Rollins became aware of this treasure trove of material, he made it his mission to get it released. He enlisted MacKaye’s help, and Gravest Gravy is the result. Perhaps just the tip of the iceberg.
The first single, “TV Set,” has teased the new release. That was also the first track on the Cramps' debut studio album, 1980’s Songs the Lord Taught Us. The newly released version is more potent, cleaning up the sound without losing the rawness.
Other popular Cramps tunes like “Twist and Shout” (not the song commonly associated with the Beatles), “Jungle Hop,” and “Domino” will find new life on Gravest Gravy. This is joyous music about weird things. If you are a fan of other offbeat rockers like Jonathan Richman, there is no way you will be able to resist the Cramps.
Call it punk or rockabilly or surf music. Call it by the name they dreamt up for it … psychobilly. It doesn’t matter what you call it. If you like rock and roll, just listen.
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