The Cramps "Off The Bone" 1983(comp)*****

Something must be wrong - how can it be Friday the 13th, again? Is that how 2015 will play out? It all seems to have started when Tsipras won the election in Greece - Is he the Antichrist? Some people seem to think so and try to kill his government while it's still young. Have those fools learned nothing from watching The Omen trilogy? 

On last month's Friday the 13th I presented The Fuzztones' "Salt for Zombies". This time I chose another band that perfectly exemplifies the spirit of that day - just look at that cover! The Cramps were a real band of misfits from Midtown, America (actually Akron, Ohio) who in 1975 came to New York to join the nascent punk scene with Patti Smith, Ramones, Blondie etc. Their small town origin was one of the reasons they did not fit in with this crowd, either. Plus, the Cramps were not weird/artistic. They were weird, period. They harbored an unhealthy fascination with 50's rockabilly, horror movies and kinky sex. The core of the group was real-life couple Lux Interior and Poison Ivy. Ivy is the group's guitarist, silent and menacing and oh-so-sexy in her 60's stripper outfits, prancing up and down the stage dispensing deadly rockabilly/surf licks from her vintage guitar. Lux is the most extreme performer I have ever seen. I will never forget the Cramps concert at the Rodon Club, in 1991. He came dressed in a red latex suit and high heels and proceeded to jump and down the stage, pants lowered down to his knees, unhuman guttural sounds emerging from the microphone which he had somehow shoved inside his throat, climbing on the huge speaker, swinging Tarzan-like from the curtain and performing a somersault, landing perfectly on his high heels. In the end, he kept beating the stage's wooden parquet with the microphone stand until he broke it and ripped out the flooring, plank by plank. I have had the vinyl version of "Off The Bone" since my teens and it remains one of my favorite records, ever. It's a European compilation bringing together their debut "Gravest Hits" EP and cuts from their first 2 LP's "Songs the Lord Taught Us" and "Psychedelic Jungle", covering the 1979-1983 period. Apart from Ivy, two more guitarists are featured: Brian Gregory and his replacement Kid Congo Powers. Kid Congo is a Mexican-American who was also in Gun Club and Nick Cave's Bad Seeds, thus 3 of the best bands ever! Gregory's disappearance from the music scene saw him shrouded in mystery. Wild rumors of satanism and necrophilia abound - almost certainly false. What we do know for sure is that he played a zombie in Day of the Dead, ran a pornographic bookstore and died (possibly of AIDS) at the age of 49. The music style of the album is psychobilly. More than that, The Cramps are actually the inventors of this musical style, with elements of Rockabilly, Punk, Surf, Garage Rock, Blues and Psychedelia played in a trashy, lo-fi manner, with explicitly sexual and horror-themed lyrics. The album opens with their all-time favorite composition "Human Fly", inspired from the classic horror movie "The Fly". Ivy plays a killer surf riff and Lux sings "Buzzz buzzz buzzz". This is a song to define the entire genre! Next up is a 50's cover, Jack Scott's "The Way I Walk" with Lux doing his psycho Elvis impersonation. Here you can see the Cramps play it at the very start of their career (for the residents of a Mental Asylum in '78) and compare with this clip of one of their very last performances (open air festival in 2006). They sure still had it! Plus, does Ivy basically look the same after 30 years? Is this the result of daily consumption of embalming fluid? Or of some occult voodoo practice? "Domino" is a Roy Orbison rockabilly classic given the psycho treatment, followed by a crazy fucked-up cover of the Trashmen's "Surfin' Bird" (already a pretty wigged-out number to begin with). Ricky Nelson's ballad "Lonesome Town" is the last song from their debut EP (Recorded in 1977 by Big Star legend Alex Chilton). "Garbage Man" and "Drug Train" are great psychobilly originals and Peggy Lee's "Fever" a peculiarly mainstream cover, while Charlie Feathers' "I Can't Hardly Stand It" and Ronnie Cook's "Goo Goo Muck" find their ideal performers in The Cramps. The latter's lyrics refer, according to the urban dictionary, either to blood sucking or eating pussy: "when the sun goes down and the moon comes up/ i turn into a teenage goo goo muck/ i cruise through the city and i roam the street/ looking for something that is nice to eat". More wild covers of obscure garage (The Nova's "The Crusher") and rockabilly (Hasil Adkins' "She Said, "Mel Robbins' "Save It", Warren Smith's "Uranium Rock") follow. "New Kind of Kick" is a paean to the continuous search for new highs - drugs or sex? probably both! sample lyric "Like baby needs mom/Like suzie needs dick/This baby needs some new kind of kick". The CD closes with a track from their live album "Smell Of Female". It's called "(You Got) Good Taste". Another reference to cunnilingus? Now where did I possibly get that idea?

***** for Human Fly, The Way I Walk, Goo Goo Muck 

**** for Domino, Surfin' Bird, Garbage Man, Fever, Drug Train, Love Me, I Can't Hardly Stand It, The Crusher, Save It, New Kind of Kick, Good Taste

*** for Lonesome Town, She Said, Uranium Rock