NIPP: The Cramps

The Cramps

	Bio
In the spring of 1976, The CRAMPS began to fester in a NYC apartment. Without fresh air or natural light, the group developed its uniquely mutant strain of rock’n’roll aided only by the sickly blue rays of late night TV. While the jackhammer rhythms of punk were proliferating in NYC, The CRAMPS dove into the deepest recesses of the rock’n’roll psyche for the most primal of all rhythmic impulses—rockabilly—the sound of southern culture falling apart in a blaze of shudders and hiccups. As late night sci-fi reruns colored the room, The CRAMPS also picked and chose amongst the psychotic debris of previous rock eras—instrumental rock, surf, psychedelia, and sixties punk. And then they added the junkiest element of all—themselves.” - from the liner notes of The Cramps 1979 release Gravest Hits It would be almost impossible to have never heard of The CRAMPS. Their career has been the stuff of legend. Dangerously bizarre but most of all cool, The CRAMPS represent everything that is truly reprehensible about rock’n’roll. Founding members Lux Interior (the psycho-sexual Elvis/Werewolf hybrid from hell) and guitar-slinging soulmate Poison Ivy (the ultimate bad girl vixen) are the architects of a wicked sound that distills a cross of swampwater, moonshine and nitro down to a dangerous and unstable musical substance. Their cultural impact has spawned a legion of devil cults and dance-floor catfights, and created in its wake a cavalcade of cave-stomping imitators. As punk rock pioneers in the late seventies, they cut their teeth on the stages of CBGB and Max’s Kansas City and recorded their first record at Sam Phillips legendary Sun Studios, funded mainly by Ivy’s income as a dominatrix in NYC. They coined the now popular term “psychobilly” on their 1976 gig posters. Their hair-raising live performances are still a total, no-holds-barred rock’n’roll assault, and after a quarter century of mayhem, they’re too far gone to even consider any other course. The band still includes 10-year veteran mysterion DRUMDINI and one year ago initiated new bassist CHOPPER FRANKLIN (formerly MAU MAUS and MR. BADWRENCH). They’re a cult band in the truest sense of that term and that’s the way they like it. How many bands can you think of that have managed to maintain cult status for such a long period without either fitting in or selling out? Unlike most “alternative” bands nowadays, who are more a part of the mainstream than the fringe-dwelling CRAMPS will ever be, they don’t bang people over the head with “angst”. The CRAMPS have truly lived hard, real lives that have made them what they are—three-dimensional, flesh-and-blood rock’n’roll heroes—not Addams Family cartoons, as alleged by disbelieving detractors. They rock like nobody else. Now, a year after launching their own label Vengeance Records with six classic re-issues, The CRAMPS are releasing their first new album in over five years. On the self-produced “Fiends of Dope Island”, these charm school rejects apply their sinister handiwork to a volatile combination of incantational rock’n’roll hexes like “Big Black Witchcraft Rock” and “Papa Satan Sang Louie”, inject weird theremin hijinx on “Dr. Fucker M.D.”, put their hoodlum warp on exotica standard “Taboo”, and swerve and careen through crypt-kickin’ blues rave-up “Dopefiend Boogie” and the rampaging “Wrong Way Ticket”, finishing off the album in a musical equivalent of a 13 car pile-up. FIENDS OF DOPE ISLAND is pure animal music—all primal urge and J.D. madness. The CRAMPS once again prove themselves leaders in skull-fracturing rock’n’roll. In October 2001, after successfully regaining control of their back catalog, The CRAMPS exhumed their first-born and brought back Vengeance Records, their own label which originally issued the two classic singles “The Way I Walk/Surfin, Bird” and “Human Fly/Domino” in 1978. Having made a pact with indie distribution maverick Mordam, Vengeance Records inaugurated this resurrection with the simultaneous re-release of newly re-mastered 25th Anniversary Silver Jubilee Editions of six titles (including color vinyl LP releases). The mission is to spread their unholy gospel to the rest of the universe and continue releasing The CRAMPS records until beyond i n f i n i t y !

Bio

In the spring of 1976, The CRAMPS began to fester in a NYC apartment. Without fresh air or natural light, the group developed its uniquely mutant strain of rock’n’roll aided only by the sickly blue rays of late night TV. While the jackhammer rhythms of punk were proliferating in NYC, The CRAMPS dove into the deepest recesses of the rock’n’roll psyche for the most primal of all rhythmic impulses—rockabilly—the sound of southern culture falling apart in a blaze of shudders and hiccups. As late night sci-fi reruns colored the room, The CRAMPS also picked and chose amongst the psychotic debris of previous rock eras—instrumental rock, surf, psychedelia, and sixties punk. And then they added the junkiest element of all—themselves.”
- from the liner notes of The Cramps 1979 release Gravest Hits

It would be almost impossible to have never heard of The CRAMPS. Their career has been the stuff of legend. Dangerously bizarre but most of all cool, The CRAMPS represent everything that is truly reprehensible about rock’n’roll. Founding members Lux Interior (the psycho-sexual Elvis/Werewolf hybrid from hell) and guitar-slinging soulmate Poison Ivy (the ultimate bad girl vixen) are the architects of a wicked sound that distills a cross of swampwater, moonshine and nitro down to a dangerous and unstable musical substance.

Their cultural impact has spawned a legion of devil cults and dance-floor catfights, and created in its wake a cavalcade of cave-stomping imitators. As punk rock pioneers in the late seventies, they cut their teeth on the stages of CBGB and Max’s Kansas City and recorded their first record at Sam Phillips legendary Sun Studios, funded mainly by Ivy’s income as a dominatrix in NYC. They coined the now popular term “psychobilly” on their 1976 gig posters.

Their hair-raising live performances are still a total, no-holds-barred rock’n’roll assault, and after a quarter century of mayhem, they’re too far gone to even consider any other course.

The band still includes 10-year veteran mysterion DRUMDINI and one year ago initiated new bassist CHOPPER FRANKLIN (formerly MAU MAUS and MR. BADWRENCH).

They’re a cult band in the truest sense of that term and that’s the way they like it. How many bands can you think of that have managed to maintain cult status for such a long period without either fitting in or selling out? Unlike most “alternative” bands nowadays, who are more a part of the mainstream than the fringe-dwelling CRAMPS will ever be, they don’t bang people over the head with “angst”. The CRAMPS have truly lived hard, real lives that have made them what they are—three-dimensional, flesh-and-blood rock’n’roll heroes—not Addams Family cartoons, as alleged by disbelieving detractors. They rock like nobody else.

Now, a year after launching their own label Vengeance Records with six classic re-issues, The CRAMPS are releasing their first new album in over five years. On the self-produced “Fiends of Dope Island”, these charm school rejects apply their sinister handiwork to a volatile combination of incantational rock’n’roll hexes like “Big Black Witchcraft Rock” and “Papa Satan Sang Louie”, inject weird theremin hijinx on “Dr. Fucker M.D.”, put their hoodlum warp on exotica standard “Taboo”, and swerve and careen through crypt-kickin’ blues rave-up “Dopefiend Boogie” and the rampaging “Wrong Way Ticket”, finishing off the album in a musical equivalent of a 13 car pile-up. FIENDS OF DOPE ISLAND is pure animal music—all primal urge and J.D. madness. The CRAMPS once again prove themselves leaders in skull-fracturing rock’n’roll.

In October 2001, after successfully regaining control of their back catalog, The CRAMPS exhumed their first-born and brought back Vengeance Records, their own label which originally issued the two classic singles “The Way I Walk/Surfin, Bird” and “Human Fly/Domino” in 1978.

Having made a pact with indie distribution maverick Mordam, Vengeance Records inaugurated this resurrection with the simultaneous re-release of newly re-mastered 25th Anniversary Silver Jubilee Editions of six titles (including color vinyl LP releases).

The mission is to spread their unholy gospel to the rest of the universe and continue releasing The CRAMPS records until beyond i n f i n i t y !