R.I.P. There goes another major transformative punk rock cultural icon

[Ian Brewer]

News has it that Lux Interior from The Cramps has passed away. Without The Cramps, there may not have been the whole punk and goth rockabilly scene (how un-Hegelian of me). There would be no tattooed Betty Page lookalikes to gawk at when you go to punk shows.


Read all about it


I still listen to The Cramps. Psychedelic Jungle is my favorite.

So did The Cramps start the whole subcultural hybrid of punk rock and rockabilly, or was it the inevitable result of historical precedence? That is, the fusion of punk rock, horror flicks and car culture that we still see thriving today. Do subcultures arise because extraordinary individuals have paved the way, or are they the culmination of historical trends that would have happened anyway?

Elaborate and support your hypothesis.

[mike whybark]

That's Dr. John to you.

[mike whybark]

song 23, volume seven, "Storm Warning," a crazy instrumental thing that sounds like a bo diddley intrumental, but instead of the vocals, a sax comes in and the rest of the piece is dominated by interplay bewtween the fuzzed out wah wah of the guitar wrestling the sax in a sawmp at midnight. Dizzy, i checked the tracklisting to find the artist, convinced i had heard an obscure Diddley studio session, only to find the artist was a guitar slinger name of Mac Rebbenack. Goddam.

[mike whybark]

one thru seven are what I grabbed. I didn't see more links than that.

I concur on the vegan thing, man. 'juice, pickles and baby formula' i believe i read somewhere. That Fool's Paradise interview is just great.

[Kurt/Yukki]

There are 11 volumes of the Lux & Ivy Favorites. Did I not post links to all of them? Let me know which are missing and I'll rectify that.

Steve:
"I've not looked at the links but most of the discs that Lux and Ivy specifically mentioned as being influential to them have been reissued on the bootleg comps Born Bad and Songs the Cramps Taught Us."

Dude, that's like reading the King James version, when you could be reading the Rosetta Stone and all the lost mystic religious texts down through history...I mean, those are great, but this series my friend put together is just...Amazing.
No biggie though. I put them up there, but nobody's forcin' nuthin'.

As far as the vegan thing goes, in order for The Cramps to do what they did, they had to have incredible focus. They remained a force to be reckoned with far after most bands shelf-life would dictate as normal. That's no accident. How many mike stands did he destroy? How many intense shows did he throw himself into? They were the Real Deal. Living it. In order to do that, they weren't out there getting fucked up on drugs all the time. They stayed on course, and were, for lack of a better word, CONDITIONED, to perform. They were also, by all accounts, really nice, sweet people. Lux's simple accommodation and kindness towards me [an awkward, young fan] says a lot.

Love,
Yukki

[mike whybark]

also i dig the black-and-white pix thing we have going here gents.

[mike whybark]

One of the links Yukki posted is an hour-long interview with Lux and Ivy from the long-running (and crucial) crate-digger hepcat show Fool's Paradise on WFMU, Jersey. I take it as a given that most folks in this thread are at least on nodding terms with WFMU. Anyway, even if you don't download all SEVEN of Korgar's discs, the interview was delightful.

Vegans? Why, what's the world come to that the vegans die young, unrequited by mammon?

[Kurt/Yukki]

"Let's Get Fucked Up" was another, more recent, song. I loved the fact that they used that particular phrase, as that's what we all said when we were in Jr. High School. Very low-brow-Indiana teen-type saying; fucked up.

Anyway, Lux and Ivy were strict vegans, too.

[Stephen Lee Canner]

I've not looked at the links but most of the discs that Lux and Ivy specifically mentioned as being influential to them have been reissued on the bootleg comps Born Bad and Songs the Cramps Taught Us. A subgenre unto itself this Crampsology is.

[mike whybark]

not sure what happened to this comment, so i'll repost: JB in particular but all y'all shoud take the time to download those 'Lux and Ivy's Favorites' discs that Yukki posted. Tons of great obscure stuff.

[Jbarge]

I remember how impressed I was when I heard "I Need A New Kind of Kick" and "Drug Train" - man, these guys took partying seriously and didn't seem to discrimminate too much between choices.
I was a little surprised Lux's passing was attributed to a heart condition - I had other suspects in mind.