VINYL REVIEWS

I’m sure you have read all the hype about this release and have absorbed it and all of the  excitement around it. After buying reissues on colored vinyl and some bad quality live  bootlegs, fans have been wondering about and anticipating releases from the vault. Now  those prayers have been answered.  

With Lux Interior’s passing, Poison Ivy has become a recluse and has washed her hands of  all things involving The Cramps and the legacy she helped build. While some may find this  strange, it is understandable when you consider that most of her life was spent working on  the band with her partner Lux and anything involving the band at this point, whether it be  

licensing out the band’s many recordings or beating the bootleggers and such, it just reminds her of a loss that is hard for her to process. She has passed the torch to others, and this is the first release of the program. 

Originally recorded and later retrieved and mixed by Alex Chilton, Lux and Ivy, these are recordings that produced the early Vengeance Records singles released by the band themselves and the Gravest Hits e.p. that collected those singles. The songs are raw but the band is in fine form and really just churning out this molten hot, scraggly, dirty, sweaty,  rough and tough rock n’ roll that still sounds like it was conjured from an evil book. As far as the listening experience as a whole, well, it is something else. Especially for longtime Cramps fans. It is like some kind of lost transmission from another dimension.  The songs are familiar, but slightly askew. Another plus for longtime fans and freaks is hearing Bryan Gregory playing songs that Kid Congo Powers later ended up recording with the band. These early versions of “The Natives Are Restless” and “I Can’t Find My Mind”  with Bryan are essential for any Cramps collector. Also included are versions of “Twist And  Shout”, later changed to the B-side “Drugtrain,” and “Rocket In My Pocket”, later changed to  “I Ain’t Nothin’ But A Gorehound” with Kid on guitar. And if you have the CD version of Songs  The Lord Taught Us, then you are already familiar with the bit tagged on at the end of the record. Available on different colored vinyl and on CD.