NoGoodz

Lux Interior, the man, the myth, the legend, the lead singer and songwriter of NYC B-movie, Vegas-style, horror-goth-surf-punk-a-billy band The Cramps, died Wednesday. He was 60 and left his corpse in the loving, guitar-grinding hands of his long-time wife “Poison” Ivy Rorschach, his Cramps female counterpart.

The Cramps creepy tale begun in 1976, when the band quickly infected a bevy of New York clubs such as Max’s Kansas City and CBGBs, and has been revered as one of the first bands to usher in an era of the blending of classic horror, goth, and Dick Dale-like music, with an ghoulishly omniscient, hell-bound vocal presence against  a backdrop of punk-rock theatrical on-stage shows the likes of Alice Cooper. Already ready for greatness from day one, they named their first EP “Gravest Hits” and as the decades rolled on The Cramps released seminal album after seminal album as they helped carve out their genre and watched as other acts and bands sprung from the slimy trail they left in their wake. Like little demons forming from the shadow of Satan himself, a whole punk-goth era of rockabilly took form, with off shoots of Goth-a-billy and Psychobilly bands, all paying homage to the Cramps and it’s pagan priest-like pundit, Lux Interior. With killer albums of punk importance like Bad Music for Bad People, A Date With Elvis, Big Beat from Badsville, and ROCKINNREELININAUCKLANDNEWZEALANDXXX, the Cramps got a bit of mainstream popularity with their album Stay Sick and it’s flagship song “Bikini Girls with Machine Guns”.

Melodically macabre…deliciously demented…fiendishly effeminate…howling, writhing, testifying, proselytizing… Mr. Interior was best known early-on for his channeling a thin, lanky, Pre-Mortem Evil Elvis into his stage shows. He and the Cramps became famous for their necromantic messages, a mixing of classic horror iconography into a hot-rodding, Las Vegas strip inspired, “last-night-of-your-life” situations punctuated with women who use you and drinks that lose you. Over-the-top emotive, explosive, and decadent live stage performances were their calling card, and they rarely disappointed. Even when they played in Mental Health Hospitals and sanitariums. While the Cramps’ lineup changed constantly with almost never having a bassist, the “Lux and Poison Ivy” duo carved out over more than thirty years of dueling guitar driven, demonic hoe-down themetic rock.

Freaky fact: Over two decades ago a rumor was spread of Lux’s death due to a mysterious heroin overdose, as dozens of funerary wreaths and flowers were sent to their home—which we hear is covered in red velvet—the lovely Miss Rorschach told the LA Times “At first, I thought it was kind of funny… but then it started to give me a creepy feeling.” Time to send the creepy feeling again, friends, fans and fiends of the Cramps, but this time it’s forever.

We honor your passing, Mr. Lux Interior, and thank you for the years of our lives that you and your horrific vision helped shape us, the world, and the face of music. Rest In Peace. From our favorite Cramps song, “People Ain’t No Good”…

You know good and well it’s true.
They never do what you want ‘em too.
Cuz people ain’t no good.
They’re no good on weekends.
When they come out to play.
They’re no good for bookends.
Cuz you can’t make ‘em stay…hey!
People ain’t no good.
People ain’t no good.
They never do what I think they should.
So people ain’t no good.
Yeah people are just a waste.
They’re all over the place.
Ya see ‘em everywhere ya go.
And I don’t like their face.
And people don’t like me.
Why I sure don’t know.
But even a jerk like you could see.
It’s obviously so…so…
They always get some smile.
They always stand like this.
They alweays tell ya who is what.
Well what I say is this.
People ain’t no good.
People ain’t no good.
They never do what I think they should.
So people ain’t no good.