In April 1979, New York punk-scene weirdos the Cramps played at a Washington, DC venue called the LBJ Club, and that must've been some show. The Cramps hadn't released their debut album yet, but they were already pioneering a gothy, theatrical, knowingly kitschy take on rockabilly. The crowd was full of teenagers like young Ian MacKaye and young Henry Garfield, and they were inspired by what they saw. Pretty soon afterwards, MacKaye started his band Teen Idles, and Garfield started his band State Of Alert. Those bands didn't last long, but then MacKaye formed Minor Threat, while Garfield changed his name to Henry Rollins and became the longest-tenured singer of Black Flag. The DC punk scene evolved a sound that had basically nothing in common with the Cramps, but that show was a major early flashpoint that's since been acclaimed in about a million scene histories.
Now, Rollins and MacKaye are working together to release a previously unheard Cramps album that Alex Chilton produced. Earlier this year, the two old friends got together to release a lost and rediscovered 1977 single from UK punks the Adverts. Now, they've started a new venture with Cramps guitarist Poison Ivy Rorschach, aiming to reissue a whole series of Cramps records and to put out some merch, since a lot of the Cramps merch that's currently for sale online is bootlegged.
Poison Ivy and her late husband, frontman Lux Interior, were the only permanent members of the Cramps. Interior died in 2009, and the Cramps have never really gotten their due as one of the great bands of their era, though a memorable Wednesday dance scene in 2022 at least gave them a bit of a zeitgeist moment. As Rollins explains in a new press release, Poison Ivy recently formed the Cramps, Inc. with In The Red Records owner Larry Hardy and with Jimmy Maslon, the onetime Cramps producer who now owns the film catalogs of Herschel Gordon Lewis and Doris Wishman. Together, they're relaunching the Cramps' Vengeance label and putting out a new line of Cramps merch. Rollins writes, "Ivy is the major beneficiary. Larry and Jimmy are handling all the logistics. They are perfect for this."
Meanwhile, Rollins and MacKaye have a new venture called RAM Prod. (The name stands for Rollins And MacKaye.) Rollins says that they're "working on behalf of The Cramps Inc., coming up with release ideas, handling tape maintenance, editing, mixing, mastering and lacquer cutting responsibilities." The first product that they're planning is Gravest Gravy, a full-length collection of songs that the Cramps recorded with Big Star frontman Alex Chilton in 1977.
Back in 1977, the Cramps recorded their first two singles, "Surfin' Bird" b/w "The Way I Walk" and "Human Fly" b/w "Domino," with Chilton as producer, on their own Vengeance label. (At that point, the band also included Bryan Gregory and Nick Knox.) In 1979, the band re-released those four songs, as well as a Chilton-produced cover of Ricky Nelson's "Lonesome Town," as the Gravest Hits EP. During those same sessions, the band apparently also recorded a bunch of other songs, including a ton of covers and a few tracks that would later appear on their classic 1981 album Psychedelic Jungle. Later on, Chilton produced the Cramps' 1980 debut Songs The Lord Taught Us.
In the late '80s, the Cramps went back to those old 1977 recordings. Lux Interior and Poison Ivy mixed some of those songs, and Chilton mixed a few others. They planned to release those recordings as a collection called Gravest Gravy. Rollins writes, "The album had a title, a cover by the great Stephanie Chernikowski, who passed away recently, but for reasons lost to time, Gravest Gravy was shelved." But now Rollins has worked to reconstruct that lost record and to release it to the world. Here's what Rollins writes in that press release:
The tracks on Gravest Gravy were contained on seven 1/4 inch reels. Six were generated by Lux and Ivy, one by Alex. The tapes were carefully transferred by Brian Kehew. He was happy to report that all seven reels had withstood the test of time, and the tracks were in pristine condition. Many of the songs had multiple mixes. We had to determine which ones were the keepers. Over several nights of concentrated listening, and copious notetaking, I was able to get an understanding of the changes made from mix to mix. Within a few nights, I was able to determine that the last mix of each song was the keeper. Not only did the tracks sound to be at their fullest potential, it made sense.
I sent the mixes and my notes to Ian MacKaye, whose ears I trust more than anyone I know. I asked him to take his time, go through the tracks and form an opinion of my selections. Days later, he reported back that he agreed with me on all of them. He then volunteered to do some EQ and level adjustment on two of the tracks with Don Zientara at Inner Ear Studios, in Arlington, Virginia.
Days later, all the tracks were at Infrasonic Sound, an excellent studio in Nashville, Tennessee for mastering under the careful watch of engineer Pete Lyman. I sat for hours and listened as Pete coaxed the frequencies to be at their best. The results were two six song sides of the Cramps, extracted from a 1977 amber block, de-fossilized and ready to be inflicted upon the ears of those who would rather Stay Sick and Turn Blue than hope for sunny weather.
Gravest Gravy is an absolute treasure. You get a performance of "Hungry" by Paul Revere and the Raiders, released in 1966, which found itself in the band’s early set lists, but soon dropped out. To make it even more interesting, Alex Chilton jumps in on organ. Another early Cramps cover, "Problem Child," written by Sam Phillips, is on the record. The band used to do an absolutely rippin’ version of the 1958 Jimmy Lloyd track "Rocket In My Pocket" at some of their early shows. There’s a great version of it on Gravest Gravy. Also really cool are the songs that found official release on the band’s second album, Psychedelic Jungle, with Kid Congo Powers taking over the spot vacated by Bryan. These tracks would be "Jungle Hop" (also with Alex Chilton on organ) by Kip Tyler, released in 1958, "The Natives Are Restless" (with different lyrics), "Can’t Find My Mind" and "Rockin’ Bones" released in 1959 by the Blond Bomber himself, Ronnie Dawson. The approach to these versions is much different than on Psychedelic, and it’s never a bad thing to have more Bryan Gregory to listen to.
We were able to locate the exact photo of Stephanie’s that Lux and Ivy had envisioned for the cover. The back cover photo was taken by David Godlis at CBGB, and is easily one of the coolest Cramps photos ever.
We brought in the very talented Jason Willis to make a video for "TV Set." It could not have turned out better.
What you have in Gravest Gravy is sheer brilliance committed to tape by a band that was plugged in directly to the Rock ‘n Roll mainline, produced by a visionary maniac named Alex Chilton.
Below, check out the Gravest Gravy tracklist and that Jason Willis-directed "TV Set" video.
TRACKLIST:
01 "Weekend On Mars"
02 "Twist & Shout"
03 "Jungle Hop"
04 "Can’t Hardly Stand It"
05 "Hungry"
06 "The Natives Are Restless"
07 "Domino"
08 "Can’t Find My Mind"
09 "Rockin’ Bones"
10 "Problem Child"
11 "Rocket In My Pocket"
Gravest Gravy is out 8/21 on Vengeance. It's up for pre-order now, along with a whole line of Cramps merch, including this beer koozy.
