That time Jim Dickinson cut "Red Headed Woman" with The Cramps

When the Cramps came to Memphis, Jim Dickinson taped a crazed rip thru the Sonny Burgess classic "Red Headed Woman." 

Cramps photos featured in new book Straight Strychnine due in November

Photographer Youri Lenquette's new book Straight Styrchnine captures The Cramps "in all their sick and twisted glory." 

Here's the scoop...

From April 1980, when Lux Interior, Poison Ivy, Bryan Gregory and Nick Knox launched their underground rock’n’roll assault on Montpellier, France, to 1991, when bassist Slim Chance and drummer Nickey Alexander joined Lux and Ivy in their vault of horror, photographer Youri Lenquette was on call to bring out the madness. From Bryan Gregory posing with a paperback of occult classic The Necromonicon to Psychedelic Jungle-era guitarist Kid Congo Powers looking cool in his bone necklace and leather trousers, from Lux Interior exposing his bare bottom at a legendary June 1984 concert at the Eldorado in Paris to the band adopting full S&M drag for a 1987 photoshoot, this is the Cramps in all their sick and twisted glory.

Youri Lenquette's Straight Strychnine (printed in 4 different editions: 2 hardback/2 softback out November 3 via Moonboy), is the first dedicated book of photography ever, on the most important, influential and mysterious cult band of all time. Just as nobody else managed to sound like the Cramps, however simple their formula of taking obscure rock’n’roll records from the 50s and 60s and adding lashes of sex and horror might have seemed, nobody looked like them either. Whether it was Lux Interior climbing a speaker stack in a tiny g-string or Poison Ivy staring impassively from a wild mass of ginger curls, the Cramps exuded a totally captivating blend of sleaze and glamour; unknowable and alluring.

This book, began life over 4 years ago by pure chance after a meeting between photographer Youri Lenquette at his studio in Paris and Fabrice Couillerot (designer/publisher) and the discovery of their mutual passion & love for the Cramps, 60’s garage punk music and a fascination for cats.

Straight Strychnine is arriving at a time when interest in the band has never been higher. In 1981, the Cramps took an obscure 1962 rock’n’roll single called ‘Goo Goo Muck’ by Ronnie Cook and the Gaylads and recorded it in the hope of inspiring a teenage dance craze. That took until 2022 to actually happen, when Jenna Ortega’s Wednesday Addams did some poker-faced moves to ‘Goo Goo Muck’ on Tim Burton’s Wednesday and spawned a viral hit. Then in August 2026 came Gravest Gravy, an album of unreleased recordings from October 1977, when the Cramps headed to Ardent Studios in Memphis and laid down early versions of future live favourites including ‘Jungle Hop’ and ‘Rockin’ Bones’ with Alex Chilton, legendary singer of the Box Tops and Big Star, on production and occasional organ duties.

It features a foreword by Lenny Kaye, writer, composer and original guitarist for The Patti Smith Group, whose Nuggets compilation of forgotten 60s garage bands was a formative influence on Lux and Ivy.

Will Hodgkinson, chief rock and pop critic of The Times and the author of several music books including 2024’s award-winning Street-Level Superstar, A Year with Lawrence, provides the introduction and accompanying text.

Their contributions help make The Cramps the definitive visual account of a band who, despite their vast and ongoing impact and influence, remain curiously under-represented in print.

Youri Lenquette was uniquely placed to photograph the Cramps through their 1980s golden age, bringing a punk spirit to his craft by grabbing a camera and getting up close to his subject without worrying too much about the perfect shot and instead aiming for truth and intimacy. Lenquette started out as a journalist for the French rock magazine Best before picking up a camera in the late 70s, documenting the punk era and going on to shoot everyone from Youssou Ndour to Nirvana. Most importantly, his decade-long friendship with the Cramps allowed for deep access into the notoriously private world of Lux and Ivy, resulting in images that capture both the thrill of performance and the rarely seen realities of life in an underground rock’n’roll band.

Straight Strychine includes the three original articles written by Youri for the French press at the time (translated in English for this book):

Les Fleurs du Mal, interview with Lux, Ivy and Kid Congo, BEST magazine, July 1981.

Cramps Story, BEST magazine, June 1984.

A date with The Cramps, interview with Lux and Ivy, April 1986.

For more information about Straight Strychnine and mail order details, visit the Moonboy site right here here. 

 

Larry Hardy & Henry Rollins chat about The Cramps & Vengeance Records

In The Red's Larry Hardy & Henry Rollins discuss the reboot of The Cramps' Vengeance label with Eric Davidson.

Here's the scoop from Eric Davidson...

It's all set and ready to stream -- my interview with Henry Rollins (2.13.61) (Black Flag, Rollins Band) and Larry Hardy (In The Red Recordings), all about their recent reboot of The Cramps' Vengeance Records and its first release, Gravest Gravy!

We dig into some nuts & bolts of the venture, and some greasy stories ya gotta hear to believe! Plus LOADS of Cramps and Cramps-adjacent music! 

Check it out right here at SoundCloud: https://bit.ly/4pygekc/

and/or here at my East Village Radio page: https://eastvillageradio.com/we-never-learn/

The Cramps vs. The Riptides

The Cramps' "Call of the Wighat" was clearly inspired by The Riptides instro blaster "Machine Gun" from 1959.  

Cramps collection of previously unissued recordings "Gravest Gravy " on the way

Gravest Gravy is a new compilation of 1977 studio recordings by the Cramps which is planned for release on August 21st. 

Here's the scoop...

In October 1977, the Cramps ventured into Ardent Studios in Memphis, Tennessee with producer and Cramps translator extraordinaire, Alex Chilton. The band had planned on recording their song ‘TV Set,’ as an A side, along with another track or tracks. Mr. Chilton told them the way he liked to work was to have a band record a lot of songs and from that they would pick the best of the bunch.

Luckily for Cramps fans everywhere, the band did just that. The first evidence of these sessions was unleashed upon an “unsuspecting human world” in April 1978 on the band’s own Vengeance Records label. It was a two song 7-inch with a version of the Trashmen’s 1963 classic ‘Surfin’ Bird,’ pushed well beyond its breaking point, forcing it to mutate into a much higher form of lowdown, and Jack Scott’s 1959 cool burning ‘The Way I Walk,’ dragged back into the Stone Age...

After one listen, it was clear the Cramps had absolutely tapped into Rock ’n’ Roll’s mainline. In November of the same year, and again from the October 1977 sessions came another two song lesson in how it’s done, or undone, with easily one of the greatest A sides of all time: ‘Human Fly.’ The B side was held hostage by “Domino,” originally sung by Roy Orbison. The Cramps’ version swaggers with infinite confidence and is an absolute thrill to listen to. In the summer of 1979, young degenerates in England were treated to a 12-inch by the Cramps called Gravest Hits, which featured not only the aforementioned four tracks, but also a fifth, again from the October 1977 sessions...

“What happened to the rest of the tracks from those auspicious days in October 1977? In 2026, Larry Hardy, owner and operator of In The Red Records, rapelled down, deep into the vast, sunless vault of the Cramps tape collection, and resurfaced hours later, disoriented and out of breath, but overjoyed with what he’d returned to topside with: six ¼” reels of tracks, mixed by Lux [Interior] and [Poison] Ivy...

Gravest Gravy is one of the purest collections of unrestrained, wild music you’ll ever hear—like Jerry Lee Lewis unchained, like Elvis meets Tarzan—like it should be. The Cramps were one of the greatest bands in the history of recorded music, and anyone who heard or saw them, knows and abides by this groovin’ truth. From their inception to this day, the band has fans whose enthusiasm for their life-changing music never wavers. The Cramps made this music for the love of Rock ’n’ Roll. Lux and Ivy made this record for you.” – Henry Rollins

The Cramps – Gravest Gravy will be out in August but you can pre-order the LP, CD or digital files from Midheaven right here. Check out the video for "TV Set" by Jason Willis following the tracklisting below.  

 

The Cramps - Gravest Gravy 

TV Set (1977 Version)

Weekend On Mars (1977 Version)

Twist & Shout (1977 Version)

Jungle Hop (1977 Version)

I Can't Hardly Stand It (1977 Version)

Hungry (1977 Version)

The Natives Are Restless (1977 Version)

Domino (1977 Version)

Can't Find My Mind (1977 Version)

Rockin' Bones (1977 Version)

Problem Child (1977 Version)

Rocket In My Pocket (1977 Version)

LINKS
The Cramps www.thecramps.com

Happy Birthday Kid Congo Powers!

Cheers to Kid Congo Powers on his 67th birthday! Here are a few interviews, some performances and videos worth checking.  

Happy Birthday Poison Ivy!

Raising a glass to Poison Ivy – The Cramps guitarist, composer and producer – with some interview & performance footage.

Here's a bonus shot of Poison Ivy with The Cramps featuring Miriam Linna on drums circa 1976. 

Midweek Mixdown: Lux & Ivy's Favorites – Halloween Edition

Just in time for Halloween, Kogar the Swinging Ape compiled a special creepy cool edition of his Lux & Ivy tribute series. 

Here's the scoop from Kogar the Swinging Ape...

I’ve resisted doing this for years, but here is a “best of” volume of Lux and Ivy’s Favorites for Halloween. Who doesn’t need something good to focus on these days?

Here are 40 tracks taken from LAIF volumes 1-20 of songs with a “creepy” bent to them. I made a playlist of them for myself, but then said “what the hell,” let’s make it so other folks don’t have to go through the hassle of making their own playlists.

I reached out to JR Willaims, who did a cover for one of the other volumes of LAIF, and he agreed and we teamed up for this cool cover from one of my favorite (non EC) pre-code horror comics called WEIRD MYSTERIES. I thought it would be perfect because Here Lies My Love by the Undertakers is among the set of songs. Thanks JR!

Happy Halloween everyone! - Kogar tSA

Listen right here. Check the track listing below. 

Lux & Ivy's Favourites – Halloween Edition

01 Anton LaVey - Satan Takes a Holiday

02 Ken Nordine - Strollin' Spooks

03 Jan Davis - Watusi Zombie

04 The Symbols - Do the Zombie

05 The Del-Airs - Zombie Stomp

06 Ralph Neilson and the Chancellors – Scream

07 Jackie Morningstar - Rockin' In The Graveyard

08 Joe Wallace - Leopard Man

09 Lee Ross - The Mummy's Bracelet

10 Kip Tyler - She's My Witch

11 Zacherle - Dinner With Drac

12 The Electro-Tones - Ghost Train

13 Bill Carter -  Baby Brother

14 The Five Blobs - The Blob

15 The Ran-dells - Martian Hop

16 The Invasion - The Invasion is Coming

17 Roy Brown - Butcher Pete part one

18 Roy Brown - Butcher Pete part two

19 Mr Undertaker - Here Lies Love

20 Revels - Dead Man's Stroll

21 Lord Luther & The Kingsmen Teenage Creature

22 Kay Starr - The Headless Horseman

23 The Five Jones Boys -  Mr Ghost Goes To Town

24 Bob and Jerry - Ghost Satellite

25 Deadly Ones - Monster Surfing Time

26 Hugh Barret and the Victors - There Was a Fungus Among Us

27 Richard Delvy - Green Slime Theme

28 Albert Elias - King Kong

29 The Gravestone Four - Rigor Mortis

30 Sickidz - Night of the Living Dead

31 Screamin' Jay Hawkins - I Put A Spell On You

32 Social Outcasts – Mad

33 The Deadly Ones - The Mad Drummer [pt. 1]

34 Cab Calloway - The Ghost of Smokey Joe

35 Jim Wolfe and the T-Towners – Innersanctum

36 The Ventures - The Bat

37 Jack Hammer and the Pacers - Black Widow Spider Woman

38 The Regal-aires -  It

39 Vampires' Sound Incorporation - The Lions and the Cucumber

40 Ghoulardi Surf

Remembering Lux Interior on his birthday

Raising a glass to Lux Interior of The Cramps on his birthday with two brilliant performances you may have missed. 

Happy Birthday Miriam Linna of Kicks/Norton Records!

Celebrating the birthday of Kicks.Norton Records co-founder Miriam Linaa with an interview and some performances.

Writes Miriam...

"Thank you, friends and fiends, for the excitable birthday greets. I'm a 20th century gal who is still hanging onto the old world for dear life, so bear with my antiquated mind, means and methods. News is coming very soon about projects that have been stewing for a very long time - and are now ready to share. It's peculiar how synchronicity plays with our daily doings. I was reading one of my favorite paperbacks from the old days, Fahrenheit 451, during the wee hours this morning, and recalled that I had seen a copy of the fireproof asbestos edition under glass at a book fair many years ago. Now making this post, I wanted to reshare a clip of Stay, complete with its teenage TV host, and what do I see on the wall behind the group- look/see. So anyway, all rambling aside, please stay just a little bit longer. Thank you to everyone who has helped me through the hard stuff and to those who share with the fun and laughter. That accounts for everybody!" - Miriam XXXX
 

Midweek Mixdown: Kogar's Jungle Juice

The latest episode of Kogar's Jungle Juice features a preview of Lux & Ivy's Faves Vol. 20 which should delight Cramps fans.

Here's the scoop...

Another week means another NEW episode of Kogar’s Jungle Juice! 2 hours of instrumentals, group sounds, rockabilly, rhythm and blues and a special preview of Lux and Ivy’s Favorites Volume 20! This show features artists like: Bob Taylor, The Eden Rocs, The Lamplighters, Don and Dewey, The Five Quails, Bo Diddley, Hasil Adkins (that's Hasil flipping through some 45s at home below), Kip Tyler, Otis Blackwell, Cousin Leroy, The Godz, Calico Wall, and Jack Hammer and the Pacers! Full playlist at the Boss Radio 66 Blogspot! Have a listen via Mixcloud right here. 

For more info about Lux and Ivy's Favorites Volume 20, check the Boss Radio 66 blog site: https://www.bossradio66.com/2025/10/lux-and-ivys-favorites-volume-20.html

Painting attributed to Erick Lee Purkhiser aka Lux Interior up for eBay auction

From the signature, the painting appears to date from 1970, prior to Lux Interior meeting Poison Ivy and forming The Cramps.

 

According to the eBay seller...

This is an auction for a

RARE ONE OF A KIND PIECE OF ARTWORK PAINTED BY "LUX INTERIOR" OF THE Band The CRAMPS, OR AS HE WAS KNOW AT THE TIME,  ERICK LEE PURKHISER

Size 37 x 29 Inches

Erick Lee Purkhiser (October 21, 1946 – February 4, 2009), better known by the stage name Lux Interior, was an American singer and a founding member of the American rock band the Cramps from 1976 until his death in 2009 at age 62

He met his wife Kristy Wallace, better known as Poison Ivy, a.k.a. Ivy Rorschach, in Sacramento in 1972, when he and a friend picked her up when she was hitchhiking. The couple founded the band after they moved from California to Ohio in 1973, and then to New York in 1975, where they soon became part of the flourishing punk scene.

The painting is a fascinating mix of eroticism and nightmare, surreal and vivid in style. It is not especially Cramps typical look– but then again, it is, if that makes sense. You might not immediately see it as the obvious work of Lux Interior, but when you know that it is , it doesn’t seem all that surprising. Lux always gravitated towards women who would bring out his inner creativity – with Ivy, of course, he found a soul mate who was as creative as he was and the pair of them built an insular, unique artistic universe together until his death in 2009.

Painting was done in 1970 (see signature detail at right), before Lux met Posion Ivy during art classes at California State University, Sacramento where the text book I believe was the infamous book "The Sacred Mushroom and the Cross"  by John M. Allegro. 

When someone has such a defined and iconic public persona as the late, great Lux Interior, lead singer of The Cramps, it’s hard to remember that he didn’t come out of the womb already attached at the hip to Cramps cohort and life partner, Poison Ivy Rorschach. But Lux did indeed have a life before he became Lux – he was 30 when the band formed and although it has been barely mentioned in any Cramps biographies or his Wikipedia page, he had a previous marriage and a son, both of which were so effectively wiped out of history. This painting would have been done during that time I believe. 

Clean pre-owned condition. Signature on top of ERICK in lower right corner is the previous owners, he was a young man in his 20s when he purchased it in HOUSTON TX in the 80s. He believed he would never get rid of it, that is why he put his name on it . Times and priorities for the previous owner changed and he decided to sell the painting to me a few years ago, Ive had it ever since.

Looking for a new good home for the is one of a kind painting.

Could Be The Crown Jewel of someones CRAMPS collection

Any questions, please email before bidding.

selling as is!

"Buy It Now" price: $14,000 US or best offer. Check it out right here. 

Watch the documentary Turn Blue: The Short Life Of Ghoulardi

Phil Hoffman's Turn Blue doc tells the story of influential Cleveland TV personality Ghoulardi aka Ernie Anderson. 

Here's the scoop...

For northeast Ohioans who grew up in this area in the 1960s, the new TV production Turn Blue: The Short Life of Ghoulardi is an entertaining blast from the past. Ernie Anderson, who played Cleveland's counter-culture media celebrity Ghoulardi, hosted WJW-TV's late-night horror movies from 1963 to 1966 and was an incredible influence locally.

Turn Blue is the work of award-winning producer/director Phil Hoffman, Ed.D., who also teaches radio and television courses at The University of Akron. It is the latest in a series of local history productions that Hoffman has created in cooperation with Western Reserve Public Media.  The program has also aired on WGTE Public Media in Northeast Ohio.

"The process of creating this film began with my discovery of a book 'Ghoulardi: Inside Cleveland TV's Wildest Ride,'" Hoffman said. "Authors Rich Heldenfels and Tom Feran do an excellent job of making the case for Ghoulardi's place in the pantheon of local TV hosts who had an impact on a generation of young minds weaned on TV during the 1960s." 

At WJW-TV 8, Ernie Anderson was working as an announcer when the station asked him to don a fright wig and serve as the host of a late-night horror movie series. Ghoulardi was born. Within just a few short weeks, Clevelanders were shouting phrases including "knif," "Oxnard" and " blue." Anderson's Ghoulardi would begin a local TV tradition that would continue with Hoolihan and Big Chuck and Little John Rinaldi well into the first decade of the new millennium.  

Turn Blue chronicles Anderson's wild ride on Cleveland TV and includes interviews with Heldenfels, Feran, "Big Chuck" Schodowski, Dick Goddard, Mark Dawidziak and many other colleagues and witnesses to the Ghoulardi phenomenon. 

The world premiere of the production was held in 2009 at the annual Ghoulardifest, and the one-hour production was first broadcast on Western Reserve PBS that same year. It earned two Emmy Awards, for directing and editing for producer Phil Hoffman. Check it out below. 

Happy Birthday Lux Interior of The Cramps!

Remembering Lux Interior on his birthday with an interview at home with Poison Ivy and a few stellar Cramps performances. 

One For The Weekend: Michael Purkhiser's 3-D

Akron's Michael Purkhiser – Lux Interior's brother – knocked out a cool surf/spy soundtrack-inspired instrumental record 3-D, 

LINKS

Akron Beacon Journal Rock guitarist Michael Purkhiser enters new dimension with '3-D' 

Bang Bang Band Girl vs. The Cramps

Walter Daniels' snarling sax enhances Bang Bang Band Girl's crack at Dave Day's "Blue Moon Baby" also covered by The Cramps.

Calvin Johnson previews new Gallows Wine album with "Pink Cadillac"

Calvin Johnson's new album Gallows Wine isn't out till April but you can hear his Crampsy shaker "Pink Cadillac" below.

Here's the scoop...

The first digital single from the Calvin Johnson album Gallows Wine [KLP287], "Pink Cadillac" was written by a fifteen year old Calvin, months before witnessing Tav Falco's Panther Burns open for The Cramps at Irving Plaza. The inspiration for "Pink Cadillac" is rockabilly from the Midwest and mid-south. The execution, by Calvin (and members of Hartle Road at Pompeii Studio in Columbus, Mississippi), is classic tear-down threnody. You can get a digital copy of "Pink Cadillac" and pre-order the Gallows Wine album via Bandcamp right here. Listen to "Pink Cadillac" below. 

 

Watch The Cramps rock San Francisco's I-Beam in 1984

Sure, it is a bit dark, but hey, where else are you gonna see The Cramps with Chris "Click Mort" Doran on second guitar. 

Happy Birthday Lux Interior of The Cramps!

Remembering my old pal Lux Interior with a shopping trip with Poison Ivy to Toronto's Kops Records and a couple of interviews. 

Steve Wynn vs. Hasil Adkins

Steve Wynn and Linda Pitmon knocked out a fine version of the Hasil Adkins whumper "She Said" in a salute to The Cramps.