The Cramps - "My Daddy Drives A U.F.O. - The Lux-urious And Elegant Unease Of The Cramps Bootlegs Vol.2, Studio Demos" (WAXCD 006)

Well, well, well! Hell yes we‘re here, ready to present our 6th "CD" and at the same time second volume of the Cramps bootlegs in the grave look for series. Hmmm... I really don't know what else to write and add. We know words hardly matter on posts like this and your only ambition is to hear. Fair enough. So, for a second time in a row, the man behind the ripping duties is my pal Jean Philippe. And like a good gravedigger he is, he picked on the best tracks his Cramps related bootlegs vault hides, only this time concept says ‘studio stuff’ or as we like to say here at WTS HQ, ‘Coffin recorded material’. By the time this lines being written I'm not totally aware of our product and due the fatherhood obligation orders, with the one ear I’m (trying to) listen to the Ivy's snatchy guitar licks and with the other to catch a possible fight between my boys... Who told you bloggin' is an easy ‘job’ for someone to do? And you know what, this music's definitely NOT the right one for keeping two little male demons calm... Ha-ha who cares? Maybe their mother, but I prefer (or for better wish) to follow their daddy’s steps than their mom’s (you know, there’s a big gap between Motorhead and Rihanna…). As we promised this volume is going to have the studio stuff not officially lapsed through the band's shrunk hands. All selections are from a specific period, the earliest and the best. From the time Miriam Linna was banging' the traps till the day Nick Knox took her place, deeply cared with cool covers if you think yourself a connoisseur and with the best possible sound. As usual, no bootlegging on WAX CDs. Share and dance freely!  

The Cramps - "My Daddy Drives A U.F.O. - The Lux-urious And Elegant Unease Of The Cramps Bootlegs Vol.1, The Live Tapes" (WAXCD 005)

Things worked faster this time! Ok, it’s all up to my buddy’s Cramps related snugness but I have to admit, Jean Philippe showed me the way! In less than a month, tracks picked up, rips were made and cd covers blow-by-blow designed for (what else?) the next WAX ‘release’ and as you can see this thing’s planned for at least two volumes! The idea came to my head when I was preparing the Pub Rock volume and proposed my comrade to think of a Cramps boot volume as a next step. I mean, with such a vault, it’s a crime to not touch our hands on and pitch on the cream of the crap, don’t you think? And this is by a good 99%, a JPStooges sound cared project. My correlation focalized/minimized in some kind of ‘spiritual’ guidance about the way covers should look or how this project might be called or how this could or should be build, virtual not the things a rock & roll fan might be interested in. And I’m so gee-whiz for the end result!

So, the WAX team jointly decided to split this ghoulish idea in two parts. The ‘studio’ material and the ‘live tapes’. And we thought it’s better to start from the hoodoo stage rituals the Cramps got through 'round the world during their heyday (I know we are all fans, but we must admit that from the late 80s – maybe earlier, our monsters have started to transform their selves from voodoo idols to cartoons)! Detailed, carefully placed and with the 'semi-pro, my ass!' artwork approach of the WAX twins, this is the first volume of the Cramps tumulus raped material.  What we had in mind was to create something Lux might have been proud of! We know this is a rather childish urge (i can't even think to write my childish thoughts on the most venomous female ever brandished a Gretsch...) , but the Legion of the Cramped lives no matter how many years Rockin' Bones gazette is out of print. And for one time at least we cheat the cheaters (aka bootleggers) in their own game, ha! Are we the baddest motherfuckers or what?! So as usual, NO bootlegging on WAX CDs. Share and dance freely. 
Stay sick, more to come!

The Cramps - "Songs The Lord Taught Us - Alternate Mix, French Release" (Illegal Records, 1980)

We’re gonna bury you guys in Cramps rarities over the next days (OK, maybe months, it depends on our spare time…). The start waxed the day before with the Cramps mega rare single and since this blog have a Cramps PhD holder, Jean Philippe, we’re gonna share whatever we think our ‘vaults’ (actually JP’s, myself stayed to the official releases with a few exceptions) hide and deserves exposition. And boy this never heard by me either. I’m just the guy learned it a few hours before of you! And some hours before me, Jean Philippe just had bought it (are we a straightforward blog or what?!). So let’s begin: On the minor exceptions I was talking about some lines above, was the well known bootleg “Songs the Lord Might Have Taught Us”. If my tired memory serves me right, “Might Have Taught Us” was unofficially released by two at least different bootleggers. The one I own for sure has a 'polite' sound, at least for the Cramps standards. Audible of course, in a way clear, but weak. Hearing it for the first time made me think that our beloved monsters did no wrong with these recordings keeping them off many people’s ears, even if these ears belonged to their fans (I’m one so I believe I can talk from the fans point of view, right?). All the following listenings made my meditation even stronger. And I know a lot of people who faith that these recordings were in fact demos, maybe in their anxiety to defend their/our heroes. My impression after only one shot of this, is that these are the alternate mixes of the band's classic debut all Cramps fans looking for. Exactly what my buddy JP told me, he's the Cramps-torian and I’m not the one to contradict this. What’s for sure this record here's a totally unique item in the Cramps rapidly growing official/unofficial discography. For a better readout of this semi-official release (?), wise what my partner mailed me:

“More Cramps shit? You may have heard about the very rare (50 copies) promo version of "Songs the Lord Taught Us" LP, which contains alternate mixes and with “Drug Train” instead of “TV Set”. I don't have it (and probably never will, as it's a several thousands Euros piece of plastic), but it was bootlegged several years ago as "Songs the Lord Might Have Taught Us". I have the bootleg but I couldn't enjoy it as the sound is very, very thin. It doesn't sound bad, but it doesn't sound right (it's in mono and doesn't have balls). BUT, I found (just today!) the alternate mix of the rare promo on a French -official- pressing of “Songs The Lord Taught Us" LP. It's a very basic mix, with less echo on Lux’s vocals, and in most cases, drums have much more "presence". The version of “TV Set” (which is not on the promo LP nor on the bootleg) is not only a different mix, it's an alternate take, and a pretty good one. I loooooooove it. Here it is, without the bootleg shitty sound!" We believe you don't need more, right?

The Cramps - "Human Fly / Domino" (Vengeance, 7" - 1978)

Days and years are going by much quicker than you might think. It’s already three years since Lux Interior; the Bad Elvis left this world for another. I’m not saying dead cause I’d like to remember him always as a zombie! My favorite, the coolest and the dirtiest! A primordial swamp hillbilly punk who came to this world to remember us poor sinners how rock & roll was a force of nature and not just music to dance by. I always put the Cramps in the punk movement and not in the psychobilly area. They were PUNKS! In the true-est sense of this word. And they got further than more acolytes did. They didn’t just got back to the basics, they denude it, had with it WILD SEX, discharged it from his recent years guilts and make it again DANGEROUS! Well, this is a VERY HARD TO FIND item of the Cramps discography. And a very expensive as well if you can find it in a mint copy. It came out from their own label (I think…) Vengeance, and has a DIFFERENT somehow dirtier mix of “Human Fly” than the one most most of us know from “Off the Bone”. Producer here's too Alex Chilton, but still this looks like a nonidentical version of the well known song. Don't know, if someone of you guys and gals know some more, shine a light. As my partner JP said, “You can hear Lux singing very close to the mic and the sound quality is better!”

Bizzz, bizz, bzzzzzzzzz!

The Cramps - "1976 Demo Session W/ Girl Drummer Miriam" (Bootleg LP, 19??)

Happy New Year to you all White Trash Soulsters out there!
Hope this season be the best in your lives til the next one. Not many time ago, i was ranting 'bout Miriam Linna's drum pounding for the early Cramps. I offered some things and i asked if anyone by you was sitting on a demo session she did with them, that produced not by any other but Richard Robinson, mostly known as the man behind the board for the Flamin' Groovies masterpiece, "Teenage Head".
A very cool bloke from France named Jean Philippe, was hearing upon my wishes and answered today with this (full scans included)!
A million thanks mate! I am truly now "an eternally grateful bastard"!
So, the very first blog entry for 2011 is by the Cramps, featuring M. Linna on traps.
It doesn't get more primitive than this!
FLAC

1976 Demo Session

The Cramps featuring Miriam Linna on drums (Excerpt from "How to Make a Monster", Vengeance - 2004)

OK, I'm bored to death to repeat my self even though i do this thing constantly. Well, is there anyone of you guys out-there that you don't already know who Miriam Linna is? OK, if you 're a newcomer on this blog I'll give some tags to google a little and find out for yourself her brilliancy! These are : KICKS magazine, Norton Records, Flamin' Groovies Monthly, The Zantees, The A-Bones and... The Cramps!
Many mistake Miriam as the original drummer of our beloved and mighty cannibals, but... actually the first was Pam Ballam (whatta a great nick was that!). But she was the first the Cramps did a recording with. Officially some of them found its way to the public through 2004's "How to Make a Monster" Cramps CD compilation with lotsa previously unreleased tracks of the band and with various line ups included. If my memory serves me well, that brought some tension between Lux, Ivy and Linna, cause the first two never get permission from the last to release this stuff; but the sad loss of Lux made the ones that left behind to bury the hatchet. It's obvious on Miriam's blog entrances about her early days with the Cramps. If you didn't already read and save on you HDDs these pieces, do it swiftly here, here and here! That's history, written in the unique "KICKS" way and essentially given to the fans with great pictures and stuff! I have made pdf files of every post so far Miriam uploaded on Kicksville 66, as a letter of administration to my children when they grow up and must catch on the right chapters of rock & roll! I advise you to do the same, before it's too late...
So, these recordings here not the complete with Miriam behind the traps but sure are the better sounding! I use most times, the Wang Dang Dula site for a deeper knowledge on things i like and i found some boots with more or less, most of the tracks they did together. The one i really need to catch is the "1976 Demo Session" produced by the Flamin' Groovies soundman Richard Robinson!... Any of you guys got it? If yes, please share and I'll be an eternally grateful bastard! 
320Kbps

Don't Eat Stuff Off The Sidewalk! 

Tracks:
- Live at Max's, Kansas City, on January 14, 1977 -
Don't Eat Stuff Off The Sidewalk / I Was A Teenage Werewolf / Sunglasses After Dark / Jungle Hop / Domino / Love Me / Strychnine / TV Set / I'm Cramped
- Studio, October 1976 produced by Richard Robinson -
I Was A Teenage Werewolf / I Can't Hardly Stand It

 

VA - Songs The Cramps Taught Us Vol.1

"Conjuring a fiendish witches' brew of primal rockabilly, grease-stained '60s garage rock, vintage monster movies, perverse and glistening sex, and the detritus and effluvia of 50 years of American pop culture, the Cramps are a truly American creation much in the manner of the Cadillac, the White Castle hamburger, the Fender Stratocaster, and Jayne Mansfield. Often imitated, but never with the same psychic resonance as the original, the Cramps celebrate all that is dirty and gaudy with a perverse joy that draws in listeners with its fleshy decadence, not unlike an enchanted gingerbread house on the Las Vegas strip. The entire psychobilly scene would be unthinkable without them, and their prescient celebration of the echoey menace of first-generation rock & roll had a primal (if little acknowledged) influence on the rockabilly revival and the later roots rock movement." These words not mine. Mark Deming wrote them and are the opening paragraph on allmusic.com's piece on the Cramps. A band created from rock n roll lunatics for rock n roll maniacs! Most of the group's known songs were cover versions by forgotten or underground if you want it, rock n roll monsters. Even to those songs that had their names on credits, are shamelessly copy/paste pastiches of these heroes. On Cramps' taste have built some of the best ever rock n roll compilations. The "Born Bad" series are the perfect examples and had slightly different track lists in comparison with this.
The "Songs The Cramps Taught Us" if I'm right were the first of those bootleg in fact series - that gathered some of the best R&R - R&B (s)hits ever buried in the groove of a piece of wax! Many companies (?) touched their hands on this concept and just a google search proves my claim. At least 6-7 different front covers. The same holds good for the tracks. Anyway, this is the Vol.1 of three (at least) CD versions! If it was easy to grab it i wouldn't post it here but it took me LONG to found it myself so i guess this is quite tough to find item. Try it if you want it on Norton's or Crypt's mail orders. The sound is excellent (fuck you audiophiles, i mean filthy, dirty, greasy and raunchy!) and has a 24 color booklet with very good liners! Some bootleggers are connoisseurs and deserve your sympathy, man!

A look at the track list and you'll see for yourself why i rated this compact disc so high!
A guaranteed party shaker and an educational induction to the world of 50s & 60's Trash Rock N Roll!

Track List:

1. The Sparkles - Hipsville 29 B.C.
2. Dwight Pullen - Sunglasses After Dark
3. Link Wray - Fatback
4. Sherrif & Ravels - Shombolar
5. The Riptides - Machine Gun
6. Bo Diddley - Dancing Girl
7. The Trashmen - Surfin Bird
8. Walter Brown - Jelly Roll Rock
9. The Sonics - Strychnine
10. TheRumblers - Boss
11. Third Bardo - Five Years Ahead Of My Time
12. The Busters - Bust Out
13. The Phantom - Love Me
14. Jett Powers - Go Girl Go
15. Ronnie Cook & Gaylads - Goo Goo Muck
16. The Runabouts - Strangeness In Me
17. The Groupies - Primitive

18. The Frantics - Werewolf
19. Elroy Dietzel - Rockin Bones
20. Dale Hawkins - Tornado
21. The Shells - Whiplash
22. Keith Courvale - Trapped Love
23. Freddie & Hitchikers - Sinners
24. Charlie Feathers - Can't Hardly Stand It
25. Andy Starr - Give Me A Woman
26. R. Lewis Band - Get Off The Road
27. Hayden Thompson - Blues Blues Blues
28. Lee Dresser & Krazy Kats - Beat Out My Love
29. Andre Williams - Bacon Fat
30. Jack Scott - The Way I Walk
31. Elvis Presley - Do The Clam

Shake a lake boy!

As usual 320 Kbps and full scanned covers.

Download

Radio Cramps - The Purple Knif Show by Lux Interior

The now legendary "Purple Knif Show" record is substantially a bootleg cassette of a radio show Lux did back in 1984 for a radio station at Hollywood California. I found many releases on my record hunting during the years with different artworks and slightly different tracks. I guess here we have if not the complete show at least the majority of them. Feel free to correct me if somewhere i told wrong this story.
Anyway, as you can imagine Lux played his favorite 45s which many of them if not all (once again I'm very bored to go to my record collection and check) are included on the fabulous series of "Born Bad"!  The sound is from the master board of the station and not from a radio receiver. It's tilted and filthy due to the scratches of the discs or the sound of the artists! Pick what you want! The only truth is that these 24 (go ahead count 'em) blasters are among the dirtiest and sickest rock n roll ever produced! 

The Purple Knif Show!

Rockin Bones Fanzines - The Complete LEGION OF THE CRAMPED archives

Much talk about the Cramps the last months due to the sadly loss of Lux Interior. I don't think that i have to repeat the usual obituaries about him. I don't like it and there are plenty around the net or the printed press ranting n' ravin' about his excellence. To tell you the truth if you ever make it here, means automatically two things:
1. You know who Lux was and what he did.
2. You own at least the first three CLASSIC albums by them. If you don't I'm sorry for you. All you can do to break even is to go at your local record store and with a shame written all over your face buy them!
The mastermind behind this was Lindsay Huttond (also known to the rock n roll fans allover the world  for his other "child", The Next Big Thing). The Rockin Bones pressings began with the blessings of the band in April 1980 and ended after 7 issues in late 1983. The reason that stopped the publishing were the Cramps themselves.... One note that might raise lotsa eyebrows here is that at first Lindsay has the company and the help of one...Steven Patrick Morrissey... One more reason to dig Morrissey is the other fact that he spent some time as the president of the New York Dolls Fan Club! Anyway, as i said to a previous post I'd like to give credit to the cat that pdf these historical documents but i don't know who (he/she) is. May the evil powers of rock n roll be with him/her and protect him/her from the squares!

The Rockin Bones Fanzines - All Issues + Comics n' Newsletters!