Big Beat From Badsville

Bottom & Top/ "Bikini Girls With Machine Guns", "The Creature From The Black Leather Lagoon" and "Her Love Rubbed Off" are some of the songtitles included in The Cramps' ninth album Stay Sick! (Big Beat Records, 1989). A punk rock band originally formed in 1976, starring lead singer Lux Interior and lead guitarist Poison Ivy (pictured above), The Cramps were part of the early CBGBs punk rock movement that had emerged in New York, along with other emerging acts like The Ramones, Patti Smith, and Television. The band is sometimes credited as one of the founders of the psychobilly genre of music. The content of their songs and image is campy, trashy Americana (alternately in the style of filmmakers John Waters and David Lynch), sexual fetichism, clever bad jokes, and cheap, retro horror B-movie clichés. Their sound was heavily influenced by early rockabilly, rhythm and blues, and rock and roll like Link Wray and Hasil Adkins, 1960s surf music acts such as The Ventures and Dick Dale, 1960s garage rock artists like The Standells, The Gants, The Trashmen, The Green Fuz and The Sonics, as well as the post-glam/early punk scene from which they emerged. They also were influenced to a degree by The Ramones and Screamin' Jay Hawkins, who was an influence for their style of theatrical horror-blues. In turn, The Cramps have influenced countless subsequent bands in the garage, punk and rockabilly revival subgenres. The band split after suffering the sudden death of lead singer Lux Interior in February 2009 aged 62. Middle/ Elvis Presley's self-titled debut album was released in mono in 1956. The cover design was borrowed, and commented on, by The Clash for the front of their 1979 album London Calling (see below).