Everyone always talks about the death of rock ‘n’ roll, but in retrospect, the Cramps were the only artists doing anything to resurrect it. Filth. Sleaze. Shock. Flesh. Fetish. These were the quartet’s tactics. Frontman Lux Interior writhed around on stage, searching for a new kind of kick and screaming about eyeballs in martinis, a lubed-up serpent mutant hissing and howling at fans — his leather pants miraculously gone. Meanwhile, guitarist Poison Ivy would keep the pace with her sinuous blues riffs clad in pin-up or dominatrix wear. She was the lion tamer to Interior’s ferocious beast.
Despite a variety of lineups, for three decades their mission was always the same: to disrupt and debauch audiences like the first rock ‘n’ roll records did in the ’50s. “It’s become respectable,” Ivy said in an interview about the then current state of rock ‘n’ roll. “And that’s where the death of rock ‘n’ roll is, in respectability. It should be music for misfits. It should be dangerous,” she continued. “The purpose of rock ‘n’ roll is instant gratification.”
Bonding over their love of the demented and disgusting, the Cramps began and finished as a love story. The group’s core duo Erick Purkhiser (aka Lux Interior) and Kristy Wallace (aka Poison Ivy) met in 1972 when the former picked up the latter as a hitchhiker. Weeks later, it happened that they both were enrolled in an Arts and Shamanism class. Sparks flew, and the two moved in together, encouraging their shared love of crate-digging for old rockabilly records, sexploitation films, and horror b-movies. Within less than a decade, the Cramps were formed, their first official lineup including guitarist Bryan Gregory and drummer Nick Knox.
Although CBGBs’ history is filled with more famous groups — the Ramones, Blondie, Television, and the Talking Heads among them — the Cramps were scene mainstays. One of the venue’s most unforgettable nights was when the then-unsigned quartet performed under the name Frank Furter And The Hot Dogs. Decades later, Henry Rollins dubbed them “one of the best live bands ever.” The Cramps solidified their stance in punk history as the pioneers of psychobilly — a concoction of twangy rhythm and blues, garage rock, and rockabilly. Interior and Ivy pursued their perverse rock ‘n’ roll lifestyle all the way up until Purkhiser’s death in 2009.
The Cramps sound pushed the rock ‘n’ roll’s beginning past the fringes. Dueling guitars and a stark, primitive drumbeat is the ominous, heart-thumping backdrop to Interior’s deviant howls. “I’m a vampire. I’m 164 years old,” Lux Interior once joked(?). “So I’ve been around, and I’ll tell you right now that the ’50s was the height of culture in the Western world.” Screamin’ Jay Hawkins, Link Wray, Ricky Nelson, Elvis, Duane Eddy, Dick Dale, and Peggy Jones were only some of the influences they consistently paid homage to. The moral panic and beginnings of b-horror movies were even more reasons to admire that period. Oral sex and bondage were on par with werewolves and zombies. There was no topic too taboo and no place that couldn’t act as a venue. They notoriously performed at a mental hospital in Napa, California.
Although beloved by the weirdos and the freaks, the group never reached mainstream fame with their horror-infused horniness. However, they did have a handful of mainstream cameos. They appeared in an episode of 90210 as themselves, and Lux Interior fronted a fictional bird band in a Spongebob Squarepants episode. Even William Shatner covered one of their songs. Now, over a decade after the ghoulish group’s end, a viral scene from Tim Burton’s Wednesday is spotlighting the Cramps for a new generation.
It was a pleasant macabre surprise when their 1980 single “Goo Goo Muck” soundtracked one of the most entrancing moments in the Netflix series inspired by the beloved Addams Family character. Jenna Ortega, who phenomenally plays Wednesday, choreographed a perfect balance of angular, coordinated punches and wild bursts of thrashing limbs. Possessed, she embodies Poison Ivy’s flirtatious precision and Lux Interior’s spellbinding madness. It’s unfortunate the band is getting its due without Lux Interior and Bryan Gregory alive to witness the current spread of their debauchery. But like true rock ‘n’ roll, the Cramps’ spirit will never die, only rear its ugly head again eager to corrupt those hungry for hedonism.
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