Lux Interior, of course, was the singer in the legendary Cramps, a band so storied and quintessentially, darkly American that they almost came to hold a kind of Norman Rockwell-ish stature. He died yesterday. In the last few years, we’ve been listening to the Cramps more than we ever thought we would back when we first heard them in high school, and maybe it’s because over the last few years, Reagan-era punk rock suddenly got super-relevant again. But the Cramps were more than a blood-n-guts kitsch monster mash act, though — they were educators. The mp3 stream above is that of Interior’s much-sought-after Purple Knif radio show, originally broadcast on Los Angeles community radio in July 1984. It’s epic: In it, Lux lays down tracks that not only articulate the Cramps musical ethos perfectly — trashy, spooky, desperate — but also pays tribute to those who anonymously went before him. Give it a listen, and Lux, long may you ghoul.
[MP3 hat tip to GaragePunk.com]

This entry was posted on Thursday, February 5th, 2009 at 1:19 pm.