CYNTHIA ROSE - REAL TIME HOT TIPS

The Cramps in Conversation

Ivy:

"We had the look of The Cramps going long before we ever really knew we would have a band..."

Ivy laughs:

"We literally moved to New York based on this one picture, yet amazingly enough, that was our first gig -- at CBGBs."

"We really wanted a band but we didn't know how to do it. We came to New York thinking, because of this single picture, that everybody walked around looking like the New York Dolls. And of course nobody did...it was all jeans and boring."

Punk, however, was happening, and The Cramps happened fast with it. Eighteen years after their first romantic encounter in California, Lux and Ivy prove the couple who plays together stays together. Their new LP, "Flamejob", is one of their best. Sound-wise, much of it is still straight rockabilly: strange, rare Fifties "punk" music both regard as timeless.

Lux:

"They're just these real nervous records, absolutely full of energy. And there's a real tension in the idea of this backbeat with a guitar and the singer sounding like he's just about to have a nervous breakdown. That's an infectious sound and it really caught us."

To him, the rockabillies -- singers like Charlie Feathers, Sonny Burgess and Malcolm Yelvington -- are similar to another set of his idols: the Surrealists.

Lux:

"Marcel Duchamp is quite an inspiration for this new LP. Because he kind of single-handedly demolished all that had gone before, and made a brand-new art. Man Ray was great too."

Lux:

"When he glued those nails onto the face of that iron, the iron like you'd use to iron clothes, so you couldn't use it for that anymore? I like to think the Cramps do that kind of stuff: stop the practical thing from being practical anymore."

Even Cramps lyrics have tight ties to rockabilly. Here is a line from "Fucked Up", one of "Flamejob"s better tracks:

"Slip on nocturnal shades
Go down to amateur night
Do some purple haze
Probably lose some fight
Get cool and casual...
Get really SENT
Dig some cruel and un-u-sual
Punishment".

Around 1979, when The Cramps were first starting, Lux's 1950s idol Charlie Feathers sang: "Ain't it disgusting/The shape that I'm in/I've been through hell, Lord/And I'm goin' again!"

Ivy, of course, has her own set of influences.

Ivy:

"Mine are people like Jayne Mansfield and Salvador Dali. People who sort of declared themselves king or queen of their own little world. Because, beyond music, too, you can do whatever you want. You can actually live in any world."

Music, however, remains a very supportive force.

Lux:

"Our whole life has been collecting records -- and now we can make 'em. That's our biggest kick. We make a record and we get done and we can really say 'wow'...it really SOUNDS GOOD. Just like I guess Vincent Van Gogh can paint a painting and he'd say, 'Yeah, I can dig that, I won't kill myself. I won't cut off my OTHER ear. Y'know?"

The new video, "Ultra Twist", exists in an X-rated, as well as a plugger's, version.

Lux:

"Yeah, that one has lots of naked twisters, twisters from these nudie movies and from nudist camps. Some of those things have great titles: "HOUSE ON BARE MOUNTAIN", "KISS ME QUICK", "TOO MUCH SEX QUIZ", "ULTIMATE DEGENERATE". We always liked B-films. Lots of times we've turned film titles into lyrics...But the non-nudie clips came from a reel called "UNIDENTIFIED TWIST FILMS". That was the actual title!!!"

Making the video called for 12 hours of ensemble twisting. And, notes Ivy, all the women -- and some men -- wore high heels:

Ivy:

"People kept coming up to us, going, "Are we gonna get a break? "Are we gonna get LUNCH?" And we would go, JUST SHUT UP AND KEEP DANCING!!"

Lux:

"They knew they had been through something once they did that video! There was actually lots of sado-masochism going on there...Ivy would be screaming at 'em and they'd be like, "Oh, OK...". The next day, they had bloody feet!"

Already "Flamejob" has taken Lux and Ivy onto US MTV as guest programme hosts. But they seem content to enjoy life every day.

Lux:

"We're just people who remain ever-curious. We're just attracted to whatever comes in handy. Again, like the Surrealists, anything you run across is actually beautiful; within a single city block, you find miraculous things. It's a good planet -- and good things can happen."

"Flamejob" is on Medicine Records in America; in Europe it is available through Creation.

The quote from Man Ray "Flamejob" contains is the following:

"Each one of us, in his timidity, has a limit beyond which he is outraged. It is inevitable that he who by concentrated application has extended this limit for himself, should arouse the resentment of those who have accepted conventions which, since accepted by all, require no iniative of application, And this resentment generally takes the form of meaningless laughter or of criticism, if not persecution. But this apparent violation is preferable to the monstrous habits condoned by etiquette and estheticism."

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