The Return of the Cramps (thanks to Henry Rollins and Ian McKaye)

The Cramps were something unique in the history of rock: a curious unity between early rock, punk and horror imagery, brought on stage in overwhelming concerts. They have never been celebrated enough, nor rediscovered: their story ended in 2009 after the sudden death of frontman Lux Interior. In the following years, neither reprints nor official archive publications had ever arrived. The presence of “Goo Goo Muck” in one of the scenes of the “Wednesday” series had aroused some interest, but Jenn Ortega’s dance actually went viral, especially associated with a Lady Gaga song and not with that of the band.

Now the Cramps return with a “lost” album recorded in 1977, thanks to two icons of alternative rock, Henry Rollins and Ian McKaye. “Gravest Gravy” will be released on August 21st on the Vengeance label and will contain unreleased recordings made by the historic psychobilly band together with Alex Chilton, leader of Big Star and producer of the group’s first sessions. This is material recorded in the same period in which the Cramps recorded their first singles, “Surfin’ Bird” / “The Way I Walk” and “Human Fly” / “Domino”, released in 1978. Those sessions would later give rise to the “Gravest Hits” EP, but several songs recorded at the time had never been released.

Lux Interior and Poison Ivy had attempted to recover those recordings as early as the late 1980s, but the project was shelved “for reasons lost in time.” Now the original tapes have been transferred and restored by Brian Kehew, while Henry Rollins and Ian MacKaye have worked on selecting the final mixes. Poison Ivy ultimately approved the final versions for publication. Henry says: “The tracks on ‘Gravest Gravy’ were held on seven quarter-inch reels. Six had been prepared by Lux and Ivy, one by Alex. The tapes were transferred with great care by Brian Kehew. He was happy to tell us that all seven reels had stood the test of time and that the tracks were in perfect condition. Many of the songs had different mixes. We had to figure out which ones were the right ones to keep. After several nights of concentrated listening and a huge amount of notes, I was able to understand the changes from one mix to the next. Within a few nights I realized that the last mix of each song was the final one. Not only did the tracks seem to express their full potential, but it also made sense.”

The release of “Gravest Gravy” also marks the official restart of the band’s archive: Poison Ivy founded the new company Cramps, Inc. together with Larry Hardy of In The Red Records and former producer Jimmy Maslon, with the aim of reissuing the group’s catalog and publishing official merchandise.

Ian MacKaye and I are working on behalf of The Cramps Inc.,” Rollins says, dealing with release ideas, tape maintenance, editing, mixing, mastering and lacquer cutting. We work with Inner Ear Studios in Arlington, Virginia, and Infrasonic Sound in Nashville, Tennessee. Many Cramps records and items, such as the T-shirts you see on the Internet, are bootlegs. The Cramps Inc. is trying to correct this situation and recently made a deal with the company Easy Partners merchandising. New designs for the official merchandising are already in the works.”

The tracklist for “Gravest Gravy” includes eleven songs, including “Weekend on Mars,” “Twist & Shout,” “Rockin’ Bones” and “Rocket in My Pocket.” This is the complete tracklist:
01 Weekend on Mars
02 Twist & Shout
03 Jungle Hop
04 Can’t Hardly Stand It
05 Hungry
06 The Natives Are Restless
07 Dominoes
08 Can’t Find My Mind
09 Rockin’ Bones
10 Problem Child
11 Rocket in My Pocket