Thursday, February 5, 2009

Lux Interior - by way of a tribute

I was trying to think of a suitable way to recognise the passing of the frontman of The Cramps. For me, a wonderful band - keepers of many a very important flame in popular music; trashy aesthetics, stripped down sounds, balls, energy, attitude...fun, goodness knows.

Like the Ramones, they spoke from the epicentre of somewhere very important to popular culture. In many ways, the best things about pop culture (as envisioned with a guitar slung around its neck) were brought back to life by them again and again with songs like 'Human Fly', 'People Aint No Good', and 'Can your pussy do the dog?'. If you couldn't have fun at a Cramps concert, you probably couldn’t have too much fun anywhere. And its the fun I will remember.

For this reason, my tribute to them is from a man who (for a while anyway) seemed to at least partially embody that spirit and who (I like to believe) has at least one of their records pon his iPod. The fact that this tribute was done in lego (a plastic classic) seems particularly appropriate. Hail to the Cramps!

2 comments:

Blimpy said...

RIP Lux.

Luke-sensei said...

I hadn't heard until I read this post.....that really is sad.

The number of (US) bands that claim to have formed after the Cramps came to their town and destroyed the local toilet venue/school gym/amateur theatre space, is incredible - most of the DC hardcore scene for a start and I don't think there'd be a Guitar Wolf without Lux's aesthetic and reclamation of rock 'n' roll as it was meant to be played .......RIP.

"Put that in your smoke and pipe it"!!