February 05, 2009 Earworm

Erick Lee Purkhiser aka Lux Interior
(October 21, 1946 – February 4, 2009)

The Cramps were everything but subtle and Lux Interior was everything a front man should be; over the top, lewd, sexy, and frightening as hell. His passing yesterday of a "pre-existing heart condition" is shocking because he always seemed to be a rock and roll zombie, long dead, always a young punk, and unstoppable. When a peer pointed out that he was the same age as her father - 62 - I felt as though I was hit with a reality pipe.

The Cramps starting making records in 1977 under the guiding hand of Alex Chilton and describing them is nearly impossible but the self proclaimed psychobilly is probably the most apt description of their perfect soundtracks to un-filmed slasher beach party porno flicks. The highlights of their first ten years, before the kitsch and camp began to become redundant self-parody, are too numerous to mention or to whittle down to just one so it has to be a two-fer Thursday and I'll have to go with the sophomoric and butt kicking "Can Your Pussy Do The Dog" because I can not hear it without remembering my friend, Renee, doing the lewdest dance to it one night and "Kizmiaz", a rare ballad in their catalog, which is absolutely hysterical and reminds me of yet another crazy female.

Their later albums often lacked punch as the joke wore thin and I grew older but their late seventies/early eighties output was as essential to my growing up as was high school. I wouldn't be the same without either even though both experiences were equally juvenile at times.

Rest in pieces, Lux.