Lux Interior Was Cool: 24 Reasons

02/05/09 12:09am

by Steve McLean (CHARTattack)

Cramps frontman Lux Interior passed away at 4:30 a.m. on Wednesday morning from a heart condition at Glendale Memorial Hospital in Glendale, Calif.

Rather than dwell on the passing of this 60-year-old man, we here at CHARTattack want to celebrate the highlights of his life. Without further ado, here are two dozen reasons why Lux Interior was cool:

1. His birth name was Erick Lee Purkhiser, but the automobile buff adopted the name Lux Interior from a car advertisement.

2. He was a childhood fan of horror comic books and bad movies, but especially of Ghoulardi — a character played by film director Paul Thomas Anderson's father Ernie Anderson, who hosted television shows on Cleveland's WJW-TV in the '60s. One of Ghoulardi's catch phrases was "Stay Sick," which The Cramps used as the title of their 1989 album. The band also dedicated 1997's Big Beat From Badsville to Ghoulardi after he died early that year.

3. Interior met his future wife and Cramps guitarist Poison Ivy Rorschach (real name Kristy Wallace) when she was hitchhiking near Sacramento, Calif. in 1972.

4. After dropping lots of acid in California, the couple moved to the musical hotbed of Akron, Ohio — the home of Pere Ubu, Rocket From The Tombs, Devo and The Pretenders' Chrissie Hynde, among others — in 1973.

5. Interior and Rorschach moved to New York City in 1975, where they became enraptured by the burgeoning punk rock scene and were inspired to start a band. The Cramps' punk influences were mixed with their love of vintage rock 'n' roll, garage rock, surf music, rockabilly and B-movie images. They used fuzz guitar and initially had no bass to create what they called "psychobilly" on 1976 gig posters.

6. Without The Cramps leading the way, we might never have had The Meteors, Guana Batz, Nekromantix, The Reverend Horton Heat, Tiger Army, HorrorPops or, in Canada, The Matadors and The Creepshow. The Cramps later moved away from the psychobilly description, and countless other bands were also less directly influenced by them.

7. The Cramps played a free show at California's Napa Valley State Mental Institution in 1978. Here's their cover of Canadian rock 'n' roll pioneer Jack Scott's "The Way I Walk" from that performance:

8. The Cramps released their Gravest Hits debut EP the next year and followed it in 1980 with their first album, Songs The Lord Taught Us, which was produced by Alex Chilton at a studio owned by Sun Records founder Sam Phillips in Memphis, Tenn. Many fans still consider these two records The Cramps' best.

9. The Cramps moved to Los Angeles in 1980 and recorded the excellent Psychedelic Jungle, which was bogged down by a dispute with I.R.S. Records over royalties and creative freedom before it was finally released.

10. The Cramps' "Surfin' Dead" contribution to the 1985 film The Return Of The Living Dead was rivalled only by Roky Erickson's "Burn The Flames" on the soundtrack.

11. The Cramps only started using a bassist after their third original studio album, 1986's A Date With Elvis.

12. Interior and Rorschach often took their own photos for their album covers and liner notes, and produced most of their own records.

13. RockinNReelinInAucklandNewZealand remains the greatest title for a live album ever.

14. With all due respect to The Flaming Lips, The Cramps were the coolest band to ever appear on Beverly Hills, 90210 when they performed "Mean Machine" and "Strange Love" on the 1995 Halloween episode titled "Gypsies, Cramps And Fleas."

15. Interior usually wore stiletto heels and tight leather clothing, but often stripped down to a thong during shows.

16. Interior and Rorschach's unique sense of style was also reflected in their home decor. I saw a great photo spread of their place in a magazine years ago, but can't remember which one.

17. Interior was described by a reviewer as a "psychosexual werewolf/Elvis hybrid from hell" who would often stuff the microphone down his pants or in his mouth while climbing on top of stacked speakers or writhing on the floor during performances. An internet acquaintance of mine said Interior once licked her face and ripped off her fishnet stockings at a show.

18. A shattered bass drum head that Interior put his head through at a concert is on display at the Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame in Cleveland, Ohio.

19. I was inspired to do an admittedly pale imitation of Interior's performance style during a rendition of The Cramps' "Human Fly" and stood on a balcony railing over a river during punk karaoke on the closing night of the South By Southwest Music Festival in Austin, Texas in 2007.

20. The Cramps' raunch wasn't limited to the stage, as evidenced by such songs as "Daisys Up Your Butterfly," "Journey To The Center Of A Girl," "Let's Get Fucked Up," "Naked Girl Falling Down The Stairs," "The Hot Pearl Snatch," "What's Inside A Girl?," "Can Your Pussy Do The Dog?," "(Hot Pool Of) Womanneed," "It Thing Hard On," "Devil Behind That Bush," "Dames, Booze, Chains And Boots," "Two Headed Sex Change," "I Wanna Get In Your Pants," "Bend Over, I'll Drive," "Dr. Fucker M.D. (Musical Deviant)," "Elvis Fucking Christ!" and "She's Got Balls." There was also a 1983 live album titled Smell Of Female.

21. When Horseshoe Tavern/Lee's Palace/ATG Concerts owner Jeff Cohen asked me to suggest bands to play his wedding in 2004, one of the first bands I mentioned was The Cramps. He considered them before deciding on The Waco Brothers.

22. Interior and Rorschach were the prime subjects of a very readable 2007 book titled The Cramps: A Short History Of Rock 'N' Roll Psychosis. The Cramps were more popular in Europe than North America, so it makes sense that French-language books on the band were published in 1989 and 1995.

23. Though lots of musicians passed through The Cramps over the years, Interior and Rorschach (who still looked pretty hot in her skimpy outfits at age 55) were constants until what would be their final gigs last November.

24. The performance below from 1981's brilliant Urgh! A Music War was where I first discovered and fell in love with The Cramps. Maybe you will, too.