Lux Interior, RIP

Michael C. Moynihan | February 5, 2009

The brilliant Cramps frontman, dead at 60. From the Los Angeles Times:

Interior, whose real name was Erick Lee Purkhiser, died at Glendale Memorial Hospital of a previously-existing heart condition, according to a statement from his publicist.

With his wife, guitarist "Poison" Ivy Rorschach, Interior formed the Cramps in 1976, pairing lyrics that expressed their love of B-movie camp with ferocious rockabilly and surf-inspired instrumentation.

The band became a staple of the late '70s Manhattan punk scene emerging from clubs like Max's Kansas City and CBGB and was one of the first acts to realize the potential of punk rock as theater and spectacle.

Often dressed in macabre, gender-bending costumes onstage, Interior evoked a lanky, proto-goth Elvis Presley, and his band quickly became notorious for volatile and decadent live performances.

My favorite Cramps performance, live at the Napa State Mental Hospital:

Comments

|2.5.09 @ 11:42AM|#

Life is short.....filled with stuff.....

Mister DNA|2.5.09 @ 11:59AM|#

and yet Jimmy Buffet lives. What a fucking shame.

Loupeznik|2.5.09 @ 12:16PM|#

Shit.....

Inkstained Wretch|2.5.09 @ 1:54PM|#

He's gone down to Lonesome Town for good this time, dammit ...

Neu Mejican|2.5.09 @ 2:10PM|#

whistlin' past the graveyard,
hopin' for the best,

RIP

|2.5.09 @ 2:15PM|#

Does your pussy do the dog?

Terry|2.5.09 @ 2:56PM|#

They have the best rendition of "Route 66".

|2.5.09 @ 4:41PM|#

Their "Surfin Bird" is the most fucked up, twisted version ever. Even better than the Trashmen.

|2.5.09 @ 4:42PM|#

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a98umoWh7VU


Evil music for evil people.

Russ 2000|2.5.09 @ 6:08PM|#

He sang Garbageman, and now he's garbage, man.

|2.5.09 @ 6:49PM|#

Oh no.

So many great shows. Damn.

Hacha Cha|2.5.09 @ 9:44PM|#

god damn that sucks, not good news.
stay sick

|2.6.09 @ 2:21AM|#

Thanks for the Lux memorial; I can't think of another band that influenced my tastes, not just in music, but in everything, as much as The Cramps. Any band worth a damn in the past 30 years was influenced in some way by them or The Ramones.
My fave clip of them is the "Garbageman" video, bu the Napa State Mental Hospital footage is a close second...Has Thomas Szasz ever seen it?