Scums Corner Hole The Cramps

          Happy Halloween Freaks

    My unpredictability might show through with my band pics as last month I sang the praises of The Great Band ANTiSEEN, don't forget them at Tremont music Hall Oct. 5th.

    This month I don't think I could have chose a much different band if I tried, but that's not why I chose this band. This Oct. Halloween Pick unequivocally goes to another of my faves, The Cramps!

      Halloween is one of my happiest and yet totally gut-wrenchingly sad times of the year. I’ve alway loved fall, Halloween, the chilling of of the weather and changing of leaves. Beautiful weather for whiskey drinking. On Halloween of 2001 We lost two of the most beloved and prominent people in the Knox Co punk scene. I’m not going to allow myself to get into this too deep for self preservation however Halloween night we were all partying on a friends rooftop when my very dear friends Angie Comer and Dennis Shockley (DOC. SHOCK) announced they were headed onto the club that were all planning to hook up to see bands play later in the evening. To make a long, heartbreaking story short and as painless as possible The next I heard was a phone call informing me and my girlfriend a drunk driver had ran a red light,smashing into them at over 80 miles an hr. I remember my girlfriend broke down sobbing, i stumbled to the bathroom where someone else was crying loudly. As I realized it was me, I sat on the bathtub and proceeded to inject more illicit drugs than I’d ever seen a human do.

       

   Back to 1976  Lux Interior, guitarist Poison Ivy, guitarist Bryan Gregory and drummer Pam Ballam formed the 1st line up of this zealous, long living and innovative little band. However because so many came and went in their 30 yrs. of rock- a- billy (which they were the 1st to introduce into the Punk Rock Scene) I am going to stick to writing about the Key Players, Lux Interior, the voice of the Cramps and Poison Ivy guitarist and now and then Bassist.The talented Kid Congo Powers (from The Gun Club and Later Nick Cave and The Bad Seeds) joined the band for the well received Psychedelic Jungle in 1980 but Idon't think he did the entire tour.
Lux had a strong, heavy 1950’s voice. Well, if you could dose the ‘50’s with LSD and Codeine cough syrup you get something very close to the vocal style of Mr Lux Interior.

       The Cramps are another band that got a start playing New York's CBGB's and people first thought of them as just another garage band, which they were but were so much more. They soon coined the phrase Psychobilly and later Goth -a-billy.

    I personally would have loved to be at one of this bands 1st appearances just to see the crowd reaction because this had to be different than anything anyone had ever seen or heard. I added seen because Lux Interior and Poison Ivy had as Bizarre look as they did sound, leather clad, animal stripes and leopard spots, Lux's jet black hair his sometimes short, shorts and high heels even donning miniskirts, garter belts with panty hose. As a 100% straight male with a beautiful girlfriend of 15 yrs.(this year) back in 1998 in my ‘zine GRUMPUS I named Lux Interior and Tina Turner

a tie for the best legs in Rock n Roll!

Lux was obviously a straight man also as he and Ivy were at some point married. Ivy was as much a fashion queen upon the stage as anyone could hope to be with her leopard spotted or green dot outfits, long red mane they were definitely a sight to behold for 1976 and their music, while different was undeniably catchy, the music you leave a show humming a song for several days. They released a couple indie singles that were produced by Alex Chilton which lead to them being picked up by Miles Copeland III to IRS Records.

      In June of 1978 The Cramps did something inexplicably unprecedented in not only the punk rock genre’ but music in general. They somehow obtained a permit to play a free gig at a State Mental Hospital in Napa California. This was later released of video as Live from the Napa State Mental Hospital. I have seen this and weird don't begin to describe it. Rumor has it that the Cramps brought many fans who sneaked in and blended so well with the patients they were able to stay for the show. This was apparently some kind of experiment and that's how they pulled it off. Some patients seemed to enjoy it while others shuffled around obviously so out of it on Thorazine or shaking off their last shock treatment they didn't seem to notice. I have never before or since heard of this being done in a mental institution. Prison, Yes. never before or since in a mental hospital though. The patients had no barriers between them and the band.

     Johnny Cash played live at Folsom and San Quentin then yrs. later Metallica did a live 2 hour set at San Quentin while shooting footage for their St. Anger video.

      My 1st introduction to the Cramps was a 1984 compilation album called Bad Music for Bad People, I didn't discover them until about '87 and it was this album that made the introductions.

      The 1st longplayer the Cramps released was Songs the Lord Taught us in 1979 and was a nice  prelude of what to come. Like The Smell of Female, recorded live at the Peppermint  Lounge which was recorded again with no bassist.

      Then 1986 brought A date with Elvis a 4 out of 5 star album in my opinion. Atlas they added Bass. While recording the multi-talented Poison Ivy played bass guitar and on the recording, then Jennifer Dixon played on the tour, which was the a world tour. In Europe it sold over 250,000 copies and the track Can your Pussy do The Dog hit The U.K. Single Charts while they couldn't even find a label in the U.S. In '86 they did get a regular Bass Player Candy del Mar from band Satan's Cheerleaders.

     It seemed the band chose constant touring rather than concentrating on the studio which was fine with me when I heard the live and crudely recorded Rockin n Reelin in Auckland New Zealand XXX. This was like a live Bad Music for Bad People! A bunch of great songs spit out with Lux’s usual wink nod brand of venom.  

    The next album I got was their 4th studio record and my 1st time I'd seen them live, it was

titled STAY SICK, produced by Poison Ivy.    

       This surprisingly turned into my favorite studio album. There are more than a few that disagree with me and that’s fine. However certain “fans” seem to want a band to just spit out their 1st album over and over. As soon as they try anything even remotely different they’re not the same band any longer. Seems only Punk bands are plagued with this obstacle but then a faction of Punks are total fucking snobs. Certainly not all or even the majority of us however this percentage of above it all genius elites, regardless of how large or small definitely make themselves heard.

      I’m not going to do an album review on every album The Cramps ever released as some are Great, some good, some I’m better to not mention; you know the old if you can’t something nice,deal. I will say I like some albums more than others and many, many, fans of The Cramps

will disagree. This doesn't make someone right and someone wrong, it makes us human for fucks sake.

     They continued to release albums and tour throughout the 90’s and well into the 2000’s

releasing albums like Look Ma no Head in ‘91 to Fiends of Dope Island in ‘02 saw both tours and both were brilliant.

    Whatever I may have felt about the albums the band never let me down live,I can’t say say that about all my favorite bands. I can’t even say that about  my band .  

    1976 to 2009 that’s one hell of a Rock n Roll ride. In 2006 a reporter ask him why continued

to play as he was well into middle age. Why does a junkie continue to use drugs? He reportedly said then he answered himself because it’s so much fun, I’m addicted to it all !

      

     At 4:30 am on February 4, 2009, at Glendale Memorial Hospital in California Lux Interior died of a sudden and unexpected aortic dissection, which I know shit about except it's some tear in the aorta and mercifully it's pretty fast.

SCUM'S CORNER HOLE ANTiSEEN

What's up Punk Rock Fans,I am coming to you from beautiful Myrtle Beach, I been down here about 2 weeks and I'm loving it! Ya know, the coolest part of having my own column in this great magazine is they gave me the option to run my mouth about any band I want and this month it's gotta be ANTISEEN!

Not only are these guys my one of my very favorite bands ever, this year they are celebrating 30 years of ball busting, Hardcore Rock with an unmistakable Southern accent.

I love everything about this band; Joe Young’s Signature heavy distorted guitar chops, the rhythm section made up of Bassist Jon Bowman and Drummer Phil Keller that's so loud and tight it's a brick a wall of sound that not just anyone could stand front and center belt lyrics out to; That would be Jeff Clayton. Only Jeff Clayton could do Jeff Clayton's job. You can stack five Phil Anselmo's up and you still won’t get one Jeff Clayton. Read more

SEPTEMBER"S PICK "ANTISEEN"

Nothing in particular against Anselmo, granted He rocked it "Brutal Like" for a few years but ANTISEEN has been doing this 30 fucking years. Altogether they have over 100 LP's, EPs, CDs and DVDs with different line ups, splits with different bands, not to mention they tour all over the world. My guess is Clayton is probably around 6ft, a hulking figure with long hair, a beard, both arms completely sleeved in tattoos, he could easily be mistaken for one of the Old School wrestlers he admirably sings about in songs like Cactus Jack, Baby face killer, Funk You and From parts unknown. Having been to multiple ANTiSEEN shows, once even lucky enough to open for them, I can honestly say they are one of the best live gigs there is.

More shows than not Jeff Clayton bashes his head with a baseball bat wrapped in barbed wire, shoves a broken beer bottle into his head, or just smashes the microphone or microphones into his head, seemingly whatever is handy to split his head open until he's gushing blood all over himself, never missing a word of his at times offensive lyrics. Well, I say offensive only because I know a lot of people are offended by lyrics like "Animals Eat’em so You don't have to feed them." Fuck The Kids, or The Song Spare change in which he rips hipster panhandlers a new asshole. However I probably wouldn't like someone that is offended by ANTiSEEN lyrics much anyway. I’ve never went in for the overly P.C. crowd, especially the people that seem to have sold out their sense of humor just to fit in with the other politically correct dweebs.

    Unfortunately I was about a decade late discovering ANTISEEN.It was 1993, I was sitting in the floor drinking surrounded by GG Allin, The Meatmen, The Dwarves CDs and a couple Mentors cassettes when my roomie came in and handed me a copy of Eat More Possum. I put it in and was immediately drawn to the fast paced, noisy, no bullshit songwriting style. As with most of favorite Punk Rock bands there wasn't a lot of what I considered useless or excessive musicianship, such as long ass guitar solos or songs with seventeen different parts and a million chord changes. They just played it, played it fast, played it loud and fuckin meant it. This was love at first listen.

There's a damn good chance I listened to that CD 100 times in the next week while consuming more alcohol than most people would think humanely possible. That was the summer and fall of G.G. Allin (he died that year) ANTiSEEN and ABC Malt Liquor.

I was a really big GG Allin fan and '93 was a bittersweet year we lost GG but I also got a copy of the work he did with ANTiSEEN on the MURDER JUNKIES album they put out together. Alotta people will describe this as ANTiSEEN being a back-up band for GG but to me it was an ANTiSEEN album with GG ALLIN featured on vocals. I say this because listening to the musical songwriting and arrangements, it's obvious (to me) that Joe Young and Jeff had wrote much of the music leaving GG to concentrate on lyrics, making a brilliant final product. Notable Tracks are Kill the Police, Violence Now, and My Prison Walls.    

A year or two later, back in Tennessee another friend hipped me to The Confederacy of Scum, founded by ANTiSEEN. Unfortunately now defunkt the Confederacy of (COS) opened my eyes and ears to a bunch of other kick ass Southern Scum Rock bands, There were some incredible show line ups and super shows all over the states, as there were some great bands involved. Just off my head there's Before I Hang, Hammerlock, Limecell, Hellstomper, Cocknoose, Rancid Vat, Frankenstein Drag Queens From Planet 13,  and The Tunnel Rats.

    The last time I seen The Boys from Brutalsville was when my band The Dirty Works finally opened for them; It was 2011, I do believe. I'm not sure if it was the fact we got to play, because I was feeling particularly good that night, the atmosphere of The Longbranch Saloon and all my local friends being there or The Band were just really pumped to play that night but that is the best I ever seen them play. The way they took over the stage, the bar to the point the whole place was a pit was fuckin' beautiful. I'm not 20 years old anymore, far from it so I usually sit out of mosh pits these days but I couldn't help my old ass. I was in the middle of it all night, if I remember correctly I caught an elbow right in the mouth, not that I minded a bit. Well, at least not the next morning when I woke up feeling as though I'd been beaten by a damn ball bat but even then, reminiscing on the phenomenal show the night before I immediately felt a little better. Unfortunately I didn't catch ANTiSEEN last year that's why I'm so stoked about the Oct. 5th which is when The MEATMEN and The HOOKERS are kicking the party off

for ANTiSEEN?S 30th Anniversary show at Tremont Music Hall, which is 400 W Tremont Ave, Charlotte, NC 28203. The MEATMEN, The HOOKERS and ANTiSEEN. This is going to be a big one and I'm gonna get there if I have to crawl on barbed wire the whole way!

   See you there,

Christopher Scum

Scum Note While writing this on Sun. Aug. 18, Antiseen?s Cosmic Commander world wrestling

announcer passed away.  RIP my friend....