Henry Rollins lembra Lux Interior

I grew up in Washington, D.C., in the ’70s, and when punk rock came along, I realized that my ship had come in. The Cramps would come down to D.C. and I would see them play in a space about the size of your living room. It was kind of scary being in the front row. Lux would find something to swing from — if there were ceiling tiles, they’d all be on the floor by the end of the thing. Lux would somehow find his way out of his pants and be down to a pair of bikini briefs twitching all over the floor. He’s a very large man, very tall and very pale and very sweaty. They all looked so amazing. Each one could have been a movie star.

I remember buying their first or second single from a roadie who was selling them for three bucks at the door. It’s probably worth its weight in gold now. The first two Cramps 7-inches are some of the first independent singles I ever owned. Once I drove up to New York to see them in my little VW; it was me and most of the Bad Brains all crammed into my little car. It was at Irving Plaza, and H.R. from Bad Brains, he went backstage because he’s a big rock star, and he came out with a slick of the album cover and the whole band had signed the back. I still have it to this day.

Ian MacKaye’s first band, the Teen Idles, once opened for the Cramps, and it was a big deal. So the Cramps go on and we’re all up front and Lux is unbuttoning his pants and flopping around on the ground. So, being helpful Boy Scouts, we just kind of yanked on his jeans. They rolled off and we were just standing there with these dripping jeans.

Afterward, we walked backstage to give Lux his pants back, and we’re kind of terrified of the Cramps because we don’t know what they are like. And we go backstage and there is [guitarist] Bryan Gregory looking satanic, and Ian kind of mumbles “Oh, here’s Lux’s pants.” And Bryan Gregory says, “Oh look! Lux! The boys have brought your pants back and they’re cleaned and pressed.” Everyone laughed, and Lux said thank you, and we just kind of ran downstairs.

Many years later we played together at the Pukkelpop festival [in Europe]. At that time Lux was in his rubber pants/high heels/pour-wine-all-over-himself era. So they finished their set and he’s walking up the stairs with that bouffant, he’s been rolling on the ground and he’s red from wine, his mascara is running and I think one heel is broken. He’s this very large man tottering up the stairs, and I said, “Hey, Lux,” and he kind of looked at me and said, “Good afternoon!”

You get the idea that there was something very decent about them, that there was something almost like your dad about how they were. And it seems to me that Lux and [his wife and bandmate] Ivy were fairly insular, away from the general roar of things, which makes them interesting to me.

I really appreciated their fascination with ’50s car culture and everything camp. They’ll be the first to tell you, “We’re not in school right now.” And so to me the Cramps were always just really fun and clever. Like the lyrics for “Garbageman,” they’re smart and cool, in the way that Mark Twain was smart and cool.

Those early records, like the first two singles and the “Gravest Hits” EP and “Songs the Lord Taught Us” and “Psychedelic Jungle,” to me are just as good as American music gets. There’s a handful of bands that are just part of your working mojo, and the Cramps are one of those bands. I went to that Miles Davis function they had the other night and I saw Raymond Pettibon and Mike Watt there, and they were just really bummed about Lux. To have that and Ron Asheton right in the same immediate period of time was really a loss.

In my opinion, when it comes to being a frontperson, you should say, “That person could never hold a full-time job. Just give him a microphone and get out of his way.” And that was Lux — he was definitely that uncontainable personality. And that voice — the guy could really sing. Nothing sounds like him. He had that gender-bending kind of “What is he?” thing . . . He was kind of crazy, and you gave him some room because he might get some on you. That informed me as far as being a frontperson owning your territory.

Do LA Times.

Hoje só amanhã: a quinta semana de 2009

Amanhã não, segunda – nesse domingo não tem Trabalho Sujo.

A volta do Legião Urbana
Gravações raras de João Gilberto ressurgem na internet: tanto as gravações que fez na casa do fotógrafo Chico Pereira em 1958 (o técnico de som Christophe Rousseau fala mais sobre o assunto), quanto o show ao lado de Tom Jobim, Os Cariocas e Vinícius de Moraes em 1962 e as gravações do tempo do Garotos da Lua, em 1950 (que repercutem) •
Lost: Jughead
Sílvio Santos portátil
Dakota Fanning, 15 anos
Little Joy em São Paulo
Moleque chapa no dentista, é remixado e vira desenho
Entrevista: Matt Mason (Pirate’s Dilemma)
Vazou o disco de Lily Allen
Trailers novos: Transformers 2 e Jornada nas Estrelas (com menção ao Cloverfield) •
Rick Levy se aposenta da naite
50 anos do dia em que a música morreu
Banda Calypso é indicada ao Nobel da Paz
Lux Interior (1948-2009)
Legendas.tv fora do ar (e hackers sacaneiam o site da APCMdeu no G1) •
A história do Kraftwerk
Krautrock dance
Emma Watson, 18 anos
Paul’s Boutique comentado pelos Beastie Boys
Soulwax faz set só com introduções de músicas (uma idéia que o Osymyso já tinha tido) •
Alan Moore e a televisão do século 21 (que aproveita para falar de sua participação nos Simpsons) •
Phelps dá pala, devia ter respondido assim, mas é punido; Ronaldo sai em sua defesa
Um herói candango
Vocalista do Gogol Bordello já agitou feshteenha no Rio e vai tocar no carnaval do Recife com Mundo Livre e Manu Chao
Saiu a escalação do festival de Boonnaroo
Forgotten Boys sem Chucky
Comentando Lost: The Lie
A história do krautrock
Entrevista: Lawrence Lessig
Comentando Lost: Jughead
Kraftwerk 1970
Oito episódios para o fim de Battlestar Galactica
Of Montreal tocando Electric Light Orchestra
Fubap de cara nova
“Friday I’m in Love” sem palavras
Todas as mortes em Sopranos
Christian Bale estressa com produtor e é remixado
Montage papai
As calcinhas da Kate do Lost são brasileiras
Lykke Li 2009
Cansei de Ser Sexy x Chromeo
Visita à discoteca Oneyda Alvarenga
Moleque do dentista e Christian Bale são remixados

Lux Interior (1948-2009)

Caceta, ele era um ano mais novo que os meus pais… Mais uma banda foda que eu não vejo ao vivo – e o vídeo acima é da clássica apresentação dos Cramps no Napa State Mental Hospital, na Califórnia.