CRAMPS, (The) Big Beat From Badsville LP Vinyl

There are bands that play psychobilly and then there are The Cramps, who invented an entire universe of grease, venom, and B-movie horror and made everyone else look like they were trying too hard at a costume party.

Big Beat From Badsville, their 1997 swansong on Epitaph, is The Cramps at full voltage. Lux Interior howling like a man possessed by every exploitation film ever made, Poison Ivy locked into riffs that owe as much to Link Wray as they do to the ghost of rockabilly's id. It's punk rock raised on horror comics, garage fuzz soaked in cheap perfume and formaldehyde. Tracks like Queen of Pain and Sheena's in a Goth Gang hit different when you realise this is a band that genuinely lived the aesthetic, no irony, no distance. Essential for anyone serious about dark music, alternative fashion, and the weirder corners of punk history. Reissue pressing, sounds great.

Format: 12" Vinyl LP (Reissue). Genre: Psychobilly, Garage Rock, Rockabilly, Punk. Country of origin: USA. Original release: 1997.

Fans of: The Gun Club, Reverend Horton Heat, Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds, Tiger Army.