The Cramps Gravest Hits & Psychedelic Jungle

2 LPS on 1 CD: PSYCHEDELIC JUNGLE (1981)/GRAVEST HITS [EP] (1979).
Digitally remastered by Mike Reese (A&M Studios, Hollywood, California).
PSYCHEDLIC JUNGLE:
The Cramps: Lux Interior (vocals); Ivy Rorschach, Congo Powers (guitar); Nick Knox (drums).
Producer: The Cramps.
Engineer: Paul McKenna.
Recorded at A&M Studios, Hollywood, California in January 1981.
GRAVEST HITS [EP]:
The Cramps: Lux Interior (vocals); Poison Ivy (Ivy Rorschach), Bryan Gregory (guitar); Nick Knox (drums).
Producer: Alex Chilton
Engineer: John Hampton.
Recorded at Ardent Studios, Memphis, Tennessee in October 1977.
Personnel: Lux Interior (vocals); Byron Gregory, Poison Ivy (guitar); Nick Knox (drums).
Originally released in, respectively, 1979 and 1981, these two albums now joined on a convenient single CD function as a textbook of the Cramps' deliberate trash esthetic, a combination of rockabilly primitivism (no bass guitar) with thematic and musical elements B-movies, surf records, and the general detritus of pop culture. A couple of covers in particular illuminate the band's roots, including a haunted reading of Jim Lowe's paranoid country classic "Green Door"; a raging version of "The Way I Walk," which probably would have frightened its auteurs Johnny and Dorsey Burnette; and a "Surfing Bird" whose dementia level exceeds the original. Essential stuff, obviously.

• Released: 8/8/1989
• RSD Release Date: n/a
• Genre: Pop
• Format: CD