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Songs The Lord Taught Us

The Cramps

1980

Songs The Lord Taught Us
Album Summary

Songs the Lord Taught Us is the debut album by the American rock band the Cramps. It was released in 1980 on I.R.S. Records in America and Illegal Records in England. In 2020, Rolling Stone included Songs the Lord Taught Us in their "80 Greatest albums of 1980" list, praising the band for its "psychobilly sound that went way beyond the kitschiest moments of the Ramones or Blondie and into a whole new realm of garage-trash novelty".

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Rating

2.82

Votes

9915
Genres
Punk

Reviews

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Sun May 30 2021
4

Pushead. The common denominator uniting, among others, Thrasher, Metalica, Zorlac and The Cramps in the 80's. In those days, Thrasher magazine had a full on music section featuring interviews with bands like The Cramps, TSOL, JFA, D.R.I. along with black and white photos of shows and general punk rock mayhem. Before I even heard them, I knew I'd like them because of Pushead's contribution to their album art.(https://tinyurl.com/4xedxr63). However, I really didn't listen. It was just music that everyone listened to while skating backyard ramps. I hadn't really thought much about their music until this album popped up. After spending the better part of the past day listening to The Cramps with a different ear several things emerged. First, my parents had no idea the shit I was exposed to. Second, this is great stuff, I hear Jack White, Makeup, Horton Heat and John Spencer in this. Visually though, I think of this as an alternate version of Sally Field's Gidget character, from the 60's TV program 'Gidget.' In this version Gidget is dead, roams the Malibu beaches as a powdery white zombie vampire, preys on goody-two-shoes surfers, worships satan and drinks blood around campfires. The Cramps provide the tracks for the opening / closing credits and a maybe a zombie dance montage on the beach. Songs The Lord Taught Us plays like a ghoulish take on Dick Dale, rockabilly punk with some Charles Manson thrown in. It's easy to get lost in the beach drums, surf guitar and acid tripping of this, but be careful. Every episode ends when Zombie Gidget sexxy dances toward you, bludgeons you to death and sinks her teeth into your neck for a midnight snack.

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Sun May 30 2021
1

The Cramps…am I right ladies? A fitting name for…J/k…I know I’m NOT allowed to make that joke. My apologies and I withdraw the entire approach. I’ll stick with the Strychnine angle. Ironically I’m Cramped is the least offensive song because there are very few words. They must have known the minimal words made this track stand out because the song is on the album twice, and sounds essentially the same. I don’t even know what to say. Rock On The Moon should be renamed Let’s Make Loosely Synchronized Noise Quickly. There’s a lot to say about this album, and not much of it is good so I won’t pile on too much. The album is a disjointed mess, which is mostly on the lead singer who comes in and out of tempo at will. The guitar and drums are in synch (a ha! a good thing to say) if not almost entirely basic in their composition (well almost), but still the guitarist played the somberly, monotonic line to Fever OK…the whole song (ahhh the ‘ol complement sandwich). In I Was A Teenage Werewolf (With False Start) someone interrupts a recording session and a member of the band says, “Man, nobody fuckin’ stops a take of The Cramps in the fuckin’ studio! Now get outta here! I mean it. Get the fuck out!” Oh I wish they had stopped all the takes, saved the band their $80/hr for studio time, and mercifully saved me from listening to this album.

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Sun Mar 20 2022
5

My grandmother, Cookie, and I used to sit up late on Saturday nights in her Galveston beach house and watch the local ABC affiliate’s weekly broadcast of 'WEIRD,' mc-ed by a campy host in a black cape who introduced whatever horror movies they were running that evening. This was in the 1960s mind you, so the horror flicks were mostly things like ‘Day of the Triffids,’ and ‘Invasion of the Body Snatchers,’ stuff like that. And, of course, the classic unholy trinity of ‘Frankenstein,’ ‘Dracula,’ and ‘The Werewolf.’ I was always scared, yet not really. It was different than the time a neighbor’s dog chased me down the block on my Schwinn nipping at my heels, or the time I ran home fast because a perv in a van (honest to God) offered me candy for a ride. That was legitimate, real life fear. The monster movies were only pretend fear, and served the purpose of a cathartic release, a confrontation of terror with the goal of a purification at the end. You may not buy this, finding no value whatsoever in the horror genre of literature and film, but for those of you who do, who have had a similar positive experience to mine, you will love The Cramps’ 'Songs The Lord Taught Us.' (Incidentally, the significance of the title of this record is lost on me. I would’ve gone with the more obvious 'Rock Around the Shock,' or something of that nature, but anyway…) It would come as no surprise to me that many folks will hate this record with the kind of distaste one feels immediately upon realizing that they’ve stepped in dog shit. So, allow me to address that group. Forget all the horror imagery and think of this record, instead, as satire. I believe that’s the real and greater intent of The Cramps than to simply terrorize us. Satire, as I understand it, involves the use of exaggeration, often in humorous ways, to expose and critique things in the general culture. Listen to some of these lyrics, ignoring the horror, and concentrate on what the lyricist might be trying to satirize: ‘I was a teenage werewolf, braces on my fangs… You know, I have puberty rights, and I have puberty wrongs (‘I Was a Teenage Werewolf’).’ ‘I been seeing you for months coming to this place. Now what I wanna know is, honey, when can I see your face?... Ooh, let me have a look in here… Eeeeeek! Well, curiosity killed this cat, sorry I ever asked. What I don’t know can’t hurt me as much as what’s behind the mask (‘What’s Behind the Mask’).’ ‘Mystery Plane,’ about a woman impregnated by an alien: ‘Now I just can’t identify with this world so I don’t try. Square pegs don’t fit into round holes, and I can’t fit into these clothes. My daddy’ unidentified. My mom says I just appeared inside. Looks like a case of hit and run, but off the record it’s no fun.’ Or my personal favorite, ‘Sunglasses After Dark’: ‘I got something to say to you and you better listen. I’m’a tell ya how to be cool in one easy lesson. Sunglasses after dark… Went out last Saturday night. Got myself in a knife fight. Everybody got cut includin’ me, ‘cause not one of us cats could see!’ Musically, The Cramps have arched completely over the swing set bar, a full 360 degrees, and turned inside out as a result; meaning, that they’re so bad they’re good. Oh, how they need a standup bass, though. That would really give their thrillbilly sound a good bottom. And I could play it, I know I could, even with no prior experience. I’d need about a weekend’s practice, and then I’d be good to go. Nick Knox is appropriately pounding away on this toms signaling the zombies to rise from the dead and shuffle on down to the dance hall. Bryan Gregory and Poison Ivy Rorschach on guitars take everything wonderful about the interplay between Keith Richards and Mick Taylor’s guitar work in the Rolling Stones’ glory years, and toss it out the window to it’s death. At times, many times, Poison Ivy’s lead guitar seems to be purposefully playing in a different key entirely to the one in which Gregory’s playing. But, in a good way, strange as that may sound. And it does. And Lux Interior’s vocals are kind of like Elvis on meth, while still chewing on a peanut butter & ‘nanner sandwich. In fact, the entire band sounds like a cross between Bill Hailey & the Comets, and The Munsters, on a Red Bull bender. It’s one rollicking mess. I mean, when you begin an LP with tribal drums, followed by pure garage guitar with heavy echo (and the uniquely squeaky sound of a hand on the fret board changing chords), and then lyrics like: ‘Oh baby I see you on my TV set… I cut your head off and put it on my TV set. I use your eyeballs for dial on my TV set. I watch TV since I put you on my TV set,’ you pretty much know you’re traveling off the beaten path. This ain’t Toto by a long shot. Oh, and when the next verse describes his baby’s other parts dripping all down the radio, I think they were actually turning a radio dial randomly back and forth for a solo! A radio dial solo! This is a first for me in listening history. When they play ‘Tear It Up,’ they don’t mean it figuratively, like most rockabilly bands. They really mean tear it up, accentuated by Poison Ivy’s screaming in the background for the entire song. I imagine all of these songs were all one-takers in the studio, and the whole thing from recording to release might have occurred on a Saturday, with time left over to do the live gig that evening. And that’s a good thing. The Cramps would suffer from too much practice, too much studio polish. They’ve got the attitude. Just turn the amps up and let ‘em rock n’ roil. Great fun. True originals. A band that might even twist a chuckle out of the otherwise dour belly of Leonard Cohen. They sure showed me a good time. And isn’t that one of the reasons why we love to rock anyway? 5/5 (for entirely different reasons than the 5/5 I gave the Rolling Stones’ Sticky Fingers)

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Tue Dec 20 2022
5

I was a teenager, sitting up late one night watching Rage on the TV. I got a lot of my musical education sitting up into the wee small hours watching music videos, which often delved into the esoteric and alternative as the night wore on. And it was probably about 2am when I saw this live footage of the Cramps performing 'Can your pussy do the dog?' (https://youtu.be/Bta9s0hONRo?t=413), and I immediately sat up and recognized this as the real deal. It was cool and sexy and dangerous and raw. The Cramps always had that. Over their career, you can see the way they refined their aesthetic (and Poison Ivy's guitar playing had certainly improved by 1986), but this debut album is such a great example of what rock and roll is. To loosely paraphrase Charles Shaar Murray, if rock and roll was about technique, then Emerson lake and Palmer would be the greatest rock band of all time (hock, spit). But it isn't. This album sounds like it was recorded in a tin shed with one microphone (Phillips Recording, in Memphis), and I'll est my hat if this took more than a day to record. No overdubs and not a lot of re-takes, this is a warts and all blast of rock and roll, taking the blueprint of rockabilly, and hyping it up into something even bigger. It's fast and loud and dangerous and sexy and cool and wild and raw, and all the things that make rock and roll really great. to try and confine this to a pigeonhole of 'psychobilly' protects us from the frightening implication that _this_ is what true rock sounds like, and not something new and niche. The originals fit in seamlessly with the covers, showing that this is not an aberration, but part of the continuum of rock. I have been listening to this record obsessively for the past few days. It is, in many ways, a terrible record -- poorly recorded, badly played, juvenile in spirit, obnoxious and wild -- and for all those things, I love it. It is a tonic to my soul after enduring so many pretentious, overproduced, too refined albums (Stephen Stills, I';m looking at you). It is a great regret in my life that I never saw the Cramps live. Mea maxima culpa.

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Thu Jan 27 2022
4

Before they were a ubiquitous band tee, The Cramps were a punkabilly band, combining the manic energy of punk with bluesy basslines and twangy rockabilly guitar. Top it off with the goth aesthetic of Misfits, and you have a recipe for a thrashy, lo-fi punk hoedown. Songs The Lord Taught Us was close to an hour long, and even with the remastering, the production was just passable enough for one to make out the walking blues bass lines and jangly guitar solos on tracks like Rock On The Moon. The band also covered Fever, a typically jazz (?) number that sounded more Bauhaus and less Billie Holiday. The Cramps succeeded in carving a little niche for themselves as a goth psychobilly group, paving the way for future acts like the Nekromantiks, Tiger Army and the Horrorpops. While that in itself is a noteworthy feat, what impresses this writer is the ability for a forebear of what is a pretty niche subgenre to have such dynamic range within a single record. Apart from the aforementioned Fever reinterpretation and straight up rockabilly anthem, songs like I Was A Teenage Werewolf sees the band exercise a bluesy swagger that ZZ Top would approve of. Overall, we really see the band push the boundaries of their rockabilly influences by ripping off boogie-woogie, blues and country, all while keeping true to the punk spirit of simplicity.

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Wed Feb 03 2021
4

It’s a psycho billy freak out! The Cramps, one of the best live bands ever. They used to go absolutely wild on stage and Lux Interior is one of the craziest frontmen I’ve ever scene. They clearly love punk, garage and surf music and I love it too. This record got a whole bunch of weirdos into punk music and I’m grateful for it. Favorite track: Garbageman Least favorite track: Sunglasses After Dark, I suppose

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Sun Dec 19 2021
4

This was more fun than I had expected to have at the outset. SONGS THE LORD TAUGHT US is chock full of punk-meets-rock-and-heads-to-the-beach songs. It includes a cover of “Fever” that I had listened to in the past. There’s a lot of silliness in the lyrics - a song about wearing “Sunglasses at Night” to be cool (causing injuries during a knife fight), being a “Teenage Werewolf”, or ones daddy driving a UFO (“Mystery Plane”). But the apparent silliness only slightly obscures some real angst like getting abandoned by your father, being a misfit, or trying to fit in. I ended up liking this album much more than I had expected. My main complaint for the original 13 tracks were the muddiness of the vocals in the mix. Interestingly tracks 14-18 include a few different recordings and a few new songs and all sounded much better to me. My favorite songs: “Garbageman”, “Mystery Plane”, “Fever”, “Mad Daddy”, “Tear It Up” Enjoyed many songs on this. Not exactly something I want to listen to as a whole album necessarily but happy to revisit a lot of these songs. Probably then rates a 3.5 but I’ll round up for the clever lyrics.

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Sun Dec 19 2021
4

Wasn't expecting such a fun surfer rock/rock-a-billy sound from The Cramps. This was a good time. The cover of Fever was superb.

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Fri Feb 25 2022
4

Their work, Lux once said, was “a rallying point for certain kinds of people to come together and for certain kinds of people to stay out.” The Cramps' singer take on what they do is as clear as it can get, and *Songs The Lord Taught Us* probably exemplifies this philosophy the best. With this first LP, they established the 'psychobilly' genre: an outré, deranged take on rockabilly attracting misfits, outcasts and other weirdoes gathering around tales of teenage werewolves, zombies and alien daddies abandoning their traumatized offspring on earth. Punk twisted those old 50s references into a pure carnival. And it's one many rock fans might be inclined to return to for years to come. Musically, you can't expect anything more than barebones touches to honor the lyrical program: Poison Ivy's simple yet evocative guitar lines are earworms ready to suck on your brain like so many extraterrestrial leeches, Lux Interior's demented screeches and howls can have a mesmerizing effect on what's left of it, and the overall sound is just a messy mudpit. Is it *good* or interesting music? Maybe not. But sometimes atmosphere and moods are more important than compositions (and a lot of covers are here anyway, with "Fever" once again attracting most of the spotlight). As for the lyrics, they are outrageously funny. Just imagine that "Zombie Dance" mocking the so-called "normality" of self-righteous people, and you'll get the idea of how Ivy and Interior the rest of society at large. Maybe through their tales of the undead and other monsters, The Cramps just wanted to point out they were more alive than most people in their lives. If that's the case, it's a job well-done. 3 or 3.5 for the music. 5 for the lyrics and the overall artictic intent. Which rounds up to a 4 and an album you must listen to at least once in your life, even if you won't come back to it later one. Number of albums left to review or just listen to: 965 Number of albums from the list I find relevant enough to be mandatory listens: 15 (including this one) Albums from the list I *might* include in mine later on: 8 (including this one) Albums from the list I will *not* include in mine (as I think many others are more important): 11 Albums I might not be able to judge (some might end up on my final list but it's because I recognize how culturally important they are): 2

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Thu Mar 17 2022
4

What punk rock was supposed to be

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Thu Dec 21 2023
3

Two consecutive albums featuring "Fever" (Elvis being the other). As long as you don't take this work too seriously and recognize it for the novelty project that it is, it is great fun! 3 dancing zombies out of 5. 🧟🧟🧟

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Wed Feb 28 2024
2

I like music that doesn’t take itself too seriously but this got tiresome very quickly.

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Sun Feb 04 2024
1

Okay, I get what they were shooting for, the rockabilly and the surf rock sounds etc; but that doesn’t make it good. I mean, I can play baseball but that doesn’t mean I can make a living at it, nor should I pretend I can. This album is crap.

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Mon Nov 09 2020
5

Classic garage rock and roll

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Mon Apr 05 2021
5

Brilliant of course. *Zombie Dance*

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Fri Jun 18 2021
5

Liked it never heard of them before

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Wed May 18 2022
5

I was a teenager staying up late one Saturday night watching rage when the Cramps came on, performing Can Your Pussy Do The Dog? on the Tube (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZfvCDyVlVIw) It was one of those moments that changes everything; it was the first time I had heard or seen the Cramps, and it totally blew my mind. Lux Interior writhing around on the floor barking like a dog and almost fellating the microphone was one of the most rock and roll things I had ever seen. The sound was tough, and more than a little rough around the edges. Poison Ivy Rorschach's guitar technique wasn't as polished or flashy as (say) Joe Satriani, but it rocked like hell. The Cramps are one of the bands that showed me that I really love loose, gritty, tough rock and roll. I don't care if it is badly recorded, sloppily performed (even better, sometimes), or almost stupidly simple, but it needs to rock. The Cramps are dangerous and sexy and they rock. And this album is where it all started. I love that Alex Hilton knew not to polish the edges off them. One of my great regrets is that I never saw them live, although that performance on the Tube is burned in my psyche, and has informed everything I look for in rock and roll ever since. God bless you, the Cramps, you changed me forever.

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Mon May 23 2022
5

How can I not like this album? Raucous, primal, swampy punk produced by Alex Chilton no less. My only regret is that the Cramps never really hit my ears and loins until way past my teens when they would have been so potent. I can't fault this album. I will admit that it is maybe not for everyone but isn't that the case for all great bands

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Thu Aug 04 2022
5

  I know the name and some people who like them but really didn’t know what to expect. This album is a lot of fun. Rolling Stone’s description of their music as Phsychobilly fits perfectly. The lead guitar is simple but is played on a guitar that is a beast and played to sound hollow. To be sure, this is a compliment.

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Mon Aug 15 2022
5

Not content with merely subverting the conventions of punk music to incorporate obscure relics of low-brow white trash culture, The Cramps proceed to beat you over the head with their new concoction named Psychobilly. Leaving aside my prior adoration of this group’s catalogue, I expected this album to draw criticism for a lack of variation in their style of musical attack. But such trifles simply don’t enter my thinking while Lux Interior breathlessly splutters and yelps over Poison Ivy’s spidery guitar lines - her sensually twangy solo in the midst of the absurd chaos of “Garbageman” is the precise moment I fell in love with this group. Whatever you think about this genre of music, its importance is absolutely irrefutable. The Cramps took one look at the pristine image of middle class America in 1980 and instead embraced its concealed obverse, its Mr Hyde, contorting the authentic fantasy of rockabilly USA. Whatever their formula lacks in subtlety, it matters. Profoundly.

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Fri Aug 26 2022
5

All the rockabilly punk you never knew you wanted but need.

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Fri Nov 18 2022
5

Slightly patchy but still articulate and deep pop electronic influenced melancholy

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Wed Jan 18 2023
5

I sometimes forget how good The Cramps were. THIS is how to do retro with a twist. Homage, covers and originals all in one seductive seditious package. And with a dash of humour to top it all off. Had to play Sunglasses and What's Behind the mask several times each, and they made me chuckle every time. This formula got a bit threadbare later on, but this is loud and lewd, without taking any of it all that seriously, and I LOVE it.

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Fri Jan 20 2023
5

I love the Cramps and was excited to get an album that I actually wanted to listen to, although I’ve heard this album a million times, it never gets okd

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Mon Mar 06 2023
5

Punk and Surf, irreverence, swagger, tongue in cheek and actually good songs. It might not be a masterpiece but it feels like it was written right for me - rockabilly madness, a touch of horror and a complete album. A lot of the best songs from the Cramps aren’t here but as a record it’s perfect.

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Wed Apr 05 2023
5

Actually amazing. It somewhat reminds me of like Elvis Presley’s self titled but for the garage rocks/gothabilly genre. It’s just a jam all around and I very much enjoy it. I think more specifically I’d give it a 9/10

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Wed Apr 12 2023
5

Great find. Rockabilly punk.

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Fri Apr 14 2023
5

I really enjoyed this album which kind of surprised me! Without the bonus tracks it’s a perfect length to enjoy the vibe without getting saturated.

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Thu Jun 01 2023
5

Buffy vibes, was in the bronze for a sec.

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Sun Jun 18 2023
5

I really liked this album, a few of the songs I have listened to before, but never the album in its entirety.

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Wed Jul 05 2023
5

Albums like this are the reason I listen to this list

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Thu Jul 20 2023
5

Dirty and vampiric songwriting with a rockabilly edge. Great to hear a band with the confidence to do their own thing.

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Mon Aug 07 2023
5

Great album, great band. Looking for this on vinyl.

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Wed Aug 09 2023
5

Where Psychobilly started. True classic album.

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Fri Aug 25 2023
5

Another great band from the 70s NYC punk movement. The stripped bare rockabilly punk would inform generations of garage bands for decades to come. Produced by the legend Alex Chilton, this is music at its rawest, most amazing best.

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Thu Oct 26 2023
5

Tight, atavistic rock'n'roll. You can tell their songs on this album were honed over years of playing live. Easily the greatest Cramps album.

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Sat Oct 28 2023
5

I love The Cramps. I was very happy to see this here. I just love their overall sound that just "oozes". I'm assuming the Misfits didn't make the list (shame) but this works for some Halloween time music

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Thu Dec 07 2023
5

This is awesooooome!! I love the simple, dirty smash up of rockabilly and punk with some of those surf rock licks sprinkled around. If I would have been cooler as a kid I would have listened to the Cramps - good thing I’m so fuckin cool now!!

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Mon Dec 11 2023
5

Oh man, I love this. Never heard of psychobilly before, but it sounds like rockabilly meets the Misfits, and I dig it. I love me some dirty, surf rock/rockabilly-style guitar, and this album's got it in spades. There isn't a weak link in this particular chain. Their cover of "Strychnine" by the Sonics isn't as good as the original, but that song's about as close to perfect as it gets, so it's hard to blame the Cramps for not clearing that high bar. I see myself listening to this album many more times in the near future, and I'll definitely be delving further into their discography.

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Sun Jan 28 2024
5

another group that i have heard the name of but didn't know anything about except that they were "punk" - holy cow I was not expecting this. I absolutely loved everything about this album. it's like a mixture of 60s garage rock, surf rock, and punk. it feels slimey and grungy and just everything it ought to be. excellent stuff!

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Wed Jan 31 2024
5

Ironici, potenti, energetici e anche un po’ folli!

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Thu Feb 08 2024
5

Paradoxical review incoming. I might never listen to this album ever again because it's just not my thing. Still, it's getting five stars. It seemed so clear that The Cramps were just saying what they felt like saying and making whatever sounds they thought matched that. That's cool in my book, even if the music isn't my thing. I think this album is the first time I felt a real appreciation for punk. It has an edge for sure because "just saying what we feel like saying". But for whatever reason it doesn't feel like the same pretentious rebellion and anger that I get from other punk bands from that era. Good job Cramps. I both dislike and love this record and I'm OK with that.

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Mon Mar 04 2024
5

Oh fuck yeah. I'd like to thank the owner of Rabbitfoot Records, Rob, for getting me into garage rock and psychobilly music back in 2013. I used to run the shop on weekends, and we had a ton of 60s garage music. I'd spin The Cramps frequently to get customers invested in their shopping experience. If you don't involuntarily light up a cigarette and put pomade in your hair when I Was A Teenage Werewolf comes on, you might not be human.

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Wed Feb 24 2021
4

Is it rock a billy? Is it punk? Is it blues? Kinda all three. Laughs and energy. Good fun

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Wed Jan 20 2021
4

Fun, crazy, naughty. Not my personal preference, but cool to listen to. Nice version of fever.

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Fri Feb 05 2021
4

Cramps er jo et feiende flott band man (av en eller annen grunn) glemmer å høre på. Må innrømme at jeg har hørt mest på Off the Bone-albumet før, men dette albumet var jo også feiende flott i god Cramps-ånd. Sterk 4'er, på grensa til 5.

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Fri Apr 23 2021
4

Good album, recognized "fever" from the Hangover. Late '70s, early '80s rock

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Fri Jun 11 2021
4

Very good album. I really liked the airy, hollow sound of the guitar.

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Sun Aug 01 2021
4

That's some good shit. That wonderful dirty dirty rock.

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Mon Sep 20 2021
4

Punk, pschobilly, really like it. Weird, fast, good

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Fri Sep 24 2021
4

I was hovering around 3 stars for this, but some additional listens have bumped it up to 4 stars. It's a lot of fun! B-52s meets the Addams family! Fave track - "What's Behind the Mask?", maybe? "Garbageman" and "I Was a Teenage Werewolf" are both great too....

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Wed Oct 06 2021
4

I've been meaning to listen to the Cramps for a while after I was introduced to them by the No Dogs In Space podcast. I thought this was cool overall. They seem like a band that would be really fun live, though this album didn't particularly grab me at many points. It was consistently pretty good, but never really great 4/5, but on the low end of 4

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Wed Oct 20 2021
4

The band that gave me the second largest amount of bruises live or on the dance floor. Only The Birthday Party gave me more.

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Thu Oct 21 2021
4

Some rock-a-billy, some punk. It's listenable, in a good way. They get 4 stars because they are playing what they want to play rather than trying to conform to what punk "should" be.

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Sun Nov 14 2021
4

I liked it proper punk/rock and roll

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Mon Dec 06 2021
4

Fun early punk album. Very raw.

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Thu Dec 09 2021
4

old punk, a little rockabilly for me but not bad!

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Sun Dec 19 2021
4

Listening to this album brought to mind the "Eerie" and "Creepy" magazines that my older brother used to read and my mother hated. The old-timey rock vibe makes sure the horror-themed lyrics are taken humorously. I'm not sure why this one doesn't come out more on Halloween. It's perfect for that. I won't listen to it much otherwise, but it was fun while it lasted!

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Wed Dec 22 2021
4

Such a great album that brings me back thirty five years to one of the best shows I ever saw. Lux Interior is one of the best front men that ever was...in the mold of Iggy Pop and the band rocks. Poison Ivy is a very u derrated guitarist. A fun album. With more than a touch of the macabre. 4 🌟

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Wed Jan 12 2022
4

If the Munsters were a punk rock band they would be the Cramps. The Cramps are the answer to the question you didn't know you wanted to ask: can a four-person band have two guitars, a singer, a drummer and no bass? Yes. Does this album belong on a list of albums you must hear? If you listen to this album and think for a moment you heard the newest Jack White vault release from when the White Stripes opened a Burger King, then you have your answer.

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Thu Jan 13 2022
4

3.5/5. This is very different from most things I've heard. It's kind of punky and also kind of garage rocky. It's alright, not really my taste tho. Objectively, I think it is a good album, subjectively, not so much.

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Fri Jan 14 2022
4

Good, hard driving punk sound, with the rockabilly influence too.

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Fri Jan 21 2022
4

A very similar sound to the Stray Cats, rooted in blues and bluegrass riffs and chord progressions, with the punk attitude and rhythms of the late 70s. A fun live experience I imagine for sure.

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Wed Feb 09 2022
4

A sign of things to come in Crampsville. Love this album!

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Wed Mar 30 2022
4

Very 70s feel - Didn't think I'd like it but it grew on me. quirky.

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Sun Apr 03 2022
4

This album is what would happen if the fifties were resurrected as zombies and given instruments. This mix of rockabilly, surf, goth rock, and punk is really fascinating though it doesn’t particularly appeal to me personally. Fifties rock and punk don’t seem at first glance like they would compliment each other, but due to the simplistic chord structures, they are natural compliments.

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Wed May 04 2022
4

Cool! Good balance of noise rock and prog rock, IMHO. Some cool songs with great beats and instrumentals

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Fri May 06 2022
4

Oh, these twisted, wonderful weirdos. Rockabilly always had a dark and dangerous side, but by the 1970s, it was fast headed into the territory of "oldies but goodies." Along come Lux/Ivy and the Cramps, who had a vision. They took the music of the 1950s (with a strong assist from 60s surf and garage rock) and flipped it over so you could see all the little nasties and creepy crawlies hiding underneath. The result was the genesis of psychobilly, punk meets rockabilly and pulp horror. It's dark, grinding, noisy, kitschy, trashy, hilarious. Above all, Songs The Lord Taught Us totally rocks. Great noisy guitars, pounding drums, high energy, attitude for miles. What a blast. Fave Songs: I Was a Teenage Werewolf, I'm Cramped, Mystery Plane, Sunglasses After Dark, TV Set, The Mad Daddy, Fever, Strychnine

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Wed Jun 22 2022
4

Pure trash in all the right ways.

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Thu Jul 07 2022
4

What a wonderful piece of weirdness.

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Wed Jul 13 2022
4

It's growing on me. I know this is an influence for a lot of music I do love.

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Fri Jul 15 2022
4

One of those albums Iv never heard of, looked at the album cover and read the bio and was expecting to give this a 2. Couldn’t be more wrong such a fun garage rock/ punk album really enjoyed this. One I’ll list to again.

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Sun Jul 31 2022
4

I mean, I've nothing to say against it.

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Mon Aug 15 2022
4

A rockin' party album. The Cramps best, I think, with classics like Garbage man, Strychnin and of course their classi rendition of Fever. My affection for this album is romanticized because I was lucky enough to see them and was mesmorized by Lux Interior as well as Poison Ivy. Top 5 shows I ever saw. 4 🌟

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Fri Sep 02 2022
4

Listened while working. Fun to have on in the background.

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Sun Sep 04 2022
4

Speciaal. Wel een goede plaat

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Fri Sep 16 2022
4

High energy, fun album. Good rock and roll music. A little roackabillty, a little punk, garage rock. Enjoyed this quite a bit.

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Thu Oct 06 2022
4

Loved this, campy fun horror rock

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Sun Nov 06 2022
4

What's not to like? and psychobilly is such a good name for a genre.

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Sun Nov 20 2022
4

I have always liked The Cramps but probably not for the right reasons, Their artwork, weirdness and sense of humour...music comes fourth which is probably not the greatest compliment. But I enjoyed this album, Loved I Was a Teenage Werewolf and the cover of Fever both of which made my playlist and the rest of the album was a pretty solid listen through if just running a tad too long, a few less tracks could have made this a pretty stand out album...but 3.5 stars!

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Tue Dec 20 2022
4

I discovered The Cramps in 1982, courtesy of dear friend & inner-city raconteur Stephen Niblett. It was when I first heard the term “psychobilly”. The Cramps were a lot about attitude. They were a blessed relief in the 80’s from the serious young insect bands. The concert I saw them give at Selinas at the Coogee Bay Hotel in 1986 was extraordinary. It was the only time I’ve ever been caught in a crowd surge where I had absolutely no control over what was happening. I think Lux ended up in his jocks, climbing a speaker stack. There are some classics on this record, produced by the legendary Alex Chilton - I Was A Teenage Werewolf is great and all of the covers - Strychnine, Tear It Up, Fever & Sunglasses After Dark - are really terrific. Nobody sounded like them.

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Tue Dec 20 2022
4

Stephen Stills and Dave Mustaine should be tied to chairs and made to listen to this record to understand that rock and roll is fun. Kick arse fun, hard fun, weird fun, but fun! I've not listened to The Cramps in years and I'd completely forgotten that I went to see them circa 85/86, pissed out of my head, at Selinas Coogee. It blew me away to such an extent that I forgot about it, well there you go. I love a great three piece with a singer. The Who, Rage Against (not U2..) ,three pieces with a great guitarist who creates the whole vibe. Poison Ivy is the star of this band, her sound, the way she creates those 50's riffs around those Gretsch chords, rock and roll heaven. This record rolls, Lux does his thing and the whole things swings. I love Garbageman, the way Poison builds up Sunglasses After Dark, Strychnine is a brilliant Sonics tribute and of course their take on Fever is simply the greatest. Final comment, Tear It Up is the soundtrack to what would have played in Elvis's worst nightmare, and I love it. And I love knowing how much Stephen Stills would hate this record, schadenfreude.

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Wed Jan 04 2023
4

Perfectly fun psychobilly shock punk, nothing that's still super noteworthy for me but a pretty big bombshell for its time and if I had found it at 14 it would probably have been formative to the point of me being real fucking cringe about it

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Wed Jan 18 2023
4

"they're like the evil B-52's" -some guy on the internet. The Cramps certainly invoke the surf-rock guitar tones and eccentric vocals of the B-52's, but it's their frankly bizarre songwriting that separates them (as if Rock Lobster wasn't weird enough). It's noisy and daring. Songs The Lord Taught Us is devilishly cool, in a way that only possessed freaks could love. It struts and strums to the beat in a way that few bands could. The production is flat and the pacing is disjointed, but that all adds to the ambience of this frankly cursed album.

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