For the longest time, I hated the Cramps. My original dislike for their punky and theatrical psychobilly sleaze was admittedly irrational in that it went back to my high school days where the bands’ biggest proponents always seemed to be the biggest assholes on campus. Before having a note of their discography ever permeate my eardrums, I negatively – and obviously, very unfairly – associated the band with all the sycophantic, Lux Interior-and-Poison Ivy-worshipping, discount creeper-wearing, asymmetrical haircut-sporting, drink-to-puke cross-section of rich-kid rebels and wannabe jocks who I (probably correctly) assumed were too chickenshit to listen to real punk and hardcore or, heavens forbid, metal.
While I would never claim to have retroactively become a massive fan of the band, time, age and maturity has retrospectively opened my mind from beyond its vindictive teenage years. The Cramps’ influence on punk rock, outsider art, campy imagery, sexuality and freedom of expression is undeniable and, in my eyes, more vital than much of their musical output. That likely isn’t a popular opinion, but it’s mine and a collection of bands/artists who would choose to disagree would be those culled to pay tribute for the forthcoming Really Bad Music for Really Bad People: The Cramps as Heard Through the Meat Grinder of Three One G. Offering up renditions of selections from the Cramps discography are the likes of Daughters, Child Bite, Metz, Microwaves, Qui, Zeus w/Mike Patton and, as we present for your listening pleasure this morning, Retox busting out a cover of “Garbageman.”
The release of this compilation is also significant in that it not only marks the third time Justin Pearson’s Three One G Records has run an inspirational band through the “meat grinder” – Queen and the Birthday Party have been previously dismantled in tribute – but it’s also the label’s 100th release.
Here’s the lineup and rundown:
Really Bad Music for Really Bad People:
- Child Bite – “TV Set”
- Metz – “Call of the Wighat”
- Secret Fun Club feat. Carrie Gillespie Feller – “I Was a Teenage Werewolf”
- Chelsea Wolfe – “Sheena’s in a Goth Gang”
- Sonido de la Frontera – “Zombie Dance”
- Qui – “New Kind of Kick”
- Zeus! feat. Mike Patton – “Human Fly”
- Retox – “Garbageman”
- Magic Witch Cookbox – “People Ain’t No Good”
- Microwaves – “Don’t Eat Stuff Off the Sidewalk”
- Daughters – “What’s Inside a Girl”
- Panicker – “I’m Cramped”
Really Bad Music for Really Bad People will be available digitally as well as on limited edition vinyl. Mastered by Brent Asbury at Measurable Harm. Layout and design by Black Moon Design. Retox’s cover of “Garbageman” is also being set up as an “instant gratification track” on iTunes today. I don’t know what that means, but my guess is if you go to iTunes it’ll all make sense and you’ll be instantly gratified in the process. Pre-order link below.
Retox on Facebook and Bandcamp
(band photo credit: Becky DiGiglio)
(“Garbageman” video commercial: Andy Wallis)
