Lux est Mort

I hate to bring it but there’s bad, sad news in the music world. Psychobilly pioneer Lux Interior, lead singer of The Cramps, died at 62 on Wednesday, the result of complications from a pre-existing heart disease. I won’t even try to write a proper obituary; the folks at MTV have already handled that better than I could. I’ll just say that Lux’s lead-man camp and strut, along with the band's wiry sound, made every Cramps show a blast, right down to the last time I saw them – on New Year’s Eve, 1988, with the Butthole Surfers and the Dead Milkmen at DC’s Warner Theatre. And I’ll leave you with two videos (subscribers may need to click through to the blog to view) of one of my favorite Cramps tunes, the first from their real heyday (1981) and the second from when the band was at its peak of “popularity” in the mid-80s. RIP, Lux.