RIP Lux Interior, aka Erick Purkhiser 1946 - 2009
This blog post is dedicated to Lux Interior, Poison Ivy, and the music of The Cramps.
Lux Interior, whose real name was Erick Lee Purkhiser, passed away on 4 February at Glendale Memorial Hospital in California at the age of 62. He had suffered from a previously existing heart condition.
Lux, you will be missed greatly. Your mark on this world could not have been made by anyone else. Thank-you for bringing me out of my shell all those many years ago. Listening to the music you made with your wife and the rest of The Cramps showed me that anytime could be a good time, as long as the right music was playing. I learned quickly that there was hardly ever a time that wasn't a good time for The Cramps. I grew up knowing that someday, I too wanted to be a bikini girl with machine guns. I ain't nuthin' but a gorehound, but thats just fine. I could still use my smell of female to lure the most exalted potentate of love to do the dead with me, instead of the usual creature from the black leather lagoon. Now it's not just goo goo muck, because my pussy *can* do the dog. It's going to be a lonesome town without you, and I can't hardly stand it. I've got a fever,but I won't need to find a new kind of kick or ride the drug train to change the way I walk, and I wouldn't want to anyway. Ride that hot rod to heaven, and don't be to tough on St.Peter at the golden gate. He's the only one to bum a smoke from up there I hear.
This opening song in this video is from the very first Cramps album that I ever heard. The song is 'You Got Good Taste' from the album 'Smell of Female', and many a party in my early years were started with these dulcet tones screaming from my overly huge speakers, as if a mating call between the keg beer and my landlords green carpets. Groove on my pretties.
While grasping at factoids of song, dancing and images of the late great Lux Interior tonight, I was reintroduced to one of my original musical passions: Surf Music. In this instance, it's ok to lump together hillbilly, rockabilly, hellbilly, surf punk, mexibilly, psychobilly, garage rock, and plain old everyday surf music. I think that my penchent for this flavor of aural pain was induced at an early age by my mother and father. Pop loved Hank Williams, mom loved The Ventures, the both loved Elvis, and I loved watching them dance to their favorite music on a Saturday morning. Sneaking into my parents closet to play with my fathers candy apple red hollow body Epiphone electric guitar was one of my favorite activities, though sometimes his mandolin drew as much attention.
I found a great radio show out of WPGU 107.1 Champain-Urbana, Il called Surfabilly Freakout. It is exactly what it sounds like. Surf, "*billy", punk, much freaking out. I'm pretty sure the Dj's were "Reverend" Chuck Allen, Jet Sterling, and Chelsea Bandita for the show that I am posting about. Very fun group of people, almost makes me want to move back to Illinois. Almost, but not quite.
Here is Surfabilly Freakout from 3-27-2008, via the Internet Archive.
I found one other podcast tonight will jumping around the Internet Archives. This one is called Beyond The Wall Of Sleep, and is likely my favorite new podcast, and not because the podcaster(who's name seems to be hidden) did a Lux Interior Memorial show, but because the rest of his podcasts are of a genre he classifies as "shoegazing/dreampop. After skimming through a few of his posts, I decided I will be a regular there.
The 02-07-09 Lux Interior Memorial Show is the most well thought out, professionally crafted tribute to Lux Interior I have heard yet. I was very touched with this podcasters attention to detail in crafting his playlist. The podcaster chose to offer his listeners the option "Scream or Explode" instead of stream/download, and even made the vocals of the podcast in a horror show fashion that would have made Lux proud. If you are going to listen to only one Lux Interior Memorial show, let this be the one.
Embedded for you listening pleasure via The Internet Archive:
Sweet dreams, Lux Interior.
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