For many of us with a penchant for raw 50s and 60s garage and rock n roll, the Cramps were our doorway to a whole new world of sleazy guitar music. It didn't matter that they hadn't actually written most of the songs, to paraphrase the band themselves "they had good taste". They'd tracked down these amazing old records, reworked some of them, merged others and stamped them boldly as their own.Many different comps have appeared over the years that have gathered the original source of the Cramps trash genius. Most have been bootlegs or of dubious legal standing, mostly on vinyl (the Born Bad series being the best) and only the odd one or two have appeared on CD. This brilliant series spread over three CDs is the latest and gathers much of what's previously appeared but adds a few more gems too. Imagine the songs of the Cramps, dripping sleaze and spoof horror and then strip back some of the campness and modern production techniques and you'll get an idea of the raw sound of most of the material on these CDs. Rumbling basslines and gruff vocals, seemingly recorded in an old septic tank, are the order of the day. It's wonderful stuff with the added bonus of the superb documentation, though with the legitimacy of it all being questionable you may have to look beyond Amazon and Play.com to get hold of them. Rough Trade and Piccadilly are as always good bets. - by Paul M
trax: 1. Hipsville 29 Bc - The Sparkles 2. Sunglasses After Dark - Dwight Pullen 3. Fatback - Link Wray 4. Shombolar - Sheriff And The Ravels 5. Machine Gun - The Riptides 6. Dancing Girl - Bo Diddley 7. Surfin Bird - The Trashmen 8. Jelly Roll Rock - Walter Brown & His Band 9. Strychnine - The Sonics 10. Boss - The Rumblers 11. All Women Are Bad - Dypsomaniaxe 12. Bust Out - The Busters 13. Love Me - The Phantom 14. Go Girl Go - Jett Powers 15. Goo Goo Muck - Ronnie Cook & The Gaylads 16. The Strangeness In Me - The Runabouts 17. Primitive - The Groupies 18. Werewolf - The Frantics 19. Rockin Bones - Elroy Dietzel 20. Tornado - Dale Hawkins 21. Whiplash - The Shells 22. Trapped Love - Keith Courvale 23. Sinners - Freddie And Hitchikers 24. Cant Hardly Stand It - Charlie Feathers 25. Bikini Girls With Machine Guns - Rantanplan 26. Get Off The Road - R. Lewis Band 27. Blues Blues Blues - Hayden Thompson 28. Beat Out My Love - Lee Dresser & The Krazy Kats 29. Bacon Fat - Andre Williams 30. The Way I Walk - Jack Scott 31. Do The Clam - Elvis Presley


The A.V. Club discusses the new movie A Talking Cat!?! just released on video, featuring Eric Roberts as the voice of Duffy, a talking cat. The article first discusses the career arc of Roberts (Julia Roberts' older brother) who cranks out dozens of independent films every year. The review of the direct-to-video feature A Talking Cat!?! compares it to The Room for plain awfulness, which only makes me want to rent it to see how long I can watch it. The review is most likely more entertaining. Spoilers ahead.






















