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Foreign guys if you haven't heard me talk about groons before you're about to right now there's a reason i'm talking about groons you know i love groons they're a convenient comprehensive formula packed into a snack pack of gummies to get you through your day guys this is not a multivitamin a greens gummy or a prebiotic it's all of these things and it's all these things at a fraction of the price and it tastes great and also i'm not standing over my counter with green powder flying all over the place in my kitchen trying to make a drink you know what i'm saying groons is a totally different thing daily snack pack of gummies because you can't fit the amount of nutrients groons fits into just one gummy plus i'm telling you i'm watching what i'm eating these days and i look forward to eating groons they taste great it's a treat with six grams of prebiotic fiber which is three times the amount of dietary fiber compared to the lean greens powders for context that's more than two cups of broccoli and it tastes better than broccoli there's the groonie smith apple flavor okay that's my new go to that's the grun's fall flavor i'm here for it it's only available through october it's got the same full body benefits that you know and love from gruens but this time tastes like you're walking through an apple orchard in a cable knit sweater getting those new england vibes all that warm apple cider you know those apple cider donuts maybe you're buying a little corn on the cob for later that day you know what i'm talking about gruen's ingredients are backed by over thirty five thousand research publications i love groons they taste great they are super convenient and they are chalk filled with healthy benefits grab your limited edition groonie smith apple groons available only through october stock up because they will sell out get up to fifty two percent off use the code disgraceland abc wednesdays shifting gears is back he has arisen tim allen and kat dennings return in television's number one new comedy what what with a star studded premiere including jenna elfman nancy travis and hey buddy a big home improvement reunion welcome oh boy that guy's a tool shifting gears new wednesdays eight seven central on abc and stream on hulu disgraceland is a production of double elvis well hello ghouls and goblins and salutations to all you creepy cats and kittens this is a special halloween episode of disgraceland on the one and only kings and queens of rock and roll the cramps this is if you can try to imagine it a fun not so serious look at sexually charged burning corpses seventeen story suicides zombies who can't dance human flies and teenage wolves werewolves this is not a scholarly look at the cultural significance of lux interiors and poison ivy's musical output this is like i said nothing more than a halloween hoot inspired by the incredible music and wild career of the original halloween heads the cramps hope you can dig it mellow job this is the story of one of the greatest rock and roll bands of all time the cramps a band whose singer lux interior and guitarist poison ivy rorschach dedicated their lives to the mission of saving rock and roll a mission that was challenged by soulless zombies confused by burning corpses bled dry by a vampire and for a time smothered by giant radioactive cockroaches but it's also a story about great music unlike that music i played for you at the top of the show that wasn't great music that was a preset loop for my melotron called sha sha sha sha tusi mk one i played you that loop because i can't afford the rights to shadow dancing by andy gibb and why would i play you that specific slice of sunken nut cheese could i afford it because that was the number one song in america on june thirteenth nineteen seventy eight and that was the day the cramps played a live set at a mental institution in northern california creating a myth that would challenge the definition of what it means to be rock and roll on this episode zombies corpses vampires radioactive cockp roaches and saving rock and roll with the cramps i'm jake brennan and this is disgrace unless something is done and done quickly rock and roll will cease to exist in a year forest lawn memorial park cemetery is not your average cemetery located six miles outside hollywood it's the eternal home to some of the biggest names from tinseltown's famed history there's sammy davis jr's headstone sammy the known satanist and there's errol flynn's grave back in the early days of hollywood errol was one of the movie business's biggest stars he was also a pedophile some believe walt disney is buried here he has a burial plot but most believe his head was severed from his body after death cryogenically frozen and stored in an undisclosed location in disneyland lon chaney the phantom of the opera rests anonymously in an unmarked grave and lon chaney's son lon chaney junior who famously played the werewolf in universal's nineteen forty one classic the wolfman well his body does not rest anonymously next to his famous father's old lon chaney junior donated his body to science after drinking a pina colada at trader vic's the kramp's frontman lux interior and his partner not just in crime but in life in love and in art poison ivy the kramp's inimitable guitarist and for all intents and purposes producer this duo knew about donating their bodies their lives even to something bigger than themselves lux and ivy loved each other but for the better part of two decades they sacrificed everything for the one thing in this world that they both loved the rock and roll put more specifically the cramps dedicated their lives to saving rock and roll life though was fleeting here in glendale in their apartment near the cemetery as they carefully cruise through their well cultivated record collection a rock and roll archive is a dream thousands of obscure fifties and sixties forty five s organized by niche genre rockabilly bop music beat combos doo wop garage novelty and surf by the likes of artists like charlie feathers bo diddley the paramounts the flamingos the sonics the trashmen and link ray a lifetime's work of collecting most of these artists were already long gone as dead as sammy and lon chaney junior and the rest but their music lived on rock and roll was still very much alive as long as lux and ivy had something to say about it but death was in the air literally that smell like burning tires but with a strange sweetness to it something was on fire ivy called the fire department which responded quickly it reminded ivy and lux ominously of how close they lived to the cemetery the burning smell was the crematorium that strange sweet scent was burning flesh it coated their neighborhood some nights brought down an eerie depressing feeling but not as depressing as the television television used to be hours and hours of horror movies and monster flicks b films that aimed their subversiveness at teenagers coming of age in the early nineteen sixties taking their cues from the subversive comics of the forties and fifties the vaults of horror and the tales from the crips but now aside from the occasional off market creature double feature the fun and fantastical monsters were hard to come by tv was twenty four seven cable news hateful narratives spun by squares to trick you into thinking your neighbors were the monsters tv was hair and makeup evangelists hypocritically moralizing from the pulpit tv was the dreaded mtv mtv music television a concept that started out pure back in the early eighties back when the cramps were a young band back when some of the cramps friends and quote unquote punk rock contemporaries blondie and the go go's to name a few were themselves young bands mtv helped rocket these bands into superstardom but had now a decade later evolved or devolved depending on your point of view away from the heady avant garde fringes of the television medium into a corporate advertising behemoth to lux and ivy that meant mtv was dead as dead as those bodies burning out beyond their backyard mtv had nothing to do anymore with the rock and rollers who came up through the punk and new wave scenes these days mtv truly had nothing to do with rock n roll at all sure mtv buttered its bread with rock artists but not with rock and roll rock and roll was sex rock was stiff rock and roll in lux's estimation was meant to horrify adults and please teenagers rock was billboard charts and big business rock n roll was supposed to separate the squares from the cool people rock bands like u two and the police and genesis bands mtv featured regularly now these bands were so square and their square minions in the rock press called the cramps sexist because of their dangerous rock and roll song titles like can youn pussy do the dog which was ironic given that the cramps were the very definition of feminism the co creation of one of the greatest female rock and roll guitar players ever whose creativity shaped the cramps into a singular and wholly unique band within the history of rock and roll can your pussy do the dog wasn't sexist it was rock and roll it was dangerous the way rock and roll is supposed to be the way iggy pop and rufus thomas and big mama thornton meant for it to be rock and roll wasn't supposed to be sting on mtv accepting a award for his humanitarian efforts for saving some goddamn rainforest lux turned the tv off in disgust and went back to his forty five s he grabbed a less obscure title the flamingos nineteen fifty nine hit i only have eyes for your and he put it on the turntable the eerie doo wop baritone vocal behind the doo wop do wop chorus was dirty it affected him like a drug an aphrodisiac actually the trippiness of the track brought him back back to a time when rock and roll reigned supreme back to his teenage delinquent days in suburban ohio in the early six the clothes were tight and black all black lux back before we invented the moniker luxe interior and still answered to his god given name eric perkhaiser dressed as his older brother and his older brother's friends did which is to say they dressed like marlon brando in the wild one but darker meaner the style had as much to do with brando as it did with the brando inspired bike gang from outer space in the twilight zone episode entitled black leather jackets but even that description doesn't quite do the look of lux and his hoodlum friends justice they wore all black no blue denim and they blackened their hair with thick pomade and engine grease the drugged out sixties and sexual freedom of the summer of love hadn't yet arrived so lux got high off the tripped out sounds of the flamingos and turned on by the girls in the dance hall at the local hop doing the bug lux unsteadily stood on the old wooden beer bottle box peering in the window he and his hood friends were too much trouble to be allowed into the dance case in point his hoodlum buddies were off behind lux at this moment popping the hubcaps off the cars in the dance hall parking lot to fence for cash lux didn't care about the money it was the thrill of it stealing hubcaps was a gas but nowhere near as thrilling as the girls inside that dance hall right now just as lux and his friends donned the tightest clothes they could fit into the girls at the hop did the same the girls flailed around to shev wooley's hit purple people eater the novelty song with its one long horn with one big eye subversively contextualized sex for horny teenage boys like lux and it drove the girls in the dance hall nuts as they did the bug the dance the bug like the song was also pure sex from lux's estimation these girls writhing about their hands feeling all over their bodies for the figurative bug attempting in all of their hot vanity to locate the bug on their breasts on their bellies on their thighs searching touching grabbing it drove young lux nuts pure sex pure rock and roll as thrilling dangerous and scary as the sound of the police siren coming from behind him the holidays have arrived at the home depot and we're here to help bring the excitement with decor for every part of your home check out our wide assortment of easy to assemble pre lit trees so you can spend less time setting up and more time celebrating and bring your holiday spirit outdoors with unique decor like one of our santa inflatables whatever your style find the right pieces at the right prices this holiday season at the home depot hey so if you're like me you might already know and love the award winning music podcast song exploder from award winning host rishikesh hirway well this year rish has started putting out a new kind of music conversation on the podcast a series called key change in each episode he talks to a guest about a piece of music that changed their lives guests include actress sophie thatcher writer gia tolentino musician shirley manson from garbage author and food writer samin nosraat actor and musician jason schwartzman and more the conversations are intimate wonderful windows into how music can change the way that we see the world and see ourselves key change comes out once a month on the song exploder feed so check it out by searching for song exploder on your podcast app or go to songexploder dot net keychange this episode is brought to you by marshalls where you never have to compromise between quality and price the buyers at marshalls hustle hard working to bring you great deals on brand name and designer pieces because marshalls believes everyone deserves access to the good stuff visit a marshalls store near you or shop online at marshalls dot com lux's car raced down the highway he saw her hitchhiking on the side of the road and he slammed on the brakes immediately brought the car to a halt and then jammed the shift into reverse burning rubber backward to pick up the most beautiful woman he'd ever seen big hippie hair halter top the shortest tightest shorts you could imagine her name was christie almost instantly she loved lux who was still going by the name eric and she was jazzed by their immediate mutual admiration a connection that matched the intensity of their shared love for rock and roll out west in sacramento where they had both escaped the square influence of the zombie conformists from their respective hometowns his in stowe ohio hers in san bernardino there was plenty of freedom to explore that love it was nineteen seventy two the hippie movement lurched on they ate mushrooms and contemplated god as of bo diddley riff they drank wine and had lots of great sex they smoked grass and went on a quest to find every forty five single ever issued by sun records the legendary record label that first released elvis presley's music elvis back in the sun days was a rock and roll freaks freak dyed black hair black eyeliner pink suits armed with his mama's pill prescription so he could get all the session players at sun high and therefore be allowed to keep his annoying little teenage ass hanging around elvis did what he could to keep one step ahead of the zombie norms that tried to keep him down so lux eric and christy did the same that meant making music themselves making rock and roll themselves but there was no way they were going to be able to make the rock and roll they loved out west in the middle of the hippie movement where everyone seemed to be trying so hard to seem like they weren't trying it was a movement that was supposed to be about freedom but the now had its own set of social norms how you were supposed to look talk even think definitely what you could listen to it was a movement quickly consumed by its own kind of conformist zombies so in nineteen seventy five eric and christie split from the coast from new york city all they had with them was their record collection their rock and roll spirit and a name they would call their new band the cramps hustlers thieves homicidal maniacs garbage everywhere junkies homeless vietnam vets eating out of trash bins buildings on fire a skyrocketing crime rate rapists lurking around dark corners gangs getting wild in the streets muggers a city on the brink mid seventies new york city was beautiful the perfect place to start a bare bones sexually fueled violently dangerous rock and roll band the cramps were the mastermind creation of eric and kristi who had now started introducing themselves around town as lux interior in poison ivy rorschach lux and ivy quickly hooked up with a fellow rock and roll ghoul brian gregory brian fashioned himself after the rolling stones brian jones but more like brian jones in nineteen seventy five which is to say dead brian jones brian gregory looked deathly and mean scary with his super high cheekbones and deep set eyes his polka dot guitar offset the nasty look which matched well with the cramp's drummer brian's sister pam who was quickly replaced by drummer nick knox another musician who leaned into the dark gothic side of southern rock and roll for fashion inspiration both musicians perfectly suited the new image portrayed by lux and ivy ivy's style combined classic burlesque with the commanding presence of the duchess the female guitarist who played in bo diddley's band and lux appeared as though he crawled out of your television set back in nineteen fifty six during one of those long running horror flick marathons and landed in the rough trade section of manhattan's meatpacking district lux stuck to his skin tight black jeans rail thin and tall he seldom wore a shirt on stage but he did wear high heels his hair of course was dyed black and teased high to give him a frankenstein monster effect the cramps looked hillbilly and cosmopolitan at the same time they looked in a word scary and their music matched their look the first recorded cramps music as with most recorded cramps music walked a fine line just like the band's look did they sounded incredibly dark but also incredibly exciting loose and fun original songs about teenage werewolves and drug trains and great covers by the likes of johnny burnett the gay lads and too many awesome and obscure fifties and sixties rock and roll artists to mention all funneled through a slap back jungle boogie of early rock and roll production updated for the blank generation the covers were songs the cramps made their own songs that indicated a unique understanding of and reverence for mysterious slices of american music that had slipped through the cracks rockabilly garage novelty songs that the cramps eventually turned the burgeoning new york punk scene onto it was a time when other new york bands including blondie the ramones television and the talking heads were creating undeniably unique takes on rock and roll themselves then it was also a time when the cramps would create one song in particular that would cause new york to take notice lux interior walked down the dirty manhattan sidewalk it was early unlike the rest of the city which was up early and headed for work lux wasn't coming he was going going home after a long night in one of new york's rock and roll clubs if it was cbgb's lux would likely not be in a great mood the crowd at cb's in those early days didn't take to the cramps an audience of hipsters zombies conformists just the same as the hippies out west in the squares back home but if it was max's kansas city the night before then there was a good chance lux was in a better mood but that mood was about to change that morning's post headline read human fly climbs tower it was about some brave but clearly insane thrill seeker who climbed all the way up one of the world trade center towers scaling buildings was on the collective mind of manhattan at the moment six in the morning lux was almost back at his park the garbage trucks were out full force lux rounded the corner toward his building and there sirens cops an ambulance medics frantically moving about a crowd of early morning gawkers quickly passing rubberneckers and in the middle of the fray bloodied on the sidewalk the mangled and contorted body of one of lux's neighbors who just pitched himself off the next door roof plummeting to his death some ten plus stories below having taken all that the city could give lux took it as literal inspiration from above and went to work with ivy on writing a new song the human fly with the lyrics i spell it fly i say buzz buzz buzz and it's just because cuz cuz i'm a human fly and i don't know why i got the six tears and not de six eyes the song was brilliant a perfect combination of retro rock and roll cool with its question mark in the mysterion's ninety six tears reference and modern weirdness with lux's novelty esque vocals by way of iggy pop and charlie feathers buzz buzz buzz human flies stood out among the cramps songs the band caught the eye of the former big star and box top songsmith from memphis alex chilton almost overnight they were on their way south to make music in the cradle of rock and roll at memphis's arden studios with chilton helming the production the singles produced with chilton led to label attention from miles copeland brother of stewart copeland drummer for one of england's hottest up and coming bands at the time the police miles copeland managed the police and sold and distributed their music through his independent record label irs records miles copeland was keen on signing the cramps little did the cramps know miles copeland was a vampire we'll be right back after this word word word this episode is brought to you by twentieth century studios new film springsteen deliver me from nowhere starring golden globe winner jeremy allen white and academy award nominee jeremy be strong scott cooper the director of the academy award winning movie crazy heart brings you the story of the most pivotal chapter in the life of an icon springsteen deliver me from nowhere only in theaters october twenty fourth get your tickets now imagine fast hydration combined with balanced energy perfectly flavored with zero artificial sweeteners introducing liquid ivy's new energy multiplier sugar free unlike other energy drinks you know the ones that make you feel like you're glitching it's made with natural caffeine and electrolytes so you get the boost without the burnout liquid iv's new energy multiplier sugar free hydrating energy tap the banner to learn more this episode is brought to you by state farm listening to this podcast smart move being financially savvy smart move another smart move having state farm help you create a competitive price when you choose to bundle home and auto bundling just another way to save with a personal price plan like a good neighbor state farm is there prices are based on rating plans that vary by state coverage options are selected by the customer availability amount of discounts and savings and eligibility vary by state miles copeland couldn't believe the stories he was hearing about this american band he'd of course seen them live already a scorcher of a set in london the band was at the peak of its voodoo horror sex power in front of a european crowd that was mad for lux and ivy's brand of wild horny americana lux nearly naked up there with his leather pants sliding off of his skinny ass fellating the microphone with his rockabilly hiccup ivy nailing every riff with her violent cool pool in that thousand yard stare to freeze any and all aspiring creeps with brian gregory resurrecting brian jones and nick knox beating the devil out of his kit with his dale hawkins swamp foot london didn't know what hit them the cramps were propelled by the adoring crowd the adoration was a far cry from the comatose zombie dance of the new york hipster crowds the band was used to but miles copeland heard that the cramps delivered this show every night no matter if the audience was a packed out rock and roll star crowd like the one in london or ten scenesters in an abandoned dance hall in a washington dc suburb then there was the story about the cramps in the mental institution the cramps newly released single the human fly caused new york city to take notice it got the band booked into cbgb's in max's kansas city with some regularity but as previously noted those crowds were lame zombie hipsters they barely moved while the cramps poured their souls out on stage lux literally bled cutting himself with broken glass crawling across the floor to deliver the most honest form of rock and roll he could conjure ivy took a job as dominatrix to avoid the straight world so she could make enough cash to keep the band going brian gregory took up heroin and plunged into drug abuse such was his commitment to the brian jones bit while nick knox held on for dear life the cramps were the real deal but new york city didn't appreciate them not like they did television or blondie but while the cramps were derided in the new york rock press the traveling british press thought otherwise in a feature published by the new musical express on june tenth nineteen seventy eight entitled psycho billy and other musical diseases british journalist paul rimbali heaped praise upon the cramps unique brand of vintage horror influenced rock and roll but he also noted that the cramps are regarded as at best a joke at worst an artless conniving fraud in the process the british press also gave the cramps style of music a psychobilly it was now official the cramps had made something wholly unique creating their own subgenre of rock and roll in their quest to save rock and roll it was more than anything new york had given them so the writing was on the new york city wall for lux and ivy they needed to go west upon doing so so they encountered more zombies in los angeles not hipster zombies but hardcore authoritarians masked as punks music fans who were actually violent and hateful at their core in need of a gig the cramps were hip to an institution several hours north of la that would allow them to play and provide an enthusiastic audience the camarillo state mental hospital in napa california a mental institution the nuthouse it was perfect lux thought where else could the true spirit of rock n roll be more alive than inside the drab institutional walls of a loony bin real rock and roll was made by loonies elvis was out of his fucking mind and that bo diddley riff there's no way any sane person would have created the bo diddley riff charlie feathers sang like he swallowed a science experiment roddy self sang like he lit his hair on fire and link ray played like a man possessed yes the insane hell yes a mental institution this this is where the cramps would become one with the perfect audience from their first notes on stage inside the psychiatric hospital in front of the patients or the inmates as lux would later recall lux's intuition was proven correct as lux ivy and brian and nick bashed away at their instruments the patients well went the patients went nuts they were banging their heads pogoing doing all kinds of dancing actually working themselves into a frenzy and when the first song wrapped lux introduced the band and said to the audience somebody told me you people are crazy but i'm not so sure about that you seem to be alright to me if there had been any question about whether or not the crowd was with him lux answered it with that comment the patients went at the next song and the rest of the set with even more fervor responding to lux's empathy they rushed the stage screaming into the microphone hugging lux diving off the stage humping the floor humping each other chasing each other around the dance hall making the out for a moment and though they were locked up in an institution there was total freedom such is the power of real rock and roll some patients actually escaped during the confusion caused by the raucous set and they eventually returned to their own volition the gig at the mental institution gave wings to the growing myth of the cramps word spread to lie london that rock and roll might be saved after all and if it was going to be rescued from the clutches of the hipster zombies on both coasts the cramps might be rock and roll's best hope miles copeland signed the cramps to his irs record label the excellent album songs the lord taught us was recorded at phillips recording in memphis the studio run by the legendary sam phillips who founded sun records and first recorded elvis presley jerry lee lewis and other rock and roll pioneers the album was produced by big star's alex chilton and by any standard production shortcomings aside songs the lord taught us is a rock and roll masterpiece it brought growing fame to the cramps in the uk and throughout europe made possible with the new backing of irs and miles copeland a second record was needed imminently to capitalize on the cramps new momentum new york city was dead los angeles despite its hardcore zombies was the next best bet for geographic inspiration the cramps relocated and replaced brian gregory with gun club guitarist kid kongo powers the recording of their second album was on deck but that's when the vampire fully emerged as far as rock and roll businessmen go miles copeland iii looks like a vampire he's always looked impossibly young anglo with a parasitic glow about him he's a suit with an inherently intimidating stature born of privilege and class miles main priority was his brother's band the police and for good reason since their inception the police were in the ascendant granted they started on third base miles father was perhaps also a vampire that is an unknowable fact but what is knowable is that miles copeland ii was a founding member of the central intelligence agency better known as the cia rumors were rampant that the cramp's new manager miles copeland iii was himself a cia cutout and that the bands he'd signed to his record label including the police the go gos rem and the bangles were mere tools to disseminate disinformation to influence american youth on behalf of the cia perhaps this explains the differences that arose quickly between miles and the cramps who fell out over creative and financial differences around the time they were to begin recording their second full length album rock and roll bands can be a lot of things but unwitting tools of government disinformation is one thing they cannot be regardless of what miles copeland was or wasn't it's clear that he was hell bent on sucking the rock and roll life out of the cramps from their differences a lawsuit emerged and the stipulation of that lawsuit was that until miles and the cramps worked out their legal issues the cramps were court ordered not to release or sell any new music the well heeled miles copeland iii used his financial resources to drag the case out putting pressure on the cramps to come to a settlement that favored copeland the cramps didn't back down but again this meant the cramps couldn't release any new music and this meant nearly three years of professional death the band played live as a means to make ends meet and to keep up some momentum and their fans flocked to shows but they were starved for new music as copeland the vampire bled the cramps dry then the cockroaches came out big radioactive music nuclear powered bootlegging cockroaches they crawled out of the woodwork and smothered the cramp's career flooding the market with illegal live recordings from the band's many live shows live shows that were now necessary to keep the band afloat but the bootleggers were so persistent so prolific that the cramps were forced to stop performing their new original songs for fear that the cockroaches would record their tunes prematurely and release them to the public before the cramps could get out of their lawsuit and release those songs themselves the only move the cramps had left was to perform covers during their live shows while waiting for their legal troubles to resolve miles copeland the vampire had taken a healthy bite out of the cramps transfiguring one of the most original rock and roll groups on the planet into a cover ban back in lux's apartment years later with the smell of burning flesh from the nearby crematorium blanketing his and ivy's glendale neighborhood the cramp singer continued to cruise his collection of forty five records looking for something to put on the turntable while keeping one ear on the television tuned to mtv in the background lux was curious to see the cramp's new video on the idiot box the song was hot shit as was the video it was a new song of course it had been a few years since the cramps finally over overcame the bootlegging cockroaches and broke free from the legal clutches of the vampiric miles copeland and were once again allowed to record and release new original material first they did so after satiating fans with the excellent live album smell of female from new york's peppermint lounge in nineteen eighty three and then with the nineteen eighty six studio album a date with elvis both records were critical if not commercial hits but the single and video bikini girls with machine guns from their latest long player stay sick they were too good for the song not to be a hit or so thought anyone with rock and roll ears sadly those people were wrong sure the song got played on mtv and even received some radio play but it wasn't a hit it didn't matter how great great the song was and it was indeed great bikini girls with machine guns culminated a years long rock and roll obsession with this song lux and ivy finally frankensteined their uniquely specific brand of rock and roll into something truly monstrous the song had everything a massive hooky chorus killer energy and swing a stinging heroic anti guitar hero guitar solo from ivy and an undeniably unique lyrical pov i mean what in the world could possibly be better than bikini girls with machine guns nothing that's what first of all they're girls second of all they're in bikinis and third they've got fucking machine guns man all right sorry forgive me for indulging my inner beavis and butthead and back to saving rock and roll as far as lux and ivy's goal of bringing rock and roll to the masses to the mainstream media outlets needed to disseminate the cramps brand of mad teenage bop to the radio to television well finally finally the cramps had sound and production on this single worthy of the band's originality and by the time the cramps recorded bikini girls with machine guns they'd abandoned the two guitar assault they'd used in their early days and added candy del mar on base and that new bottom added a level of modern sophistication to the cramped sound that a great song like bikini girls with machine guns demanded and the video weirder than weird and cool as fuck lux in skin tight black latex and high heels ivy in her burlesque belly dancer best firing off a machine gun with her panties sliding down to her high heeled ankles the video violence booze sex and cool you know all the things red blooded american teenagers are preternaturally driven toward this stuff will kill ya it's a loaded with fun bikini girls with machine guns as the lyric goes pure awesomeness but lux didn't see his video on tv that day just another repeat of sting's ridiculous video for we'll be together tonight luck shut the tv off and went back to his forty five s because for all the awesomeness of bikini girls with machine guns it didn't matter none of it mattered didn't matter how great the song was it was too late didn't matter how great the video was because it was too late it was a different time it was nineteen ninety had bikini girls with machine guns been written and released earlier say back in nineteen eighty three i believe it would have made the cramps a household name and perhaps rock and roll would have been saved back in the early eighties mtv was jammed with idiosyncratic rock and roll videos take cyndi lauper's hit she bought there's cindy with her orange hair bouncing around your television screen singing about female masturbation or the go go's early eighties hit we get the beat the go gos irs records cleaned up their punk image a tad for the cameras but there's belinda and the girls lux and ivy's la punk contemporaries taking the piss out of smokey robinson's going to a go go with the updated we got the beat take off your punk rock hipster hat for just a minute and try to see cyndi lauper's she bop and the go go's we got the beat and the cramps bikini girls with machine guns as a midwestern or suburban teenage kid in nineteen eighty three would have there's not that much of a difference broadly speaking the big difference is timing she bop and we got the beat emerged when mtv leaned into weird rock and roll by the time the video for bikini girls with machine guns came out in nineteen ninety mtv was busy broadcasting self serious rock music by sting u two genesis and others but in the early nineteen eighties when the shebop and we got the beat videos were released the cramps were effectively stuck in music jail the window to break on mtv for a band as weird and idiosyncratic as the cramps had come and gone during the hit making network's nascent years from nineteen eighty one to nineteen eighty four when the cramps were legally prohibited from recording and releasing new material the time they spent during that era battling a music industry vampire empire and combating radioactive bootlegging cockroaches was time they could have spent inspired and perhaps writing and releasing songs like bikini girls with machine guns during an era when the mainstream public would have been receptive to their brand of rock and roll weirdness had that happened perhaps lux and ivy's mission of saving rock and roll from corporate rock would have succeeded but that that didn't happen bikini girls with machine guns was just a modest hit and only in the uk but it did keep the cramps going as a band they continued touring and making great music throughout the nineties and early two thousands lux and ivy never gave up the ghost they kept on their music their rock and roll inspired countless younger bands in the so called psychobilly category a subgenre of rock and roll that the cramps unintentionally created rock and roll archivists around the world serious scholars of various genres most notably garage rockabilly punk horror rock and novelty records owe a significant debt of gratitude to the cramps for their inspiration same goes for the goth girls on tiktok and for the horror court kids and also for the former disney star jenna ortega who brought the cramps to the forefront of pop culture in twenty twenty two with a dance the actress choreographed herself for an episode of the wildly popular netflix series wednesday during the dance ortega's wednesday character owns all ninety six of the teenaged eyes glued to her as she twitches and strikes cuts through the high school dance to the cramps song goo goo muck it's an inadvertent twenty first century homage to the bug from back in lux's childhood shout out to music supervisor jen malone and ex goth herself for having the taste and good sense to include the cramps in this modern hit television series the cramps influence spread far and wide because the cramps created something wholly unique in rock and roll through the dedicated dedication that they put into their music unfortunately that dedication came to an end when lux died suddenly in two thousand nine from heart failure ivy after losing the love of her life and her creative partner disappeared completely from the public eye the cramps gave their lives to saving rock and roll but that didn't happen rock and roll is dead dead just like the efforts of the zombie conformist and the music biz vampire and the bootlegging cockroaches but the cramp's music is alive and that is anything but a disgrace i'm jake brennan and this is disgrace alright that was a fun one happy halloween everybody hope you dug it this week's question of the week in honor of the cramps is this what band made the greatest rock and roll music ever okay you know the drill one band and one band only tell me why rock and roll to the me is low down dirty fun guitar driven music for teenagers and or music that makes you feel like a teenager so loosely based on that definition i guess what band in your estimation made the greatest rock and roll music of all time and why i already know my answer and it's pretty basic but i want to know your answer six one seven nine zero six six six three eight leave me a voicemail send me a text and let me know you can also reach me at disgraceland podcast as well on instagram x and facebook leave a review for the show on apple podcasts or spotify and win some free merch alrighty then here comes some credits disgraceland was created by yours truly and is produced in partnership with double elvis credits for this episode can be found on the show notes 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