The Cramps - Gravest Gravy

In October 1977 the Cramps walked into Ardent Studios in Memphis with Alex Chilton producing. They went in to cut a single. They came out with a vault.

Those sessions gave the world the "Surfin' Bird" that snaps the song clean in half, Jack Scott's "The Way I Walk" dragged back to the Stone Age, and one of the greatest A sides ever pressed: "Human Fly," backed with a "Domino" that swaggers with infinite confidence. Five of those tracks surfaced on the Gravest Hits 12-inch in 1979. The rest of the reels went into the dark for nearly fifty years.

In 2026 Larry Hardy of In The Red Records went down into the Cramps tape vault and came back up with six quarter-inch reels mixed by Lux Interior and Poison Ivy. Gravest Gravy is what was on them: twelve tracks from those October 1977 sessions, unrestrained, wild, and plugged straight into rock 'n' roll's mainline.

"Gravest Gravy is one of the purest collections of unrestrained, wild music you'll ever hear. Like Jerry Lee Lewis unchained, like Elvis meets Tarzan, like it should be. The Cramps were one of the greatest bands in the history of recorded music, and anyone who heard or saw them knows and abides by this groovin' truth. The Cramps made this music for the love of Rock 'n' Roll. Lux and Ivy made this record for you."

Henry Rollins

Vinyl LP on Vengeance Records. Ships on or around September 7, 2026.