Human Fly Film Overview

The film opens with a countdown and a placard with: Vengeance Productions Presents a Film by Alex de Laszlo. It immediately cuts to a shot of Ivy walking down the street, transistor radio glued to her ear (The Way I Walk is playing), blowing bubbles and holding a glass bottle coke. Cut to a somber looking Lux in a smoking jacket sitting on what appears to be a leopard print sofa. He’s prepping a huge hypodermic needle by lighting a match and holding it under the needle.

Lux then gathers up some flesh from around his throat and slowly injects himself.



The result is immediate; he begins a transformation!




Again, we see Ivy walking down the street as the film cuts back to Lux as his transformation deepens.



And deepens.



His transformation is complete.



Ivy stumbles and drops her radio down a flight of stairs. She looks down in to the foreboding space and reluctantly goes down them to retrieve her radio. There is one last cut to the Lux monster as he gets up off the couch. Ivy bends down to pick up the radio as the opening riff from Human Fly begins. We follow the camera down the stairs toward Ivy as she screams!



She runs down a hallway (past Nick’s drum kit) into a room with a door. She opens it and out comes Dracula Nick!



As she reacts, there is a jump cut to Bryan smoking. As his head slowly turns you can see that his face is sort of…melted.



Lux lurches into view holding what appears to be a Barbie doll.



He sort of looks around and then throws an evil smile and lurches towards the camera. They way he moves in this shot is really great. It’s kind of hard to describe other than “lurches”.



Ivy is horrified at the monsters around her. Nick, Byran and Lux surround her and drag her to the ground, the Lux Monster drooling and Melt Faced Bryan’s face actually dripping on Ivy. The Lux Monster is swinging his Barbie doll around by the hair, laughing and have a great time.

After a few moments there is a close up of Ivy’s face. As she turns towards the camera we see that she has been transformed into: Skull Faced Ivy!



She slowly gets up as there is a bunch of quick cuts of Dracula Nick smoking, turning on a radio, slowly bopping his head. Monster Lux grabs the transformed Ivy and leads her towards a piece of broken mirror so she can see her new form. She looks at the camera and begins a slow grooving dance with the rest of the monsterous group. The look on her face is great, like she’s excepted her “new look.”

There are more quick cuts of the group having fun as the song ends. Melt Faced Bryan drinking some liquid and “skittering” across a mattress. Monster Lux doing a fly dance, and sucking his thumb over a record player with a 45 on it.



And a final close up of each member.



Then there is a close up of the artwork for the picture sleeve of Human Fly (though only Lux and Ivy are really visable).





Well, that’s it. I think it’s a brilliant piece of Cramps history. Thinking about the time period that this came out, it’s pretty extraordinary. They made this film at a time when something like this wasn’t really logical. It’s not like it was going to air on MTV or something. Jim Marshall chimed in on the last post and said that it had been shown before one of their shows at CBGB’s back in 1979.

So that’s it. I hope it gets a legitimate release someday.

Thanks to Kevin Compton for sending this my way.

The Human Fly Film

In 1978 The Cramps decided to make a short promotional film using their song Human Fly as the back drop. Other than that I really don't know the history of the film at all. The first I heard about it was when the Ian Johnston book about The Cramps that came out in the early 90’s.

The book said that the film was so rare, that The Cramps themselves did not have a copy.

It’s pretty much considered the rarest bit of Cramps ephemera. Many don't even know about it all. It is any serious Cramps fan’s Holy Grail as it were. The Cramps footage that no one seems to have seen.

Since reading about it in the Johnston book, I've always had an eye out for any mention anywhere about the film. Back in the early 90’s, which was pre-Internet for me, the odds of hearing about the film or running across it were pretty slim.

As the Internet began to play a larger roll in my (and everyone else’s) life, I thought surely a mention of the film would pop up at some point. But still there was nothing about it anywhere. When Youtube hit the scene, I figured it would show up over there. Something so rare had to be in the possession of somebody that would upload its grainy b/w goodness so that people could finally see the film that Cramps fans had been talking about for years.

Still there was nothing.

Over a decade after starting the Lux and Ivy’s Favorites series something extraordinary happened. The film turned up!

Here’s how it went down. A friend of mine from Boston had been telling me about a friend of his who was a HUGE Cramps fan. He said that we totally had to meet because we would hit it off immediately, because of our love for The Cramps.

Years went by where this friend of his and I would never meet. During that time he found out about the LAIF series and enjoyed them so much that he emailed me asking if there was anything I was looking for Cramps related. Like a jerk, I pretty much said I had everything readily available (all the releases, tons of bootlegs, etc). He admitted that he was kind of out of the loop regarding any of the newer live recordings that had popped up over the years, but he felt that he needed to thank me for my efforts with the LAIF series. I was humbled that he thought so much of the series that he felt the need to repay me.

The last sentence in his email went something like this; …”Well, I also have this video of The Cramps turning into monsters in some basement….”

This of course elicited a sound from me akin to 96 eyes popping out of 96 eye sockets!

This HAD to be the Human Fly film! That tiny description was like nothing I had ever read about before. Legend had it that it was a film of Lux “turning into a fly” but I think that was an assumption by someone that had not seen the film.

Here’s a short version about how it came into his possession. When he was in high school he made a short film with this other guy. Years later they wanted to have the super 8 film transferred to VHS so they could watch it again without the need of a projector. Somewhere along the line his friend had come into possession of the Human Fly film. All they knew at the time was that it was somehow Cramps related. Since they were both Cramps fans, it ended up on the pile of items to be transferred to VHS.

Details are a little sketchy at this point, apparently his friend knew Alex de Laszlo, the Human Fly director, and de Laszlo had lent the film to this guy. The film itself eventually made its way back to de Laszlo.

So they ended up watching the film, but at the time since there was no outlet to really show this to the world, it ended up kind of being forgotten. Basically, the tape ended up in his attic and forgotten. He had absolutely no idea that the video in his attic was on every crazed Cramps fan’s Halloween wish list.

Flash forward to about a year ago:

In what seemed like a few hours, I was watching something I have no idea how many people have actually seen. I must have watched it a few dozen times, first on my computer monitor and later on my television. The film has more ideas per frame than the average modern horror flick has in its entire running time.

Soon, various friends were swinging by to feast their unbelieving eyes on the film. Everyone that saw it was speechless. Everyone said the same thing: “WHEN ARE YOU PUTTING THIS UP ON YOUTUBE!?!”

Well, sorry to say, I’m not. This isn’t me saying; “Hey, look at me! Look what I have and YOU don’t!” This is me, or more to the point, US saying some things are meant to be seen at the right place and the right time. If Ivy wants this released, she’ll release it. There’s no way we want to get in the way of an eventual release by doing something as callous as uploading it to Youtube, right next to talking babies, football’s to the groin, and various other time killers; This was too special.

But what I will do is write a review of the film, as well as post some screen shots so you can see that the film actually exists in some form.

For those keeping score, the film is no longer lost, according to an interview I read somewhere Lux and Ivy found the film in their attic (an appropriate place) and at some point intend on releasing it (this was of a few years ago). As of this writing there is no news (that I know of) about any official Cramps release on DVD.

End of Part One

Lux and Ivy's Favorites Volume Six (remastered)

Sorry for the delay in getting this finished!

Part of the problem was the winter blahs setting in (sadly, the time when I have the most time to do stuff like this is also the time when I really don't feel like doing it!), and the other problem I was running into was finding decent version of the songs (thus the "remastered" part!).

I think this version is a bit better than the version that already exists. There are a few songs with infinitely better sounding files like a pristine copy of Slide Her Under the Door. It almost sounds TOO good. I was so used to the version on the Wavy Gravy LP (which was taken from a cassette tape!), that this new version took some getting used to.

The other thing I'm most proud of is the Psychedelic masterpiece that Michael Deforge came up with for the cover of this edition. There are more ideas per square inch in this piece that I get lost in it every time I look at it. As part of the download, I've also included the original that he sent me so you can really get a good look at it.

For information, or to see more of his artwork check out http://www.kingtrash.com/

As usual, Adam Fitch put everything together art wise. Thanks to him and the people who helped finding some of the better versions of mp3's.

Next up will be volume 1-3 which will have artwork by French artist Slim Gil DeLuxe (1 + 2) and J.R. Williams (3).

LAIF #6 (REUPLOAD)

The Cramps - City Gardens 6/26/81

It's 2 years today since the death of Lux (still feels weird to type those words). You can read my thoughts on what Lux and Ivy mean to me earlier on this blog, so I won't go into it again. Plus the fact that I'm battling a crazy severe cold/fever the last few days, so I'm not sure if this is making much sense anyway.

Here is a great sounding show from 1981. The one thing that really stands out for me on this recording is the drumming by Nick. It's ferocious and smooth sounding at the same time. If you ever wanted to take a course on what good drumming can be, I recommend buying a kit and playing to this recording every day.

And now a word about bootlegging. I tracked down my local shaman/witch doctor and had him put a voodoo curse on this recording. Anyone trying to bootleg this, or profit from it in any way will "die a thousand deaths!" Sure, make copies for your friends or enemies, but try and profit from it and see what happens...

Rest in Piece Lux. You are sorely missed by many...

The_Cramps_-_City_Gardens

Lux and Ivy's Favorites Volume Fifteen

Here is Lux and Ivy's Favorites Volume Fifteen!

This volume is a mix of left over songs from that magical tape that came into my possession earlier this year and some other hold over songs that I've been waiting to throw on the series.

A HUGE thank you goes out to Haunted George for doing the cover for this volume. For those unfamiliar with his work, I highly recommend checking out his Myspace or Facebook pages (the URL's are part of the artwork when you download the volume). Be sure to check out his stuff. It's some of the more interesting/different music being produced today in a landscape filled with the usual garbagegarage (tm).

A few notes on the songs.

The intro/instrumental was reassembled from the original tape using the best sources I could find. You can read the whole story about "instrumental" on my blog. It shouldn't be too hard to find the track title if you really want to know. I kept it a mystery for the hell of it. The actual intro will be familiar with most everyone (i hope!). It was on the tape I was given and I had to laugh when I heard it. You could tell it was recorded using a cheap microphone that was more than likely held up to a television so it could be put on the tape.

Ruth Wallis - Ubangi. Wow, here is a song that i've looked for for years! In an old interview with the Cramps, Lux had attributed this song to someone named Ruth Fallen, and described the song in pretty good detail. I could never find this song anywhere. He called it YOU BANGI ME, I BANGI YOU (or something like that).

Then, as a result of that interview I gave to Dig It magazine, someone contacted me (thanks Colin!) suggesting that it was Ruth WALLIS! I tracked down the song, listened to it, and decided it HAD to be the song Lux was referring to. My guess is that the interviewer mis-heard Lux when he said the name of the artist. FALL-IN, WALL-IS, it could have been careless notes, or a bad transcription of a tape the interviewer had made.

Finding a good copy of the song was nearly impossible. It originally appeared on 78. I found a CD compilation of Wallis's songs with Ubangi on it. Great, right? A version taken from CD has to be good quality, right? Wouldn't you know it? The CD has a glitch on that particular song! Any mp3 rips of it sounded like shit. Besides the glitch it had an amazing amount of background noise.

After a while I found that it had been issued on a LP as well and through some further searching found a sealed copy for sale on ebay. This is the version on this compilation. And even then, it doesn't sound that great. I think it was mastered from the original 78 and not a master tape. The song even gets louder and softer, so I guess no one cared because it was for stag parties anyway!

Then I found a few more holdover songs from the original INCREDIBLY STRANGE MUSIC interview.

Red Hewitt and the Buccaneers - D.J. Blues; Lux never mentioned the artist, just talked about the song, and the lyric "music right out of the swirling all!" The first few seconds of this track remind me of a cramps song. So happy to have found this track. Red Hewitt was from New Zealand and released a few 45's on the Audion label (see scan on tracklisting).

Sheri Lee Douglas - Chime Bells; Never thought I'd find this one. Lux and Ivy swear this is KAY MARTIN singing, and I have to agree with them. It sounds exactly like her. The b-side of this 45 will be on the next LAIF volume.

Let's see, what else? There are a few more tracks from Forbidden City Dog Food as well as a bit from the Purple Knif Show. After listening to it again recently I heard a few seconds of something that never registered with me before. As the show ends, there is a few seconds of the deadly ones song, the mad drummer! It is such a great song, it HAD to be included on this volume.

Enjoy this volume, it might be awhile before the next one, but you never know!

My plans for remastered versions of the earlier volumes are still going according to plan. Volume 6 will be next, then volume's one, two, three and five.

Huge thanks go out to: Debbie D for doing a little sound voodoo on a bunch of the mp3's to make them sound better, Howie Pyro for the secret track, Bruce Milne, Colin Duff, Olaf Jens for helping me with a few songs, Steve Pallow, and Adam Fitch for his amazing graphics.

LAIF_15 (new link!)

Tale of Two Thunders!

One of my absolute favorite guitar instrumentals is Bob Taylor's Thunder on the Yucca label. It has been comped countless times (and even makes an appearance on one of the Lux and Ivy Favorites). The B-side is great too, but man, Thunder kills!

A few years ago, I came upon an auction for a song called Thunder Reef, by the Shindigs. The song was attributed to Bobby Fuller AND Bob Taylor. The sound sample attached to the auction attested to the fact that it was indeed a "re-imagining" of Thunder! It took me forever to get the actual 45 (at a halfway decent price), and I present it here for you to check out.

I can't decide which one I like better, they are both such amazing records. There was definitely something in the water down in El Paso!

This version of Thunder Reef has never been comped to my knowlege. A version of the song has appeared on a few Bobby Fuller compilations, but it has an accoustic guitar sound that really takes the heat out of the song.

Give a (repeated) listen to the 2 versions below, and as an added bonus, there is a link to the other side of the Shindigs record as well, a great instrumental with a nod to the Wolfman!

(beware, the Wolfman side is REALLY scratchy)

Bob_Taylor_-_Thunder

The_Shindigs_-_Thunder_Reef

The_Shindigs_-_Wolfman

The Frantics

REALLY excited about this latest pur-chase! It's a fantastic slab of 60's awesomeness. Not only is the A-side a killer mid tempo 60's garage gem, but the B-side is a Lux and Ivy Fave that was featured on LAIF volume 12 (albeit in a lousy quality mp3...but it was the best I could find at the time thanks to Mop Top Mike).

Either side of this Atlanta 45 would be right at home on one of the Teenage Shutdown compilations. For a neat pic of what must be one of the band members parents house, check out Greg G's page on the 45 here:

http://www.atlantatimemachine.com/misc/frantics_45rpm.htm

So download and enjoy, and for those who have LAIF #12 take that jack-knife mp3, delete it, and throw this version on there as it is a whole lot better sounding!

So put your wighat on and download immediately!

Why

(Do_The)_Jack_-_Knife