The Cramps’ ‘Gravest Gravy’ Unearths Long-Lost Sessions From One of Rock’s Most Brilliantly Deranged Bands: Album Review

The Cramps' long-lost "Gravest Gravy" sessions are finally being released, marking the start of a wider revival of the punk-era band's catalogue by Henry Rollins, Ian MacKaye and reclusive founding member Poison Ivy, who holds most of the group's rights. The album stems from October 1977 recordings at Memphis's Ardent Studios, produced by Alex Chilton, which originally yielded the band's first two singles; the newly surfaced tracks are the remaining songs from those sessions that never made the cut, mixed by singer Lux Interior and Ivy in the late 1980s but shelved for unclear reasons until now.

The record blends the Cramps' own warped originals, some of which later appeared on subsequent albums, with obscure 1950s and '60s covers the band never officially released, including songs by Paul Revere and the Raiders, Sam Phillips and Jimmy Lloyd. The release relaunches the group's Vengeance Records label and kicks off a broader reissue campaign covering most of their albums, unreleased material and official merchandise, aiming to restore visibility to a band whose profile faded following Lux Interior's death in 2009.