Henry Rollins and Ian MacKaye Help Unearth Lost Album by The Cramps

Hardcore heroes Henry Rollins (Black Flag, Rollins Band) and Ian MacKaye (Fugazi, Minor Threat) have helped unearth a never-before-released Alex Chilton-produced album by psychobilly legends The Cramps.

Last year, Rollins mentioned that he and MacKaye were collaborating on a project together, leading fans to think the two were making new music. Rollins quickly clarified that they were actually working on a project involving an unnamed “legendary punk band.”

Now, the full details of the project have been unveiled, with multiple releases planned under a new company called The Cramps, Inc. that is essentially relaunching the band’s label Vengeance Records.

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The highlight is the lost album Gravest Gravy, set to arrive on August 21st via multiple colored vinyl editions, CD, and digitally (pre-orders available here). A video for the song “TV Set” can be viewed below.

Rollins issued a lengthy statement detailing the plans to reissue albums by The Cramps, as well as the story behind the Gravest Gravy album. In part, he stated:

“In October 1977, The Cramps, who were at that time, Lux Interior on vocals, Poison Ivy on guitar, Bryan Gregory on guitar, and Nick Knox on drums, ventured into Ardent Studios with the extraordinarily talented musician and producer, Alex Chilton. These sessions were responsible for the first two Vengeance Records releases, both permanently disfiguring the music world in 1978.

Surfin’ Bird / The Way I Walk

Human Fly / Domino

In 1979, young British degenerates were treated to a five track 12” EP by The Cramps called Gravest Hits, which featured all four tracks released in the USA, along with another from the October 1977 sessions, a great channeling of Ricky Nelson’s hit ‘Lonesome Town.’ From there, the band released their first LP, Songs The Lord Taught Us, again working with Alex Chilton, and went onward, releasing records and touring all over until the sad passing of Lux in 2009.

What Cramps fans might not know, was at Ardent, the band had planned to record their song TV Set to be their first A side, along with another track or tracks. Alex told them that he liked to have a band play every song they knew and the best of the batch would be committed to vinyl. This was fantastic advice, and luckily for us, that’s what The Cramps did. This is how ‘Lonesome Town’ found its way to Gravest Hits. But, there was much more to the story.

In the late 1980s, Lux and Ivy endeavored to release more recordings from the October 1977 sessions. It was to be titled Gravest Gravy. It was a record for the fans, a journey back to Memphis, back to the first Cramps records, that, try as it might, the world has been unable to heal from. Lux and Ivy mixed several tracks between June 14 and 30, 1989 at Present Time Recorders, in North Hollywood. Alex mixed a few tracks in Memphis. The album had a title, a cover by the great Stephanie Chernikowski, who passed away recently, but for reasons lost to time, Gravest Gravy was shelved.

In 2026, we sought to change that. It was apparent that this record absolutely needed to be with the fans. A team, still severely cramped from initial contact with the band, began to form and got to work.

The tracks on Gravest Gravy were contained on seven 1/4 inch reels. Six were generated by Lux and Ivy, one by Alex. The tapes were carefully transferred by Brian Kehew. He was happy to report that all seven reels had withstood the test of time, and the tracks were in pristine condition. Many of the songs had multiple mixes. We had to determine which ones were the keepers. Over several nights of concentrated listening, and copious notetaking, I was able to get an understanding of the changes made from mix to mix. Within a few nights, I was able to determine that the last mix of each song was the keeper. Not only did the tracks sound to be at their fullest potential, it made sense.

I sent the mixes and my notes to Ian MacKaye, whose ears I trust more than anyone I know. I asked him to take his time, go through the tracks and form an opinion of my selections. Days later, he reported back that he agreed with me on all of them. He then volunteered to do some EQ and level adjustment on two of the tracks with Don Zientara at Inner Ear Studios, in Arlington, Virginia.

Days later, all the tracks were at Infrasonic Sound, an excellent studio in Nashville, Tennessee for mastering under the careful watch of engineer Pete Lyman. I sat for hours and listened as Pete coaxed the frequencies to be at their best. The results were two six song sides of the Cramps, extracted from a 1977 amber block, de-fossilized and ready to be inflicted upon the ears of those who would rather Stay Sick and Turn Blue than hope for sunny weather.

Gravest Gravy is an absolute treasure. You get a performance of Hungry by Paul Revere and the Raiders, released in 1966, which found itself in the band’s early set lists, but soon dropped out. To make it even more interesting, Alex Chilton jumps in on organ. Another early Cramps cover, Problem Child, written by Sam Phillips, is on the record. The band used to do an absolutely rippin’ version of the 1958 Jimmy Lloyd track, Rocket In My Pocket at some of their early shows. There’s a great version of it on Gravest Gravy. Also really cool are the songs that found official release on the band’s second album, Psychedelic Jungle, with Kid Congo Powers taking over the spot vacated by Bryan. These tracks would be Jungle Hop (also with Alex Chilton on organ) by Kip Tyler, released in 1958, The Natives Are Restless (with different lyrics), Can’t Find My Mind and Rockin’ Bones released in 1959 by the Blond Bomber himself, Ronnie Dawson. The approach to these versions is much different than on Psychedelic, and it’s never a bad thing to have more Bryan Gregory to listen to.

We were able to locate the exact photo of Stephanie’s that Lux and Ivy had envisioned for the cover. The back cover photo was taken by David Godlis at CBGB, and is easily one of the coolest Cramps photos ever.

We brought in the very talented Jason Willis to make a video for TV Set. It could not have turned out better.

What you have in Gravest Gravy, is sheer brilliance committed to tape by a band that was plugged in directly to the Rock ‘n Roll mainline, produced by a visionary maniac named Alex Chilton.”

Watch the video for “TV Set” and see the artwork and tracklist for Gravest Gravy below.

Gravest Gravy Artwork:

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