C is for... The Cramps
The greatest garage punk rock band of them all. Cramps frontman Lux Interior and guitarist Poison Ivy Rorschach were a walking, trash talking encyclopedia of obscure garage and rockabilly riffs. Pretty much everything The Cramps put out is essential but their first album Songs The Lord Taught Us (1980) is a garage punk masterpiece.
One of The Cramp’s greatest gigs was the free show they gave for the patients of the California State Mental Hospital in Napa in 1978. The event was filmed and later released on video. Lux sadly passed in 2009 and The Cramps were done. But man, they left behind a hell of a legacy.
C is also for... Crazy monikers!
C’mon, it was the '60s! It was all tight trousers, fuzz boxes and daft band names. Examples? How about Mouse & The Traps, The Strawberry Alarm Clock, The Chocolate Watch Band, The Electric Prunes, The Blues Magoos... Question Mark & the Mysterians! Makes ‘The Beatles’ sound ordinary by comparison.