I couldn't find out much information about this recording, other than the fact that it was recorded on May 20th, 1982 at Astor Park in Seattle, Washington. There appears to be a lot of Cramps fans that visit here, so I thought you all would enjoy this. Here's the information that was included with this bootleg:
At one time I was a regular dealer at local record conventions. I met this guy at my booth who wanted to trade music. He said he had this album by the Cramps, which was extremely limited, even by bootleg standards. It was locally pressed in Seattle on red vinyl, and the cover was silk-screened directly on the record jacket. At a time when most boot LPs sold for under $10USD, he had paid over $25USD for it.
This record was transferred through Burwen Research Labs TNF and DNR units onto a TDK SA90 in approximately 1985. Burwen Research had developed the first analog pop and click remover (TNF = Transient Noise Filter) on the market, as well as the first analog noise reduction unit (DNR = Dynamic Noise Reduction). Burwen Research were bought out by KLH in the late 1980's, then KLH went out of business. When the name KLH was used again in the audio market some years later, it was a different company and these units were no longer produced. These units worked very well, and were easier to set than today's digital programming.
(Year of Release: 1982)
Track List:
1. Domino
2. Human Fly
3. Sometimes Good Guys Don't Wear White
4. I'm Five Years Ahead Of My Time
5. Primitive
6. Goo Goo Muck
7. Reality (Beautiful Gardens)
8. TV Set
9. Sunglasses After Dark
10. Garbage Man
11. Psychotic Reaction
Download: The Cramps - Totally Destroy Seattle (66.8MB)
6 comments:
coolsville-
long may the cramps continue to rock!
lots of great cramps stuff out there.
i was actually at the "smell of female" (about) 1984 NYC Peppermint Lounge show that was released as an album.
i remember it because at one point Lux kicked my friend in the head!
@nazz nomad:
It must have been an amazing experience to have witnessed the Cramps at their peak, especially for your friend. Hopefully one day I'll be able to see them live, before they stop touring. Glad you enjoyed this. I'll be posting more Cramps stuff in the future.
This is awesome.Love The Cramps.
I was at the show this was recorded from. After the show, I interviewed Lux, Kid Congo, and Nick Knox (Ivy was elsewhere) and hastily wrote an article for the looming deadline for The Rocket. I was totally blown away by their show, and impressed by their intelligence and deep feeling for their music.
A couple months later, I was in Cellophane Square, a record store in Seattle's U District, when Scott McCaughey, who worked behind the counter, showed me album. (Scott would go on to fame and fortune with the Young Fresh Fellows and other great bands, but at this point he was just another Rocket writer to me.) When I turned the record over, there was the Rocket article I'd written as the liner notes. (It did not include the great Kristine Larson photo that went with the article, with Lux in the middle of a bunch of fans, including a very nice skinhead girl I later got to know a bit.) Cellophane Square was selling the LP for $25, which was totally out of my price range--I never knew where my next meal was coming from a lot of those days. My records were the promos I could scrounge and 3/$1 barain-bin LPs. A friend who'd bought the album eventually allowed me to tape it, and I was very impressed by its sound quality.
Several years went by. I moved to New York City and obtained more of a regular income. My sister, who at that time worked in the record business, stayed in Seattle. She started dating a Canadian guy, who lived in Vancouver, BC. To make a long story short, we discovered that he was the person who'd put out this album. "I want to talk to him," I said. I was more amused than anything else, but I told him that since he'd used my article without permission, the least he could do was give me a copy of the album. He said he didn't have any extra ones, but that there were a bunch sitting in his mother's basement in Calgary, and next he went there, he'd get one for me. Sure enough, a few months later he sent me one in the mail.
He also told me that he's sent copies to all the Cramps except Kid Congo, who he didn't have an address for. At that time I knew a woman who was freinds with Kid Congo and hung out with him when he was in NYC. (I met him once with her, but he was exhausted and went to sleep in the van we were driving around in.) With some reluctance, she gave me his address in England, and my sister's friend said he'd send him one too.
I can't tell you too much more about the actual record. It was taken from the sound board. it does not include the entire Astor Park show--the band came out and did a fantastic version of "Surfin' Bird" as an encore that's not included on the record.
I've seen the Cramps a bunch of times since then in Washington, DC, and New York, and they've always sounded great and put on a frenzied show, but that Astor Park show, in such a small space, was something special.
I still have the LP, but thanks for giving me the chance to have it in digital form.
--Robert
mr_earbrass2000 [AT] yahoo.com
this is great, glad i dug deeper in your blog
-cheers
Holy Shit! This is truly a find as it was one of my favorite Cramps shows and I did not know a recording of it existed. Lux's hair stood strait up and he was wearing high heels. My brother was not old enough to get in (21 and over at Astor Park) and talked my Dad into taking him there. Dad was able to talk his way into letting my Brother in. My Brother joined me and my group while my Dad wandered around smoking a pipe. Picture JR Bob Dobbs with a goatee and Greek fisherman's cap. He later told me a skinhead chick had walked up to him asking; "Do you have herpes?". When he said no she asked him what was in the pipe. She wandered away after finding out it was only tobacco. I still hold on to the Rocket paper that had the show review as you can see my Dad in his cap off in the background in the article's photo. Thanks!
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