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THE CRAMPS – ‘BAD MUSIC FOR BAD PEOPLE’

This relatively thin and decidedly cash-grabby (arriving after the band’s departure from I.R.S.) compilation came late in the Cramps’ career, but Bad Music For Bad People is a sumptuous collection of 11 hits (“Human Fly” is represented) and B-sides that often serves as an introduction to the psychobilly legends’ swampy goo goo muck. For some members of Animal Collective, Bad Music was as unlikely gateway not just to punk but notions of the abrasive as well, birthing Avey Tare’s sharp ear for sharp edges.

Avey: I remember driving in the car with my cousins, 7th or 8th grade. Their older sister has this Cramps tape that she was listening to in college. It was just the weirdest stuff I’d heard until that time. I heard punk music but I hadn’t gotten into it much. It just seemed so dark and druggy. Who are these people making this music? That was a switch for me. All right, there’s other stuff happening, it’s not just classic rock and Bob Marley or the Grateful Dead. Now I wanna try and find out what this punk rock stuff is.

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