Furthermore

Kid Congo Powers is the stage name of Brian Tristan (born 1960, Los Angeles, California), an American rock guitarist and singer, best known as a member of The Gun Club, Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds, and currently the title role in Kid Congo and the Pink Monkey Birds. Most of his career has found him exploring the territory where punk rock joins older "roots music" styles.

Powers is a second generation Mexican American born and raised in El Monte, California. In 1976, he was president of The Ramones fan club, then ran a fanzine for The Screamers. After traveling to London and New York City he returned to L.A. and in 1979 met Jeffrey Lee Pierce. Pierce taught him to play guitar using open tuning, and they formed 'The Creeping Ritual', which became The Gun Club. Powers left that group before their recording debut, instead joining an obscure "punk-o-billy" band called "The Crabs" or some such thing, in December 1980. They it was who dubbed him 'Kid Congo Powers,' a name which appears to have stuck. He rejoined the Gun Club from 1983-1988, when he again left to join Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds in Berlin, for several albums and associated tours. Powers has also played with The Divine Horsemen, The Angels of Light and Die Haut. (Wikipedia- sort of)

The ultimate Kid Congo Powers resource - Kid discusses his life and career in over 4 hours of audio, text, mp3s, rare photos, and more from NewYorkNightTrain.com:

http://www.newyorknighttrain.com/zine/general/archive/kcp.html

You can also find further particulars here, as well as a few sample tunes for your engorgement and general groove improvement:

http://www.isound.com/kid_congo_powers

Kid Congo & The Pink Monkey Birds, Dracula Boots

http://popshifter.com/2009-09-29/kid-congo-the-pink-monkey-birdsdracula-boots/

By Julie Finley
Sept. 29, 2009

Kid Congo Powers (a.k.a. Brian Tristan) has been around. . . and around! If you know the name, you know his pedigree! If you are reading this, you probably dig at least one of the following: The Cramps, The Gun Club, Nick Cave & the Bad Seeds, Congo Norvell, Knoxville Girls, Kid & Khan, Fur Bible, Botanica, Mark Eitzel, The Divine Horsemen, The Angels of Light, Die Haut, etc. (or possibly all of them). He’s sort of a renegade musician—he shows up in a lot of things—but in the past few years, he’s finally doing his own thing, where he’s the focus.

In 2006, under the moniker Kid Congo & The Pink Monkey Birds, he released Philosophy & Underwear, as well as releasing Solo Cholo (which was a sort of odds & ends compilation of various works Kid had done, but were sporadic).

Dracula Boots is the follow-up to Philosophy & Underwear, and it doesn’t miss a beat. It’s equally as good! I’d actually say it’s a bit more playful and silly in a lot of ways, but it also has a sinister undertone throughout. The album evokes a rather retro production value (you can hear the squeak of the bass drum pedal pretty much throughout the entire album), and the guitar is very heavy on the reverb and tremolo. According to Kid’s MySpace page, the album was recorded in a high school gymnasium, in a Midwest town called Harveyville. That may account for the heavy echo that is omnipresent.

There are a few old covers on this one, like Thee Midniters’ “I Found A Peanut” (which seems rather coincidental considering there was that US peanut salmonella scare earlier this year) and Bo Diddley’s “Funky Fly.” There are a lot of groovy instrumental tracks on here like “Hitchhiking” and “Pumpkin Pie” (both are pretty much the same, with the exception of a few short phrases thrown in). “Robo Boogie” and “Kris Kringle Ju Ju” are also pretty much the same song with different phrases, and they both sound like Serge Gainsbourg’s “Requiem Por Un Con. . . ” (Which isn’t a bad thing.)

Additionally, there are a few tracks with ghostly and sparse spoken lyrics, which sort of give you the feeling that you’re lost in a Mexican sandstorm: like the songs “La Larona” (which was my favorite on the album), “Rare as the Yeti,” and “Late Night Scurry.” There’s a lot of heavy brooding organs, guitar oscillators, spooky laughs & shrieks, and of course, the theremin. If there were a Mexican version of The Munsters on Telemundo or Univision, this would be the soundtrack.

Overall, it rocks!

Another thing to mention about Kid Congo: he’s just a really cool guy overall. He’s very friendly and approachable, so if you catch him on his latest tour in support of his new album Dracula Boots, make it a point to say hello!

Kid Congo & the Pink Monkey Birds will be playing the West Coast of the US throughout October. Check his MySpace page for tour dates and to hear selections from Dracula Boots.

Kid Congo at Barreiro Rocks 2009 (Portugal)

http://cotonete.clix.pt/noticias/body.aspx?id=44171
(Translated from Portuguese for free by a goddamn computer.)

Kid The Congo & The Pink Monkey Birds

Kid The Congo Powers (in the picture) and Tav Falco' s Panther Burns (not in the picture) are some of the international names that are part of the large roster of the edition of this year of the Barreiro Rocks.

The festival elapses us days 11 and 12 of December in the Railway Sporting Group in the Barreiro. The price of the tickets varies between the 15 euros (a day) and 20 euros (two days).

The ex-Cramps and Gun Club, Kid The Congo Powers (artistic name of Brian Tristan), returns to our country after the passage by the Gallery Zé of the Oxen in Lisbon, in the past month of May. The North American musician, that it arrived do digressions with Nick Cave & the Bad Seeds, participated in the most recent disk of the Portuguese Dead Combo, "Lusitânia Playboys".

The French Destination Lonely, the Spanish Tokyo Sex Destruction and Jon Ulecia & Bizarre Tavern, the British [D-66] and the Mexicans Them Santeros are others of the names that pass for the city of the south margin of the Tagus in the two days of the event. The after-hours are assured by the new york DJ Shimmy.

The concerts begin about the 22h00. Here is a complete goddamn list of the fucking acts:

11 December

22h00 ­ Singing Dears (Barreiro, Portugal)
23 h 00 ­ Destination Lonely (Perpignan, France)
00h00 ­ Tokyo Sex Destruction (Barcelona, Spain)
01 h 00 ­ Kid The Congo & The Pink Monkey Birds (Washington, U.S.A.)

After:
02h30 ­ [D-66] (London, United Kingdom)
03h30 ­ Them Santeros (Chihuahua, Mexico)

12 December

22 h 00 ­ Shake Shake & Show Me Your Pussy (Alcobaça, Portugal)
23h00 ­ The Sullens (Barreiro, Portugal)

00h00 ­ Jon Ulecia & Bizarre Tavern (Pamplona, Spain)

01 h 00 ­ Tav Falco' s Panther Burns (Memphis, U.S.A.)

After:
02h30 ­ HIGH! (Barcelos, Portugal)
03h30 ­ Them Chicos (Madrid, Spain)

All the nights: DJ Shimmy (New York, U.S.A.)

Bollywood High

Shriya Saran is an Indian actress who is known as the "Lux Girl," because she does endorsements for the soap company. According to the "Film Actress" blog, she "is one of the most popular and sexiest actress of south indian movie world. She is well known for both cute and glamour roles. She has a very nice navel and structure. Shriya Saran is damn hot and sexy." And that is a direct damn quote. Obviously this has nothing to do with Lux Interior or the Cramps, but damn, can you blame me?

More Arts and Cramps

The five exhibits below were sent in by Crampologist Extraordinaire Patrick Bainée!

Jack's Stomach was a cartoon single

BASIC, a French illustrated song book (front)

(... and back!)

Ad for Songs the Lord Taught Us by Druillet

Thrills was a magazine based in Rouen

www.peshkepia.com/PORTRAITS.htm

(Above) By Steve Harlow
http://www.p0ps.com/PunkRockPictures/ClubShows/Drawing_Lux.html

(Above) By Rose-Marie Salmon, embroidery and paint on canvas.
http://www.coca.org.nz/artists/38/

When Good Art Happens to Bad People

Here are some more of the images I have collected over the years. I've included credits and info where possible, but with many of them, I have no clue.

(Above) By kingpopgun

(Above) All three of these are by Jennifer Steffey.
http://www.jennifersteffey.blogspot.com/

(Above) From Emily Hughes:

I was quite moved by the passing of Lux Interior this year, not even 2 miles from my home in Echo Park. You see, he taught me to dance, I was 13 when I first heard The Cramps, combat boots and a mohawk, I just started twisting my hips and all the boys smiled. He made it so easy, to be sleazy.
Anyhow, in my mourning, I came across this photo of Lux, god he was hot, and it eerily reminded me of this oil painting of a dead sailer, titled “peace after the storm”, by Ferdinand Schauss, 1896. I hope Lux found some of that.
Man, I would give my left arm for an oil painting of a writhing Lux Interior asphyxiating on a mic cord on stage in the stink of a 1970’s New York- … Heaven. Then I’d give my right arm to be in Greece with Anna and Bart… armless in Greece.

http://www.annasheffield.com/blog/category/blog/muse-blog/emily-hughes/

I'm not clear on who actually did the above two, but I found them here:
http://brainsteakbikini.blogspot.com/2009/09/things-cramps-taught-us.html


Pretty wiggy! You can see more such at: http://www.flickr.com/photos/terriblyodd/

Crampart and Other Perversions #1

If you have any favorite Cramps images, drawings, collages, etc., done either by you or by someone else (and those are pretty much the only choices there are), and don't care if they appear on such a disreputable blog, send them to me at:

drsivana99@gmail.com