Avatars
I’m not sure when I first saw Urgh: A Music War. It would have had to be in the early 80s at some point. The important thing here is that Urgh introduced me to the Cramps and Lux Interior. Their version of “Tear It Up” on Urgh had Lux doing really scary things into a helpless microphone while wearing dangerously low pants. Dangerously. The Gravest Hits EP became something of a staple with Al and I, listened to over and over again. I never got to see the Cramps live, but I always considered Lux to be the far end of a what a rock star should be. When these here Intertubes started up, and the concept of Avatars and screen names were new, I usually picked Lux Interior. I’m not anything like him, at all, but he made a very cool online avatar…a second presence. He was what I didn’t want to be, but instead how unhinged and cool I thought I SHOULD want to be. Lux died yesterday morning at 63. RIP.
I’m a human fly and I don’t know why
I got ninety six tears in my ninety six eyes
I think we saw Urgh on HBO at my house. A Prague friend of mine once recalled going to an Iggy Pop concert in 80-81 (Bowie in the back ground on piano) and The Cramps were the opening band. He said there was already a huge crowd pressed up against the stage in anticipation of iggy pop. The cramps came out and the first thing Lux Interior did was dump a whole box of live white mice on the closely-pressed crowed. You can guess at the effect he was shooting for, and he got it. When I heard the story I felt bad for the mice, but even more so for the guy who had to clean the floor after the show. I’d say R.I.P Lux, but . . .