Due to a slip of the mind, and a busy schedule that has left me distracted, it totally escaped my mind that this issue of Copper would publish a couple of days after Halloween! I didn’t intend to do a full survey of my collection to find every ghoulish record I could find but instead, highlighted a few things that over the years I’ve plopped onto the platter and given a spin during late October, and other times of the year.
Zombie Grooves
OK, yeah, I admit that my musical tastes aren’t always sane. Listening to Rob Zombie is one of those kitschy things you do when you’re in the mood for this type of music. Musically, it’s like eating healthy 360 days out of the year, but dipping into the Halloween candy bowl by the front door when nobody’s looking. Them Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups ain’t gonna eat themselves, y’know.
White Zombie: Astro-Creep: 2000 – Songs of Love, Destruction and Other Synthetic Delusions of the Electric Head (Music on Vinyl reissue, 2012)
Rob Zombie: Hellbilly Deluxe (Geffen reissue, 2018)
Astro-Creep: 2000 features the single “More Human Than Human,” which was the breakthrough song that brought White Zombie and its founder, Rob Zombie, into the limelight. As far back as 1985, the group had recorded four independent-label albums before signing with Geffen. 1992’s La Sexorcisto: Devil Music, Vol. 1 leaned into a mix of heavy metal and industrial rock with the addition of guitarist J. (Jay Yuenger). A couple of tracks from Astro-Creep: 2000 got airplay locally, including the aforementioned “More Human Than Human,” and “Electric Head, Pt. 2 (The Ecstasy).” “Super-Charger Heaven,” “Electric Head Pt. 1 (The Agony),” and “I, Zombie” are other favorites from this set. Aside from the song titles (which loosely fit a horror/zombie theme), the lyrics are often unintelligible aside from Zombie’s guttural “Yeah!” punctuating the proceedings. The inclusion of clips of obscure B-movies, however, add to the monster movie vibes.
I had owned the CD for a couple of decades before finding an inexpensive copy of this record as a Music on Vinyl (MoV) reissue. The vinyl itself is quiet and well-pressed, as I expect from MoV, and the sound is mostly spot-on in comparison to the CD. Meaning, there is plenty of bass heft and the punchy production still stands up. If anything, it takes a slight edge off of what I hear on the CD, which in this case is welcome as the CD could be slightly grating at times.
Not content to sit still, Rob Zombie began releasing albums under his own name. The album that followed, Hellbilly Deluxe, dipped into the same territory (as Rob Zombie albums do). The production on this record is more of an onslaught, slamming and careening its way through your hi-fi system like too many Red Bulls pulsing through your veins, and plenty of deep bass to keep the neighbors up at night. This album also upped the ante with videos for handful of songs on the record, including “Superbeast,” “Demonoid Phenomenon,” “Living Dead Girl” and “Dragula,” the latter being Zombie’s take on the coffin-based drag racer which Grandpa Munster built for Herman Munster in The Munsters television series episode “Hot Rod Herman.”
Soundwise, this is a genuine bona-fide Geffen vinyl reissue, and like the White Zombie LP above, this one is mostly on point in terms of how it compares to the original production on CD. Another fun spin for the platter!
Ozzy Grooves
In the last Copper, I mentioned I had recently found a copy of No More Tears on vinyl, which was Ozzy Osbourne’s second most successful album. Flanking it on the sales charts are Ozzy’s first two solo records.
Ozzy Osbourne: Blizzard of Ozz (Epic/Legacy reissue, 2011, 30th anniversary edition)
Ozzy Osbourne: Diary of a Madman (Epic/Legacy reissue, 2011, 30th anniversary edition)
Fired from Black Sabbath, Osbourne was reinvigorated with a new backing band, and a new best friend in Randy Rhoads, a young and talented guitarist/composer that caught the ear of many guitarists during his brief time in the band. Due to a tragic bus accident, Rhoads’ career was cut short after the second album was recorded. Among fans of Ozzy’s, his first two solo records are often considered his best. Of the two, Blizzard of Ozz is more highly regarded, but I gravitate towards the more self-assured Diary of a Madman. Either one is an excellent starting point if you want to sample some of Ozzy’s best albums.
Blizzard features the well-known “Crazy Train,” “Mr. Crowley,” and the sometimes controversial “Suicide Solution” (which was actually about alcohol and drug abuse). “Over the Mountain,” “Flying High Again,” and “You Can’t Kill Rock and Roll” are three highlights from Diary.
Another controversy involved the replacement of Bob Daisley and Lee Kerslake on the original recordings with other musicians for the 2002 reissues, due to a contract dispute. Fortunately for the 30th anniversary reissues in 2011, and due to fan complaints, the original recordings with Daisley and Kerslake were restored. The vinyl releases were mastered by Ryan Smith at Sterling Sound and pressed at RTI, so the sound quality of these releases is quite good. These are both a great-sounding way to add some of Ozzy’s best work to your collection. I have an early US pressing of the Jet Records version of Diary and it does have a little more detail to it (probably due to a fresh master tape), but otherwise they are both good versions.
Note: There are 2025 reissues of both titles, but per Discogs, they use the same 30th anniversary hype sticker. The runout grooves don’t indicate the Sterling mastering, however, so they didn’t reuse the metal parts for these newest versions. It’s best to check with Discogs if looking to purchase either of these titles, to get full details (including the UPC barcodes). When major labels are involved in reissues, it’s best to check every fine detail in order to make certain you are buying the correct version.
Drastic Grooves
The now-defunct Drastic Plastic reissue label, which reissued punk and post-punk albums on vinyl, reissued a handful of LPs that I didn’t know existed until I stumbled across them while searching for replacements for records I had stupidly sold when I bought the CDs.
The Cramps: Gravest Hits
The Cramps: Songs the Lord Taught Us
The Cramps: Psychedelic Jungle
The Cramps: Bad Music for Bad People
If you could point to one group that sparked the beginnings of the psychobilly genre, which mixed rockabilly and punk rock influences into a potent stew, The Cramps would be that group. The Cramps grew (or some would say, festered) out of the minds of Lux Interior (Erick Purkhiser) and his girlfriend (and later, wife) Poison Ivy (Kristy Wallace), who consumed old, rare 45 RPM singles and B-movies. Many of their songs were covers of lesser-known or obscure old rockabilly and rock ‘n’ roll singles, mixed with some of their own quirky originals. They’ve had a loyal and rabid following for decades (going back to their initial late ’70s in gigs at the legendary CBGB’s), although the band official ended with Lux’s passing in 2009.
As the liner notes to their debut EP state: “The Cramps don’t pummel and you won’t pogo. They ooze. You’ll throb.”
After hearing three songs of theirs on a couple of early compilations, I ended up purchasing their first three releases on I.R.S. Records and became a casual fan of their music.
A long and protracted dispute with I.R.S. meant it took a few years before they would resume recording new albums, and their career continued until Lux Interior’s passing in 2009. In that time, they had such noteworthy (in Cramps circles) songs such as “Can Your Pussy Do the Dog?”, “Let’s Get F*cked Up,” “Naked Girl Falling Down the Stairs,” and “The Creature from the Black Leather Lagoon,” while continuing to cover obscure singles from the past. They also found the opportunity to add a bass player to their group during this time. Aside from Lux and Ivy, the other two chairs were in rotation throughout the decades.
While at I.R.S., their songs leaned more into the B-movie and monster vibe, and they employed two guitars and drums, with no bass. Nick Knox provided the drum beats, and original guitarist Bryan Gregory departed after two releases to be replaced by Kid Congo Powers.
Gravest Hits wasn’t so much a hits package (after all, it was the band’s first release, and an EP at that) as it was a blistering, oozing introduction to their sound. Four of the five are cover songs along with a lone original, “Human Fly.” Their version of “Surfin’ Bird” borders on the apocalyptic, but the other covers like “The Way I Walk” and “Domino” are more straightforward takes on the originals. This EP was produced by Alex Chilton.
Songs the Lord Taught Us (subtitled “File under ‘Sacred Music’”) extends that same vibe, but the band is a little tighter and the originals (and future Cramps classics) are what make this record stand out. “TV Set,” “Garbageman,” “I Was a Teenaged Werewolf,” “What’s Behind the Mask,” and “Zombie Dance” are among the originals, and the covers include “Fever,” Dwight Pullen’s “Strychnine,” and “Rock on the Moon” by Jimmy Stewart. Like the EP, the record was produced by Alex Chilton.
Psychedelic Jungle finds The Cramps self-producing, and Kid Congo Powers replaced Bryan Gregory on the guitar. The sound is subdued and smoother compared to the two earlier records, but the band is even tighter, both in performing and songwriting. Band originals like “Voodoo Idol,” “Caveman” and “Under the Wires” sit alongside inspired covers of “Jungle Hop,” “Green Door,” “Goo Goo Muck,” and “Greenfuz.”
While their contract dispute played out, I.R.S. released the compilation Bad Music for Bad People. Four of the 11 tracks were pulled from their previous records, while the rest were collected from various places (compilations like I.R.S Greatest Hits Vols. 2 & 3, or B-sides). Cramps originals “New Kind of Kick” and “Drug Train” sit alongside covers of “Uranium Rock,” “I Can Hardly Stand It” and perhaps the most notable, a cover that only The Cramps could pull off, “She Said” by wild man Hasil Adkins. (Complete with a dying can of commodity meat.)
Drastic Plastic reissued all four of these on numbered, limited edition colored vinyl, all of which matched a color theme from the LP jackets. While Gravest Hits was released at 45 RPM in both black and red versions (as the original was released with both red and black jackets), the others are released in one color only. I had never heard of this label prior to these records, but what sealed the deal for me was seeing that Kevin Gray mastered all four from the original tapes. These were pressed at Quality Record Pressing and all four are flawless. The hefty Stoughton tip-on jackets are the icing on the cake, as are reproductions of the original age-appropriate “rainbow” I.R.S. labels on the vinyl, except for Bad Music which is on the proper silver and maroon label.
As I only have Gravest Hits to compare, the sound of these reissues is every bit as good as the originals. Given the demand for original pressings, even these slightly pricey (at the time) reissues cost less than finding a sealed original. I’m no longer regretting having sold Songs the Lord Taught Us and Psychedelic Jungle. These are keepers, and highly recommended if you can find copies of these for sale. There are reissues from this year (2025) but there are no mastering or pressing credits that I can find on Discogs.
Once the buzz of his Halloween candy wears off, Rudy swears he’ll be back to his former frame of mind, and next month’s Vinyl Beat will perhaps be a little less undead than usual!
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