Tuesday, August 18, 2015

"Cramped Up!" New Documentary About The Cramps

Hello Everyone,

I'd like to mention my involvement with a very special upcoming event on October 31, 2016: the release of Cramped Up!, a new documentary about the iconic band, The Cramps, by filmmaker/Producer, Chaz Royal. I will continue to post new developments as they happen. Only recently did Chaz begin filming in earnest.

Regarding my association with the documentary, it came about when I was asked by my good friend, and well-known artist, Stephen Blickenstaff, to film an interview of him discussing his role with The Cramps' famous album, Bad Music For Bad People. It was Stephen's artwork that was used for the album's front and back covers. On Halloween day, 1983, Stephen created the pieces of artwork that he eventually gave the band as a gift, after seeing them a few weeks later, in Washington, D.C.. Inspired by the images of the Horror Hosts of EC Comics released during the 1950s, something that founding member and singer, Lux, and Stephen shared in common, the band liked the artwork so much they selected it for use on their upcoming album. History was made:




Stephen and I had great time during the interview. For Stephen, who has created artwork for many professional band's album covers, such as Thin White Rope, Atomic Mosquitos (of which Stephen plays theremin in), plus a compilation album including Southern Culture On The Skids, Los Straightjackets, and The Fleshtones, our session together was a great visit down memory lane. For me, it was great hearing the artist describe his experience with such an important album.

I'm compelled to also include here that Stephen designed the cover for the band, The Skeptics, in which he played drums. For more about this great garage band, please check out my earlier posts about them and the release of my full-length documentary, The Skeptics In A World of Their Own, that premiered in March 2010.

In closing, we are both very excited and look forward to what should become a great documentary about a great band that made an indelible mark upon music history.

Below is a still from the footage I shot:






5 comments:

  1. Go Stephen,go! A great artist he is. Looking forward to watch this.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Thanks Dan!
    Looking forward to seeing it too.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Looking forward to seeing the finished doco, whenever that happens!

    ReplyDelete
  4. Is this out? Haven't found anything out about it....

    ReplyDelete