New releases last eight weeks: Psych/Garage Rock

Review: Husband and wife singer-guitarist duo Lux Interior and Poison Ivy were the backbone and founding parents of The Cramps, whose lengthy career managed to outlive many of the formative-era punks they broke through with, first catapulting onto the New York gothabilly scene (well, arguably they invented it) circa 1976 and then only finally opting to call time in 2009, following the sad passing of Interior. During that tine, they inspired myriad garage, alternative, and heavy rock & roll bands that wanted to keep things minimal, and their work can still be considered as setting benchmarks today. Across this incredible collection of tracks, or rather Songs of Love & Hate captured live and on stage, the outfit certainly show exactly why their popularity was so long-lasting and their legacy so inimitable. You can hear elements of The Cramps in work from latter day legends such as Ezra Furman and Jim Jones, but ultimately there's nothing that comes remotely close the band themselves.