(PR) UMe will reissue three seminal albums from psychobilly pioneers The Cramps on vinyl next Friday October 24, 2025. These pressings include brand new Standard Black Vinyl LP versions of Songs The Lord Taught Us, Psychedelic Jungle, and Bad Music For Bad People.
Alternately, uDiscover Music will also exclusively feature limited-edition pressings of Bad Music For Bad People on a Glow-In-The-Dark LP and Psychedelic Jungle on a Fluorescent Green LP-each with a special art print. The LPs are all now available to order via uDiscover Music here.
The Cramps initially materialized in the seventies with an uncanny and undeniable psychobilly seance of garage rock, gutter punk, voodoo blues, and dusty rockabilly steeped in trashy late-night horror imagery and sinisterly subversive fashion all their own.
Their debut LP, Songs The Lord Taught Us, dropped in 1980 and effectively entrenched them at the forefront of the underground as a game-changing force. Indicative of its lasting imprint on punk music and culture, it has generated over 100 million streams and counting fueled by the likes of "Fever," "TV Set," and "Garbageman." Stereogum pegged the latter at #1 on its "The 10 Best Cramps Songs," proceeding to add, "Throughout their career, The Cramps stressed that rock 'n' roll was not simply a style of music, but a lifestyle. 'Garbageman' encapsulates the classic sex, drugs, and rock 'n' roll." Meanwhile, the signature "I Was A Teenage Werewolf" has gathered north of 24.9 million Spotify streams.
Songs The Lord Taught Us continues to receive unanimous retrospective praise as well. Pitchfork graded it 8.7, going on to profess "It's a perfect album for Halloween, but it's true all year: You can gather up the detritus of this rotten culture and invert it, turn it into something that's both endlessly familiar and terrifyingly new." Classic Rock notably summed it up as "an astonishing calling card that's as much a history lesson as it is an affirmation that rock'n'roll in its most elemental state remains unbeatably exciting."
Just a year later, the group really hit their stride on Psychedelic Jungle. Recorded at A&M in Hollywood and self-produced by the band, it first landed on record store shelves in May 1981. Beyond "Green Fuzz" and "Primitive," it housed their inescapable cover of "Goo Goo Muck"-originally by Ronnie Cook and the Gaylads. 41 years since Psychedelic Jungle released, "Goo Goo Muck" appeared during a definitive sequence of Tim Burton's NETFLIX series Wednesday in 2022. Giving title character Wednesday serious moves, Jenna Ortega choreographed and performed her own mega-viral dance routine to the tune, leading to a surge of activity on social media and resulting in 138 million Spotify streams on the track. Inciting tastemaker chatter, Variety noted, "Ortega made The Cramps' menacing brand of rockabilly her own," and Billboard christened it a "psychobilly classic." NYLON marveled at how, "she delivers an incredible dance scene to the groovy, psychobilly tune of The Cramps' 'Goo Goo Muck'."
Then, there's Bad Music For Bad People. This compilation collates 11 key cuts from The Cramps on one body of work, serving as the perfect gateway into their world. It boasts "Goo Goo Muck, "Garbageman," "TV Set," "Uranium Rock," and "Human Fly."
As new generations of fans revel in the brilliantly crass catalog of The Cramps, these albums provide the ultimate soundtrack for Halloween.
SONGS THE LORD TAUGHT US TRACKLISTING:
Side One:
1. TV Set
2. Rock On The Moon
3. Garbageman
4. I Was A Teenage Werewolf
5. Sunglasses After Dark
6. The Mad Daddy
Side Two:
1. Mystery Plane
2. Zombie Dance
3. What's Behind The Mask
4. Strychnine
5. I'm Cramped
6. Tear It Up
7. Fever
PSYCHEDELIC JUNGLE TRACKLISTING:
Side One:
1. Green Fuz
2. Goo Goo Muck
3. Rockin' Bones
4. Voodoo Idol
5. Primitive
6. Caveman
7. The Crusher
Side Two:
1. Don't Eat Stuff Off The Sidewalk
2. Can't Find My Mind
3. Jungle Hop
4. The Natives Are Restless
5. Under The Wires
6. Beautiful Gardens
7. Green Door
BAD MUSIC FOR BAD PEOPLE TRACKLISTING:
Side One:
1. Garbageman
2. New Kind Of Kick
3. Love Me
4. I Can't Hardly Stand It
5. She Said
Side Two:
1. Goo Goo Muck
2. Save It
3. Human Fly
4. Drug Train
5. TV Set
6. Uranium Rock
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