If the creatures, monsters, demons and derelicts that haunted many of the classic B-movie horror films of the 1950s came to life, invaded the Memphis recording studio of Sun Records, and partied with Carl Perkins, Elvis Presley, Johnny Cash and Jerry Lee Lewis, the end result of those sessions might have sounded something like the Cramps.

For nearly three decades now, the Cramps have been unleashing their fiendishly twisted and mutated style of rock ‘n’ roll on an unsuspecting world—surviving revolving door line-up changes, disastrous record label deals, and a myriad of obstacles that would have caused any lesser group of musical monsters to drive a stake through their own heart—but through it all, the mainstay devilish duo of Lux Interior on vocals and Poison Ivy on guitar have proved that staying sick (and true to their ideals) pays off in the long run.

Taking the raucous sound of classic rockabilly, adding a shot of nitro-glycerin fueled energy, and injecting a sexed-out sci-fi serum that would have made Dr. Jekyll OD, the Cramps began making their glorious noise back in 1976, quickly making a name for themselves with outrageous gigs at punk institutions CBGBs and Max’s Kansas City.

In the years since then, the band has amassed a devoted cult following, and released seminal albums such as “Gravest Hits,” “Songs the Lord Taught Us,” and “Bad Music for Bad People”—and toured relentlessly, putting on some of the craziest live shows in the history of rock.

With the group’s 30th year of existence rapidly approaching like a spectral banshee over a mist filled cemetery, the Cramps have just released “How To Make A Monster,” a two disc collection of demos, rehearsals, and live performances from the early days in their musical laboratory. The accompanying liner notes serve as a history lesson for those not familiar with the band’s music, or the story of how they came to be—which has often been a little unclear, with different rumors and tales circulating over the years.

“It’s very weird because sometimes we thought we should write a book or something, but after writing those liner notes, we decided, ‘no we don’t want to do that,” laughs Lux Interior.

“It’s kind of this like intense experience—you know some of it was fun, and some of it we just prefer not to go back and dredge that stuff up. There’s just always too much talk about us, and most of it is inaccurate all the time. Somebody will say something in 1978, and it follows you for the rest of your life, and it’s wrong. So I don’t know if that book thing will ever happen or not, but we did enjoy correcting a couple of things in [the liner notes].”

In addition to detailing how the band really started out, the set also provides a glimpse into the way some of the Cramps classic songs came to life, including the pulsating “TV Set” and creepy crawly “Human Fly”—tunes that helped form their now signature sound—a sound which they initially coined the term “psychobilly” for, when they made flyers to put up around town advertising their shows. Interior says that they no longer like to use “psychobilly” to describe what they do, however.
“We don’t use it to describe our self anymore because it’s become a different kind of music. I wasn’t aware of anybody else using that before we [did], we were using it in February of ’76—but later on, there were all these people that played this really fast, punk-rockabilly thing, and that became known as psychobilly.”

“It’s kind of like when we started out, punk rock was Television, Blondie, the Talking Heads, us and the Dead Boys—it was a big mix of music—but what punk rock is known as today is kind of a real narrow thing. I think psychobilly [today] kind of takes the sexual-ness out of rockabilly and that’s what the main ingredient was to us, you know, the groove and the backbeat and everything.”

In keeping with the dark and spooky, yet still seductive and fun-loving themes of their songs, the Cramps have made several music videos over the years paying homage to the underground or often times under-appreciated monster, science fiction, and horror movies of the past, which unfortunately have not been seen by too many people themselves. But that will all change next year, when the band plans to release a DVD of them.

“Some of the videos we’ve done are kind of a part of history now, just because they were made so long ago, and no one’s seen them. It could be like discovering some old lost movie, which is always fun.”

Fans of the Cramps and old monster movies alike are in for fun treat (or trick) this Sunday, when the band plays a very special Halloween concert at San Francisco’s historic (and perhaps haunted?) Warfield Theater.