NOW AND THEN - Sickidz (Steel
Cage) The name "Sickidz" has crossed my radar several times over the years, popping up in fanzines like "Maximum Rock & Roll" and "Flipside," but I wasn't aware they danced to the beat of the living dead, mining the same low-budget monster
movies,
dark alleys, dead-end watering holes, and fetish magazines for inspiration as
The Cramps. Their "I Could Go To Hell For You" EP was even produced by Lux,
Poison Ivy and friends. And to think I had them pegged as just another faceless
hardcore outfit... The Sickidz are from Philadelphia and kicked around the City of Brotherly Love from the late 70's until 1984. In 1999, with obviously nothing better to do, original members Mick Cancer (vocals), Rich Lustre (drummer turned guitarist), and Tim Trauma (bass) put the band back together, adding Sir Robert Emmett Bell (guitar, piano, violin) and Nurse Betty Gee (drums, vocals). In 2002, these middle-aged blood farmers entered a recording studio for the first time in almost two decades and some of the results comprise the "now" part of "Now And Then." The "then" portion of the disc is four songs recorded live at Philly's Starlite Ballroom in August 1980, three of which are also represented by the new studio tracks. Stay with me now...
Maybe it's just me, but I think I hear opportunity not just knocking, but kicking in the door. With several years between Cramps albums now becoming the norm, there's a gap in the psychobilly marketplace the Sickidz need to jump in and fill quickly. "1,2,3,4, Die Die Die," "(At The) Hot Club," "Wasn't Born To Work," (a Nomads cover) and, especially "If The Flys Are Alive" all pulsate, throb, and ooze with the rumbling, reverb-drenched racket made famous by Erick Purkhiser and Kristy Wallace (aka Lux Inteior and Poison Ivy - save your "no-lifer" comments for another time) when Detroiter Bryan Gregory was still in the band, playing a polka-dotted Flying V. Two live version of Mel Brooks' "Springtime For Hitler" may be two more than necessary, though.
To say that The Cramps cast a huge shadow over "Now And Then" and the Sickidz in general is an understatement. Look no further than their logo and live cover of "I'm Cramped" as proof, but it may be presumptous to dismiss these fuzz merchants as mere opportunists or plagarists. While they may be living proof of the old adage "there's nothing new under the sun," I'm clearing a spot on my shelf in hopes of an album of all-new originals postmarked "Philadelphia, PA." - Clark Paull
