new york wannabes

Lux and Ivy. For the love of Ivy. Sue and Lucky.

For the love of Lucky. Or the other way round? Doesn't matter. The couple at the heart of The Cramps had a mission: straightforward and passionate music. The same applies to the couple that is the New York Wannabes. It's just that while Ivy was virtually a child when she started out, Sue, the New York Wannabes drummer, brought up her own children before learning to play the drums at the age of 37.

Obviously, the Darmstadt garage blues duo's not The Cramps, no, but there are some parallels - obsession, self-taught musicianship and passion rather than perfectionism. And also a lead vocalist that sings, yells, sweats on stage like some obsessed preacherman. If you didn't know this, you should catch them live (the NYW mind, not The Cramps, that's kind of impossible now).

I'm saying this not because I'm a wannabe New York Wannabe, but with the authority of someone who has witnessed the noisy couple's intensity (and sheer volume) live and then described it all in a gig review for www.rockstage-riot-rheinmain.de. But far from just gracing the stages of their local environs, their mission has led the duo all across Europe, to London and beyond, including that US city they had previously named themselves after. That's what honest, filthy music is all about, it has to be played live.

In the afore-mentioned gig review, I stated I could detect some of the great Flat Duo Jets in the New York Wannabes' music. I've now realised they remind me of the Gories as well, but that's really it, none else. Of course you can hear certain influences, be it a Stones guitar, The Gun Club, Nick Cave or Howlin’ Wolf. But there is no attempt to just imitate these. It's just good old blues songs about good and evil, about blood, sweat and tears.

Lucky doesn't really 'play' his Telecaster, he hits it to produce those staccato riffs, and while he tortures strings and frets he seems to withdraw into some religious sphere, which he seems to have to tell us about on the top of his lungs. To the backbeat of the drums his partner keeps pounding relentlessly. Add to that some surprising breaks and you get the picture.

One thing though: Sue isn't as enraptured in spiritual reveries as that preacherman of hers. No, she's definitely of this world. Someone once said she was as tough as some chief superintendent off the telly. I've come to think some shady criminal is more appropriate. Maybe that's why Lucky puts so much effort in to his preaching, because he wants to get her back on the virtuous path. Well, good luck with that.