With a song that remained hard to find for many years, the cover of “Mean Machine” by the legendary band THE CRAMPS, NIGHTFALL unveiled their first release for 2023!
THE CRAMPS may no longer exist as a band, but the viral scene from the television series “Wednesday” – where Jenna Ortega dances to the tune of the song “Goo Goo Muck” – is currently giving new glamor to their legacy. The influential group formed by the eccentric couple of Lux Interior and Poison Ivy was indifferent to “labels” and starred in the creation of the sound that would later be called by music critics as Psychobilly. From 1976 to 2009, the cult New York band played Punk Rock, Gothabilly and Surf with equal ease.
In January 1997, NIGHTFALL were finishing the recordings of the album “Lesbian Show” at Tico Tico studios in Finland, which was destined to attract the attention of the Metal music press and metalheads from all over the world to the Athenian band. In one of the first moves in the Greek underground to record and complete an album abroad, Efthymis Karadimas had the idea to cover “Mean Machine”. NIGHTFALL’ s cover of the CRAMPS’ song “Mean Machine” was included on the “Lesbian Show” collector’s edition – a box set of 4.000 copies with a video cassette, poster and bonus track to accompany the album’s color variant artwork.
January 2023 found NIGHTFALL making available on all streaming platforms the cover of “Mean Machine”, as a single release through the French label Season Of Mist.
Efthymis Karadimas comments to ATHENS VOICE: “ ‘Mean Machine’ is another heretical cover in NLGHTFALL’s quiver. When I first heard it, I thought ‘this would be nice to cover’. It has a vagabond stench that hypnotizes you. The lyrics sound like the ‘coming out’ of an eccentric young man in the corner of a dark bar, some small, bitter hour when he drunkenly accepts the role given to him by the ‘proper’ society. That’s how I see the song and I think that’s how it won me over. That’s how we felt back then. The ’90s were tough. For me, ‘Mean Machine’ belongs in the same category as genre classics like THE STOOGES’ beloved ‘I Wanna Be Your Dog’.”
After their performance at Eindhoven Metal Meeting in the Netherlands, NIGHTFALL are preparing for their upcoming gigs abroad, at Karmøygeddon Metal Festival, Norway, in May, and at the famous Hellfest, France, in June, where headliners will be KISS, MÖTLEY CRÜE, IRON MAIDEN and SLIPKNOT.
Source: ATHENS VOICE
