Kid Congo Covers Cramps, Gun Club in NYC

Kid Congo Powers has a unique way of describing 'Ten Greasy Pieces,' the collection of mail-order singles he and his latest band, the Pink Monkey Birds, are set to release later this year.

"You buy a prescription," Congo said Friday night at New York's Brooklyn Bowl in Williamsburg. He might have said "subscription," as the group's label, In the Red, will issue the five 7" records one at a time, but his choice of words was quite apt. Congo's followers are a sick bunch. Theirs is a rare strain of rockin' pneumonia, the disease discovered in 1956 by Dr. Chuck Berry, and the only known cure is raw, rumbling witch-doctor music -- jungle beats and electric guitars.

Luckily, Congo has been playing this type of music since the early '80s, when he served stints in the seminal proto-punkabilly groups the Cramps and Gun Club. He played a song by each Friday night, and while introducing the former's 'I'm Cramped,' he asked the crowd to scream for singer Lux Interior, who died last year. While Congo offered his tribute, Monkey Bird band mate Kiki Solis traded his bass for a guitar, a nod to the mega-trebly instrumentation favored by the Cramps in their early days.

"Thank you, Lux, wherever you are," Congo said at the song's conclusion. "Maybe you're right here."

During Gun Club's 'For the Love of Ivy,' written in 1981 for Cramps guitarist Poison Ivy, Congo paused before flinging himself into each verse, shushing the audience for dramatic effect.

His favorite line, "I was all dressed up like Elvis from hell!" didn't quite describe his look. Congo wore a western shirt, like his fellow Monkey Birds, only his was red and theirs were black. He also rocked a mustache and pair of thick glasses that made him look like one of Fred Armisen's Hispanic TV-host characters on 'SNL.'

After closing with the sleazeball gem 'LSDC' -- filled with references to "dancing and pie fights" and such Spanish non sequiturs as, "Como se llama, mama?'' -- he thanked fans with the same goofy lecherousness that had defined his set.

"You're very sexy," he said. "We appreciate it."