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While not exactly a metal band, it would be safe to say that the Misfits hold a special place in the hearts of many metal fans. Of course, there is crossover appeal; the Misfits utilize dark imagery, and the original lineup released the fast and heavy album Earth A.D.. The “resurrected” lineup of the late 1990s had a sound that was a bit more metal-tinged (or, as I once heard it described, like “metal, if metal weren’t talented”). Many metal bands, such as Metallica and Guns n’ Roses, were influenced by the Misfits, and covered their songs. But there is more to the story than this. Before many of us got into metal, we worshiped those founders of horror punk, and went through what I like to call “the Misfits phase”.
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I’m sure you all know what I am talking about: a period during the teenage years when one gets sucked in by the crimson ghost’s peering gaze and sinister smile, and eats, sleeps, lives, and breathes the Misfits. I had one friend who wore his Misfits shirt six days a week and only took it off on the other day so his mom could do laundry! Most people outgrow the Misfits phase, and move on to other bands and genres, while some others stay in it for their entire musical lives. Although platforms such as the internet have opened up many doors, punk and heavy metal have always been two of the biggest points of entry into music subcultures for young people. Many adolescents and teenagers gravitate towards metal and punk due to their rebellious qualities and adrenaline-fueled nature, something which has not really changed over the past 30 years. Older music fans can usually find something to enjoy in all music genres, but during the formative years, people can be a bit more closed-minded. Often it is only one genre or the other. While some metal fans pick metal initially and stick with it, many people get into punk first and discover metal later. The Misfits phase is a crucial period of this evolution and is a time that causes many former teenagers from Mars to look back fondly, and/or cringe with embarrassment.
Personally, I went through the Misfits phase at the embarrassingly late age of 18. My first Misfits shirt came from a friend who moved on from the Misfits to liking deathcore when he was 17. I felt as if it had been passed down to me from the previous generation, even though my friend was a year younger than me. Better late than never, I suppose. The Misfits are not only one of my top five favorite bands, they also gave me a new perspective on how to appreciate music.
Even though I fit into the camp that found metal first, I would not have embraced metal the way I do now were it not for the Misfits. I went through many of the rites of passage common to other kids my age: seeing metal videos on Beavis and Butthead, learning to play guitar, and inheriting my parents’ record collection. With my hormones raging and tastes growing accustomed to the classics like Metallica and Black Sabbath, I wanted something else and sought out more extreme sounds to complement the dejection I was feeling as a misunderstood teenager.
I bit off more than I could chew when I found Cannibal Corpse. As a somewhat sheltered 14 year-old, looking at their album covers at the local mall and hearing songs called “Fucked with a Knife” and “Meat Hook Sodomy” scared me away from extreme metal. After this, I still liked metal but shifted most of my musical consumption and identification to punk, because it still had the energy, without the “scary” or transgressive overtones. I got into most of the entry level, old school punk bands like the Dead Kennedys and Operation Ivy, but for some reason the Misfits eluded me for a few more years.
Around age 16, I read an interview with Kerry King in some guitar magazine that removed the blinders from my eyes. He explained how Slayer uses graphic imagery metaphorically, as a catharsis for real world problems. He claimed that the vast majority of metal fans understand this, but it’s the church burners and the grave desecrators, who can’t tell the difference between fantasy and reality, who give heavy metal a bad rap. While it seems like a total no-brainer now, this suddenly made a lot of sense to me, and I let metal into my life. I realized Cannibal Corpse were not actually serious about shredding humans, and that listening to metal did not inherently make me serious about it either. (Now when I think of Cannibal Corpse, I think of Alex Webster’s phenomenal bass playing, Chris Barnes “traveling the galaxy” with a bag of Doritos, and Corpsegrinder doing the Dew and “pwning n00bs” in World of Warcraft). While Slayer first opened my eyes to this concept, it was the Misfits who perfected it, and showed me how much pleasure I could find in the violent world.
The Misfits showed me that music need not take itself too seriously, and that it is something to have fun with, no matter what your idea of fun is. I entered my Misfits phase the day my all-time favorite song “Skulls” first came ripping from the speakers. “Skulls” has the same I-V-vi-IV chord progression found in countless pop punk songs, but this time it sounded fresh and exciting. Maybe it was the production, or the performance; most likely, it was the lyrics that only Hell’s Elvis himself, Glenn Danzig, could have howled. Often noted as a great singer and songwriter, Danzig has an uncanny way of belting out shocking lyrics in his 1950s baritone voice that are both immediate and stunning. A friend once told me that saying you hate the Misfits is like saying you hate melody. But what really made the Misfits special to me is how their songs could be so catchy, and still have lyrics about zombies, killing children, and presidential assassinations. You know that you’ve been through the Misfits phase if you’ve ever thought that it would be impossible for anyone not to love the Misfits.
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Like all good things, the Misfits phase comes to an end, and people move on. While some return to “normal” life and music, for others the Misfits phase is just the beginning. The Misfits’ combination of horror-themed lyrics and classic, pop-inspired hooks are what pull in aspiring young punks, but the trajectory of the post-Misfits phase often mirrors the dissolution of the original Misfits line up. Around 1983, Danzig wanted to pursue heavier and darker territories than bassist Jerry Only and his brother Doyle, so the band broke up. The more open-minded Danzig went on to lead experimental project Samhain, and bluesy metal group Danzig, who released their ninth album last year. The other two formed a Christian band called Kryst the Conqueror, brought back a cleaned-up and over-merchandised version of the Misfits with vocalist Michael Graves, and now Only carries on the name with a punk-rock-retirement-club lineup. For those who take Danzig’s path, clearly the high road, the Misfits are a gateway drug for metal.
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The Misfits will release The Devil’s Rain on October 4th, 2011 – their first album of original material in 12 years. Even though they sound like a bad Misfits cover band now, look at that cover!
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Misfits – “Skulls”
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Misfits – “Hybrid Moments”
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BUY THE DEVIL’S RAIN
Misfits Fiend Store (Ltd. Deluxe Edition CD)
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Still re-visit Misfits Collection often. The reason why so many metalheads like them? THEY ARE GOOD.
Really weird coincidence: last night my fiance stumbled onto that awesome graphic of “Ramones just wanna blah blah, Misfits only want your skulls”. Being neither a metalhead or someone who went through a Misfits phase, I had to explain the joke, and wound up playing her that same youtube clip in bed. I couldn’t tell if she was impressed. Then again she’s 32.
I don’t think it’s accurate to characterize listening to The Misfits as a transient phase that people outgrow or use as a gateway. I heard Slayer long before I heard The Misfits. Songs like “Horror Business,” “London Dungeon,” and “Last Caress,” are iconic. The early material is an essential part of the punk rock canon and has been covered by artists of every stripe. There’s a reason an original Plan 9 pressing of “Cough/Cool” costs more than a downpayment on some homes and that the 7″ of “Three Hits From Hell” is my most cherished record.
Perhaps there is some sort of generational disconnect between the real Misfits and the merchandising arm of Jerry Only, Inc. The original Misfits were around just long enough to record numerous classics. The vaudeville version has been around since about 1996, or 15 years. There was a time when all things Misfits were far from kitsch. But most people now know them for making something that was cool kind of cuddly.
There’s something almost mystical about why the whole Misfits formula works. Comic book imagery, violent psycho-sexual fantasias, 50s pop ornaments, played by a wood chipper of a thrashy punk band fronted by Jim Morrison. You can’t make this work if you tried and that’s why it works; because Danzig didn’t try…
I always thought Danzig sounded kind of half Jim Morrison and half Elvis. I love Misfits, but when you think about how ridiculous Danzig sounds it makes you wonder how something that should theoretically be the worst fusion of influences be so awesome.
What about Kryst the Conquerer their Christian NWOHM project after Misfits original line-up broke up. Yep that’s right everyone except Danzig turned Christian metal for a while. They don’t have the chops to play metal; not even christian metal.
Yeah, I can listen to bands that are trying to be the Ramones or others and enjoy them. But when bands try to sound like the Misfits it never works.
The weirdest thing about “Skulls” is how long it took to become my favorite Misfits song. I was way more into Bullet, Last Caress, and Mommy Can I Go Out And Kill Tonight in the early days. Once my goth phase was initiated, London Dungeon took over for a long time (still fucking awesome). Die, Die My Darling was the next occupant of the throne (and it too is still fucking awesome), but somewhere along the way Skulls oozed into my subconscious and edged out all pretenders. Its a perfect pop song, with perfectly retarded lyrics that embody everything stupid and amazing about the band.
Just thinking about the Misfits makes me wanna chug cheap whiskey and dance in my living room, something my old buddies and I did almost daily (well, nightly) before life got in the way.
For many years if there was a guitar around at a party this song would be played at some point during the night, but pesky life is always in the way now.
I went to a party a few years ago and there was a lot of free booze going around. My friend had a real skull she said she got from some dude who went to medical school sitting on her coffee table. I was already shithammered, drank some bourbon, next thing I know, I was making out with the skull while singing the Misfits’ Skulls. I’m glad my friend was a sport about it, and no, her skull did not get herpes or anything like that.
I bought “Walk Among Us” when I was 15. It was fun and I liked it. I still do.
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uuuh, that’s as far at it goes, actually.
I was lucky enough to get into the Misfits and Samhain right around 85-86 but unlucky enough to live in a podunk small town in Alabama. Thanks to the occasional trip to Atlanta, a more-relatively-nearby Camelot Music and a teeny record store down the road from me that didn’t know any better, I landed vinyl and cassettes of both bands, and a Pushead Misfits tee that I wore until it was more hole than shirt. All this coincided with my full-blown delve into thrash *and* punk (and being in a podunk small town in Alabama, I didn’t have a lot of folks telling me that I couldn’t be into both at the same time, so I was). I still listen to the Misfits (Glenn era only) and Samhain every time the leaves start turning and the chill in the air brings with it the wafting aroma of a November-Coming-Fire.
First VON, now the Misfits. Now I know this Brandow guy is ripping me off.
Haha I need to check your archives before I write my stories! I also heard the new album and it has a few moments that are fun if you picture Danzig singing them, but other than that it is about what you would expect.
Maybe the crappiest article ever blogged about this band. Cosmo’s legacy at its finest.
Misfits should not be relegated to a phase. Growing up and developing strong musical tastes in the late 80’s, i was fortunate enough to have been listening to both great, early punk alongside the metal that was thriving at the time. I was young enough that I was not forced into having to identify as strictly punk or metal, a horror story of its own told by those just a few years older than me. Garage Days introduced me to the Misfits (along with the mighty Killing Joke). Though I had already been listening to the Ramones and Sex Pistols, the Misfits, along with Samhain and Danzig, played such an incredible role in defining my tastes. Part of it was the music, then the image, and then the god-awful challenge of trying to track down so many of the hard to find Misfits tracks at the time (long before collection II or the box set.) The next time it would be so difficult to track stuff down was in the early 90’s trying to stay on top of the Norwegian stuff. That all helped to define a passion for the underground. As I get ready to see the Danzig Legacy set this weekend in Chicago, I’m excited to relive some old times, yet thankfully acknowledge it was never just a phase.
Never really cared too much for the Misfits, although I really like horror comic books and all those elements you mention. I mainly listened to D.R.I., Cro-Mags and The Accused for my crossover daily fix back in the thrash days.
The only Misfits I care to listen to regularly is American Psycho. There. I said it. Get over it.
I was never really into them as a kid, so when this came out, I was detached enough to listen/enjoy it without being glued to some notion of what the Misfits ’should be’ and ‘who should be in the band.’
The same people who fuss over that are the same who cant get over not hearing bass on And Justice For All.
Nope, there is a huge difference between the first incarnation of the Misfits and the glorified cover band they are now. Failure to understand that is just weird.
“Phase?” No fucking way. The classic Misfits records are right up there with Sabbath as far as my favorite music is concerned. I could probably listen to Static Age every day for the rest of my life. I actually like them more now than I did as a teenager (I’m 30). And motherFUCK that Jerry Only bullshit.
I still dig the Misfits and actually play Famous Monsters frequently. I went thru a punk phase prior to metal becoming the dominant form of music I listen to. I was 20 when I really got into the Misfits. I am in no way embarrassed by that. I am however embarrassed by the new album. It’s a very poor imitation of the Misfits.
First perception of them was around 87. I hated them. They weren’t anything near to what I was consuming musically at the time. Within a year, I was practically wearing out the one tape I had, fixing it when it jammed. I had also acquired a “Misfits Fiend Club” shirt which I wore to my social detriment. I was a fiend, and this led to more punk rock but never satisfied me like the ‘Fits did.
I’m 32, I’ve been listening to the Misfits since I was a teenager–so literally for over half my life now–and I still listen regularly to them. I can’t reasonably ever see myself “growing out” of them or whatever. Shit is timeless for a reason.
I caught them on one of their early reunion tours–it must have been around 1998 because it was at a bar that IDed everybody coming in–with Michael Graves but before they decided to write new songs and they were actually a lot of fun to watch. Wouldn’t see them again though.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2B3SrJnahro
YES!
I think I was 15 or 16 when I first heard ‘London Dungeon’ in a skateboarding video, and now at 31, I still have yet to outgrow either the Misfits or skateboarding.
Pretty sure that video (toy machine?) was my first introduction to the ‘fits as well (well, that and metallica’s cover versions)
Two points:
1) Return of the Fly- that chord progression- Bbm-Gbm. Completely unfuckwithable. Plus the doo-wop backing vocals in the 3rd verse. Nobody but Glenn Danzig would write something like that in a punk context. Fucker completely out-Ramoned Joey Ramone.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hWnYrcaZsKg
2) Someone with the Onion AV Club once pointed out the genius of Glenn Danzig lies in the song “Attitude” with the the line “Inside your feeble brain/there’s probably a whore”. Lesser artists would’ve stated definitively that a whore exists inside your feeble mind, but Danzig knew the slight shift in modality completely elevates the line into pure comedy. David Foster Wallace couldn’t write a line that devastating yet concise.
OK, I don’t know about skateboarding, but loving the Misfits is definitely not a phase. They are one of the best and most influential music groups of the 20th century. I wish you would have gone with a different angle with the story. Also, Kerry King’s comment about metal lyrics being metaphorical should have been mined for an entirely separate article. I’m also trying to figure out how old you and your high school friend are if you are old enough to have watched Beavis & Butthead, but young enough to have liked deathcore. That’s a very small window–so you must be 25-27. Am I right?
I would like to flesh out the Kerry King comment, but I could not find the original interview. Also, your calculations are correct, I am 26.
I have one album by the Misfits, one in which Danzig was still the singer, and I dig it out quite a bit. In fact, that album, along with Monster Magnet’s Dopes to Infinity are the only non-metal albums I have listened to more than a couple of times in the last five years.
Do yourself a favor and seek out all of the Misfits stuff with Danzig singing. Pure gold!
I’m totally confused about the part where you said the Misfits, while not a metal band themselves, were an influence on and were covered by metal bands, such as Guns ‘n Roses??
there’s tons of metal bands who are influenced by punk bands.
why is that confusing?
Yeah I get that. And I agree with the Misfits not being classified as metal. But in what fucked-up alternate universe are GNR more of a “metal” band than the Misfits?
Seriously, anytime somebody calls GNR (or motorhead for that matter) metal, I throw down the FALSE card. Sorry.
What? GNR, I can see (vaguely, and maybe that’s just because I hate them), but Motorhead not metal?
I was going on the assumption that hair metal was still a form of metal. As far as “attitude” goes, Misfits are way more metal!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=32hBBaX74Dk
GNR and Motorhead are rock n roll bands. Period. This is not to take anything away from them (i worship both bands’ classic material), Lemmy would say the same thing.
Well, I’d say it’s acceptable to call Motorhead metal, but it really does bug me when people call GNR metal…especially so when they’re labeled “hair metal”. Axl had big hair in the “welcome to the jungle” video, but really, they were just a pissed off, trashy rock n roll band.
Best Misfits cover band: The Misfats
Mommy Can I Go Out & Grill Tonight?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8t4kwa5RSFc
20 Pies
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ogJMDcJXzN4&feature=related
I was hoping the title track of Diet Diet Diet My Darling is on youtube.
Wow this is awesome! That is a pretty prestegious claim to say you are the fattest Misfits cover band! How can you beat a song called Hungry Moments?!
There is a band from Athens, GA, called Los Meesfits and plays their songs in a salsa style. Here is there version of “Donde Las Águilas Se Atreven”
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F13Vl5oJjsU
Thanks for the shout out Tom!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BVqOw7sD8hU
That is not a good picture of Alicja:)I have seen her in Poland she looks much better/trust me:DDDReport this comment as spam or abuse