Monday, March 17, 2008
you better think about it baby:
Someone once said you can tell a lot about a person by what era Bob Dylan s/he identifies with. The same could be said about the Misfits.

For a very long time I was a Walk Among Us partisan. Conventional? Perhaps. After all, there we have the classic Misfits lineup (Danzig, Only, Steele, Robo) and the moment where they came into their sound. Static Age is a little too undercooked, Earth A.D. a charred husk. On Walk Among Us you get all the good horror-punk songs: "20 Eyes," "Martian," "Astro Zombies," "Hatebreeders," "Skulls," etc. Slap "Where Eagles Dare," "Bullet" and "Who Killed Marilyn" on that sucker and it's all you need to know about the Misfits.

These days, though? Whenever I've put the Misfits folder of my iPod on shuffle I've been surprised how much I like the Earth A.D. tracks. I recognize that they're the most egregious aspects of the Misfits' catalogue and the milk is past the sell-by date. But, I mean, c'mon: "Hellhound"? "Queen Wasp"? "Devilock"? "Green Hell"? Don't front. Mom, someone put a doo-wop song in my thrashcore!

What does this say about me? That I'm pissed off and I'm losing all sense of perspective.
--Spencer Ackerman
posted 12:18 PM |
Not sure I buy the premise. Even the more headbangery types like Walk Among Us better.

Maybe you should switch to decaf? Or caf, as appropriate.

Or the first Sultans record, which to my ears fills the same sonic space as Walk Among Us. Fewer demons etc., though.
Blogger Unknown | 12:55 PM

This is a constant debate between my husband and I. Re: Mistfits, I like the beatz, but the lyrics are slightly too shocky/schlocky for my taste. All I can attest to with certainty is the unimpeachable fierceness of the first Danzig album.

/drunkcommenting
Blogger Michelle | 8:09 PM

Michelle, you've heard the demos for the first Danzig, right? If not email me & I'll YouSendIt or something. "Am I Demon" is fucking killer on a 4-track.
Blogger Spencer Ackerman | 8:53 PM

wait wait wait the Misfits lyrics are too schlocky but the lyrics on Danzig I aren't?
Blogger Spencer Ackerman | 8:54 PM

I am too drunk to follow up with any modicum of integrity right now. All I can say is, it has something to do with the pure kitsch to teenage angst ratio. Also, I was just doing the robot to the House of Pain. Clearly, I am disqualified as a punk pundit.
Blogger Michelle | 10:11 PM

I like them all equally in different ways. Each album has a different significance in my personal timeline of life. Does that make me indecisive?
Blogger Liz Baillie | 9:33 AM

@liz baille:

I totally agree, but if you had to explain the Misfits to someone who had never heard them...

(And yeah, buying the records as they came out, I made it all the way to the first Danzig album. At that point in time, Danzig seemed to have become part of the problem.)
Blogger Unknown | 10:30 AM