It’s getting kinda cold out, and the leaves are changing, and there’s only a few days left til it’s Halloween. One whole night of crappy, hard to see through masks, homemade costumes made of fabric only your grandmother still wears, candy you probably won’t ever get around to eating, and parties full of idiots. If you happen to get out to a punk rock show on this hallowed evening there’s a very good chance at least one band will cover a misfits song, or hell, even do an entire misfits set.
The misfits (for those living under a rock) were a band that created an entire career around writing catchy songs about crappy horror movies and had one really great speed metal record (Earth A.D.). They broke up in 1982 and subsequently “reunited” in the late 1990’s to a whole new generation of punks (read: kids clueless about current thriving underground punk.).
I admit there was a time when I would never have said hate in reference to the Misfits. Things have changed. I’ve grown up (marginally), I’ve found hundreds more bands to listen to and I’ve found new idols to worship. I also don’t really shop at the mall any longer. Since after “reuniting” their fans have gotten stupider, fatter, and way less cool. Hot topic is really the best place to find misfits paraphernalia and for a second there, two members of the band were wrestlers (who, from all accounts consistently sucked). Because of these heresies I refuse to support or acknowledge any sway the misfits may have ever had on me. from time to time a song will pop into my head, but I’ll quickly hum a hymn and go on with my day.
Guess what, kiddies? Wearing their t-shirts doesn’t give you cred, it just tells me you shop at hot topic. So this year for Halloween, find a rad scary band to listen to, like neurosis. The misfits are totally irrelevant. They stopped being relevant in 1982. Danzig gave up on the idea years ago, why can’t you?
Well… I love Neurosis and have seen them a half dozen times (first was an afternoon show at the Trocadero in Philly when they were still ‘punk rock’ and just starting to explore more bleak and avant-garde ideas).
But I still enjoy the Misfits! In fact, I just saw Glenn, Jerry, Doyle and Dave Lombardo tear shit up at Madison Square Garden… and it was a lot of fun!! Sure, it took me back to freshman year highschool in 1989, and alot of the fun was to be found in that word “nostalgia”; but it underscored one thing… I never stopped loving the original Misfits.
I get that corporatization of punk rock erodes the very reason why this form of entertainment came into existence in the first place. But… we are not living in 1977, and everything that can be re-appropriated, will be re-appropriated.
And then there’s that thing called ‘the internet’ which further erodes any ‘scene’ we once thought ‘sacred’. But, that doesn’t mean I need to cease being me, enjoying what I’ve always enjoyed… because of the mechanisms of capitalism. And neither should you.
If you ever loved songs like “TV Casualty”, “Death Comes Ripping” or “Return of the Fly”… you still will. The Misfits’ juvenile subject matter and song structures were always part of their charm. Much like the Dead Milkmen or Ramones.
If I want a more serious side of psychabilly/punk-rock… I head toward the late Jeffrey Lee Pierce and his Gun Club, Dead Kennedys, X, Lard, or even the Birthday Party/Boys Next Door.
I was angry at the Hot Topics of the world for a long time. But, then I realized… I’m letting them win when I cease enjoying something I’ve loved for years, because a bunch of idiots in a shopping mall are nor sporting a ‘crimson fiend’.
There may come a time when the music of Neurosis, or Godflesh, or Coil, or Foetus, or Gorgoroth, or Om, or Swans, or My Bloody Valentine, etc… appears in some powerful film that thrusts these somewhat obscure acts into the lexicon of pop culture conversation.
I won’t cease loving these bands because a bunch of ‘hollywood lobbyists’ finally caught on to shit we’ve known about forwver. Neither should you.
Don’t let these bastards drag you down!! Besides, last night while dealing with tree-trunk neck meat heads, and hostile aggressive skinheads… if I re-learned one lesson that I’ve always sorta known… its that ‘the fans ruin everything. The very fans that these bands need, to scratch a living.
Cheers!
Robert