MISFITS

DAWN OF MODERN TIMES
IT'S ALIVE
STAR POWER
THE FIEND
ONLY THE LONELY
MISFIT ATTITUDE
DIY
MONSTER MASH
LAND OF THE DEAD
PARTING SHOT


DAWN OF MODERN TIMES

When was the dawn of modern times? We argue it was the late 1970's. For a brief time things like Star Wars and Van Halen emerged out of the ether. Exciting things were coming from nowhere. The Misfits were a part of that, just as the punk era was crawling into the light. It was April 1977 and the Misfits were brand spanking new.


IT'S ALIVE

Singer Glenn Danzig and bassist Jerry Only formed the Misfits way back then. As time went on, the band had many lineup changes, but these two were at its core. Guitarist Doyle Wolfgang Von Frankenstein joined the band by 1980 and stuck by their side, as he was Jerry Only's little brother.

STAR POWER

Why call themselves the Misfits? Well beyond the obvious reasons, it was the name of Marilyn Monroe's last film. These guys are suckers for Marilyn and wanted a chance to aid in her immortality.

THE FIEND

The Fiend is essentially the band's icon, their image, the skull face that blazes across all their stuff. They developed "The Fiend" partially due to their primitive no-nonsense punk rock, but also because they had a strong fascination with horror films. Their fixation on B-movie style artwork lent to their own slick black "devillock" hairstyles and horror make-up.


ONLY THE LONELY

In the mid-80's Danzig split and after much legal to do, Jerry Only and younger brother Doyle, resurrected the band in 1997 with a new album, "American Psycho". As Jerry put it, "We tightened everything up as much as possible. Sticking to our punk roots, the longest song on the album is three minutes and nine cuts are under two. We've still got the classic backup vocals, the '50s sounding chord progressions, the different beats - 4/4 time can turn into a major thrash beat in the same song. But the sound of our instrumentation is so much better than on our previous records. We worked really hard."


MISFIT ATTITUDE

The Misfits have a been a major force influencing today's music, their impact can be seen in bands like Green Day, Rancid, Blink 182, Metallica, Marilyn Manson, Rob Zombie, Slipknot and Guns n Roses ? who covered the Misfits song, "Attitude". Metallica also covered three of their songs on their album, "Garage Days Revisited" and site the band as a major influence in the centerfold of the CD booklet. Furthermore, Metallica paid tribute to the Misfits by wearing Misfits t-shirts on stage.


DIY

There is an attitude with everything the Misfits do and their time out of the light is no different. They have a Misfits compound in North Jersey complete with a family owned machine shop business where they can create their own instruments. They make it all from their guitars and basses right down to their studded leather straps and spiked leather jackets. On a grander scale, they also design and build their stages and wide array of infamous stage props at the shop.


MONSTER MASH

Thematically their music continues to focus on those things they find fascinating and leave the weightier stuff to others, "People who buy our records and come to see us perform - from the guy all the way back in the balcony, to the guy getting his head banged around in the front - they come to have a good time. And we make sure they do, you can hear about social and political issues somewhere else. When you come to a Misfits show, you get a bunch of guys who go out there and give 110 percent take it or leave it. That's what we have always been. At a show, everyone's just part of the crowd there's no them and us - we're all us." Their music involves things that fascinate them, "Vampires, monsters, alien invasion, Frankenstein - we are the Misfits after all," concludes Jerry Only.


FIEND CLUB

The Misfits fan club, the "Fiend Club" has released a limited edition live album and a glow-in-the-dark 45 cover of the classic, "Monster Mash". The 45 was fully endorsed by longtime Misfits


LAND OF THE DEAD

The great zombie film master, George A. Romero offered to direct the band's "Scream" video in exchange for the use of two of their songs in his film, "Bruiser".


PARTING SHOT

As stated by Jerry Only, "I think we filled a niche. We stuck to what we did, and we did it well. We never tried to pull something over on people - we just tried to entertain 'em while rocking 'em real hard. Besides, I think the love of the horror art form has endured."