Albums: Static Age, American Psycho, Walk Among Us

The Misfits are a horror-themed punk rock band formed in 1977 in Lodi, New Jersey and originally led by singer Glenn Danzig (born Glenn Anzalone). Misfits' iconic skull graphic was lifted from the 1946 television serial, 'The Crimson Ghost,' while the typeface is from the 1950s-'60s magazine, 'Famous Monsters of Filmland.' Glenn Danzig was very interested in Marilyn Monroe, and took the band's name from "The Misfits", Monroe's last film. The band's early lyrical and graphical focus was on retro (1930s-'50s) science fiction, horror films, and B-movies. The early Misfits were often quite melodic, featuring Danzig's versatile singing, which had a style rooted in Italian tenors such as Mario Lanza and in 1950s doo wop. Early Misfits songs tended to have catchy, sing along choruses backed by Danzig's distorted keyboard accompaniments. The band began as a largely untrained ensemble. The song Last Caress (a very rare track for years) is now commonly regarded as the epitome of an early-Misfits song, with blaring instruments and Danzig's melodic vocals finding a medium between Frank Sinatra and the Sex Pistols. By the original band's last album, Earth A.D., they had become a hardcore punk band, with Danzig's standout vocal tone floating over a torrent of thrashing guitar, bass, and drums. It is useful to think of the early Misfits as a band of a couple of guys from New Jersey who were strongly attracted to punk due to the trends of the time, rather than as a traditional 'punk band'. While Danzig lived with his mother in Lodi and was supported by her during the band's early career, Jerry Caiafa and Doyle Caiafa helped finance the band by working long shifts at the family lumber yard, later founding a knife factory in rural Vernon Township (which often employed later members such as Robo, a citizen of Colombia). The Misfits seldom mixed with other New Jersey punk bands, creating their own small scene locally, while holding early acclaim in New York and expanding it nationally, in part thanks to mailing lists and other networking, including their once-small, later-considerable 'Fiend Club' fan club. The original Misfits broke up in 1983, having released several 7" singles and 12" records, all of which were DIY limited-edition and most of which were hand-assembled by the band, that have long been considered prime collectors' items. Epigones from Lodi, New Jersey, include the bands Mourning Noise and Rosemary's Babies, both of whom released records. The band often wore ghoulish makeup when performing, and bassist Jerry Only invented a hairstyle called the devilock which is still worn by fans today. A "touring" incarnation of the band is presently led by original member and bassist, Jerry Only (born Gerald Caiafa). Members of the touring group have included Marky Ramone (of the Ramones), and both drummer Robo and guitarist Dez Cadena of Black Flag fame. Jerry's brother Doyle (formerly a guitarist for the Misfits) is currently estranged from the group and is working with a new group named Gorgeous Frankenstein (2005). Doyle recently reunited with Danzig to perform special sets of Misfits songs on Danzig's 2005 tour. History The beginning In January of 1977, after singing in several garage bands that mostly played Black Sabbath songs, twenty one year old Glenn Danzig decided it was finally time to create something serious and original. As a tribute to Marilyn Monroe, he named his musical project after her final movie, The Misfits. For weeks, Glenn wrote songs and practiced with friends and old band mates, trying to find a suitable lineup of musicians to bring his vision to life. The first complete Misfits lineup consisted of Jimmy Battle on guitar, his old band mate Manny Martinez on drums, Diane DiPiaza on bass, and Danzig on electric piano and vocals. However, after only about a month of practicing, both Jimmy and Diane left the band. In need of new band mates, Manny suggested that his friend, Jerry Caiafa, should audition for bass. Jerry, a young football jock who had been voted most popular in his senior class at Lodi High School, had just received a bass guitar that Christmas and had only been practicing with it for two months. Despite Jerry's fledgling bass talents, Glenn accepted him into the band and offered to teach him how to play. After three months of practicing, the trio headed into the studio to record their first single, entitled Cough/Cool. The single contained two keyboard driven art rock songs which were quite different from the music the Misfits would later become known for. The title track was somber and poetic, and very reminiscent of The Doors. The band released the single themselves through their own label, Blank Records. Over the next several months, Glenn, Manny, and Jerry (who had adopted the stage name Jerry Only) played a handful of gigs (their first two at CBGB in New York City) as they continued to practice and forge their own sound. Their experimental art rock style was met mostly with confusion. By October 1977, British punk bands such as The Damned and New York punk bands like The Ramones began to have an influence on The Misfits. They decided to take the band in a more punk direction by adding guitarist Franch? Coma to the band and ditching the keyboards, allowing Danzig to engage in antics typical of a punk frontman. Their sound, as evinced on the album Static Age, was perhaps the most crisp, melodic, and powerful sound in punk at that time. They wouldn't draw on B-movies for lyrical inspiration for at least another year, and at this point their lyrics instead portrayed a futuristic dystopia of television saturation, automation-like submissiveness, and glamorized sex and violence. As 1977 drew to a close, Glenn and Jerry decided that Manny was too unreliable and asked him to leave the band. He was replaced by Jim Catania, or "Mr. Jim", who had played in a previous band with Glenn. At this time The Misfits caught their first big break. Mercury Records wanted to use the name Blank Records for a subdivision, but Glenn Danzig had a head for business and had secured a trademark on the name. They contacted Glenn and offered him thirty hours of free time in a professional studio, in exchange for full use of the Blank Records title. Glenn accepted the offer and in January of 1978, The Misfits headed into the New York studio to record their first full length album. Seventeen songs were recorded, featuring a unique combination of their early art rock material and the hard driving punk direction they had begun to adopt. Once the album was complete, the band shopped it around to various labels but no one was interested in releasing it. The album was shelved, and would remain unreleased in its entirety until 1995, when it was finally released as the Static Age CD. With no one interested in their album, The Misfits decided to take four tracks from it and release it themselves as an EP. In June 1978, the Bullet EP was released on their new label, Plan 9, which Danzig had named after the infamous Ed Wood movie Plan 9 From Outer Space. Rise to popularity Around this time, both Glenn and Jerry decided they wanted to take the band in a more horror-themed direction. Glenn began to write more songs inspired by low grade horror and sci-fi movies, and both he and Jerry began to adopt ghoulish appearances, with Jerry applying dark makeup around his eyes and Glenn painting bone designs on his clothes. The band started to play more frequently and began to go on small tours in support of the Bullet EP. In October of 1978, during a small tour through Canada, Franch? Coma decided he couldn't handle touring and quit the band before the tour was even complete. Guitarist Rick Riley stepped in temporarily to fill out guitar duties for the rest of the tour. Mr. Jim wasn't fond of the horror direction the band was heading in, and opted to leave the band once the tour was over. Within two months, Glenn and Jerry had recruited two new band members, drummer Joey Image, and guitarist Bobby Steele. Around this time, Jerry Only began to comb his hair in what would later become The Misfits signature hair style, which would later be dubbed the devilock. In December of 1978, after less than two months, the new Misfits lineup began playing shows together. Over the course of 1979, The Misfits further evolved the horror elements of their music and their imagery, effectively creating a new genre of music that would come to be known as horror punk. Glenn and Jerry adopted a skull mascot for the band from an old poster they'd come across for a 1946 serial called The Crimson Ghost. The Misfits released two more records on their Plan 9 label, the Horror Business EP and the Night of the Living Dead single, respectively. They began to establish a small but loyal fan base and decided to start their own fan club, which they called the Fiend Club. Glenn operated the Fiend Club from his mother's basement, where he would print out t-shirts, assemble records, mail out merchandise catalogs, book gigs, and respond to fan mail, making the Misfits exemplary practitioners of the DIY ethic. As their popularity slowly began to increase, many people started to consider The Misfits to be the American equivalent of the British punk rock band, The Damned, whose singer, Dave Vanian, adopted the look of a classic vampire and sang in a brooding baritone. In June 26th, 1979, The Misfits opened for The Damned at a gig in New York City. Before the show, Jerry spoke with Dave Vanian about the possibility of The Misfits doing a tour of the UK in support of The Damned. In November of 1979, The Misfits flew over to England for their tour with The Damned. However, Dave Vanian had not taken Jerry serious and was surprised when Jerry showed up at his front door. Instead of turning The Misfits away, Dave tried his best to arrange for them to take part in the tour, but The Misfits weren't happy with the situation. After playing only two gigs, The Misfits dropped off the tour. Their return flight back to America wasn't until late in December, and so The Misfits were forced to kill time in England. Jerry spent some time with Sid Vicious' mother, who he had befriended after Sid's death. On December 2nd, Glenn and Bobby went to see a show in London, where they were harassed by skinheads while standing in line. Glenn broke off a piece of glass and used it to fend off the skinheads while Bobby ran to get help. However, when the cops arrived, they arrested Bobby and Glenn, for what they described as "threatening behavior". In an interview with Revolver Magazine in the October 2005 issue, Glenn went into greater detail about the event. He said the police found a knife in his possession and accused Glenn of being a "ripper" that had been stalking the area at the time. The police began to beat him, and Glenn fought back. He claims he did considerable damage to the police before they were finally able to subdue him. Glenn and Bobby then spent two nights jailed up in the London district of Brixton, during which time Glenn wrote the lyrics to the future Misfits song, London Dungeon. After the failed European tour, Joey Image decided to leave the band, and later formed the band The Mary Tyler Whores. Upon their return to America, The Misfits released the Beware EP through Plan 9 records and decided to take a short hiatus from the band in order to recover from their bad experience in England. After a four month break, Arthur Googy was recruited as the new drummer. Around this time, Jerry's little brother, Doyle Wolfgang von Frankenstein, who was a huge fan of the band, started learning to play guitar with help from Glenn and Jerry. The Misfits began working on a full length album, which they planned to release through Plan 9. In August of 1980, they went into the studio and recorded twelve songs. Jerry began to persuade Glenn that Doyle would fit into the band much better than Bobby Steele. Doyle began to practice with the band and even entered the studio to record his own guitar tracks for the twelve songs they had recorded. Bobby has said that during this time period, Jerry would purposely neglect to inform him of practices, in order to make Bobby look bad. Jerry denies these accusations. Regardless, in October of 1980, shortly before the band's annual Halloween show, Jerry informed Bobby that he was being replaced by Doyle, who was only sixteen at the time. Bobby Steele went on to form his own punk band a few months later, called The Undead. On Halloween of 1980, what many people consider to be the classic Misfits lineup, made its debut. After only playing a few shows with the new lineup, they took a six month break from the band. During this time, instead of releasing the entire album they had recorded, they selected three songs from it and released it as the 3 Hits From Hell EP (in 2002, Caroline Records had planned to finally releasing the entire album, which they called 12 Hits From Hell, however, the release was canceled at the last second at Jerry and Glenn's request). Throughout the year of 1981, The Misfits continued to go into the studio to record tracks for a full length release, which they planned on calling Walk Among Us. Although they had planned on releasing the full length themselves through Plan 9, they got an unexpected offer from Slash Records to release the album. They accepted the offer and decided to rework the album before releasing it. On Halloween of 1981, The Misfits released the Halloween single through Plan 9, which consisted of two more tracks from the shelved full length they had recorded the previous summer. In 1981, Glenn wrote the song Archangel for The Damned vocalist Dave Vanian to sing with The Misfits backing him. However, due to scheduling conflicts, Dave never recorded vocals for the song and it was set aside until 1983, when Glenn decided to re-record it with his next band. In March of 1982, Ruby/Slash Records released "Walk Among Us", the first full length Misfits album to be available to the public. "Walk Among Us" would later be considered by most fans to be the quintessential Misfits album, as well as one of the best punk albums of all time. The band began playing shows again after nearly a year. They started to become notorious for their intense stage presence and brutal live performances. Doyle was a sports jock like his brother, and shared his linebacker physique, which, coupled with their ghoulish appearance, made for quite intimidating axemen. Between the brothers, Glenn Danzig would bellow out his morbid lyrics while thrashing around on stage or crawling around on the floor, often throwing and receiving punches from the crowd. Despite Glenn's smaller stature at 5'5" or 5'6", he was fond of fighting, and enjoyed taunting the crowd, and instigating violence. Perhaps the most infamously violent Misfits show took place in San Francisco on April 10th, 1982. During the show some people in the crowd began to throw cans of beer at the stage. After Doyle was nearly hit in the head with a full beer can, he smashed his guitar over a crowd member's head, instigating a full out riot. A couple days later, on April 15th, the band stopped at McDonald's for food. Arthur Googy wanted to get two cheeseburgers, but Glenn told him they were too low on money and that he could only get one. Tensions started to rise, and the two came close to exchanging blows. Arthur quit the band and The Misfits had to cancel their plans to record their next EP, which they had planned on calling "Earth A.D.". In need of a drummer, they offered the role to Doyle's friend and classmate, Eerie Von, who had served as a photographer for The Misfits. Eerie reluctantly turned down the offer because he had already committed to drumming for the local band Rosemarie's Babies. Black Flag vocalist, Henry Rollins, who had become great friends with The Misfits during their west coast gigs, informed ex-Black Flag drummer, ROBO, that The Misfits were in need of a drummer. In July of 1982, Robo flew to the east coast and joined the band. Doyle graduated High School and began working full time at his father's machine shop with Jerry. They used their earnings to purchase new instruments (because they tended to smash theirs on a weekly basis), and to fund The Misfits tours, recording sessions, and album pressings. While they provided funding for the band, Glenn would handle the Fiend Club and work on composing new songs. A common misconception is that Glenn only wrote lyrics and sang for The Misfits. Glenn was actually a multi-talented musician that would write the music and the lyrics himself, and would later teach them to his band mates at practice, where the songs would become totally fleshed out (Practices where usually held in Jerry's garage, which they referred to as "The Pit"). Glenn was often irritated when people assumed he only sang for the band, and did not credit him as the band's creative force. In order to remedy the situation in the future, Glenn considered naming his next band project either "Glenn Danzig" or simply "Danzig". Decaying In September of 1982, The Misfits embarked on a large scale tour with their friends, Necros opening for them. During the tour, The Misfits stopped by a studio to record the instrumentals for the "Earth A.D." EP while Glenn slept. On October 17, the band was arrested in New Orleans on the charges of grave-robbing while in search of the burial place of voodoo practitioner Marie Laveau. The Misfits denied the charges, and a witness reportedly attested that they had not even entered the cemetery gates. The band bailed themselves out of jail and skipped court to drive to their next performance in Florida. Upon returning from the tour, The Misfits released an album of live material called Evilive. During this time Glenn was becoming increasingly unsatisfied with The Misfits. He thought his band mate's musicianship was not sophisticated enough to bring his musical visions to life, and thought they were wasting money by constantly destroying their instruments. He also wasn't happy with the thrashy speed punk direction the Earth A.D. EP had taken. He began to write songs for a new band project, which he considered calling "Danzig", but instead choose to name Samhain, after the ancient Celtic holiday which influenced the modern Halloween celebration. In July of 1983, The Misfits went into the studio to finish working on Earth A.D. They decided to record and add two of their new songs to the album, making it closer to full length status. In order to make it a proper full length album, Glenn decided to record two of the songs he had intended for Samhain: Bloodfeast, and [track]Death Comes Ripping[/track]. The resulting album was Earth A.D./Wolfs Blood, a gritty, thrashy album of hardcore punk rock, which none of the members were quite satisfied with. In August, after a series of arguments with Glenn, Robo decided to leave the band. Glenn became further disenchanted with The Misfits and began to audition musicians for his new band project. On October 29th, 1983, The Misfits played their yearly Halloween show in Detroit, Michigan. Glenn had selected Brian Damage to be the new Misfits drummer. However, Brian got drunk before the show and continuously messed up the songs. After several songs Doyle escorted Brian off the stage and the drummer for the Necros filled in for the rest of the set. The band members were visibly upset with each other and Glenn informed the audience that it would be the last Misfits show ever. The next day the band members drove back home without saying a word to each other and went about their respective lives. Legal Battle After the demise of The Misfits, Glenn Danzig focused on his new band project, Samhain, which was much darker and occult oriented than The Misfits. Meanwhile, Jerry Only and his brother Doyle moved to Vernon, NJ, where they went to work full time in their father's machine parts factory. During this time, Jerry became more focused on his family and his baby daughter, Kathy. He became more serious about his christian faith, and regretted some of the things he took part in during his time with The Misfits. He watched as Glenn continued to grow in popularity with Samhain, a band that Jerry viewed as evil and Satanic. In 1987, Jerry decided to start a new band, one that would oppose the "dark path" chosen by Glenn. Together with Doyle, Jerry (who changed his stage name to Mo The great) started writing songs for a Christian heavy metal band with barbarian imagery, called Kryst the Conqueror. They then created the "Doyle Fan Club" to help spread the word about their new band. During the writing and recording process for the album, they tweaked their instruments, in an attempt to design the ultimate bass and guitar. Once the music was recorded, they hired studio vocalist Jeff Scott Soto (who had done vocals for Yngwie Malmsteen) to record vocals for the album. Jeff was forced to remain anonymous due to contractual obligations. To hide his identity, he was credited on the album as Kryst. Despite Jerry's efforts, Kryst the Conqueror failed to gain a following. The album was never fully released and the band never played a single show. By 1987, The Misfits' reputation had grown to nearly legendary status, and Glenn's band Samhain (later renamed to "Danzig"), was signed to a major label. The Misfits back catalog had been re-issued and was selling extremely well. Around this time, Jerry Only contacted Glenn about getting a cut of the Misfits royalties, beginning a legal battle that lasted several years. Jerry concedes that Danzig wrote nearly all the lyrics and most of the music, but he contended that he and Doyle "wrote 25% or maybe 30% of the music," and deserved compensation. Danzig, on the other hand, insisted that all songs were written by him and that the other Misfits' creative input was minimal at best. In late 1988, Danzig's new group (also called "Danzig") released their debut album on longtime fan Rick Rubin's record label. Five years later, Glenn broke into the mainstream when the live video for the Danzig song, Mother, became a hit on MTV, introducing thousands of new fans to Danzig's back catalog with Samhain and The Misfits. Around this time, many older punk bands began to do reunion tours, earning often hefty paychecks in the process. Jerry and Doyle approached Glenn about the possibility of a Misfits reunion tour, but Glenn turned them down by having security escort them off the property. Jerry decided to cease his pursuit of song credit, and instead tried to reach an out of court settlement that would allow him to use The Misfits name and image. In 1995, Jerry and Glenn were finally able to settle out of court. Jerry gained the rights to record and perform as the Misfits, although he shared joint merchandising rights with Glenn. The Resurrected Misfits Jerry and Doyle reformed The Misfits immediately, recruiting Michale Graves on vocals and Dr. Chud of Sardonica on drums. The new incarnation of the Misfits released two full-length albums, American Psycho and Famous Monsters as well as a collection of rare and unreleased "resurrected" Misfits tracks, until Michale Graves and Dr. Chud left the band on October 25, 2000 at a performance at the House of Blues in Orlando. Doyle then took an indefinite hiatus from performing. Jerry took over lead vocals in addition to his bass duties, and recruited punk veterans Dez Cadena of Black Flag, and Marky Ramone of The Ramones to undertake a Misfits 25th Anniversary Tour, which lasted about three years, intermittently. Freed from the Misfits' contractual obligations to Universal's Geffen and Roadrunner imprints, Only and Misfits confidant John Cafiero formed Misfits Records and launched their new label with two releases, the American debut of BALZAC (a Japanese horror punk band strongly influenced by The Misfits and Samhain), and a new Misfits album featuring the band's retakes on ten 1950's rock classics, Project 1950. The album featured not only the punk rock all-star Misfits lineup of Only, Cadena and Ramone, but prominent appearances from 60's pop chanteuse Ronnie Spector and Blondie keyboardist Jimmy Destri. Meanwhile Michale Graves and Dr. Chud had formed their own band, Graves, which released a single album before breaking up. In 2004, Michale Graves sang in Gotham Road. Currently, Graves is fronting his own solo project, Michale Graves, while Dr. Chud is fronting for his own band called Dr. Chud's X-Ward. On February 28th, March 1st and March 2nd 2005, Glenn Danzig performed a half hour worth of classic Misfits tracks, in the middle of his Danzig set. Joining him on guitar was none other than Doyle. It was the first time the two have performed together in 20 years, and the first time Doyle has taken to the stage since he went on hiatus. These shows have prompted rumors of a reunification of Jerry, Doyle and Glenn, although Danzig has repeatedly made public statements shooting down such rumors. Glenn and Doyle plan on performing more shows together, and Glenn has stated that this is as close as anyone will ever get to seeing a true Misfits reunion. Recently, Marky Ramone has left The Misfits 25 lineup, and the new lineup contains none other than Robo, formerly of the Glenn Danzig days of the Misfits, and originally of seminal hardcore punk band Black Flag. A full European tour has been booked with this new lineup, and some select dates in the U.S. have been announced. Sadly, the UK leg of the tour had to be canceled due to a problem with Robo's visa, and, as a result, the band could not play the City Invasion 2005 tour. A rescheduled United Kingdom tour followed in September. The Misfits and their Japanese counterparts, Balzac, staged a show at Tony Bennett's studio complex in Englewood, N.J., for a possible future live CD and/or DVD release on Misfits Records. Original Misfits guitarist Franché Coma made a guest appearance to perform three songs from the Static Age LP. Meanwhile, Doyle returned to play with Danzig for the Blackest of the Black Tour in the fall of 2005. Glenn claims that this will be his final tour, though he says he will continue to make music. He is currently slated as the producer for Doyle's upcoming band, Gorgeous Frankenstein, which currently lacks a singer or a vocalist, but will feature Argyle Goolsby on bass. The Misfits are currently writing material for a new studio album which they will begin recording after a brief tour of Central and South America. The tour begins January 26th and will go through February 6th. The album will apparently feature Dez Cadena on guitar and Robo on drums. They have yet to say whether Dez will contribute to songwriting and singing. Legacy The influence The Misfits have had on punk rock, and rock music in general, sometimes seems disproportionate to the publicity and critical attention they have received. Myriad bands have imitated The Misfits' style, such as Blitzkid and Calabrese,these bands have become known as horror punk. psychobilly has various similarities with horror punk. A number of bands have recently surfaced which, although in some cases less obviously horror punk, are still strongly visibly and audibly influenced by The Misfits. These include, most notably, bands such as AFI, Tiger Army, Alkaline Trio, Cradle of Filth, Marilyn Manson, Rob Zombie, Avenged Sevenfold, Wednesday 13 and the Murderdolls. Many musical groups whose resemblance to The Misfits seems far removed also cite the band as crucial influences, such as Metallica and Guns N' Roses. Other bands who hold The Misfits in high regard are Slayer, Pantera, NOFX and more recently, Slipknot. Many local New Jersey hardcore, punk, and emo bands, such as My Chemical Romance and The Banner, cite The Misfits as a main influence. Winnipeg born breakcore artist Venetian Snares considers the Misfits a huge influence, inspired by the subtle, but frequent use of 3/4 time. The Misfits' far reaching influence can also be evident in the vast number of fans from all different facets of the music world that follow the band. Obviously wildly popular band among punk rock fans, the band has also received much exposure to the heavy metal community from Metallica's numerous Misfits cover songs. Misfits fans themselves can often be easily discerned, as many completely immerse themselves in the band's imagery. At underground shows, and especially at Halloween, it is not uncommon to see many punks and metal heads dressed in black with Crimson Ghost face paint and the devilock hairstyle. Black leather jackets, over sized leather boots, as well as gloves and bodysuits printed with the skeletal structure are also common. Discography ("Original" Misfits) Cough/Cool (1977) - single Bullet (1978) - EP Horror Business (1979) - EP Night of the Living Dead (1979) - single Beware (1980) - EP 3 Hits From Hell (1981) - EP Who Killed Marilyn? (1981) - single (though often credited as a Misfits release, this was issued as a Glenn Danzig solo release) Halloween (1981) - single Walk Among Us (1982) - album Ruby/Slash Records Evilive (1982) - live fan club EP Earth A.D./Wolfs Blood (1983) - album Die, Die My Darling (1984) - single Earth A.D. (1984) - album Legacy of Brutality (1985) - album Collection I (1986) - album Evilive (1987) - live album Collection II (1995) - album Box Set (1996) - Box Set Static Age (1997) - album 12 Hits From Hell (2001) - album (promo only, unreleased) Discography ("Resurrected" Misfits) American Psycho (1997) - album Dig Up Her Bones (1997) - single Evillive II (1998) - live fan club album Famous Monsters (1999) - album Monster Mash (1999) - single Cuts From the Crypt (2001) - album Project 1950 (2003) - album Filmography The Misfits appeared as characters or in cameos in the following movies. * Animal Room (1995), as The Misfits * Bruiser (2000), uncredited * Big Money Hustlas (2000), as Misfits 1-4 (individually credited) * Campfire Stories (2001), as The Misfits

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