DETAILS, 6/96
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The Misfits were the great lost band of punk's first wave.  Inspired by what
they'd heard about punk rock instead of punk itself, they forged what they
thought it should be: brutal, hammer-down, superfast songs about ghouls.
Maybe four chords, solos composed entirely of half a note, skull-rattling
riffs played way too loud, whoa-oh-oh sing-along choruses, and almost every
song a pagan hymn filled with TV-brained paranoia and B-movie imagery.  They
prefigured the incendiary hardcore of Black Flag, the macabre schtick of
Metallica and White Zombie, and the camp-horror sensibility of Marilyn
Manson.  But even when they were singing about wanting to eat brains and
hang out at the devil's whorehouse, the Misfits meant every word.  They are
also the only reason anybody still cares about one of Beavis and Butt-head's
favorite poets: Before he became Danzig, Lord of Darkness, the Misfits'
singer was just Glenn Danzig, Jersey boy.  Danzig's ditties (sample title:
"I Turned Into A Martian") were punk in velocity yet pure pop in melody, and
his band hated everything mundane about both the suburbs and punk rock
itself.  But their oooh-scary theatrics were as punk as punk gets because it
was all about ignoring everyone else's standards, and their music still
sounds good today - because everyone needs a good scream now and then.
                                                                            
                                            - Pat Blashill