MOG

Devils Night (October 30th) was a really real event in my young life. Growing up down the road from Detroit you couldn’t escape it. On the news there was always images of the city burning, abandon buildings set alight as the Fire Department rushed from scene to scene. What wasn’t reported to all of us nice little kids was that The Misfits would play in the area every Devils Night, or so the legend says. Now if I really wanted to know the truth about that, I could simply pop on over to http://www.misfitscentral.com/ and find out all of that information. I don’t really care if it’s true or not, what I care about is the legend.

The Misfits, one of the greatest stories in American Punk, have traveled a truly strange road to fame. Once they were a band that was considered, even in punk circles, a dead act, they are now part of the mass culture, even if most people still don’t know their name. It’s the Crimson Ghost, their symbol that you can see anywhere in America, in almost any shopping mall, and I would guess anywhere that teenage kids hang out. They are the kings of horror punk, the most recognizable band of the genre. Their music was sped up 50’s Rock and Roll and their lyrics were about monsters, B Movies and the dark side of pop culture, most blasting out in under 2 and half minutes. There was always an element of mystery in the lyrics, which all sounded good, but many times didn’t spell out exactly what they meant. Their best record was Static Age, a album that was recorded in 1979 and released in its proper form in 1996. Their most important record, Walk Among Us, issued the blue print for not only horror punk, but also what American Hardcore punk was at that moment in time. It’s 24 minutes of fast, loud and out of control mania. You know what, I don’t really feel like I have said anything of value in this entry so far, so rather than bore you all with more, let me just say this, if you want to hear horror punk, if you want to hear real punk rock, just check out The Misfits Walk Among Us, and if you don’t hear what has touched so many of us…. Maybe you should go back to listening to whatever safe semi charmed disposable music you are wasting your time with… to the rest of you…. Just do me this one thing, give Hybrid Moments (and I don’t care who’s version you play) a spin, and pump you fist into the air sing along….

Now those of you that have been following this project might be a little surprised to see that I didn’t use my Halloween post to talk about The Misfits, and don’t worry I am not going to use it to talk about the Newfits, that’s because I thought that they deserved Devils Night, and because I wanted to take Halloween to talk about the best horror punk group of all time….. The Forbidden Dimension!