Outside Looking In With The Misfits

June 4, 1999

Outside Looking In With The Misfits
By: Larry Queen


Despite claims otherwise, 1977 was really "the year punk broke." No doubt Sonic Youth's mid-'90s film, The Year Punk Broke, showcased the explosion of the underground quasi-punk scene that, in 1991, swept millions of "disaffected" youth into the milky white crest of the Teen Spirit wave, but punk rock had started raging nearly 20 years beforehand.

The Sex Pistols debut, Never Mind the Bullocks deconstructed the mainstream rock'n'roll value system and rebuilt it on a foundation of abandon by British youth. It was a time when unemployment was at an all-time high in England and riots loomed at every turn. The Sex Pistols personified the frustration and unbridled anger welling within the consciousness of that nation's youth.

Meanwhile, American bands like MC5, Television, Stooges, The Ramones, among others had been setting the pace for what would eventually be coined "punk rock" by a pill-popping, alcoholic rock critic from New York named Lester Bangs - a rare genius.

Out of this early New York scene came the Lodi, New Jersey-based metal/punk band the Misfits. Their penchant for twisted tales inspired by B-movie horror flick and an all-out love affair for the macabre eventually swept through the pubescent minefield of teenage male America. The garishness of everything they represented was familiar territory for their fans - superheroes of sorts. They were also nearly the same age as their fans.

In 1977, Misfits' guitarist Doyle Wolfgang Von Frankenstein was still in grammar school, but he already had a career path well laid before him.

"Doyle couldn't play with us in the beginning," says bassist Jerry Only of his younger brother, "because he was only 12, and he was in the sixth grade. Mom obviously wouldn't let him go out on the road. So, when he graduated from grammar school that summer we went on tour." Only is just five years older than his brother, which would have put him at the ripe age of 17 at the time.

Founding members Only and Glenn Danzig had a falling out, which let to the 1983 break-up of the band after the release of just one LP, 1982's Walk Among Us. Thirteen years would lapse before the group would reunite, but this time without singer Danzig.

"There was the issue of a lot of money going down, and nobody was seeing it except for Glenn, and there was the issue of Glenn designing all of the artwork and he was the only person that you saw when you was the Misfits name. He was pretty much brainwashing everyone that he was the Misfits. We had done 35 or 36 songs since he left, and I think this material is much better than the older stuff anyway. People think that this great, wonderful thing occurred in the late '70s. It's like the mystique of the '60s. If you were there you were like, 'This sucks,' and you'd say the same thing about the '70s. I think that the '90s have been much kinder to us, and we've been able to do better work in the '90s. I'm happy. I'm happy with the fan reaction."
Although things remain strained between Only and Danzig (they still aren't speaking), there appears to be a lifting of the veil of sorts, without much love lost.

"He's starting to talk about the band," says Only of his former bandmate. "So, I'm obviously doing something right. I don't want to say anything about what he's doing, because I never got what he was doing, and I still don't. If it's over my head, then it's over my head (Laughs). But I don't get it. It's fine, he can do whatever he wants. I think that we had the best idea ever, and I said that from day one. If he wants to agree with me 20 years later, fine.

"His is a completely different angle than ours. If you look at the album covers you'll see that ours is called Famous Monsters, and there are no parental advisory stickers on the front. We have a toy line out there, and Toys R' Us wants to deal with us.

"See, with Glenn, he had his comic book company that was kind of perverted, and then he had his albums that were demonic, with album titles like Satan's Child. Who wants to deal with that?! Nobody! It's just a load of shit. And that's the problem: it's just a load of bullshit. I wish him luck."

After a brief dalliance with Geffen Records, for whom they released 1997's American Psycho, the band parted with the label in search of more support. With the release of the new Famous Monsters CD on Roadrunner Records the band has embarked on the most high profile promotion campaign to date.

At the moment they are on tour with, of all things, the World Championship Wrestling (WCW) Tour.

"We'll actually be playing gigs right alongside those matches as well a wrestling," says Only.

Wrestling?

"Yeah, we have been. I'm signed up for like, a year," he says. "I've been in the cage with Dr. Death."

But do they feel they are in danger of becoming too cartoonish?

"No. I've got a few years left," says Only. "There will come a point in the road where . . . my dad is sick, and we run a family business here where we run a machine shop. We make our own guitars, drums, and all that kind of stuff. When I figure what I make with the band and out there wrestling, and I probably make more money hanging here with the family running the business. That's not saying that that won't change. If the wrestling thing goes well we might sign one of them big contracts, and if the music thing takes off we may get that gold record that's going to launch our career and be the next Metallica. I try to entertain these thoughts as long as I can, but I try to be as realistic as I can."

For a band that has wielded such far-reaching influence over bands as varied as Green Day, NOFX, and Metallica (who cover "Die Die My Darling" and do a "Green Hell/Last Caress" medley on their Garage, Inc. album), the Misfits deserve to finally "walk among us" as giants in the pantheon of punk rock.

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