For some reason, white people love Halloween. They start chattering about their elaborate plans for costumes and themed parties around August of every year, getting themselves worked up like little kids on Christmas Eve. Except they are like 28 with kids and some halfway-respectable office job. Anyway, it’s not that I hate Halloween or anything, I just don’t get why whites always have to make things into a big deal (see also the recent white person trend of ‘bloggable weddings‘). For whatever reason they seem to be really into things that give them an excuse to dress up in gimmicky costumes, regardless of whether the thing itself is inherently interesting.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5Fl3S74AqqU
True fact: this song is fucking unbearable, and if it wasn’t called “Halloween” nobody would ever listen to it twice
For example, dinosaur punk band THE MISFITS. Don’t get me wrong, I like them just fine and I loved them when I was 14 just like everyone else, I’m just saying that in the grand scheme of things they get a lot more dap than they probably should. The truth is that for every good song in their catalog there are like 10 stinkers, not to mention the fact that there are like 5 versions of every song, most of which are either horrible demos or live recordings, so it’s a huge pain in the ass to find the tolerable versions of what good songs they do have. I’m not even going to get into the post-Danzig stuff, that speaks for itself in terms of how shockingly awful it is, although it’s extra-hilarious that apparently there are people who like it?!
I kind of wanted all their songs to sound like “Mommy Can I Go Out And Kill Tonight?” Also, thinking about it now that song title is fucking gay as hell…
The other thing that kind of sucks about the Misfits is their fans. I’m going to lump them in with fans of Social Distortion and Dropkick Murphys under the heading of “bands who are popular with girls who do rollerderby, are into old cars, have fat arms and a bald, chubby boyfriend with a rockabilly haircut.” They also attract a lot of record collector types, who are basically the worst people on earth.
Speaking of terribly overrated bands, we can probably blame Metallica’s cover of this stupid song for a big part of the Misfits popularity with retarded, white trash teenagers. To be fair, it IS better than the original though.
Given how much white people love gimmicks, I’m pretty sure that the main reason the Misfits are so popular is because they have a sweet logo, cool cover art (“Earth AD” has the dopest cover ever) and they wear dumb costumes. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not saying the Misfits suck or anything. They’re definitely good, I’m just saying that I can’t think of a bigger disparity between the actual quality of a band’s music and the size of their fanbase over such a long period.
Mad Marc Rude going hard as fuck– one of the best covers of all time, hands down!
Imagine if Bring Me The Horizon were popular for another 25 years– you’d be like “Really??! I mean, they’re not bad… but really???” That’s pretty much how I feel about Misfits. Much like BMTH has decent music, but their appeal clearly is based on the fact that little girls want to bang Oli, it’s obvious to me that the Misfits are popular mostly because chubby white people love Halloween and horror movies.
Are the Misfits overrated as fuck?? Are they the John Waters of punk? Do you know anyone who actually likes the post-Danzig shit? What’s wrong with Dropkick Murphys and Social Distortion fans? Why are they all so fat and old???? Why do whites love Halloween so much?
The misfits were on of my favs when I was thirteen to fiftern along with afi him ramones and greenday. They are fitting for that age I guess kinda lose thier luster tho after a while. Good to listen to when drunk tho.
The Rolling Stones are way more overrated.
Touche. Also the beatles and led zepplin, but i meant bands from the last 25 years!
8/10 would rage again
+1.
The Rolling Stones have four great albums – five if you create your own “Best Of ” comp. Considering the amount of material they’ve put out that’s about 30% success rate.
The Beatles pre-”Sergeant Pepper’s” material was the Disney pop of it’s time so I can see how it might be dismissed as being beneath your average metal/punk/indie nerd. Their later material was more experimental (ala Isis or Design The Skyline) and may be more appealing to the aforementioned demographics.
Led Zeppelin sure could fuck girls with fishes.
Agreed. Zeppelin sucks balls and the Stones were mediocre at best.
Beatles are overrated, too, but they’ll always have a place in my heart because I am a faggot.
I could be completely wrong but i feel like they were all pioneers….. including the Misfits….. they all helped shape a certain sound…. i used to hate the rolling stones (still not the biggest fan) and led zep (who now i love and actually think they have talent) but after realizing what exactally they did for the music industry as a whole I started to appprciate their catalogs more and more….. isn’t the influence / legacy what makes these bands so great?
Honestly, I’m a huge HUGE classic rock nerd. I own tons of Beatles, Stones, Who, Zeppelin, Humble Pie, Grateful Dead, etc, etc (and, for the record, “Static Age” and “Earth A.D.”) I think the thing is it never hurts to be able to laugh at the music you love (or make for that matter) and realise that not everyone will find it as enjoyable or meaningful as you do. To say, “Fuck, Morrissey is a complete joke but I still love There Is A Light That Never Goes Out.” Or to wonder why one would own more than one Bluetones album when they were third string Brit Pop at best (they still slay Oasis by the way – who actually are the definition of the most over-rated band of all time.)
Anyway, this blog has been of great use to me as far as being able to laugh at myself and realise that getting all riled up on the internet is about the least useful thing imaginable.
Anyway, this blog has been of great use to me as far as being able to laugh at myself and realise that getting all riled up on the internet is about the least useful thing imaginable.
I think you ‘got it’!!
I’ve always thought The Misfits sucked ass. Whenever it came on my girlfriends iPod, I was like, “what is this shit? Turn it back to Danzig plz”
I blame Obey for ripping off their graphics and perpetuating Misfit bullshit into the 2000′s.
You know that Glenn Danzig founded the misfits and appears on the first three albums right?
I’m gonna stick to my guns and say that Nirvana is the most overrated band of all time.
All the most overrated bands of all time are punk bands, mostly because they lack much musical talent are inherently based on image, but misifts have done more to justify their status than the sex pistols or the clash.
I love both Social D [i]and[/i] Sergeant D.
Also, the best Misfits album is the tribute record with NOFX covering Last Caress.
The NOFX cover of ‘Last Caress’ is solid.
Although I heard the first version of The Misfits first, it was “American Psycho” that turned me into a literal card-carrying member of the Fiend Club when I was 13. The thing is, while I’d never argue that the new Misfits was better than the old Misfits these days, the new version was basically a super exaggerated, better recorded version of the old band. As a teenager who was super stoked on this “crazy” band that sang about monsters and stuff, it was much easier to get pumped to that album, with its ultra obvious horror and sci-fi themes and louder sound, rather than relatively poorly recorded tunes about Patty Hearst and JFK.
These days, they are basically the KISS of punk, except with less original members and even lamer/hilarious merchandising (at its worst).
“The KISS of punk” actually… wow that’s pretty much perfectly accurate. Boring old band has a shitload of weird fans for no real discernible reason, had some good jams in their time, but now they write horrible shit and sell far more merch than records.
^ this
I really like the Misfits. Not the non-danzig stuff. I’m still a fan. I do think they are pretty overrated though.
I thought this site liked poppy punk and fun? Fun poppy punk doesn’t get much better than “Walk Among Us” imo (not to disrespect NOFX and the Ramones of course)
The Sarge is a founding member of the no fun club.
Without the Misfits, there wouldn’t have been that awesome trend several years ago of hoodrats wearing Misfits gear. Nothing like a rhinestone-studded Walk Among US shirt.
So… there’s that.
Great article apart from the “bald, chubby boyfriend with a rockabilly haircut”, kinda contradicted yourself. Hit the nail on the head though, they really didnt record enough great songs to be remembered this long.
oh like if someone is bald, he doesn’t have a rockabilly haircut (or any haircut at all)? yes, you are correct- I was drunk when i wrote this, sorry. and i’m drunk now :(
at 2:24 in the afternoon?!
Possibly, but i think i was in hong kong when i wrote that, which would make it 1:24am over there
you got it all wrong about the new stuff.
i would say the most overrated band from the last 25 years are The Smiths
hard to argue w/ this
Smiths fans = beta faggots.
It’s the fans. It’s just like one thing to listen to the Misfits in your car or have an old Fiend Club t-shirt but all that other stuff adds up until you suck. Like, old cars are ok, but the rockabilly-fat arms lifestyle brand is so depressing.
the dropkick murphys arent bad, in fact they’re good, theyre like if death before dishonor played folk in fact the video for shipping up to boston looks like it was filmed in the same places as “break through it all” dropkick murphys fans however are a different story wht annoys me most about people who like them (and flogging molly) is that they all leave comments on their video’s on jewtube along the lines of “this song makes me want to get super drunk off guiness and party all night long” with 200 thumbs up further annoying me. nothing says im an irish descendednt than brand loyalty to guiness……while of course forgetting that “prtying all night long” on guiness alone is hard to do without feeling really full and bloated. this shit doesnt pass in the UK anyway because if you tell someone you are irish here people just go “oh ok” instead of making a big deal about it.
where was i
PEOPLE ARE INTO BANDS LIKE THIS BECAUSE THEY DERIVE THEIR IDENTITY FROM THEM. weither its being psychobilly pretend auto mechanic enthusiast with tattoos of zombies and nuts and bolts, or because theyre a “hard nosed working class, oldfag oi punk of irish/scottish/no one in the british isles cares ancestry who has the biggest idealised view of people from ireland ever.
Al Barr was featured on Real Recognizes Real, Sarge can’t even hate.
“theyre like if death before dishonor played folk”
fuking groce, brah
lol @ sarge: The Misfits are relatively ignored in comparison to The Ramones. So many better first wave punk bands but at least The Misfits had some cool songs.
PS. Hot scene girls wear Misfits shirts even though they have never listened to a Misfits song! That makes them ten times better than most bands that are loved by the no fun club.
^ true fact
A good band logo will take you places.
+1 most people dont know what the logo is for but rep it anyway
one of my sister’s friends is fat, white, and has a bunch of tacky halloween stuff tattooed ALL over her body (stuff from “nightmare before christmas”, etc). favorite band: misfits. i actually do like the misfits, but i do think they tend to be overrated as well.
what you said about “bloggable weddings” – so true. i swear every single white person that i know who gets married sends me some bullshit fridge magnet save-the-date with a URL stamped on it as if anyone aside from their parents and jealous bridesmaids gives a fuck. http://davidandbritneysspecialweddingadventure.blogspot.com or some such.
I clicked this and was very disappointed that it wasn’t a real site.
Never liked the Misfits. The only people I ever knew who liked them were socially awkward kids in middle/high school who also dug the shit out of A Nightmare Before Christmas and had been wearing the same tripp pants for 3 or 4 years. At least they were the ones who bought the skull shirts from hot topic. Not bad folk, just not people I’d be simpatico with.
Also, this bothered me alot:
“…a bald, chubby boyfriend with a rockabilly haircut…”
Just sayin’.
pretty good punk band for the time period. better than what the UK had to offer at least….
worst fans ever.
the misfits belong in the tshirt band hall of fame along with slayer and black flag. i like all those bands, but i think a lot of ppl get into them just so they can wear their sweet tshirt.
Here in Dallas you can add Pantera.
For some reason after school of rock JCPenny, Macy’s, et. al starting stocking dadrock merch that every fgt started buying. If you rep AC/DC on a shirt and you’re not 40 and wearing dirty white tennis shoes, you’re a piece of shit. I’m worried this shit is going to happen with Slayer/Black Flag in 10 years.
White people like Halloween because Halloween is a polite way of saying “Dress Like A Whore Day”.
I am 100% in favour of “Dress like a Whore Day”. Then again, I’m 20, so that kind of stuff still flies.
sarge! why didn’t you point out the line up changes? is not like people take the current line up serious. also lol michale graves
“I’m not even going to get into the post-Danzig stuff, that speaks for itself in terms of how shockingly awful it is, although it’s extra-hilarious that apparently there are people who like it?!”
A friend once told me that anytime you see somebody wearing Misfits apparel at a concert, it’s gonna be a great show. Turns out that was pretty spot on. Just thought I’d throw that out there.
P.S. I wonder if there’s anybody out there who has the lyric “I ain’t no goddamn son of a bitch” tattooed on their arm
I don’t get the merch-concert connection…?
Maybe it’s just the East Coast, but in the ’80s the Misfits were part of the big 3 entry level punk/hxc bands – Minor Threat/Black Flag/Misfits. I not only love the band but I also really admire them (only talking Danzig era here) – I don’t know a terrible amount about the history of the band, but I still really dig the tunes. Think Earth AD is a pretty damn good thrash album. BUT – I DO NOT understand their remaining popularity…
Danzig was a great songwriter – he popularized ’50s b-movies into punk songs! His inaudible singing style and his marketing were pure genius, along with his graphic design. Just stunning stuff for the era… however totally agree about their fans. This article – A+!
backed
Some of their stuff is really good, I like the Static Age recordings they put out in the 90s. It has good sound quality and every song is catchy as fuck. Earth A.D was heavy as shit at the time it came out and it still stands on its own today.
God, I remember when I was really into Metallica circa ages 9-12, I knew they were super into The Misfits so I bought Walk Among Us on tape. There really aren’t words to convey how PROFOUNDLY DISAPPOINTED I was in every possible way.
Shortly thereafter, I got really into Biohazard. You need a post about that train wreck of a band!
metal inquisition
what i find funny about this band is that, despite being obviously entry level stuff mostly for awkward teenage girls, all ‘true’ metalheads around here praise them. it’s the horror imagery i guess and, did the misfits invent corpsepaint?
oh, and i kinda dig some songs from the michael graves-era.
They really only got ‘mainstream’ attention when ‘classic era’ Metallica covered them (Burton was into them I believe) – this accounts for the metalhead worship IMO. Without that, I think they would be as popular as say Minor Threat/Black Flag are – popular within the genre, but pretty much unheard of outside of it.
Also, I think the record collecting took off after Metallica as well – I remember seeing Misfits record relatively cheap in the mid/late 80s. Also – it was hard to put together any kind of ‘discography’ of them back then – Danzig let things run out of print – the popularity led to bootlegging and rise in record prices.
Danzig once went into Reptilian Records in Baltimore and threaten the owner and took all of the danzig related stuff they had and left. They were selling bootlegs of his various acts.
i didn’t read any of the other comments, but I LOVE old AND NEW misfits. two sides of the same coin.
I honestly cant think of any demographics outside of greasy teenagers and rockabilly dorks who listen to this band.
I feel sorry for rockabilly. There are no people who listen to rockabilly who are not total screw ups; its like pop punk for 27-32 year olds who got knocked up in school/fucked up and got convicted young and ruined their chances of getting a real job
love the comparison between misfits and their fans being into halloween, and bmth and their fans being into oli’s hair.
also i completely agree that misfits are overrated.
Great article! I always thought Last Caress was the shit, and still do. But they don’t have much more than that.
All of their material is a guilty pleasure of mine. It’s just catchy shit. I’m not a fiend club member or any of that bullshit and I’ve never owned a piece of Misfits merchandise. I will however download and listen to the new album on my mp3 player for a while before deleting it.
“not to mention the fact that there are like 5 versions of every song, most of which are either horrible demos or live recordings, so it’s a huge pain in the ass to find the tolerable versions of what good songs they do have.”
This is so true. Their collections and albums overlap and who wants to buy the same song twice?
Not gonna lie I love Halloween. Basically there are two days a year when olds like me can party like I’m still in college. New years and Halloween. Feels bad man.
I was feelin this till you had to bring John Waters into it.
clarification: i LOVE John Waters! I’m just saying, the level of camp/shtick is similar
fair enough!
also definitely agree with your thoughts on earth ad.
Amazing no one commented on the Marc Rude’s Earth AD cover – Sarge’s opinion is BACKED HARD. Easily one of the best punk covers ever. Also, they were a pretty early user of Pushead’s artwork…
I love the Misfits and I even like the Graves-era stuff.
Its easy to rip on their fans but you can pick apart the fans for any major underground band.
I like “I Want Your Skull” and “Astro Zombies”.
The real issue here is how gross and pathetic aging Social D fans are. The worst is when they dress their kids like little Social D fans right out of the womb.
Way to set up your kids up for failure, failures.
hahahahahahahaha! +10000000000000
The worst is when they dress their kids like little Social D fans right out of the womb.
Holy fuck THIS!! Seeing 6 year olds with mohawks is so rage-inducing!
Great article, is that Robo and Dez in the pic?
Being overrated should be a goal for anyone wanting to make a career out of music. It is too difficult to just be about writing, recording, and touring new material. The way to succeed is an iconic design that bears repetition, not just in audio, but a look and a crowd of adherents. When your whole deal is horror movies, the songs write themselves, but there are reasons besides music that everyone wears Misfits shirts and not White Zombie shirts. Start with how the Caifa bros put little Danzig on an exercise and diet program, not a cult initiation.
Good points!
I like post Danzig Misfits.
Aint gonna lie, American Psycho is in my top 10 albums ever. Just sayin’.
Who’s worse: people who think the misfits are the greatest punk band, or people who claim the clash is the greatest punk band?
New Misfits album drops next week…
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Devil%27s_Rain_%28album%29
It’s awful. not surprisingly.
At least it has good cover art.
Honestly never listened to the Misfits, though I love Danzig. Should I even bother with them?
yes.
Meh, I don’t like punk in general, be it the original old school punk bands, modern tr00 punk, pop punk, tr00 pop punk, or any variant of hardcore, but I quite like The Misfits.
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I have two words for anyone who thinks Misfits are the most over-rated band of the last 25 years:
Sonic. Youth.
lol wat. dude have you not seen sonic youth play they are crazy talented.
Misfits are underrated if anything.
Anybody can play this game, tell me your favorite band and I’ll just post a blog and say the same thing “they suck, they’re overrated, this title sounds gay” and I’m sure a whole bunch of people will come go on there and agree.
“I just don’t get why whites always have to make things into a big deal”
lols were had….. Why do u even run this website then? Why make other peoples style “a big deal”
Shit, this is the type of stuff my parents taught me to keep my mouth shut about. Only a fool would run around and rant about it all day.. It turns you into a bitter person in the long run. And I don’t doubt for a second that you are a HORRIBLY annoying person to be around irl. Just sayin.
Dumb people will get upset by ur posts, whilst intellectuals just look down on you and suspect that you might have been raised in an unstable environment, most likely by alcoholic parents.
But thats a win/win for u innit?
u seem very mature… i think older guys are sexy, mb we can meet irl sometime??
I didn’t know if you have ever stopped to pull your head out your ass and look around but music taste differs from person to person. I found it funny how you think your opinion is exactly how it is. Personally I like pretty much all the Misfits songs and have done for well over a decade. Good for you if you think they’re over rated but that doesn’t make it true because you said so. Also I find it funny how you lumped all their fans into some stupid stereotype. I dress like a normal guy and certainly don’t have a “rockabilly haircut”. Copying how a band or genre of music dresses is for little kids, which you probably are. Who cares if the Misfits have a popular following? I bet you’re some loser hipster who only listens to music if it’s “underground”, get a life, no one cares. If you don’t like them then don’t listen to them.
Do you know what’s truly over rated? Your shitty website. You cant even size your youtube videos and they overlap your sidebar. But hey maybe website deign taste differs from person to person too. Maybe some people like badly coded websites by a noob who cant even remove “Proudly powered by WordPress.” from his footer.
I think whitey likes halloween so much because they don’t have gang initiations and muggings all night like us brown folks.
I know this post is nearly a year old, but I can’t help myself.
First off, no one with any grasp of reality claims the Misfits were skilled musically, they weren’t, just like all the other late 70′s hardcore bands (with the exception of Bad Brains). That is exactly why Danzig left.
Another thing to understand is that this was the late 70′s, early 80′s. It was very original. This is why your Bring Me The Horizon comparison is completely moot: The Misfits were leaders, BMTH are followers.
There were a ton of bands in the late 70′s hardcore wave, but the only ones that most people still remember are the few that really stood out, like The Misfits (looked spooky), Bad Brains (black), Minor Threat (started straight edge) and Black Flag (were black flag, contributed to sludge). Most of the other bands, you couldn’t tell apart
If the Misfits, as they were originally, just came out, they would get no attention, same goes for most bands/musicians from another time who people hold in great regard.
You posted a picture of the new Danzigless “Misfits”. Most people who are fans of the original Misfits, do not recognize them as the Misfits.
You said the word “dap”,you’re argument is invalid.
I think author is just a little butt-hurt that ast some point in the 80′s, the Misfits sodomized his family.
the Misfits are the most incredible band i have ever had the pleasure of hearing. They hve inspired me and countless other kick ass bands. If Doyle Wolfgang Von Frankenstein saw this he would rip your spine out your ass and whip a bitch. They would rip your skull out of your chest like jack nicolsen going through a bathroom door. like “heres johnny”. they would take over our world like a damn alien race and people like you would be first to be enslaved. Horror is a prominent part of our society and the fact they were clever and artistic enough to bring this into music shows true talent. being a musician myself i can say that despite how punk they are at times they are always in time, they are lyrically talented(every generation), and most definately musically inclined. I hope judgemental assholes that think otherwise get whipped in the face with a devilock!
Sorry I couldn’t understand you, try taking all the dicks out of your mouth first
they suck. end of story. i listened to their songs. terrible and i dont give a fuck how original it was. the worlds first recorded new punk shit sounding three chord mash still sounds like garage shit no matter how original it is.
Several points to make here:
1. I am a “record collector type.” Not because I’m a pretentious asshole; I’m just fond of older things. I find them interesting; plus, I’m a fan of cover art.
2. I love the Misfits. I am 19 and I still like them. I find them to be entertaining and rather fun. Shoot me.
3. You’re only going to get yourself bitten in the ass when you rail against other peoples’ tastes. Nobody cares. You’re making yourself look everybit as idiotic as the “record collector types” that are OH-SO vile.
4. Halloween is enjoyable fun. And yes, we adults are allowed to have fun and be/look stupid now and again, what of it?
5. This article sucks. Goodbye.
And for the record, the post-Danzig stuff DOES suck. No denying that.
I’m a casual fan of the Misfits. Their catalogue is pretty uneven and their music is nothing special but I think it’s enjoyable for an occasional listen. In fact, I think the Danzig era stuff is more or less on par with the post-Danzig stuff. Static Age was the best, Walk Among Us was good, and Earth AD wasn’t really my thing. The rest of their albums are basically generic punk music with better than average vocals for the genre. Nothing groundbreaking but certainly not awful.
I think you kids are just to young to get it.
The misfits rock,your just a dumb nigger that know one gives two shits about,go back to Compton you stupid nig