12.05.2004
the misfits' song "children in heat"
i haven't been too dilligent lately with the reading, writing or art-making. this is because of the shiny new machine i'm currently tapping away on... three or four days ago, my roommate charlie allowed me to download all of the music from his portable hard drive-- essentially his entire collection (plus about half of my own that he copied)-- and as a result i now have 7000 + songs stored on this computer, and am only beginning to gleefully sort through the beautiful chaos.
***
i discovered the misfits when i was 13/14 via their classic album walk among us. it had all the ingredients i wanted at the time: bouncing, adolescent energy... machismo... the suburban 8th grade equivalent of underground cred... devil iconography... and most importantly, a sharp and instinctive pop sense just sweet enough to ease my embrace of its punkier elements.
to be honest, i've always really been more of a pop guy than a punk guy-- all the punk i like tends to be either art-punk (e.g. the fall) or rough-around-the-edges pop (e.g. the buzzcocks). that said, i still hold true to a theory i whipped up during the hair-flopping era of my adolescence, which is that the misfits are about the best pop group i know.
that said, i was oddly unfamiliar with much beyond walk among us when i was younger. my friend chris had earth a.d. which was more hardcore and caveman-esque in its machismo. a real turn-off. so i guess i clung to walk out of fear and affection.
it wasn't really until college that i started to really explore the misfits like a collector (or whatever). and i found myself not only falling in love all over again with what i discovered, but falling in love the exact same way, and for the exact same reasons. like a wife given a diamond ring in a de beers commerical.
during that time, my roommate had a comp with the song "children in heat" on it, but i never copied it from him. i loved the song, but only heard it in passing, assuming--for the second time-- that i more or less had heard all of the misfits stuff worth hearing. and the stuff i didn't own i chalked up to alternate takes and those lackluster later songs like "wolfsblood" and shit. so, with only a few listens in me, "children in heat" eventually became the mystery misfits song. the one i had heard and loved but could hardly remember. i remembered the sing-along part where danzig shouts "no resistance!" but i couldn't remember the words. its hazy shadow lurked within me for years. but i was shit out of luck.
enter charlie's hard drive o' goodies... on which was collection 2, composed of mostly songs i already had. still i jumped from mystery title to mystery title, and lo and behold, i found my estranged track.
once again, i must stress that a kind of time-warp takes hold of me when i hear the misfits. they're the only band i can play on repeat (seriously--the only one! i hate songs on repeat!)... normally, when i hear a song i really like i kinda abstain from it; it takes on a "break in case of emergency" status following a few initial listens. there's nothing worse to me than wearing out something wonderful. but the really good misfits songs, songs like "hybrid moments" and "last caress" and "skulls" and "bullet," endure my listens like no other. they are a kind of "popeye spinach," but rather than giving me strength, they reduce me to a hormone-ridden, wide-eyed teenage wonder.
***
i discovered the misfits when i was 13/14 via their classic album walk among us. it had all the ingredients i wanted at the time: bouncing, adolescent energy... machismo... the suburban 8th grade equivalent of underground cred... devil iconography... and most importantly, a sharp and instinctive pop sense just sweet enough to ease my embrace of its punkier elements.
to be honest, i've always really been more of a pop guy than a punk guy-- all the punk i like tends to be either art-punk (e.g. the fall) or rough-around-the-edges pop (e.g. the buzzcocks). that said, i still hold true to a theory i whipped up during the hair-flopping era of my adolescence, which is that the misfits are about the best pop group i know.
that said, i was oddly unfamiliar with much beyond walk among us when i was younger. my friend chris had earth a.d. which was more hardcore and caveman-esque in its machismo. a real turn-off. so i guess i clung to walk out of fear and affection.
it wasn't really until college that i started to really explore the misfits like a collector (or whatever). and i found myself not only falling in love all over again with what i discovered, but falling in love the exact same way, and for the exact same reasons. like a wife given a diamond ring in a de beers commerical.
during that time, my roommate had a comp with the song "children in heat" on it, but i never copied it from him. i loved the song, but only heard it in passing, assuming--for the second time-- that i more or less had heard all of the misfits stuff worth hearing. and the stuff i didn't own i chalked up to alternate takes and those lackluster later songs like "wolfsblood" and shit. so, with only a few listens in me, "children in heat" eventually became the mystery misfits song. the one i had heard and loved but could hardly remember. i remembered the sing-along part where danzig shouts "no resistance!" but i couldn't remember the words. its hazy shadow lurked within me for years. but i was shit out of luck.
enter charlie's hard drive o' goodies... on which was collection 2, composed of mostly songs i already had. still i jumped from mystery title to mystery title, and lo and behold, i found my estranged track.
once again, i must stress that a kind of time-warp takes hold of me when i hear the misfits. they're the only band i can play on repeat (seriously--the only one! i hate songs on repeat!)... normally, when i hear a song i really like i kinda abstain from it; it takes on a "break in case of emergency" status following a few initial listens. there's nothing worse to me than wearing out something wonderful. but the really good misfits songs, songs like "hybrid moments" and "last caress" and "skulls" and "bullet," endure my listens like no other. they are a kind of "popeye spinach," but rather than giving me strength, they reduce me to a hormone-ridden, wide-eyed teenage wonder.
