STATIC AGE
More than just a t-shirt!
Aah, those t-shirts. The "Misfits" t-shirt is as omnipresent as a "Che" t-shirt and just as irritating. Walk down St. Marks Place in NYC and you're bound to cross an endless amounts of tourist catering storefronts loaded to the brim with ghoulish grins plastered on cheap cotton/polyester blend. For years I avoided The Misfits for this reason alone but then I listened to their albums and lo and behold... they also blew. To some extent this is a side effect of time. Like an observational Seinfeld oneliner, The Misfits brand of bare bones but melodic punk, spun off from the Ramones and the Damned, has been done over and over again by any kid with a guitar and half a brain. Think about your high school talent show. I'm sure there was a gang of zit faced tykes in black eyeliner, inappropriately sandwiched between a Phish cover band and a chick with a guitar, banging out two cord rockers about death and other subjects that teenagers know a lot about. Today the angst ridden youth of America can choose between the more aggressive sceamo or the more pleadingly melodic emo to Live Journal to, thus making The Misfits' brand of punk seem as old as their parents. And, in 2008, like any band that has lasted nearly two decades, The Misfits have gone through countless line up changes to the point where it's only Jerry Only and his flock of seagulls carrying the B-Movie banner. (For evidence of this Misfits check out "Campfire Stories", a particularly crappy EC Comicesque horror flick starring the NY Dolls' David Johanson and Jamie Lynn "Meadow Soprano" Sigler. http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0244452/)
Then there's Static Age and this is a different Misfits all together. Culled from multiple EPs and unreleased recordings, all of which was ultimately released in 1997, Jerry Only and company create seventeen tracks of slightly depraved, truly original punk. Part of punk's initial appeal was that bands as wildly different as Blondie and The Clash could exist under the same banner but retain their uniqueness. This concept faltered when bands simply tried to replicate their successful counterparts, eventually falling into the same trap as the mainstream white boys club, albeit with a better fashion sense. Although they certainly pull inspiration for their beats and melodies from The Ramones and lyrical themes from The Cramps the combination, sealed in vibrato by Grenn Danzig, is completely original. It is Danzig's matinee croon that removes any real danger from their songs but makes them all the more eerie and unsettling. The opening one-two punch of satirical rebel rousing in "Static Age" and "T.V. Casualty" hooks you in while the two best songs come up next, the stadium sing-a-long "Some Kinda Hate" and the oddly beautiful "Last Caress" which features some great lyrics about killing a couple of babies and raping a few mothers sung by a man who is probably a weird opera fan who strangles cats in his basement. Later there's "Teenagers from Mars" and the great triple headed beast of "Hollywood Babylon" (possibly a reference to gay occult film director Kenneth Anger's memoir), the spectacular "Attitude" which is both tough and tuneful, and the Jackie/JFK saga "Bullet" which claims 'Texas is the reason that the Presidents Dead'. From time to time, I find myself mumbling the words "We are 138" as I wander down the street, often forgetting where I even heard that phrase. "Come Back" while noticibly longer than the other tracks, bounces along with rockabilly beat that would make Poison Ivy wilt.
Despite its seventeen tracks, this LP is a brisk listen with Only's bass being particularly catchy. Even more than Dee Dee's playing, Only's bass carries the theme of each song and gives the listener something to hold on to. Franche Coma provides guitar bursts that sound somewhere between Johnny Ramone and Steve Jones, though they are more vibrant riffage laid down on a Sex Pistols track all the while Mr. Jim pounds the toms like Tommy Ramone on a caffeine bender. Bellowing over the bray, Grenn Danzig, whose solo work has easily eclipsed his former bands' late career, is the unsung mystery man behind this album. Is he dark and depraved or just a guy whose seen a lot of H.G. Lewis movies? Does he want to listen to records by the Stooges or sit around the piano singing old Irving Berling standards? (Intrigue is important in a front man) Danzig is the most successful when he grabs a shining bit of 50s/early 60s pop culture and paints it black but not before adding a little humor (missing far too much in the later punk scene) and showmanship. He's the Roger Corman of rock!
With Static Age, Danzig and his Misfits prove they had the ability to be true masters of the 1:30 song a gift which unfortunately escaped them in later years. Like the gore filled, schlocky horror films, surviving on low budgets and big tits, Static Age thrills, amuses and keeps you dancing on the graves of the uptight squares.
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