NEW MUSIC FRIDAY promises some scares and snares...
you in with some fantastic new musical treats ... and maybe a few tricks
CHARLOTTE CORNFIELD - Highs In The Minuses [LP/CD](Double Double Whammy/Redeye)
Left to her own thoughts during a more isolated year than usual, this Polaris-nominated Canadian singer/songwriter follows neatly in the lineage of Kathleen Edwards (the clever yet bittersweet lockdown single "Headlines" perfectly encapsulates that series of events,) Joni Mitchell (the piano ballad "Drunk For You" flows lyrically around her melody and wordplay) and Tamara Lindeman ("Partner In Crime" tells its own story and one in the subtext.) Cornfield has a wonderful laconic voice that really makes her words and touches of melody stand out. Like Big Thief or even Ada Lea, these songs crackle with a sense of time and place - but continue to transport you away as timeless music does.
ASHLEY SHADOW - Only The End [LP/CD](Felte)
Breakup records are tender beasts. "Only The End" hinges on Shadow's almost-too-sad-to-sing-this quaver ("From You.") Yet, it is not (necessarily) a sad album. She casts a spell over Bonnie Prince Billy in their duet "Don't Slow Me Down" where he sounds more subdued than you are used to hearing. "I Will Remember" is a Hendrix-ian Blues song at heart, but Shadow builds it into her own with her double-tracked voice and steady band. In the end, "Only The End" is a balm for any survivor of heartbreak and a promising second album from Shadow.
PARROTS - Dos [LP/CD](Heavenly)
Madrid's Parrots released a great bratty yet weirdly Poppy (think Jesus and Mary Chain) album in 2016. However, "Dos" bears only a slight resemblance to "Los Ninos Sin Miedo." Like comparing early Parquet Courts to where they are now, Parrots evolve into a similar stylistic and adventurous band. "It's Too Late To Go To Bed" is this album's "Let's Do It Again." Now they dance around to bubbling disco and funk, while Moroder-ian synths flash around them. "Lo Dejaria Todo" travels even further into the twinkling Seventies Pop with great doubled voices, falsetto, and a saxophone solo. When they finally return to their Punk-ish growl on the driving "You Work All Day and Then You Die," it sounds like a step forward from their debut. "Dos" is another in the continuing trend of sophomore albums that avoid the dreaded slump by completely obliterating what was in the past.
SHE/BEAST - Violent Tendencies [LP/CD](PNKSLM)
With her roller-rink organ, twangy guitars, and haunting voice, Katja Nielsen makes an album that flirts with danger. "Violent Tendencies" is a collection of mostly love songs - but those of the fatal kind. "Two Wives, One Axe" blends classic Girl Group music with a playfully grim narrative where Nielsen pleads "Candy? Was it worth it all?" When Nielsen takes on early 60's Doo-Wop textures, she drenches her voice in effects on "Stranger Danger" until the slapback echo swells around her whole notes. Finally, "Oh Savior!" is an impassioned song about true devotion that devolves into a genuinely creepy conversation at its conclusion. Just in time for All Hallow's Eve, She/Beast unveils her True Crime Rock N'Roll.
REVEREND BIZARRE - Teutonic Witch [12"](Svart UK)
Finland's Reverend Bizarre was a first-wave Doom band with a serious penchant for Sabbath-like jackhammer riffing and fantastic vocals from Albert Witchfinder. After their beginnings in the Nineties, Reverend Bizarre went on to make lengthy metal tomes that just draw you in and refuse to let go. The bass and guitar on "Teutonic Witch" are fiendishly loud. However, for a Doom band (especially in this period,) their long songs ("Teutonic Witch" runs for 16 minutes) have a fascinating way of evolving and revolving. Like Darkthrone today, this small group is most concentrated on making a huge sound. "Teutonic" was recorded close to their end in 2007 and even hit #1 on the charts in Finland (a testament to the country's legacy of Doom.) While it never feels as long as it is, the buzzing melodies do carry an implied finality.
RUYYN [LP](Les Acteurs de l'Ombre FRA)
Like their labelmates Aorlhac (Reviewed here 10.7.21, ) French Black Metallers RUYYN find an interesting halfway point on their creation. "I" builds up to its blistering peak, but not before you hear a little chime on the molten guitarwork and develop the melody into a head-spinning refrain. There is (as expected) a lot of drama in these tracks, but they shape their songs so that each thunderous double-kick blastbeat run still carries echoes of what came before. As they dig into the other roman-numeral labeled cuts, Ruyyn finds other scintillating moments like the siren guitar call on "II," the furious off-to-the-races opening of "III," and the sinister majesty of "IV."
A DEEP DIVE INTO THE DANZIG-ERA INCARNATION OF THE MISFITS
There are two questions to answer when examining the early output of Glenn Danzig and his seminal punk band The Misfits. First, how did a crew of musclehead guys from Jersey wind up missing out on getting noticed during the heyday of Punk? Second, how did their love of Horror and brutal riffing lead to a legacy that continues today?
When Danzig, Jerry Caiafa, and Manny Martinez started the band in 1977, they did not even have a guitarist. So, when you listen to their first single ever "Cough/Cool" - it sounds more like the missing link between the minimalism of Suicide and the upcoming vision of New Wave. Cut on their own label Blank Records, after its release the band found their guitarist in Frank Licata and began to pursue a more bracing style of Punk Rock.
With Danzig as a frontman, The Misfits shaped their songs into short, concise Ramones-esque assailing of modern culture through the lens of 50's Horror. "Some Kinda Hate" while lyrically strange (There's some kinda love/There's some kinda hate/The maggots in the eye of love/won't copulate) it introduces Danzig's croon over an almost girl-group-esque track. Elsewhere, when Danzig shrieks about "Teenagers From Mars," you quickly realize, he could just as easily be singing about "teenagers in love."
Good fortune (of a different blend) shined on the young Misfits. Mercury Records was developing their cutting-edge signings for a new sub-label known as Blank (Pere Ubu was their major signing and it was run by Cliff Burnstein who would soon become manager of Metallica - and start the conglomerate Q Prime.) "Cough/Cool" was put out on Danzig's homemade Blank Records a year earlier. In 1978, Mercury offered The Misfits 30 hours of recording time in exchange for the label moniker. For the next two months, the band tracked 17 songs at C.I. Studios in New York for their first album "Static Age."
After shopping it around to all the labels, no one took an interest. Not Chrysalis. Not even Sire - who had cornered the market on Punk Rock since signing The Ramones years before. So they thought since Punk was essentially a singles market, they would take the best tracks and make a 7" for their newly christened label - Plan 9.
So in June 1978, they released the abrasive but searing single "Bullet." "Bullet," the anthemic "We Are 138," "Attitude" and "Hollywood Babylon" While Danzig will only say that "138" references "violence" (a common thread in many Misfits cuts,) it like the other songs is open to interpretation. These shards of Punk Rock were likely more empowering to the lucky few who heard it. Fiercely independent in 1978, The Misfits were dealing in shock - but ahead of the pack.
"Static Age" would not see the light of day until 1996. Its fourteen songs best encapsulate the early Misfits. All raw power and brute force with simple, straightforward lyrics that like Science Fiction uses aliens and monsters are mirror images to the general inhabitants of this world. The wild "Last Caress" was almost outdone by "Hybrid Moments." Each track is like a missile where its use of profanity (not as common then as now) and disturbing imagery is out to obliterate the one before it. "Static Age" takes the Ramones' flirtations with nihilism and races away with them.
With their live shows catching fire because of their battering ram-like performances led by Danzig's versatile sneer, shriek, wail, and croon, The Misfits were in demand in 1979. In June, they went back to C.I. Studios in New York to record "Horror Business." Having gelled as a live band, these songs (especially the title cut) took shape in the studio. "Who Killed Marilyn?" was recorded at the same sessions for the inclusion on a special 4-song 12" single - those plans were abandoned.
Now established in the New York clubs (and banned from Max's Kansas City for an incident involving guitarist Bobby Steele,) The Misfits hit the road. A promising slot opening for Devo saw the band drive 10 hours from New Jersey to Toronto only to discover the show was canceled. The road woes brought on personnel changes. However, by the end of 1979, their newest incarnation would become Danzig's favorite. The success of their Halloween 1979 single "Night of The Living Dead" even earned them a gig opening for The Damned.
The Damned show drew interest from the band who invited The Misfits to England for six shows. Unfortunately, when they arrived, they discovered they were not the openers and would have to play without pay. A fight with some skinheads at the Rainbow Theatre in London landed Steele and Danzig in the cooler for a couple of days. When the band returned home, they immediately went to work on the "Beware" EP as their first statement of the Eighties.
While six of the songs on "Beware" had been previously released, it was significant for the addition of the "Static Age"-era cut "Last Caress." Most importantly, "Beware" would become their first release in the UK. This new visibility put the band back on the road where their retooled look of vampires with dark zombie-like circles around the eyes would become iconic. With the addition of the "Crimson Ghost" to their merchandise (which was growing more successful as well,) The Misfits were spreading into cities and towns without even playing there. Using false stories on press releases and drumming up controversy even got them on TV in New Jersey for Halloween 1980. Their newest recordings (13 tracks) would be trimmed down to "3 Hits From Hell" and released in 1981 on 7" single.
"London Dungeon," written in a cell on those nights in jail in Brixton in 1979 would make a grand statement with Danzig crooning above tribal drumming, thrilling guitars, and a chorus of haunted voices. October 1981 saw their seminal single "Halloween" be released to rapturous fans who had grown into their driving "Horror Punk" and deceptively clever lyrics ("Brown leafed vertigo/Where skeletal life is grown" and then the classic ghoulish refrain "I remember Halloween") The Eighties saw The Misfits tour with other up-and-coming American punkers who were quickly creating Hardcore.
An early supporter of The Misfits was the magazine, Slash. When Bob Biggs started the Slash label and its sub-label Ruby in the Eighties, Ruby's founder Chris D. of the Flesh Eaters produced The Misfits first full-length album "Walk Among Us." Having translated all of their Punk energy into a darker, more dramatic entity, "Walk Among Us" was released in 1982 to critical acclaim. It was even one of the three Ruby releases that Warner Bros. picked up for distribution (the others being: The Gun Club's "Fire of Love" and The Dream Syndicate's "The Days of Wine and Roses.")
"Walk Among Us" is strangely mature. With Punk Rock regaining its power as Hardcore, there was room for other acts to branch out. While most of "Walk Among Us" punches hard (the first three build-up to the near HC swirl of "All Hell Breaks Loose,") later in the album they squeeze in a live cut, "Night of the Living Dead" and the anthemic "Skulls" whose melodic chorus stood out from the whole catalog.
The shows in 1982 were bigger but brought more chaos. Larger shows translated into shyster promoters making all the money. Selling 20,000 records in England also turned out to be less lucrative. Frustration even surfaced over Glenn Danzig's 1981 solo single "Who Killed Marilyn?" recorded while the other Misfits were partying and drinking.
Finally, the "Evillive" tour EP recorded in late 1981 showed the tension taking its toll on the band. Still, the Misfits, once outcasts themselves, were finding similar personalities on the road throughout an America that had grown more conservative and was still trying to shake economic and political pressures. After playing the "Everything Went Black" show with their longtime friends Black Flag in front of their biggest crowd ever of 3000 screaming fans, Danzig confided in Henry Rollins that he would be leaving the band.
Their Halloween performance on October 29, 1983, at Greystone Hall in Detroit would erupt onstage with a drunken Brian Damage being removed by Doyle Wolfgang Von Frankenstein. Four songs into the set, Danzig would announce "this is our last show - ever."
The album they had just completed "Earth A.D./Wolfs Blood" would be their epitaph and even feature a pair of cuts that were written with Danzig's new Metal project Samhain in mind. With new thrashing songs like "Green Hell" (later to be covered by Metallica,) "Earth A.D." was a push in a new direction.
The final single "Die Die My Darling," recorded during the "Walk Among Us" would be their last release. With its slashing guitars, pounding drums, and Danzig in peak howl - it would secure the legacy of The Misfits. Over the next few years, their songs would still garner play on adventurous College Radio stations. Bands like Metallica and even Guns N'Roses would cover their songs in both admiration and as a means to harness their energy. Their influence would cross genres even with Green Day, My Morning Jacket, and Superchunk performing their choice cuts.
However, their true legacy can be seen on the late-night highways. When you see a simple, white Ford Econoline cruising by you, that is yet another band who made their own records all in the hope of finding an audience that understands them more than the folks back home
Well, another week, another list of several different styles and pursuits in music for you. Enjoy. Listen again. Share as you wish.
NEW RELEASES lovingly compiled for you from this very week!
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