Halloween Countdown: October 1 – Don’t go in the bathroom

It’s October 1st, bats and ghouls, and you know what that means…

…it’s time to kick off our fourth annual Halloween Countdown!

Are you prepared for the parade of fiendish delights unleashed from the darkest depths of the Armagideon Time archives? (I hope so, otherwise it’s going to be a rather boring month.)

This marks the first Halloween Countdown since the switchover. While I regret the absence of the downloadable groovy ghoulishness of previous countdowns, there are some monsters even I fear to run afoul of.

This thirty-one day terror tour will not be conducted in total silence, however, as I will be scaring up a host of streaming screamers to edify and terrify….and what better place to start than with this undying classic?

Recommended listening: The Misfits – Horror Business (from a 1979 single; collected on the 1986 Misfits compilation)

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The past two decades have seen The Misfits’ depressing devolution into what my better half calls a “t-shirt band” (along with Crass, and to a lesser extent, Joy Division). Merchandise featuring The Misfits’ distinctive iconography (cribbed from the Crimson Ghost movie serial) has become a bigger concern than the actual music, and one gets the sense that the vast majority of buyers have never even listened to the band.

Or they know them solely from Metallica’s cover of “Last Caress” on Garage Days Re-revisited, which is even more depressing to contemplate.

It’s the Hot Topic crowd’s loss, because The Misfits recorded some damn fine music (before they established the toxic precedent in which terrific horrorpunk bands decide to become subpar metal acts), adding a b-movie spookshow slant to the Ramones’ retro-leaning, junk culture-loving punk-pop formula. While 1982′s Walk Among Us is one of the tightest American punk LPs ever released (and one of the rare few albums I can listen to from beginning to end without feeling the urge to hit the skip button), I have no less affection for the fast and loose garage rock sound featured in today’s musical journey into nightmare.

5 Responses to “ Halloween Countdown: October 1 – Don’t go in the bathroom ”

Comments:

Wings (Caffeinated Joe) says:
October 1st, 2009 at 3:26 pm

Great kick-off! Love that panel.

planet mondo says:
October 2nd, 2009 at 6:22 am

Hurrah for the Halloween countdown all treats no tricks

The Frog Queen says:
October 2nd, 2009 at 1:37 pm

Great post. Glad to have you in the countdown…look forward to reading your blog.

Cheers!

Zhu Wuneng says:
October 3rd, 2009 at 3:55 am

Well, to be fair, CRASS became a t-shirt band because their logo was a lot better than their actual music. The message was first and foremost and the music secondary, and the CRASS members have all been happy to say as much. It may have been a better message than say, Skrewdriver, but the music was at about the same level (not a compliment to either group) because they were propaganda units rather than lovers of music. The Misfits’ original incarnations were the opposite, often sort of crudely stupid, but man they could ROCK. The image thing was already there but was secondary to the musicianship and showmanship.

Anyway, I like your blog a lot. I followed a link from Dave Ex Machina to the Nobody’s Favorites section, which was great. I always enjoy “geek” blogs that are thoughtful and intelligent and funny (and left leaning), since they’re sadly too few in number….Hey, some punk rock is just icing on the cake.

LouReedRichards says:
October 6th, 2009 at 3:39 pm

Right there with you on the love of the early Misfits! Too many detractors just look at the more recent stuff and ignore the fact that at one point the were a really exciting and fun band.
too bad Danzig became a complete and total tool

One of my all time favorites bands.

Children in Heat may be my favorite song of all time.

BTW: I guess it’s coincidence, but that panel and the “Beware the Misfits” do resemble each other quite a bit – it is coincidence right?

Like Zhu above me, I came for Nobody’s favorite and stayed for the rest of the show.

Armagideon Time