Bad or Misunderstood?

Last night, I was watching Nic Cage over act in 9MM, a 1998 film about a private investigator goes "underground" into the dark porn world to solve a murder. Ohhhh, scary. One of the bad dudes in this movie was a fan of Danzig monster music. When Nic snuck into bad guy's house in a scene ripped off directly from Silence of the Lambs, the guy had Danzig music going full blast and a Danzig poster on the wall. Nic and bad guy did lots of fighting to said monster music. And it got me to thinking, who likes really Danzig or his band that started it all, The Misfits? Is it just bad dudes in Nic Cage movies?

Yet to this day, I still see the obligatory Misfits t-shirt on every skate punk I see, even though The Misfits haven't put out an album since 1983. I was always of the opinion that The Misfits sucked pretty bad and got more mileage out of face paint, dumb haircuts and songs about death than with music --- you know, sort of like GWAR. Note, this is coming from a guy who avidly supports and enjoys punk rock. So I decided to relisten to The Misfits, something I hadn't done since Rob worked at Sound Exchange in 1990. Verdict? The Misfits still suck. But some of it appeals to my punk sensibilities. "Hollywood Babylon" and "London Dungeon" are pretty good. But "I Want Your Skull"? Pure shock value. You know when your fan base drops off precipitously past the age 15, your band really blows.