Throughout the month of October, OUTLOUD! RECORDS has been releasing daily drops of covers under the title We're A Fiend Family. Each song is taken from the Misfits or a Misfits-related project. Several TGEFM staffers and guests got together for a track-by-track discussion. This is Part 3, covering tracks 25-31, as well as out final thoughts. You can read Part 1 HERE, and Part 2 HERE.
25 Oct: The Tarleks
“Horror Hotel” – orig. Misfits – 3 Hits from HeLL 7″ (1981)
Jeff: Remember how I said a couple of tracks ago that none of the covers are really “failures”? I take that back. I really, really don't like The Tarleks' take on this. They speed up the tempo a bit, and try something different with the vocals and, for me, it just simply does. not. work. I could barely get halfway through the song it was just… annoying. I get what they were trying to do with the vocals, but the delivery itself seems so phoned in.
On a side note, I followed through to their Bandcamp, and I like their music. I guess this cover was just a swing and a miss.
Julie: Fun fact: “Horror Hotel” was Doyle's first song with the Misfits, as the 3 Hits From Hell EP featured Bobby Steele on side A of the record, but Steele quit between side A and side B and was replaced by Doyle. It's kinda been a tradition for people to quit The Misfits very abruptly. Don't forget that both Danzig and Graves quit the band mid-concert!
I like this cover musically because, like many other songs on this comp, basically turns up the ramonescore of the original. But the original was really all about Danzig's macho bravado and posturing and, say what you will about how that works out for him in real life, it definitely worked for him in this song. The song is mostly a series of threats, and The Tarleks don't sound threatening enough to scare a Brownie troop.
Greg: I just want to copy and paste Jeff's comments.
Jeff: (laughter) Well, maybe this is growing on me a bit more. I listened to it through the speakers I normally do, and it sounded a bit better. I don't know what was wrong with the other set (an older computer/workstation) but the vocals were all tinny and I thought that was intentional. Whoops.
26 Oct: Saturday Night Karaoke – “Last Caress”
orig. Misfits – Beware EP (1980)
Jeff: Funny, because I keep coming back to eat my words. Remember a few days ago when I said that we shouldn't compare these covers to other covers? Well, I'm not. But there's a very big elephant in the room in that two of the possibly most famous (infamous?) bands in respective genres have each created famous (infamous?) covers of this song: Metallica kinda thrashed it up a bit more on 1987's The $5.98 E.P. – Garage Days Re-Revisited, and NOFX did their punk/ska/reggae cover for the 1997's Violent World: A Tribute to the Misfits. Those are some pretty big acts to follow.
Saturday Night Karaoke doesn't really try to get too far out of the box on this one. The production is, almost implausibly, even worse than most Misfits tracks, but I have a sneaking suspicion that's 100% intentional. I'm not sure what cymbal the drummer tippity-taps the bell on at certain points, but it adds a surprisingly upbeat sound to what is, as per usual, a pretty dark (but campy) song.
I've also got a special place in my heart for ESL bands. I think their lack of lifelong familiarity with English often gives their vocals a unique cadence, and this case is no different.Overall, I dig it.
Greg: The production quality makes this almost unlistenable. Pretty straight forward cover. Jeff, I like your use of the term “tippity-tap”.
Julie: What the fuck did I just listen to?
Jim: Jeff. Thanks for clarifying that English is not their first language, because I thought they were purposely trying to slur the words so their moms wouldn't hear them utter the horrific lines. This is just a classic example of the walls that the Misfits crashed through back in the late 70s. The subject matter made the Richie Cunninghams of the world run for cover. Not much to see here on the cover, they bit off more than they could chew.
Jeff: Greg – let's be fair here, though: if a majority of these Misfits albums were released today, people would be saying that they are almost unlistenable. We hear them more through the lens of nostalgia. The more I think about this (and being familiar with SNK's work), the more I think that the level of quality was a bit on purpose.
As the headitor of TGEFM, my vote is the tie-breaker. Since it looks like it is 1 for and 3 against, I rule the song is a success! (laughter)
Greg: WOW Jeff's pulling rank!!! That is totally fair. I do think with the production level there also has to be an element of energy, musicianship, whatever etc etc that pulls the song together that's missing for me?
Jeff: C'mon man, those tippity-taps they added to the song? TOTALLY brings it together. (laughter)
Tiffa: Ok next comp Outloud Records does, they need to put a disclaimer in the submissions that says “NO CELLPHONE RECORDINGS OF SONGS DONE AT BAND PRACTICE.”
With that being said, the poor recording sucked all of the fun outta listening to what is probably an actually good cover of Last Caress. This is fast! I love tippity-taps and talking about drums in onomatopoeia! Sat Nite Karaoke are actually a pretty great band and I would hate for this to be representative to who they are as a whole.
There absolutely needs to be some kind of quality control standards over at the label. So much of this comp just feels rushed.
Steven: Its a bit harsh to say this is unlistenable, and after Jeff's comments I went and listened to some of their other stuff and I agree the way it's produced must have been completely deliberate as even a poor mobile phone recording would have sounded better than this if they played it in any way like their other releases. I want to like this more than I actually do…
27 Oct: Grim Deeds – “Teenagers from Mars”
orig. Misfits – Horror Business 7″ (1979)
Julie: Finally, my favorite Misfits song gets a cover on this comp! Unfortunately, I'm pretty disappointed with what Grim Deeds did with this song. They both tried to play it too close to the original and made it too stiff and rigid, especially in the guitar playing. The lyrics to this song are simply abhorrent if you don't play it with a little bit of a sense humor. Even the original version adds in those warbling guitars and keep the B-movie vibe throughout the song. A great example of a cover of this song is Buck-O-Nine's cover of it from their 1995 album, Barfly (which I already added to our Spotify playlist) as well as The Network's outstanding cover in 2004 off of Money Money 2020 and VCR's version off their 2015 Misfits covers album We Are 821. It's such a fun and fucked up song at the same time and I think Grim Deeds just misses the whole point and spirit of the song.
Jeff: I'm not disappointed, but (here comes the broken record) it's another example of a straight-forward cover that doesn't do much of anything new.
Does it sound cleaner? Yes. Although I suspect that you're giving Misfits a bit too much credit on those warbling guitars. I'm guessing it is more an artifact from the recording more than anything intentional.
Does Grim Deeds try to emulate Danzig's voice? Thankfully, no. I don't think GD can do Danzig even if he wanted to and, to his credit, he doesn't try. His higher pitched voice gives this song a poppier edge to it, but not by much. I'm going to risk the Ire of Julie
and admit that I've never liked “Teenagers from Mars” as a song. It's simple and plodding and waaaay to long. Misfits' bread and butter are typically quick bursts of catchy tunes and the original overstays its welcome by at least 45 seconds, if not a minute. This cover hews too close to the source material to sway me.
Jim: Jeff. I think you are onto something. If Grim Deeds had shortened the song, it might have worked better. Seriously, half way through I thought to myself, “Is Teenagers from Mars this long?” GD didn't bring anything original to the party, they took classic Michelob and turned it into Busch Light. Probably not the right tune for GD. They sound garage-y but upbeat. I'd like to check out some of their stuff because it is the straight up classic punk style that I can get into.
Tiffa: GD definitely tried to put a spin/funk on this but I think as Julie said, if you unlodge tongue from cheek in any of these songs, these songs can easily go from fun and campy to “jeez, maybe we should stop inviting that guy around” in no time flat. Just felt like these guys never got to the point where they were having fun with this.
Greg: My guess on a fair number of songs across the comp is that the band forgot about their deadline on it and rushed to finish. Teenagers From Mars isn't the worst example of this for sure but it also lacks a tightness that would make it a lot better.
Steven: Considering this isn't a personal favourite, the cleaner vocals and more robust yet dirty guitar tone actually adds something way more interesting to this. It is waaaaay too long though, cutting it off at the two minute mark would have made this one of the highlights of the compilation for me anyway!
28 Oct: Chick Magnets – “Skulls”
orig. Misfits – Walk Among Us (1982)
Julie: Fun story: I was like 14 and had never heard The Misfits before and I was at a free concert in the park for Beth Orton with Ben Lee opening. Ben Lee covered “Skulls” and it was the most uncomfortable performance I've ever seen in my life. In The Misfits' ridiculous outfits and long devilocks, this song is hilarious. But when you see a white dude with an afro playing this song on an acoustic guitar when you don't know who the Misfits are it sounds like you're literally listening to a serial killer. The Misfits are like the musical equivalent of putting up the most elaborately gruesome Halloween display with decorations outside your house. Yes it's dark and macabre, but in the right context it's good fun to revel in the morbid and gruesome. But you can't play that straight and take it out of context. If you decorated your lawn with a fake dead body in the middle of the summer, there's a good chance the cops will show up. Ben Lee doing this song was the musical equivalent to that fake dead body in July.
Anyway, do The Chick Magnets find the fun in the darkness of “Skulls” like Ben Lee should have? (Totally not knocking Ben Lee as a whole, he's written some great songs.) Well they give it what I can only be intentionally bad production because this sounds like it was recorded in a tin can. That was still sealed. But then they just play it so sloppily it almost sounds like they just want to get the song over with. That's certainly going to give less of a serial killer vibe than Ben Lee's rendition of this song, but it doesn't make for anywhere near as fun of a song as the Misfits' original.
Jeff: I've got the salacious inside scoop on this. In part, you're right, Julie. Turns out this is the Chick Magnets from the late-90s/early-00s, and the song was recorded on a 8-track for a tribute album back in the day (not sure if that tribute was ever released). I guess the tape has not stood the stresses of time?
Anyhow, I like it. It's fun, it's wacky. They chop a good 1/4th off of the running time to make it just fast and poppy enough. Is it the best cover on here? Probably not. Did I still grin along at how wacky they went with it. Yeppers.
I give this cover four out of five skulls just for being a kick.
Jim: Many moons ago I attended University, and the guys down the hall loved to blast Skulls all day and night. Not the Misfits version, but The Lemonheads. Check out The Lemonheads (Evan Dando primarily on acoustic if memory serves) cover of Skulls, you can thank me later. Chick Magnets. Are they named after the MXPX song? I can appreciate that. I like the uptempo approach, they play the song like they are double parked. Is that still a relevant thing? Double parked? I'm not even sure what that is. I think it's when you don't have a spot to parallel park, so you just sorta leave your car in the street for a minute. Hence the need to get back to it quickly. What's more to say about Chick Magnet? I hope they didn't get towed.
Tiffa: While not super inventive, they didn't try to spice it up with anything unnecessary. Weird that this song is buried so deep on the tracklisting.
Greg: Not a lot of the covers on this have done a great job of appreciating how goofy the misfits are, so I really respect the energy here.
Steven: If you disregard the production value, this feels like a pretty safe interpretation of the original to be honest. Its a shame as this is one of my favourite Misfits songs and agree with Jim that the Lemonheads version is the gold standard as far as covers go.
29 Oct: Savage Remains – “Vampira”
orig. Misfits – Walk Among Us (1982)
Jeff: One thing before we get into this: I JUST realized that Danzig is wearing a Captain Harlock skull and bones logo t-shirt on the cover of Walk Among Us.
So Savage Remains come in and, immediately, chop about 1/3 of the runtime of the original off by speeding up the tempo. I wouldn't have thought it would've sounded too much faster, but it does. They also throw in some nice little guitar riffs and solos to fill things in at unexpected places. I'm not sure if the vocals can keep up too well with the song but, you know what, I don't care. 1) the extra guitars are awesome, and 2) you can actually tell they're singing “Vampiiiii-ra!” instead of the original “Waaambiiiiiii-uh!” that Danzig presented.
Julie: I have to agree. This sounds like the original song being played on a record player at the wrong speed. And then you add in the metal guitar solos and it's great fun. I was bracing myself for another mediocre cover and was really surprised.
Jim: As I wrangled with the thoughts bubbling in my brain to come up with something to write: I did like the metal riffs, and the wicked solo. What the heck, it's only one minute, so I listened to it again. And it was quite enjoyable. Then I proofread what I wrote and thought… I'll listen to it again. It's one minute!! Everyone has one minute!!
Jeff: (laughter)
Tiffa: This rules and is a great translation without fussing too much with the original while also not boring the absolutely tits off of me. Well done. Again, why is this buried way at the bottom of the comp?!?
Greg: Yeah this should have been near the front. I think every song on the comp could have taken this approach and i would have been totally happy.
30 Oct: Noodle Brain – “We are 138″
orig. Misfits – Bullet 7″ (1978)
Jeff: In hindsight, i should've put a bunch of canned responses as macros on my keyboard. Better production, doesn't try to do Danzig's vocals. Otherwise a cookie-cutter cover. I like Noodle Brain, but this is another example of the same thing we've seem so many times this comp.
I know I sound bitter and, maybe a bit, I am. I'm trying to absorb these songs in a vacuum from the rest, but after so many that don't try anything new, I'm a tiny bit jaded.
One more to go, and I still hold hope that my mind can still be blown.
Julie: I actually liked this one. It's a lot like the original but it makes it slicker and more polished. It tightens and cleans things up and I think that makes a huge difference.
Jeff: Am I just being an asshole at this point? I don't want to be, but I feel like I am.
Greg: This is that drum production I was complaining about on a previous track – it's so dry that it feels lifeless.
Jim: I liked this one too!! They sped it up a little bit. Polished it a little bit. Changed up the vocals. They didn't stray too far from the original, but none of these bands broke much new ground on this comp. Noodle Brain sounds like a competent, tight, band. It shows here. Thumbs up.
31 Oct: Parasite Diet – “Hybrid Moments”
oriorig. Misfits – Static Age (also featured on Legacy of Brutality)
Julie: Of all the ways I thought they might close out this project, a ukulele and gang vocal rendition of “Hybrid Moments” was pretty much the last thing I could have possibly expected. But we do keep complaining that not enough of these covers stray from the original to do something different with the song, and nobody is ever going to complain that Parasite Diet stuck too close to the original. It's a fun novelty cover and a great way to finish things off. So happy Halloween!
Jeff: THANK YOU Parasite Diet. That's all I have to say.
Jim: OMG!!! Finally!! As Monty Python would say, “and now for something completely different.” I don't love ukulele luau music, but on this comp, with so many faithful covers and nothing really super interesting or inspiring, Parasite Diet is like a light in the darkness. Happy Halloween!!
Final Thoughts
Greg: I like these kinds of compilations a lot. I'm a huge fan of the Three One G tribute comps that take the source material in extremely unexpected directions. The Queen tribute Dynamite With A Laserbeam should be required listening. I don't think a cover necessarily has to deconstruct the original version, but if a cover isn't going to differentiate itself at all it has to do a lot of extra work to justify why I'm not just listening to the original.
By and large I don't think a lot of the tracks across this are doing the work of proving why they're worth listening to more than the original. A good cover comments on the original while recontextualizing it. The best tracks here either create something entirely new or try to play into the goofiness of The Misfits. I like the effort of those much more than I like the straight forward approach of the majority of this album
Jeff: There are some standout tracks, and some that are pretty cools, and the rest are mostly… OK.
I think that, individually, a lot of these would be fun and, as someone said, Misfits covers are great at live shows around Halloween-time (every band should do Misfits covers this time of year). But, like I mentioned on day 12, what we have here is a lot of Ramonescore/pop-punk type bands to cover what is, essentially, a Ramonescore/pop-punk type band and the final results were… a lot of covers that hewed too close to the original to make it worth more than one listen. I think that most, if not all, of these bands are competent in what they do, but it is just that a good batch of them didn't think outside of the box, and the straight-forward covers simply got repetitive rather quickly.
I'll say this much: I knew and liked some of the bands coming in, I discovered a bunch of bands coming out (all of which I've checked out and dig) so, from the music discovery perspective, this comp did what comps are supposed to do. Overall, though, as a TRIBUTE comp, it is too tame. Good tribute comps (We Are Not DEVO, Violent World: A Tribute to the Misfits, Tribute: The Songs of Tony Sly) bring in different styles of music and take songs that I already love, and make them into something new. For a lot of the tracks here, that just didn't happen.
Julie: A lot of these covers were disappointing and didn't do that much different from the originals. And yet I still had a great time doing these. I reloaded the page every morning looking for the new cover with eager participation of how out there or conventional their song choice was going to be. Is it going to be a cover of one of my favorite Misfits songs, or am I going to learn something I didn't know about The Misfits today? It got me with The Misfits on my brain all the time, which of course put me in the Halloween spirit. In the end I was probably most impressed with some of these song choices than I was with the covers themselves, but either way I had a great time doing this project and that doesn't count for nothing.
Jim: Thinking back on the concept of Tribute Compilations, I can think of quite a few that stuck with me over the years. I keep ruminating on Gabba Gabba Hey, a tribute to the Ramones. I think I bought it when it came out in 1991, pretty much just because it involved the Ramones. Although a lot of the acts involved went on to become well known to me (Bad Religion, L7, Groovie Ghoulies), one of the lesser known bands really brought the goods, Pygmy Love Circus. They did a cover of “Beat on the Brat” and it made it onto pretty much every mix tape I made that year. That's what's awesome about these comps, you buy them because they have some bands you know covering a band you love. The magic happens when a band you don't know becomes your new favorite band. That's the opportunity these comps offer to the participants.
Take for example the Fugazi comp. That had a lot of well-known bands, and quite a few newcomers. The known quantities like Touché Amore, Into It Over It, or Failure put forth the quality and style you would expect, but then someone like Snapped Ankles comes along covering “Give Me The Cure” and it just blows you away. It opens doors for the band and the listener alike. So cool!!
Onto this comp. As ideas go, doing 31 Misfits covers to count the days until Halloween pretty much crushes it. Right there OUTLOUD! RECORDS breaks strong from the gate. Whereas the Fugazi comp had a good mix of faithful renditions and complete reworkings, the Misfits comp offerings stuck close to the source material. I don't know if the bands feared treading hallowed ground, or if they just wanted to stick to their styles, but there weren't many chances taken here (Parasite Diet excluded). Overall I had fun checking out the new song each day, and quite a few of these bands merited further listening. I don't know if there was a Pygmy Love Circus in there, but overall the comp held up well.
Tiffa: If any and all of these bands were playing a Misfits cover set at a Halloween show, I'd have a great time and pump my fist along.
the white drew carey (aka – Jeff Sorley) is the founder and head editor of TGEFM. He's lived (outside of) Chicago, Madison WI, (ugh) Penn State, Lyon FR, Oxford UK, central New Jersey, and now within earshot of SFO in the Bay Area. When not scouring the web for more great bands and labels to post about, he also spends time drawing (mostly) silly sci-fi and anime stuff under the name Asplenia Studios.