I’m dating myself, but I’ve long professed that many of my time-tested favorite records could squeeze onto one side of a C-60 cassette: Raw Power, Pink Moon, Signals, Calls And Marches, Roman Candle, I Against I, and The Misfits’ Walk Among Us. Concise, raw emotion, one and all. But it’s rare to find that kind of brevity as a virtue in a book.
Like the original Misfits’ songs, This Music Leaves Stains packs a whole lot into a small package. Clocking in at a mere 120 pages of text (which is followed by a further 60 pages of discography, films that influenced the band, and endnotes/bibliography/ index), you might assume that author James Greene, Jr. takes a superficial approach to the band’s story, but if so, you’d be mistaken; it’s extremely well-written, thoroughly researched, and meticulously annotated (with 40-50 notes per chapter). Greene engagingly documents the “horror punk” progenitors’ original 1977-1983 arc, the acrimonious split and merchandising, trademark, and publishing squabbles that played out thereafter, as well as the legal settlement and catalog-mining record deal that paved the way for founding bassist Jerry Only to raise the band -- at least in name and logo -- from the dead in ‘95 with his guitarist/brother Doyle in tow, but without founding singer/songwriter/frontman/figurehead Glenn Danzig. Ample space is also given to members’ other projects, notably Samhain, early guitarist Bobby Steele’s Undead, and Danzig, and less notably Kryst The Conquerer and...well...Danzig.
Providing facts without a lot of filler, Greene chronologically details their musical beginnings in a garage in Lodi, NJ, the band’s own (brief) Blank and Plan 9 labels (and Fiend Club fan club), ego clashes, personnel changes, NY Giants fandom, and high-level overviews of recording sessions and national touring, all of which ultimately dissolved during a swan-song performance in Detroit in late-October 1983.
The last nearly two decades of the band and Danzig’s solo career get solid coverage, if not the same blow-by-blow detail as the original incarnation deservedly gets (…although Danzing’s 1994 punch-out – a YouTube fave that’s recounted in detail – only took a single blow). Still and all, there are entertaining near-miss reunions, a run-in with the WWF’s Randy Savage, defections into the enemy camp, more conflict, more ego, and Glenn’s brush with almost becoming a real super hero. And while many ‘70s/‘80s fans saw the ‘00s as the culmination of a fall from grace (despite Dust/Voidoids/Ramones drummer Marc Bell and former Black Flag guitarist Dez Cadena joining the ranks), Greene calls it fairly straight while keeping whatever disappointment he has for the latter-day Only-fronted trio/merchandising machine in check. (Doyle was ousted in what few could call anything but a sibling railroading in 2001; cold blooded details within.)
While Danzig, Only, and Doyle were not involved in the project, the author does tap into former members of the band and its crew (including reformation-era vocalist Michale Graves), former label heads, and members of contemporaneous bands from each of the two incarnations (most notably members of Minor Theat and Gwar). As visually engaging as the band was (…Jerry’s 2013 receding hairline/devilock combo is not cutting it), it is a fault that there are a mere seven black and white photos in the book, and all are from the same ‘83 California gig with ex-Black Flag drummer Robo (who’s again in the band now) behind the kit. Greene, to remediate this, has launched www.thismusicleavesstains.tumblr.com as the book’s visual companion.
Decades on from the distinctive and menacing musical edge that the original Misfits made its name on, and when “caricature” seems more a appropriate description than “groundbreaking,” this to-the-point read by an obvious devotee never devolves into trainspotting or fawning over the band. Fans of any vintage will find appeal in Greene’s work, and if all you know is the band’s Crimson Ghost logo, do yourself a favor and get a hold of Walk Among Us, (or any of the Danzig-era stuff) and dig in to the whole sordid, greedy, backstory.
