Waiting On The Samhain Of My Soul: Day Five - Misfits Live at Max's Kansas City 12-20-78 and 12 Hits From Hell

Label: Bootleg
Year: 1978, 1980

I don’t have a particular memory to share for today, our final day together, but to make it up to the legions (and legions) of readers, I will share two fantastic Misfits recordings. As I mentioned earlier this week, Samhain is my favorite of the Glenn Danzig projects, but I do recognize that more than anything, the name Danzig is synonymous with the Misfits.

So, it is with the Misfits that we shall end.

First is the band’s set from Max’s Kansas City, the famous Manhattan nightclub that gave many of the early U.S. punk bands a stage to play on. This show was on December 20, 1978, and features a slower, less ghoulish, perhaps slightly tamer version of the band. I’ve never seen a definite lineup posted for this show, but if the Misfits Central timeline is accurate, this should feature Bobby Steele on guitar and Joey Image on drums. This show took place about 10 months after the band recorded the Static Age record, and as such, they play a lot from that here live—much more than you’ll hear in later live sets. Toward the end of the set you’ll also hear the somewhat infamous 25-second rendition of Elvis Presley’s “Blue Christmas.” Maybe we’ll finally hear a longer version when the Danzig Sings Elvis record comes out?

This set was booted onto a picture disc (why?) a few years ago, but I’ve never heard that so I don’t know how the quality compares. These files are the supposedly remastered ones that have been floating around online for a while. They sound good but not great. Still, it’s the Misfits live in 1978!

Note that the cover art I’ve used here, and which seems to generally get tagged with this set online, uses a photo taken not at this show, but later on, when Doyle had joined the band.

Our final share this week is the 12 Hits From Hell record that was to have been released by Caroline Records in 2001. It was recorded in 1980 with Bobby Steele on guitar and Arthur Googy on drums. Apparently this was right as Steele was on his way out of the band and Jerry’s brother Doyle was (secretly) on his way in as his replacement. Both guitarists ended up recording their own tracks for this planned full-length.

The album never happened; however, some of the tracks were released in 1981 as the 3 Hits From Hell and Halloween 7”s.

Caroline was set to finally release the full session in 2001—with Steele and Doyle’s tracks both included—but at the last minute Glenn Danzig and Jerry Only called it off, I believe, because of issues with Caroline’s layout and mixing of the record.

This is the best the Misfits have ever sounded, in my opinion, and sales of this record would have been through the roof. Instead, I’m sure Glenn was pissed that Bobby Steele was being included and given his due all these years later, and Jerry … well, I don’t know what Jerry was upset about, but if it was the layout that seems like something you can fix, not necessarily a deal-killer.

Because the record was cancelled at the very last minute, a few promotional CDs leaked, leaving us with vinyl and additional CD bootlegs, but nothing more.

It’s a shame, because I think the tracks the band eventually re-recorded for Walk Among Us sound rawer and more powerful here, plus this full-length would have had a really strong, more diverse feel overall. Lose “Halloween II” and throw in “Nike A Go-Go” and this would have been almost perfect.  

And with that, our week comes to a close. It’s been a blast reliving these memories, plus faithful downloaders now have their Halloween playlists already made! Enjoy, and watch out for candy apples and razor blades tomorrow night.

 

-Jeff Simms

DL - The Misfits - Live at Max's Kansas City - 12-20-78
DL - 12 Hits From Hell

Waiting On The Samhain Of My Soul: Day Four - Danzig Legacy Live Hollywood 10-31-11

Label: Bootleg
Year: 2011

So there I was, two days before Halloween, slogging through a foot of snow as it continued to pour from the sky, on my way to take an hour-long train into New York City to see the Danzig “Legacy” show. There was so much snow on the tracks that the trains were crawling at less than half their normal speed. There was no guarantee they’d even be running by the end of the night, when I hoped to return home. My wife, eight months pregnant, was at home, alone, with no power.

Was that a bad decision?

In my defense, my wife had urged me to attend the show. Only in the past few years had Danzig begun touring with former Misfits guitarist Doyle and throwing a mini-Misfits set in on top of the standard live Danzig show. For GD to perform full Danzig, Samhain and Misfits sets, as he was in these “Legacy” shows, was unheard of. The New York City show—one of only four Legacy shows he’s done in the U.S. to date—had been on my calendar for months, and she knew how badly I wanted to go. The snowstorm had complicated things, however, and losing power right before I left was a really low blow.

The train was late, and by the time it arrived I’d talked myself out of going. I stepped inside, but knew it didn’t feel right, and immediately decided to get off at the first stop and make my way back home. Thankfully, my wife texted before the train arrived at that stop to say that power was back on. I was free to go with a reasonably clear conscience.

I think it took me almost five hours door-to-door to get to the venue (it should have been 90 minutes or so), and I arrived just as Corrosion of Conformity’s crew was taking their equipment off stage.

Thirty minutes later, the GD three-pack began with a slightly shorter than normal Danzig set. There aren’t many surprises in the Danzig setlist at this point. “SkinCarver” and “Hammer of the Gods” to open, generally “Twist of Cain” or “Am I Demon” follows, then it’s a few songs each off of Danzig I, II and III, usually one track off 4p and very little else from the last 15 years. I could probably live without hearing “Her Black Wings” ever again at this point, but still—all killer, no filler. 

After a quick break, Samhain (essentially Danzig with London May) came on. GD bounded onto the stage as the last notes of the “Initium” opener played, launching, obviously, straight into “Samhain.” I had seen the 1999 Samhain reunion but have no real recollection of the show (Does this happen to anyone else? I can remember the setting and location of almost every show I’ve ever seen, yet I have virtually no memories of the actual songs or performances themselves.) Great set, although the NYC crowd wasn’t as amped as I’d hoped it would be for these songs. I was slightly disappointed not to hear “Black Dream” or “Halloween II,” but both of those miscues would be rectified when Samhain toured on its own three years later. Danzig also earned bonus points for continuity by wearing the same leather bondage mask he wore at one of the last Samhain shows in 1986. A solid set despite a subpar crowd reaction.

Finally, after an appropriately longer than normal wait, lights dimmed and the intro music hit. There was thunder and rain, and someone screaming as they dragged a chain across what must have been a dirty, haunted basement floor. Then Doyle’s guitar crunched as he stomped his 14-foot monster self onto the stage. It was cheesy but I loved it. The band (again, essentially Danzig with Doyle) blistered through a whirlwind eight-song set. I felt like a kid in a candy store.

I had rushed so quickly to get to the venue once my train arrived in NYC that I never grabbed anything to drink; this occurred to me as I sang every word of every Misfits song. I hadn’t had a drop since leaving home hours earlier and I was so parched by now that my tongue felt and tasted like sandpaper as I sang along.

I had seen a couple of the Danzig with Doyle sets they’d done in recent years, but this one exceeded them all. The setlist was fantastic: “Bullet,” “Night of the Living Dead,” “Astro Zombies” and “Death Comes Ripping,” among a few others. Add “Ghouls Night Out” and maybe “Hybrid Moments” and it would have been perfect. As it was, it was phenomenal. I’ve only gotten chills a couple of times at live shows, and this was one of them.

I’m not sure who sequenced the event, but Danzig (the band) came back out for a three-song encore after the Misfits set, which was a bit of a momentum-killer. Finally, Doyle stomped onstage one last time to send the crowd home happy with “Skulls,” and I was out the door. 

I collapsed into bed around 4 a.m. after a pretty uneventful train ride home. It was still snowing, but we had power and everyone was safe. To this day I’m not sure how wise my decision was, but all’s well that ends well, I suppose. Right?

I could have sworn I had the NYC Legacy set on my computer but apparently I do not, nor could I find it online. However, here’s the Hollywood set from Halloween night. It’s the same setlist that we got in NYC two nights earlier, without the snow. Sound quality is far from perfect, but given how tight Danzig’s security is with photos and recording, it’s a wonder anyone got this at all.

 

- Jeff Simms

 

DL - part 1

DL - part 2

Waiting On The Samhain Of My Soul: Day Three - Danzig Catch All

Label: Bootleg
Year: 1978, 1981, 1984, 1987

During my years as a newspaper reporter, a staple of beat coverage was the catch-all story. Rarely sexy and almost never on the front page, the catch-all was an essential collection of a few paragraphs on this, a few paragraphs on that which tied up loose ends and reported the notable news bits from one’s area of coverage.

For today I threw together a Danzig-ized catch-all—a handful of recordings that aren’t weighty enough for their own entry but still fill in some of the necessary gaps in our story.

First, we have the Static Age mixdown tapes.  These are the pre-mixed, slower versions of the songs that would have made up the Static Age album in 1978, and finally saw official release in 1996 as part of the Misfits Box Set (and then as its own release).  The eight shared here were allegedly booted on tape in 1986 by Curtis Casella from Taang! Records. I don’t listen to these versions of these songs often, but they are historically significant.

Second, the June 1981 Newfound Sound Studios recordings. The Misfits recorded eight songs here, six of which were never officially released. The unreleased six (shared here) are slower versions of songs that were later re-recorded for Walk Among Us. The other two (officially released) songs from this session were “Hate Breeders,” later appearing on the Sessions disc from the Misfits Box Set, and “American Nightmare,” which would have been on the original Plan 9 Records version of Walk Among Us (that never happened) and ultimately found a home on Legacy of Brutality.

Our third set of songs today bridges the gap between the Misfits and Samhain. The first track of these Initium rough mixes, as I’ve called them, is “Archangel,” the Initium album closer I referred to yesterday. Glenn recorded this version of the song with Al Pike of Reagan Youth while the Misfits were still together. The second Initium rough mix is “Black Dream.” This is the pre-mixed version of the song that Danzig and Steve Zing played on WNYU in March of 1984, when they appeared to promote the first Samhain show. Found most notably on the Black Dream bootleg CD, this version lacks the trademark Samhain chimes. If you listen closely too, you’ll notice some of Lyle Preslar’s guitar work that was eventually mixed out.

Finally, the Samhain “random tracks” are all from the murky 1987-ish period when Samhain, at the behest of Def Jam head Rick Rubin, was morphing into the band that would be known as Danzig. This incarnation of the band(s) recorded “Twist of Cain,” the album-opener of Danzig I and a staple of (I would guess) probably every live show the band has ever played. I think it was this recording of the song, along with a few other demos, that were tacked onto the end of later versions of the posthumously released Samhain Final Descent CD. (The first press of the CD had Glenn Danzig’s remixed version of the Unholy Passion EP as bonus tracks.)

This version of “Twist of Cain” isn’t particularly good, but as noted, it also comes from a significant time in GD’s career. The second song, “Die For the Demon” (also known online as “Night of Hate”) is an up-tempo rocker that was never released. I’ve always liked the track.

The final “random track” is the demo version of “When Death Had No Name,” another favorite of mine. This slowly building song bounced around for years in the Danzig camp before finally being included in the Lost Tracks double LP in 2007. As mentioned in the Lost Tracks liner notes, the band recorded it at almost every session they did between the late-Samhain era and Danzig III, but never included it on an album.

I first heard this song on the Fresh Flesh live bootleg 7”, which—come to think of it—may have been another Mighty Quinn pickup.

The band regularly played this song live for at least the first several Danzig tours, bringing me to today’s memory—a short and sad one.

Danzig played an old club called Baity’s in Winston-Salem at least twice, maybe more, during its first few tours, when this song would have been included in the setlist. I was 16 at the time (Gray would have been 15) and I had a car, but … we didn’t go*. I really don’t know why. As Gray will tell anyone who asks to this day, we missed several critically important shows that were within driving distance around this time because I, for some reason, didn’t want to drive.

I honestly don’t recall my reasoning but I certainly regret it. My car wasn’t particularly reliable (it had a top speed of about 45 miles per hour), which likely kept me off major highways, but within the confines of Winston-Salem—I have no excuse. I would guess that I was probably intimidated by the type of crowd we might have run into at a “metal” show in 1989. I wasn’t the toughest, or most confident, 16-year-old on the block, but I truly don’t remember.

As it was, I would not see Danzig live until 1997, when the Von/Christ/Biscuits-less band played Winston-Salem on the Blackacidevil tour. The show, ironically, was at a club called Ziggy’s, just down the road from Baity’s.

 

-Jeff Simms

 

* just to set the historical record straight, ONE of us actually did go see Danzig in 1989. A legendary show that was briefly interrupted when Glenn hauled off on a dude up front who had been shouting Misfits requests all show. He was dealt with pretty quickly, one punch to the jaw and a bunch of shouting ("come up here pussy"..."I'll fucking kill you"...etc.), but it left quite an impact on me, as it was one of the first instances I'd ever seen where the performer broke the proverbial "third wall" to knock somebody in the face. Good shit 

 

DL

 

Waiting On The Samhain Of My Soul: Day Two - Samhain Live at Rock Hotel 03-31-84

Label: Bootleg
Year: 1984

I can pretty safely say that Samhain is my favorite of all the Glenn Danzig projects. It was the shortest-lived band, with the least recorded output, but from the moment I first heard Initium, I was fascinated with both the music and mystery surrounding the outfit.

It was actually one of my other Winston-Salem buddies who picked up Initium sometime around our 9^th grade year. All we knew at the time was that it was Danzig’s post-Misfits band. I don’t recall what I expected to hear, but I was definitely blown away by what I did hear. Gone were the catchy, whoa-oa Misfits choruses and B-grade horror themes, and in their place were guttural screams; slower, brooding guitars; and macabre imagery and lyrics.

Whereas the Misfits did horror with a little cheese on the side, Samhain felt lawless and disturbing. My friend had the CD, which didn’t come with lyrics, so many an afterschool afternoon was spent playing and replaying that album, trying to understand just what this short, shirtless, bloodied man was trying to say to us.

“There is a human slaughterhouse, up on the hill, the road is red. And those that ignore and those who pretend it does not exist, end up in its hull.” Tell us how you really feel, Glenn.

Then “Archangel,” the album closer. This is the song that Danzig famously wrote for Dave Vanian of The Damned but ultimately recorded himself. Slow and morose, I think this is one of the best album-ending songs of Danzig’s career, unrivaled until “Let It Be Captured,” the last song on 4p, which, coincidentally, Eerie Von himself has said he considers a Samhain record as much as it is Danzig.

Back in Winston-Salem … sometime in the months that followed, one of us picked up November Coming Fire, the more polished but still dark full-length follow-up to Initium. “Halloween II,” which I didn’t realize at the time was originally a Misfits song, mesmerized me with its booming chorus, while Glenn sang “November’s Fire” while standing, apparently, knee-deep in pig’s blood.

The art for that album, just as iconic as Initium’s, perfectly captures the primal mystique that made Samhain so attractive to me.

Here’s the audio from the first-ever Samhain show—March 31, 1984 at the Rock Hotel in New York City. This show features Lyle Preslar from Minor Threat on guitar (Glenn played guitar on two songs that night as well), as Samhain was initially envisioned as a “supergroup” featuring Danzig, Preslar, Brian Baker from Minor Threat and Chuck Biscuits. They never played live with the latter two (not as Samhain with Biscuits, at least), and Preslar was gone after this show. Notice also that several songs (“Samhain,” “All Murder…”) have completely different lyrics than what was eventually recorded for the Initium record.

 

- Jeff Simms

 

DL

Waiting On The Samhain Of My Soul: Day One - Misfits - Live at Al's Bar 1982

Label: Bootleg
Year: 1982

As Gray and I were growing up as young punk rockers in sprawling Winston-Salem, NC, most of our record shopping was confined to either Friday nights trolling Hanes Mall or flipping through bins at the local Record Exchange. In the late 1980s, Hanes Mall housed both Camelot Music and the Record Bar, both chain establishments. I think I bought a third press copy of Die Die My Darling (which I still have) at the Record Bar, while Camelot I remember most for its tape game. I’m pretty sure I remember picking up Legacy of Brutality and Collection I (which blew my mind at the time—where did these songs come from??) cassettes at the Camelot Music on the lower level of the mall.

The Record Exchange was the first used record store I knew of, and they had lots of punk stuff—in part due to the Let’s Active/Echo and the Bunnymen-ish indie/punker who worked there. I got a ghoul hair error Earth A.D. there, along with many other Circle Jerks, Dead Kennedys and 7 Seconds classics. Sadly, none of these stores exist now.

Today’s Danzig memory, however, takes me back to a day when Gray and I veered slightly off the beaten path. I don’t know why we were out in this neighborhood (perhaps visiting local scene legend Rob R-Rock, who lived nearby), but something made us stick our heads in the Mighty Quinn music shop on the northwest outskirts of Winston-Salem. Mighty Quinn was an old school, dirty and dusty record store. I don’t recall him stocking anything of interest to us punkers … except a motherlode of overpriced Misfits bootlegs.

I’ll never know where this fellow got the records, as they were hardly in line with the rest of his stock, but somehow Mr. Quinn had gotten his hands on a handful of Misfits boots. He had the Spook City USA 7”, I think maybe 4 Hits From Hell, the Hittsville, NJ 12” and today’s choice, Al’s Bar 1982.

Labeled as a Fiend Club (the Misfits fan club that I’d only vaguely heard of at the time) release, in actuality it was a decent-sounding but unofficially released recording of the Misfits’ April 17, 1982 set at Al’s Bar in Los Angeles.

Don’t get me wrong, I would have given a kidney to have been a few years older and seen the Misfits live, but the truth is their live shows were a mixed bag. The experience itself must have been unbelievable. I can only imagine beer bottles and fists flying, Doyle taking people’s heads off with his guitar and Danzig challenging the entire audience to fight him as they played. Musically, however, they were out of tune, played a little too fast and largely shed the 1950s-doo-wop-meets-Ramones catchiness that made their studio recordings so unique. 

Still, I snatched the record up and have the red vinyl/blank-labeled platter in my collection to this day. This is actually a really good setlist, ranging from Bullet-era material to songs from Earth A.D., which had yet to be released. The between-song banter is fun too, as it captures a looser, much more frenzied Glenn Danzig than the metal god he would evolve into years later.

Sound quality on this one isn’t quite as good as the officially released Evilive, but it’s plenty passable and you get twice as many songs. Enjoy!

- Jeff Simms

DL

Waiting On The Samhain Of My Soul: Intro Bust

 

 

Bonfires burning bright, pumpkin faces in the night. I remember Halloween.

With the change of the seasons from summer to fall, I am reminded of all things Glenn Danzig.

Probably the most prolific punk artist, perhaps ever, his track record is incredible. The Misfits catalog is flawless, there’s no debating that. It’s hard to argue that the same can’t be said for Samhain. And while many draw the line at 4p in their love for Danzig (the band), there’s a lot that’s been released since the departure of the Von/Christ/Biscuits lineup that easily holds its own. There have been a couple of missteps along the way, most of them fresher in our memories as they’ve come in clumps over the last 10 years or so … but even today if you go see a live Danzig show, at 60 years young, he’s absolutely still got it.

With that said, there’s not much out there in terms of unearthed music that isn’t already in circulation. And while I’ve been a Danzig devotee since sometime around 1987 (my 7^th grade year), I don’t want to position myself as an expert, as there are many out there who know more than me.

Instead, I thought I’d share 5 days of memories and the recordings that coincide with each. Officially released music, in print or not, is off limits, so we’re talking demos, live sets and outtakes. Here goes.

-Jeff Simms

Waiting On The Samhain Of My Soul

It's almost Halloween, which means it's almost Samhain, which means...it's fucking Danzig weather!
So, we would be remiss if we didn't spotlight the man, excuse me...Man, who has made a career out of channeling the dark, the black, the evil, the scary, and the profane. The Evil Elvis himself, the pride of Lodi, New Jersey....Glenn goddamn Danzig! (nee, Glenn Allen Anzalone to his mother [tell your children not to look my way...])

So it is with great excitement that I am handing the blog over to good friend (actual friend mind you...I DO have friends*) Jeff Simms for the entire week starting Monday for five blood soaked days of Danzig related ephemera. He (who cannot be named) has invested far too much of his life into researching, studying, and generally worshipping Glenn in all his incarnations (I think Jeff even willed himself to enjoying Black Aria II), and you, the good reader, will benefit from hearing first hand his trials and tribulations navigating the long way back from hell that is Danzig superfandom.

Even I don't know exactly what Mr. Simms has planned, but he assures me that he will only be posting rare items, since we should all have the released discography in triplicate by this point. It will be a fun ride sifting through whatever horror business that's up for offer.

Tune in Monday morning for the first in our five part series paying tribute to the greatest American songwriter of all time (yeah, that's right...fuck you if you don't believe me!)!

*Fun Danzig-Simms-Kiser trivia: Jeff learned to play the drums some time around 8th or 9th grade and we immediately proceeded to "start a band" (even though I had zero musical abilities to offer...just gusto...lots and lots of gusto). The aborted project (which to be honest, consisted of a single cover of Judge's "Take Me Away") was christened No Resistance, a nod to both our straight edge tendencies by sounding like something that could be emblazoned across a letterman's jacket AND our shared love of Danzig by referencing the chorus to "Children In Heat". Pretty great, huh?

Brain Banger - Yellow Belly

Label: Hawthorne Street
Year: 2008

You know that scene in that one movie where that one actress (I believe it's Angela Bassett...although it could be Angela Lansbury...I'm terrible with names) burns a bunch of her (ex?)husband's shit by walking away from the pile and casually throwing a lit cigarette over her shoulder to ignite the pyre? Remember?
Yeah, well, that's me in relation to this past work week. Fucking nonstop deadlines and headaches. So I'm all "fierce" and shit tossing my smoke into a pile of completed projects. Except I'm doing it in slow motion! (which, to be fair, might have been the way the movie was shot as well...truth be told, I never actually saw it, and I'm not 100% sure it even exists). And Brain Banger is the soundtrack to my triumphant "fuck you"!
Louisville noise rock of the highest order, with personnel from Young Widows, Black Cross, Lords, and Breather Resist. Perfect for your own triumphant "fuck you". Go out to today and give someone special the "fuck you" they deserve.

DL

Meat Wave - Delusion Moon

Label: Sideonedummy
Year: 2015

All hands on deck! All hands on deck!
Stop doing whatever you're doing (masturbating? again? Really Curtis?) and report to your stereo hi-fi system (ha ha, just kidding....crowd around your computer) to immediately blast this record at top volume (grandparents be damned!).
Meat Wave have managed to find that sweet spot between catchy indie rock and ripper punker noise that results in the oft-chased dragon of "fun and memorable yet raucous and rowdy". It's got a lot of the hallmarks you might have found of a band playing the Cat's Cradle circa 1992, but also the hallmarks of contemporaries Diarrhea Planet or The Marked Men or Bass Drum Of Death or that crop of messy noiseniks. Music like this lives or dies on it's ability to be fun, and Meat Wave are fun. But they don't make you feel like a total puss for saying so (excuse me ladies...er...lady). Muscle and urgency and a good tune are a lethal combination.
Good music for good weather. Top fucking notch!

DL

Bedhead - What Fun Life Was

Label: Trance Syndicate
Year: 1994

"Last time I saw you Clark, you remarked about how much you liked mine"
 - Cousin Eddie

Since we got some good feedback on the previous Bedhead post, well, here's another. Previously we posted their final record, and now we're posting their first release, bookending Bedhead quite nicely.
Mellow sophistication from a band who knows when to hold back, and when to employ a slow burning build. Never egregious. Never hurried. Always beautiful.

DL