This is a status a friend of mine from Oklahoma posted on Facebook, and as punk from a working class background who has had to go to a private school full of rich kids who can’t tolerate anybody that’s different from them, I very much appreciated the sentiment and just had to share it:

In almost every insult fired towards me on a daily basis on whichever platform it’s being spoken on, the words “emo” or “gothic” seem to always have a heavy presence. “Go cut yourself”, “They’re a bunch of emo fags” (And once; a razor blade being thrown at me) are a small fraction of the criticism I’ve received over the years.

Ignorance seems to be a driving force these days in the development and evolution of the human race, and I’m finding out more and more that people really are afraid of what they don’t understand. I am a firm believer that you don’t have to look different to BE different. I think that being different is more so a frame of mind than anything aesthetically, and that taking it upon yourself to grab hold of the strength of mind to put yourself out there to be ridiculed for being who you really are IS the personification of the word “different”. Something I support with every ounce of myself that I have to give.

In my case, and in the case of a lot of others like me, it’s generally based on the way we look. OF COURSE I understand that when you do something like that, that you’re going to have to deal with the criticism, I’m not stupid and naive to think that I’d be able to walk into a Wal-Mart dressed in Tripp clothing and have everyone greet me with a smile on their face. That’s certainly not how the world works. People are generally afraid of things that aren’t what they have been told are normal, or in some cases what their faith tells them isn’t correct; their most natural defense against it is to lash out in anger. What bothers me most is how condescending their comments are, as if because I wear heavy eyeliner I must be stupid and a fuck up degenerate, when really they fail to realize that their ignorance is the purest form of stupidity and a severe insult to their intelligence. Fucking Idiots.

If someone tells you that you’re too fat, too ugly, to stupid, not good enough, or calls you a faggot, you take that middle finger, you put it in their face and you tell them to Go. Fuck. Yourself.

Listen to what this girl has to say: don’t be afraid to be different.

I’ve watched like three hours of Henry Rollins’ spoken word shows on YouTube. They’re just amazing; they’re funny, interesting, and educational to me. I really just like listening to what interesting people have to say. I wish more musicians would do shows like this, since they tend to be some of the most interesting people out there. I also find that hearing what musicians think and what they have to say makes me understand their music and make me want to listen to it more. Ever since I’ve started watching his shows I’ve been listening to a lot more Black Flag, since after hearing his personal stories and beliefs I just sort of get what his music is about more than I did before. I’m also going to check out his solo work.

The Misfits: What the Fuck Happened?

It’s been over ten years since The Misfits’ 1995 reincarnation with Michale Graves, Jerry Only, Doyle Wolfgang von Frankenstein and Dr. Chud has broken up. The Misfits are still around today, fronted by Jerry Only and guitarist Dez Cadena; but as much as I liked Devil’s Rain it’s just not the same.

Since I really like watching videos of this band performing live, as well as listening to their albums, I thought I would put together a post highlighting why they broke up, and what the chances are of a reunion, since Misfits fans won’t stop arguing about this shit.

“I lost my best friends, I lost my family. I loved those guys, they were my whole world. The Misfits were my whole world, every bit of it. I lived and breathed The Misfits. As much as people hear that I didn’t care, or didn’t want to be in it anymore, I loved those guys and I loved our music and the times we had together.” - Michale Graves

Michale Graves has said multiple times that he did not leave because of any other band member, but the general dysfunction of the band and the stress that came with it. He has recently been on better terms with Jerry Only, and has had many conversations with him over the past few years. However, the same cannot be said of Dr. Chud, who he refers to as a “waste of human life” and Doyle. Graves has recorded several solo albums, done acoustic tours of the United States, and been in three bands (Gotham Road, Graves, Marky Ramone’s Blitzkrieg) since he left the band in late 2000.

Doyle Wolfgang von Frankenstein, famous for his absolutely frightening stage presence and his incredibly violent style of playing guitar, left the band a short time later, and started his own horror band, Gorgeous Frankenstein, with his wife - an exotic dancer who performs to the music of the band - and a revolving cast of musicians. He has also played sets of Misfits songs while on tour with none other then original singer Glenn Danzig, who tried desperately to block the reincarnation of the Misfits in the early 90s and has been on nasty terms with every band member but Doyle since then.

“GO FUCK YOURSELF YOU EXPLOITATIVE SCUMBAG FUCKHEAD. THE MISFITS DIED IN 1983. THIS THING OUT THERE CALLING ITSELF THE MISFITS IS A PATHETIC EMBARASSING ABOMINATION.” - Glenn Danzig (in response via email to a blogger asking for his participation in a piece about the Misfits in 2002.)

Doyle has been estranged from his older brother, Jerry Only, for many years now, and they have not been on speaking terms in a very long time. Doyle has criticized Only for what he perceived as ruining a reunion of the original 1980s Misfits lineup of Glenn Danzig, Doyle, and Only.

“We were actually going to do a Misfits reunion with Glenn, but Jerry put a fuckin’ monkey wrench in it, so… We had meetings on that. And [Jerry] kind of fucked it up, him and his manager… We were going to do it. We were going to do a record, do a tour, and everything. And he fucked it up. So let all the Misfits fans put that in their pipe and smoke it … he fucked it up for everybody. And he continues to fuck it up.” - Doyle (in an interview with the same blogger who was chewed out by Danzig in the last quote in 2008.)

Michale Graves came to Jerry Only’s defense in a later interview, responding to Doyle’s accusations:

“The plan was to get us four back together. Like I said before, I was on board. The sticking point on why that fell apart was that Doyle wanted to bring his wife out on tour and wouldn’t bend from it because Gorgeous George or Gorgeous Frankenstein or whatever she is called had to be a part of the Misfits… Doyle says, “So let all the Misfits fans put that in their pipe and smoke it.” Well, you guys have to tell the whole story. They only give you half-truths and they don’t want to talk about me. You’re not allowed to bring up my name in front of them because they can’t hash their stories because they are on the fuckin’ losing end of it.” - Michale Graves

So basically The Misfits never got back together because Doyle wanted to bring his skanky wife on tour with them. It’s like if John Lennon was a six foot tall muscle-bound monster and Yoko Ono was the stripper he married.

Both Jerry and Michale have sharply criticized the band’s former drummer, Dr. Chud, who was with Jerry and Doyle as far back the early nineties during their short-lived Christian metal project, Kryst the Conqueror. Before that he attended high school with Jerry and Doyle in the 1970s. He left the band in 2000 to be the drummer for Graves, after which he started a horror punk band called Dr. Chud’s X-Ward and started to occasionally drum for Gorgeous Frankenstein.

When asked about his departure from the band in 2007, Chud replied:

“It was time, when you have four people and you’re all not on the same page there’s no way it can work. If you’re a football team and everybody isn’t on the same page, you aren’t going to the Super Bowl. Same idea, Jerry had decided in the middle of 2000 that he wanted to go back to playing the old Misfit songs and not concentrate on new music, well that’s when I knew it wasn’t going to work, I had nothing against the old music but I had already done that in 1996 and was beyond it, we had writing a few albums by then and we were on a roll, nothing could stop us. So that’s when I decided to move on and keep writing, its been seven years and Jerry still hasn’t recorded new music, so I definitely made the right decision and I’m much happier now with X-WARD.” - Dr. Chud

So far it seems the band has separated into two sides: Danzig, Doyle, and Chud on one side, and Jerry Only and Michale Graves on the other. Much different from the idea that it’s “everybody vs. Jerry”. 

Jerry Only has been the bass player of The Misfits since the band’s inception in 1977. He has played on every single one of the band’s albums and was responsible for reviving the band both after Danzig left and after Graves left. Since 2001 he has been the only original remaining member of the band, and has taken over lead vocal duties, releasing two albums, Project 1950 (2003) and The Devil’s Rain (2011) with former Black Flag vocalist and rhythm guitarist Dez Cadena replacing Doyle and an assortment of drummers including Marky Ramone, Robo (a member of the Misfits in the 80s) and Eric “Chubacabra” Arce.

Both of the Jerry Only Misfits’ albums have received very mixed reception from fans and critics, and a large chunk of the band’s fanbase has been critical of him for everything from his religious beliefs to his singing ability. I am personally a big Jerry Only fan, but we’ll see about that, shan’t we?

Jerry has denied wanting to reunite with Glenn Danzig multiple times. Danzig has been very hostile towards the new band, while Jerry seems to have just moved past the Danzig era.

“I really have no animosity towards Glenn. You know, Glenn and I were really good friends when we were together. It’s just that when it came time to split, it was really time to split. We had two totally different directions in which the band was going, his being the more extreme and ours being the more traditional… Doing it with Glenn may work on a short-term basis. I could see us getting together and lining up a bunch of big festivals and a bunch of big shows. But then, when you think about it, where would it leave you when you’re done? It wouldn’t leave you in a position where your credibility would be half as good as it is. Sometimes it’s better to be small and secure than it is to be extremely large and totally volatile. And I think our fans are owed the respect of one thought and one vision, and it’s not a parade or a circus for the rest of the world to throw money at. I’d rather be touring happy than rich and miserable.” - Jerry Only (in a 2011 interview with Rolling Stone.)

As mentioned before, Jerry Only and Michale Graves seem to be on relatively good terms. I’m sure almost any fan of the band would just explode in happiness if there was a Graves-Only-Cadena album. But the impression I get is that Jerry Only just wants to do his thing right now, and Michale Graves has been putting out incredible solo work and has also been doing some great performances with Marky Ramone.

“Jerry and I do not have a dysfunctional working relationship. Him and I both know and I know he knows that I am on board. It is a phone call away. I won’t step back into what I walked away from, but the problem isn’t with Jerry and I. The problem is with Doyleand with Chud.” - Michale Graves

So, to sum all of this up, in my opinion, Jerry, Dez, and Michale are good people trying to make good music. Doyle and Glenn Danzig seem kind of dickish. You’re allowed your own opinion, and I’m not saying it’s wrong, but I have laid out some facts, and you are free to interpret them as you wish. I still love this band and listen to all three incarnations of it.