Thursday, July 16, 2015

Throwback Thursday: Static Age, by The Misfits




In a time where punk rock was only just starting to take off people were pretty set in their ways in terms of how they felt music was supposed to be. They were used to showboating rock stars who went on big musical odysseys with fantasy themed lyrics. Vocalist Glenn Danzig however wanted to change that. In 1977 he and his band The Misfits recorded their first album Static Age. Unfortunately the album was not picked up by a label and not released until almost two decades later as no one in the industry seemed to understand the idea of it.

Static Age was the beginning of the "horror punk" genre, as it was filled with horror movie themes as well as political ones. Musically speaking it is raw, loud, speedy, brash, and laced with profanity and intense lyrical imagery. It is pretty much everything you would expect a horror punk record to be. Despite all that though, it has a certain level of pure simple honesty that not many other records had at the time.

Bullet was meant to be one of the main singles for Static Age. It is pretty much a song showing Danzig's discontent with former president of the United States John F. Kennedy. The lyrics get pretty vile by most people's standards, but if you're going to disrespect one of the most highly regarded presidents in the history of the nation you might as well do it with guns a'blazing and go out in flames of glory.

We Are 138 is a bit of a clever play on words as when sung fast enough it is meant to sound like "We are one dirty ape". The song however is about how in society we are meant to be clean, upright, and without personality in order to not offend anyone rather than just be the dirty apes that we humans truly are. Kind of funny how PC culture was already getting a big start back in the late 70's. Probably even before that. Either way, the message of this song is still relevant to this day.

Static Age and The Misfits in general are NOT for everybody. If you are easily offended then you should probably steer clear of this album. However, if you like something with more brutal honesty and horror imagery with driving guitars and rhythms with a powerful melodic voice then you might have just come to the right place. This album is a bold debut statement by Glenn Danzig and really did set the stage for the rest of what would come during his career.

Static Age, by The Misfits receives 3.5 out of 5 stars.

Track List:

1. Static Intro
2. Static Age
3. TV Casualty
4. Some Kinda Hate
5. Last Caress
6. Return of the Fly
7. Hybrid Moments
8. We Are 138
9. Teenagers From Mars
10. Come Back
11. Angelfuck
12. Hollywood Babylon
13. Attitude
14. Bullet
15. Theme For a Jackal
16. She
17. Spinal Remains
18. In the Doorway
19. Static Outro
20. Static Outtakes

Buy the Album on Amazon:

http://www.amazon.com/Static-Age-Misfits/dp/B000000I2R/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1437076810&sr=8-1&keywords=The+Misfits+Static+Age

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