The Misfits; the band not the movie....

[vintagehalloweentoys]

The Misfits were one of my favorite bands for a long time....I was a wee bit young when they broke up in 83 (I was 10). I ended up getting Evilive on cassette and a white fiend club t-shirt when I was 13 (and the punk rock and skate board phased started for me about that time). A lot of the older kids at the time (the 18-early 20 somethings) actually either saw the Misfits before they broke up or were into the Samhain stuff. Some of these older punk rock kids gave me old Misfits T-shirts and a couple 45's (I think I might still have a fiend club button somewhere, and I've got a few of the earlier pressed albums, that original T-shirt, and a very large poster....although most of that stuff is in pretty rough shape except for the button seeing as that was never worn).

I sold a couple of Danzig necklaces I bought around 1990 on eBay a couple years ago and got some jingle for em (I also sold my original Evilive T-shirt, and ended up making a happy jingle on that one...ahhh, nostalgia isn't cheap).  I remember being at some punk rocker party when I was 15 or 16, and these kids had a record fight, and threw all these Misfits 45's at each other like frisbees, and they shattered into a million pieces....I think if those 45's hadn't gotten trashed they'd be worth thousands of dollars today (at least 6 or 7 Misfits 45's got busted up along with some other stuff...."stupid punk rockers!" I said to myself as I held part of a broken Horror Business 45 in my hand). 

I saw Danzig in 1990, and again in 92 or 93 and got to meet him for 3 seconds...I shot a concert Michale Graves did in Lansing a few years ago and got to meet him...He was a decent guy. He seemed kind of depressed and tired. One of my friends has been dating Johnny Kelly for several years now, and I had a rather lengthy conversation with him about drumming for Danzig. I saw the Jerry Only Misfits band in 2004 and met him after the show....I was very polite to him, had him sign a CD, and shook his hand....He wasn't very nice at all (very disappointing to meet someone you looked up to for many years to have them be very unfriendly).

I still like their music, and I saw Danzig 2 years ago....I'll always be a Fiend, and their music and imagery was inspirational (and still is) on my artwork.

Anyway, that's some of my Misfit memories...

[zombiehorror]

The Misfits (aka Jerry Only) are set to release another live album titled DeA.D.Live (Get it A.D.), the bands first live album since 1998's EVILLIVE (aka Evilive II).  Personally for me I won't be subjecting my ears to Jerry belting out the Misfits96' tunes [The album focuses on the newer era(s)] but I think the artwork looks pretty sweet!

[marsattacks666]

My $$$ will go to buying classic MISFITS. Lol!

[zombiehorror]

I was farting around online and found some interesting documents both involving legal action from Robert C. Kaufhould (Bobby Steele) and Joseph Arthur McGuckin (Arthur Googy) against Gerald Caiafa (Jerry Only) and Cyclopean music

http://docs.justia.com/cases/federal/district-courts/new-york/nysdce/1:2010cv04588/364187/23/0.pdf

http://docs.justia.com/cases/federal/district-courts/new-jersey/njdce/2:2011cv01460/255365/17/0.pdf?ts=1338559919

Basically what it boils down to is use and trademark of The Misfits name:

"Pursuant to the 1994 Agreement, the parties to the agreement agreed on the sale of certain master recordings to Caroline Records and the division of royalty payments arising from those master recordings. Additionally, the 1994 Agreement states:

The parties shall be co-owners of the name and trademarks of the Misfits and all logo(s) and artwork . . . previously associated therewith.. . . The Plaintiffs and Danzig shall each have the non-exclusive right to conduct merchandising and to exploit other rights relating to the use and exploitation of the name "Misfits" and accompanying logos and artwork except that neither party shall use the names, likenesses and visual representations of the members of the other party without written consent.. . . The plaintiffs and Danzig will each retain 100% of what each earns from the exploitation of merchandising rights and neither the plaintiffs nor Danzig has any obligation to account to the other for any revenues derived from the exploitation of merchandising or any other rights.

The plaintiffs in this action allege that Caiafa told them about the 1994 Agreement and told them that they, too, co-owned the Misfits Marks. According to the plaintiffs, Caiafa told them that no member would apply for the exclusive rights to use the Misfits Marks. The plaintiffs do not allege when or where Caiafa told them this information. They do assert, however, that as a result of Caiafa's representations they believed that he would not seek to unilaterally gain exclusive control over the Misfits Marks.

Since approximately October 2000, Caiafa and Cyclopian, a corporation that Caiafa owns, have filed five applications with the United States Patent and Trademark Office (the "PTO") to register the Misfits Marks. Three of those applications have matured into trademark registrations. When the defendants applied for the registrations, Caiafa represented that Cyclopian owned the Misfits Marks and that to the best of his knowledge and belief no other person had the right to use the marks in commerce.

In the six years prior to the plaintiffs' filing of the instant action, the defendants have sold merchandise including t-shirts, jewelry, posters, stickers, and skateboards using the Misfits Marks. They sell merchandise through their website and through licensing agreements. The plaintiffs were not aware that the defendants were selling merchandise using the Misfits Marks or of the defendants' trademark applications."

[scott_of_smeg]

What in the world happened to the Misfits? First it was a Christian / Republican singer then more Christianity and now lawsuits, trademarks and copyrights?

[Dr Spankenstein]

I've been a huge Misfits fan since 1999.  I really liked the Michale Graves fronted lineup, but they band has gone downhill since Jerry Only took it over.  I'm listening to the new live record now, and it's missing something.  The songs are short enough, Jerry doesn't need to speed them up anymore.  It sounds like he just wants to get the show over with.  If you don't want to shell out the cash for it, it's on Spotify (that's where I'm listening to it).

[zombiehorror]

I'm listening to the new live record now, and it's missing something.

A real/good/talented....hell even mediocre....vocalist!  Both Glenn and Michale were/are talented vocalists and that is definitely missing with Jerry upfront, he did fine with some backup "woahs" and yells on older songs but that's about it!

[Dr Spankenstein]

A real/good/talented....hell even mediocre....vocalist!  Both Glenn and Michale were/are talented vocalists and that is definitely missing with Jerry upfront, he did fine with some backup "woahs" and yells on older songs but that's about it!

Yup, agreed.

By the way, I love your avatar.  I'm an enormous Maiden fan!

[Radioactive Rod Whitenack]

I must sadly concur with you guys on "Dead Alive"! Jerry's vocals were great as backup vocals, but not so much as front man. The material here, which rightly focuses on the more current stuff, also misses the boat. The first half succeeds best in sticking to the new record, but should have included the new record's better tracks like "The Black Hole" and "The Monkey's Paw." "Curse of the Mummy's Hand" actually sounds pretty good live, but "Cold in Hell" and "Death Ray" sound embarrassingly bad. They're terrible! Things only get worse when Jerry tries to cover Michale Graves' songs in the second half. "Science Fiction Double Feature" is a cool cover, but it sounds just like everything else. This is a disappointing live record.

[zombiehorror]

Danzig is going to perform with Doyle tonight as part of the Revolver Golden God Awards!  Anthrax will also be performing!

For the first time ever, the show will air on an exclusive national television broadcast through AXS TV, and global broadcast on XBOX Live and Facebook. 

    To watch the show LIVE on AXS TV click here to check your local listings http://www.axs.tv/subscribe/
    To watch on Revolver's Facebook page, click here https://www.facebook.com/revolvermag/app_448589555162496
    *Or, to watch on XBOX Live, click here. http://www.xbox.com/en-US/live/events/golden-gods

*Xbox LIVE Gold subscription and/or additional subscriptions/fees may be required and sold separately. For additional details and availability, see http://www.xbox.com/live.

[marsattacks666]

Thanks for the info, Zombiehorror.   I was lucky enough to see Doyle and Danzig perform together many years ago.
Plus met Doyle at Fangoria Weekend of Horrors.

[zombiehorror]

Eerie Von working on follow up book/documentary to Misery Obscura!!

"Is everyone from the lineup of those first four Danzig albums still on good terms?
I still hear from some of them every once in a while, and we're trying to get them all together for this documentary that we're working on. It's called Misery Perfectum . It goes along with the title of the first book, Misery Obscura. And the title of the next book is going to be the same as the documentary. I was looking for another Latin term.

The guys who are doing the film are all form Nashville, and said they want to do a documentary that's based on the book, so we might as well call it the same thing and put them together like a package. Doyle is on board, we're still great friends. Bobby Steele is on board, and so is our old security guy, Jesse James. Man, Jesse is a real piece of work. He was real funny, and I have great footage of him and everyone else. There is some Samhain stuff floating around, but I have a lot of Danzig stuff.

A lot of live footage?
I got a camera in 1988 and kept it on the road. So there's a whole bunch of live stuff. We can't use whole shows, but we can use bits and pieces of shows here and there. We're trying to work out all of the legal stuff right now.

Everyone is on board with the project?
Pretty much, so far. We got some of the original Misfits guys who played on Static Age: Franché Coma, Bobby Steele, and Joey Image, one of the old drummers.

I have about 30 tapes of stuff: just us being on the road and backstage and on the bus. If someone's girlfriend was around, they'd shoot the shows while we were playing. I was taking pictures the whole time too, and I got pretty much everything: us in the studio, recording - no one has ever seen any of that. I showed some of the stuff from when we were on the road with Manson to some friends and they ended up putting it on YouTube and crap. It's like, "Well, I ain't going to let you do that anymore.""

Official FB page for Misery Perfectum https://www.facebook.com/MiseryPerfectum and Eerie Von https://www.facebook.com/eerie.von.1?fref=ts

I assume this is the backstage footage Eerie mentions getting leaked out by his "friends"!
Danzig with Marilyn Manson