This Music Leaves Stains: The Complete Story of the Misfits
This Music Leaves Stainsis respectful, informative, and thorough enough not to alienate hardcore Misfits fans as humorless as Danzig, but pretty much anyone will get a kick out of it.(Psychobabble)This is the Misfits book we ‘T.V. Casualties’ have waited for. It’s also a tome they’ll wish they’d written themselves. Green makes chronicling the chaos look easy, his enthusiasm and love for the music seeping into his prose. . . . The story is so visceral and compelling that one can imagine the events unfolding onscreen as a major motion picture.This Music Leaves Stainsis a . . . Misfits missalette that gets to the heart of the seminal scare band’s long-lasting legacy of brutality and outlines the precise reasons why they still connect with audiences some thirty years after they first warned the world to ‘Beware.’(Examiner.com)Crammed as the punk rock bookshelf has gotten in the 21 years since the publication ofEngland's DreamingandPlease Kill Me(1996), there's been no volume published on the Misfits. James Greene Jr. steps into the breach admirably. The page count may be thin, but content's thick, the author accurately and respectfully telling the tale of how Jerry Only and a cast of several channeled Glenn Danzig's obsessions with murder, blood, horror comics, and trashy horror films into a potent, powerful, and melodic strain of punk rock distinctly the Misfits' own. Colored vinyl 45s like "Horror Business" and "London Dungeon" were the most vicious sing-alongs around, and the graphic presentation brilliant, as was the band's down-market Kiss presentation. Thankfully, Greene Jr. pulls no punches as egos tear the band apart, and a genius musical brand gets degraded through the actions of Danzig and Only both. All the warts are here, from Danzig's French onion soup at Fun Fun Fun Fest 2011 to Only's licensing the Misfits logo to any chintzy tchotchke possible.(Austin Chronicle)This Music Leaves Stainspaints a picture so vivid, even the most pedestrian of music fans will find it interesting.(New Noise Magazine)This Music Leaves Stainsprovides detailed accounts of the various stories shared by those who know anything about the enigmatic band, including citations and a bibliography, should readers wish to read further. In addition, there is a nearly thirty-page annotated discography, which lists studio recordings sorted by format, bootleg recordings, videos, Misfits related recordings, 'scrapped Misfits releases,' and descriptions of important films that influenced the Misfits. . . .Greene’s work will open up the possibility for more critical research regarding the Misfits in the future.(Notes: Quarterly Journal of the Music Library Association)I came away completely captivated byThis Music Leaves Stains,largely because it is just so damn well researched. Green’s annotated Misfits discography at 1977 to 2012 at the back of the book is worth its weight in gold, in light of the fact that the Misfits have had so many rumored releases over the years. At the same time, it moves along more like a novel than a biography. Certainly the Misfits have seen their share of inner band upheavals, mainly when Danzig left for more lucrative offers and bigger fame. Through it all, that Crimson Ghost logo has survived decades, glaring out from stage banners, EP covers and even sneaker endorsements.(Vintage Rock)