Skulls

The Misfits
Walk Among Us

Who doesn't like The Misfits? Tiny little Glenn Danzig singing about scary stuff while simultaneously influencing legions of tykes to pick up guitars and wear eye makeup. It's really too bad he didn't start wearing the fringed, fingerless gloves until he went solo. Think how badass that would be to see on every scare-core band out there. Well, if there are any left. Has anyone seen Ink & Dagger lately?

Lesson #1 for today-Covering The Misfits in a slow, ironic manner is not Step 2 in the 3-step profit cycle. Case in point-Evan Dando's obliteration of this song on the execrable Favorite Spanish Dishes EP. You can't just sing a line like "Demon I am...", you have to growl it out. David Pajo did it as well, but I can't remember which track, so I'll skip it.

Lesson #2-Sometimes it's best to make music when you have no idea what you are doing. According to Michael Azerrad in his book, Our Band Could Be Your Life, the initial musical genesis of The Misfits was the result of reading about this newfangled punk trend and how scary it was, then making up music they thought would fit this. Based on nothing but their imagination of what scary music entailed, The Misfits were born. Okay, so that story is probably apocryphal, as similar stories have been attached to Mercury Rev and Belle & Sebastian, but it's still fun to imagine that happening, right?

Lesson #3-I find that when imagining comic book dork Glenn Danzig growing up in New Jersey, it helps to transpose the image of Silent Bob from the Kevin Smith movies, but shorter. Hope that helps you as well.
Update from the learn something new every day file: Ink & Dagger are long gone and not coming back. Dead lead singers tend to do that

Dog On Wheels

Belle & Sebastian
Dog On Wheels EP

Ah, Belle & Sebastian. The twee-est of the twee. This track is a little more somber than the rest of the tracks at the time, which is around the release of If You're Feeling Sinister. This track stands out for the awe inspiring use of trumpet as lead melody instrument. Otherwise, it's a fairly simple track emphasizing soft drumming and lightly strummed guitars. Go figure-lightly strummed guitars from B&S.

In the end, there is not much to this track. The lyrical content is non-existent, pretty much seems like pining for a childhood toy. I guess it could be an homage to Citizen Kane, but I doubt it. Although B&S is a band that has had no compunction about releasing multiple singles, this is one of those songs which was rightly left off any album. In the end, give me your upbeat and fun tracks, like Legal Man. This is just a waste of so many talented people. Besides, there's no Isobel, and that's just criminal for this era of B&S.