TV Casualty

TV Casualty: TV Casualty [7-inch]TV Casualty [7-inch] (2011)
Matador Records

Reviewer Rating: 3.5

Contributed by: JohnGentileJohnGentile
(others by this writer | submit your own)
Published on November 8th 2011Punk rock has a vaunted history of game changing shows: The Sex Pistols at Manchester Lesser Free Trade hall. Black Flag at Polliwog Park. Fear at Saturday Night Live. So, its interesting that one of the more modern legendary shows wasn't a punk band performing its own material, but rather, an all-s.

Punk rock has a vaunted history of game changing shows: The Sex Pistols at Manchester Lesser Free Trade hall. Black Flag at Polliwog Park. Fear at Saturday Night Live. So, its interesting that one of the more modern legendary shows wasn't a punk band performing its own material, but rather, an all-star cover band. On Halloween 2009, Ted Leo, Atom Goren, Brian Sokel, Andy Delusion and Chris Wilson, as TV Casualty, donned their devil locks and played an entire set of Misfits tunes (and "Mother" for good measure), which caught punkdom off guard with its reverence, dedication and near-duplication of the real thing.

Following of the success of that show, TV Casualty has released a six-song Misfits cover EP, with all proceeds going to benefit the Attic Youth Center. Of course, these tunes aren't going to replace the amazingness of the originals, but it's impressive as to how close TV Casualty comes to nailing the spirit of Glenn Danzig himself.

Although the Misfits created the "horror rock" genre, there's more to the band than simply singing about ghouls and wearing black. TV Casualty seems to understand this, and instead off dwelling on the horror aspect of the Misfits, play the package in full, giving reverence to each mention of maggots, bellowed croon, slammed bass line, and driving, but not off the hook, tempo.

Most impressively, despite recording the songs on modern equipment, the band is able to capture the murky quality of the originals, leaving sounds on the recordings that are almost there, but difficult to discern just what they are. Leo's vocals are a little more pronounced than Sir Danzig's, which lets the true poetry of the originals have a slightly fuller punch. But, also, in cleaning up the presentation of the vocals, the band somehow seems a little less sinister than the original tunes.

Really, this release is just what it seems to be. Modern punk veterans doing great versions of Misfits classics for a good cause. Who thought that singing about ripping out jugular veins could be so fun?

Login to rate this album

People who liked this also liked:

Please login or register to post comments.What are the benefits of having a Punknews.org account?

Share your opinion by posting comments on the stories that interest you
Rate music and bands and help shape the weekly top ten
Let Punknews.org use your ratings to help you find bands and albums you might like
Customize features on the site to get the news the way you want.

Fine Print: The following comments are owned by whoever posted them. We are not respon sible for them in any way. Seriously.

Haanz (November 10, 2011)

5 stars for giving me a credible and passionate list of the reasons why you love this band, thanks for that. I was a little worried my question may have been interpreted as a rhetorical insult. I'm gonna have to go back and spend a little more time on this band.

johngentile (November 9, 2011)

Good question, Haanz.

For me, the Misfits might be the greatest group ever. Here is an incomplete list of reasons why:

1. The genuine song craft, that is the melody and verse strucutre, is so perfect that you can listen to the same song 10 times in a row and not get bored.
2. Although they do have horror lyrics, if you read them closely, the misfits often did the interesting trick of taking a cheesey b-movie, and placing it in a horrific context. For example, on "Teenagers from mars," the band is referecing a cheesey movie with silly rubber costumes, until Danzig drops the line "the insemination of little girls int he middle of wet dreams," which is not only disturbing, but gives the song multiple levels.
3. danzig's voice is amazing, and he's not shy about using the stylistic tendencies of the now forgotten italiano-american delivery style, found in the likes of Mario Lanza.
4. Much of their lyrics are ibscure, and seem to have a specific meaning, but the meaning is impossible to pin point
5. While there are a lot of horror rock/metal bands around now, int he late 70's,m the misfits were fairly singular.
6. The sheer tone of the bass and guitar is weird, harsh, and wonderful.

ianissuperrad (November 9, 2011)

TV Casualty was the best set of Fest 10, even if I did get a bloody nose during it.

thepopeofchili-town (November 9, 2011)

In every video I've seen of them Ted Leo sounds just like Danzig, but you can tell it's him on this 7-inch, and that's not a bad thing. I would way rather see these guys live than Danzig Legacy and whoever's calling themselves the Misfits this week.

Haanz (November 9, 2011)

Can anyone shed some light on the whole there being more to the Misfits than singing about ghouls and wearing black? As someone who wasn't yet swimming in his fathers testicles when they were around, I never really understood the appeal of this band beyond the occasional catchy lo-fi ditty.

mattramone (November 8, 2011)

Seeing Ted Leo on Saturday. Hope he's got one of these for sale.

mclz (November 8, 2011)

yeah, but it's a super group misfits cover band.....plus all sale proceeds from the record go to charity.

xbat-mitex (November 8, 2011)

a Misfits cover band. Gee what an original idea, that sure hasn't been run into the ground yet

loki13 (November 8, 2011)

So what songs are covered?

mclz (November 8, 2011)

this record is awesome.