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The Nutley Brass

Misfits Meet The Nutley Brass: Fiend Club Lounge
2005
Misfits / Rykodisc

The Nutley Brass - Misfits Meet The Nutley Brass: Fiend Club Lounge (Cover Artwork)


Review by: Aubin
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The Misfits (Logo)

Published on July 15th 2005

The Misfits reimagined as a brass-tinged lounge act? “Yeah, sign me up” he says sarcastically.

I suppose it's no secret that I'm a huge Misfits fan. I have the box set, CDs, T-shirts, vinyl, and a variety of little things adorned with that ubiqutous silver skull. I've always maintained that the band represented a great leap forward in both punk rock and heavy music, influencing a diverse number of acts from spooky, goofy ska acts like the Independents and “serious” mainstream rock acts like Metallica.

The reason it probably worked so well was because the band began with such a limited instrumental vocabulary. As musicians they certainly weren't proficient, and aware of those limits, the band took advantage of their biggest asset, the singer and songwriter Glenn Danzig. Glenn, who possessed both an ear for melody and an incredible voice was two parts Roy Orbison, one part Elvis with a dash of Joey Ramone.

The band's “hook” was certainly a unique one as well, with their unending devotion to the spooky, the gross and the absurd. It takes a certain kind of lyrical genius to write a line like “Brains for dinner / Brains for lunch / Brains for breakfast / Brains for brunch / Brains at every single meal / Why can't we have some guts,” but while some people may dismiss the band as no greater then their B-movie shtick, the band also had a knack for menacing but incredible catchy melodies and possessed an unerring ability to deliver them in a performance. “She” with its minimal accompaniment of electric piano is absolutely carried by Danzig's vocals; “Last Caress” is about as lyrically objectionable as you can imagine, even decades later, but because of a melody so riveting it could crack concrete, the song is deliciously memorable.

So what happens when you strip away the powerful vocals, buzzsaw guitars and relentless pace? Well, you might get Misfits Meet The Nutley Brass: Fiend Club Lounge, a collection of Misfits tracks performed so innocently that I wouldn't be surprised to hear them over the PA at my local department store. While the record is no substitute for the originals, the reinterpretations really do reveal how incredibly solid the songs really were. The test of a songwriter, of course, is to take away all the stylistic flourishes and strip it down to the melodies; a truly great song will work either way, and in a way, Fiend Club Lounge is the ultimate example of that experiment.

The album leads off with “Last Caress” with Glenn's vocals replaced with a soaring trumpet, bells and what appears to be a clarinet. Next, the band breaks into a horn and organ section for a performance of “Astro Zombies.” A sitar kicks off “Where Eagles Dare” before a 50's style girl pop version of “Some Kinda Hate.” “Teenages From Mars” is probably about as weird as you could imagine, performed like the opening moments of a Broadway musical. “Die, Die My Darling” closes out the album, performed like it should accompany the climax in a James Bond movie.

In the end, Fiend Club Lounge is clearly a novelty performance; it has no pretensions about supplanting the Misfits, or even standing alone as a work, but for fans, it's a fun, and -- dare I say it -- “cute” look at the Misfits.






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    Posted by Anonymous on Saturday, January 21, 2006 at 5:24 PM (EST)
    My Score:

    I loved it its hilarious

    Posted by misfitbrit138 on 2005-09-14 18:40:58

    And im telling you!
    this sucks! no danzig! its not misfits! this is bull!

    Posted by Anonymous on Thursday, July 21, 2005 at 8:40 PM (EDT)

    "Score is for the death at the end of the Half Blood Prince. Fuck you J.K. Rowling "

    who dies?

    everyone shut up. I like the movies.

    who dies?

    wyzo

    Posted by Anonymous on Wednesday, July 20, 2005 at 9:52 PM (EDT)

    sorry bout the spelling

    Posted by Anonymous on Wednesday, July 20, 2005 at 9:51 PM (EDT)

    I saw the DANZID and Doyle set. It was great, Danzig is fat and is bald bud as it goes on he gets better, Doyle is fantastic

    Posted by Anonymous on Wednesday, July 20, 2005 at 12:21 PM (EDT)
    My Score:

    This review was so good, it made me pull out my old misfits records and make a mix tape.

    Here is a story - when I was 16 my car stereo broke and I spent all winter with a battery-operated boombox on the seat next to me. I had only one tape for the thing and that was "Static Age". I didn't take that tape out (or even flip it over) for 4 months.

    -Ken

    Posted by Anonymous on Tuesday, July 19, 2005 at 4:11 PM (EDT)

    Jerry Only, how could you?

    Posted by Anonymous on Tuesday, July 19, 2005 at 6:12 AM (EDT)

    For their punk era: Static Age.

    For hardcore: Earth AD

    Or just about anything made before the "reformation".

    -BSD

    Posted by Anonymous on Monday, July 18, 2005 at 8:39 PM (EDT)

    aubin, since youre a fan... (or any other fans)

    if i were to buy ONE misfits cd, which should it be...

    Posted by Anonymous on Monday, July 18, 2005 at 11:58 AM (EDT)

    so many people are so mad about this. i dont get it. listen closely to the misfits. even in their original versions the songs sound like they should be show tunes. i've always been able to envision some sleazy lounge singer doing london dungeon. this far from destroys their legacy, it solidifies it. this is probably the best tribute idea anyone could think of for this band. its about fucking time someone did this. this makes the misfits even more legendary than they already are.

    Posted by primeevil7 on 2005-07-17 13:40:40
    My Score:

    Score is for the death at the end of the Half Blood Prince. Fuck you J.K. Rowling.

    Posted by Anonymous on Saturday, July 16, 2005 at 11:29 PM (EDT)

    The Misfits legacy has officialy been erased! (and that's a sad thing because they were great up until Glenn left).

    Posted by southpawnation on 2005-07-15 11:50:59

    These are all Danzig-era Misfits songs. I'm also a huge Misfits fan and I thought this CD was a fun reinterpretation of the material. One of my buddies who is also a huge Misfits fan totally hated it and thought the material was just raped (and, no, he's not 15, but he was acting like it.)

    I totally disagree w/ that and, for what it is, it succeeds pretty well. I like more of their arrangements on these songs than I did on their Ramones songbook album. The first half of this borders on brilliant but it does get a little tedious listening to the whole thing all at once. "Last Caress" and "Astrozombies" came out the best.

    I wouldn't recommend buying this album as something that is going to be listened to very often, but for special purpose use, it's kinda great. For example, I'm using the Nutley Brass version of "Last Caress" in my wedding next month. No way I could have gotten away w/ playing that song otherwise. =)

    Posted by Anonymous on Friday, July 15, 2005 at 10:51 AM (EDT)

    SkolarX: thats an insult to danzig

    -rkl

    Posted by SkolarX on 2005-07-15 10:38:05

    "incredible voice was two parts Roy Orbison, one part Elvis with a dash of Joey Ramone. "

    you forgot jim morrison, i know people who have thought doors songs were new danzig songs. sad but true

    Posted by Wharf_Rat on 2005-07-15 07:14:30

    I always thought "Some Kinda Hate" should be done big band style. Does it work well here?

    Posted by hubitcherkokov on 2005-07-15 01:39:14

    Are there any post-Danzig tracks? If there aren't, I'd consider getting this. Also, has anyone seen Danzig with Doyle, doing the short Misfits set? If so, HOW WAS IT?!

    Posted by Anonymous on Friday, July 15, 2005 at 1:25 AM (EDT)
    My Score:

    score is for the independents

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