Project 1950

The Misfits includes: Jerry Only (bass); Marky Ramone (drums); Dez Cadena.
Personnel: Jerry Only (vocals); Dez Cadena (guitar, background vocals); Eric Arce (drums).
Recording information: Schoolhouse Studio, NYC; West West Side Music.
Illustrator: Tony Squindo.
The arguable founders of horror-punk, the long-lived Misfits first started mixing their primitive rock sound with a B-movie sensibility back in the salad days of the late 1970s. After breakups, reunions, and severe lineup changes, the 2003 version of the band is a veritable punk supergroup featuring original Misfit Jerry Only along with members of Black Flag and the Ramones. But instead of churning through a disc of punk tunes, the group takes on chestnuts from the early days of rock & roll. Misfits fans haven't lived till they've heard gruff, punked-up versions of Jerry Lee Lewis's barn-burner "Great Balls of Fire" and Del Shannon's yearning "Runaway." And anyone who could have ever predicted a Misfits album featuring a cover of Jay & the Americans pop hit "This Magic Moment" surely deserves some sort of award for supernatural prescience.