I wish that I could tell you that I spend my disposable time (as if time were truly disposable in the first place) trying to learn Baroque-period pieces on my mandolin. I have attempted that, and I do fancy Renaissance-period madrigals, too. However, I do not spend too much time trying to learn either the mandolin or mandolin Baroque-period pieces, and I have, yes, an abiding, though somewhat embarrassing, attraction to the anti-civilizational music of punk. My first concert was a punk concert at some dirty dive in Hollywood at which a drunken idiot was spouting white nationalist taunts toward a touring Japanese punk band–one that probably could not understand him anyway. (This was long before the rise of the dreaded liberal bogeyman group, the alt-right, and far, far from the South.)

This past week has been an excruciating one for me work-wise. I had over a hundred essays to grade, so I had to rely upon ingesting chemical stimulation (nothing illegal, snowflakes) and listening to punk–in particular, (The) Misfits. (How can you not like a band that makes it a requirement that one lift in order to be considered?)

As much as I appreciate the vision and grit of Glenn Danzig and his evil-Roy-Orbison-by-way-of-Robert-Johnson sound, I think that Michale Graves was the much better vocalist. Graves brought a more doo-woppy/50s-ballad feel to the band, infusing it with an energy that it–I dare say–lacked prior to him.

Compare the following:

Glenn Danzig:

Michale Graves’s rendition:

The song that I have had on repeat has been the following tune: a weepy-50s-esque rock ballad of love and murder. I believe that two are never far from each other. (Relax–I am guilty only of one.)

Studio version:

No direspect to Danzig, though. Check out this video and then tell me that you would have messed with (very short) maniac in his prime.

Given that the first CD I ever purchased was an album by The Ramones, I will leave you with this. After this past week, this is all I want (well, that and the busty cutie-pie nurse in this video who comes into view at the 0:57 mark):