I introduced Misirlou on July 20, 2000. The design was influenced by Mike Daines’ 1971 Letraset typefaces Sunshine and Moonshine. Sunshine featured hollow letters with a light halftone drop shadow, while Moonshine reversed the approach with solid letters and hollow shadows. Misirlou carried these ideas forward in a lowercase-only, counterless typeface that reflected the retro styles of the period. The name came from the surf rock song “Misirlou” by Dick Dale and the Del-Tones.
I originally distributed Misirlou with a free commercial-use desktop license. In August 2020, I placed it in the public domain.