Conservative punk comes to Pittsburgh

‘ ‘ ‘ Michale Graves is no ordinary punk rocker. ‘ ‘ ‘ Despite being the lead singer for… ‘ ‘ ‘ Michale Graves is no ordinary punk rocker. ‘ ‘ ‘ Despite being the lead singer for immensely popular horror-punk band The Misfits in its ’90s incarnation and a successful solo artist, many things about him make him a unique figure in the punk scene, including his 2005 enlistment in the Marines and his association with the ‘conservative punk’ movement. ‘ ‘ ‘ He became perceived as a subversive force within an already-subversive subculture, although it had little bearing on the critical acclaim generated by his run with The Misfits and in his solo career. ‘ ‘ ‘ His newest solo album, Illusions Live / Viretta Park, is a combination of original songs off of his last solo album Illusions, acoustic versions of popular songs he sung with The Misfits (including ‘Fiend Club’, ‘Shining’ and ‘Crying on Saturday Night’) and a number of demos recorded in conjunction with (and inspired by) his involvement in the filming of ‘Perkins 14’ in Romania for HorrorFest’s ‘8 Films to Die For.’ ‘ ‘ ‘ The story behind the recording of Illusions is representative of his strong following among punk fans. ‘[Illusions] began with me and Damien Echols talking and coming up with the idea to collaborate,’ said Graves. ‘We began creating lyrics, and I started writing some songs. Unfortunately, we ran out of money, so we reached out to the community for donations and got a lot of support from the fans, and the album came out as planned.’ ‘ ‘ ‘ Regarding his time with The Misfits, Graves looks back on it fondly but laments the tension and negativity that developed between the band members, as Jerry Only, the original bassist for the band, reformed the band with himself in the role of singer. ‘ ‘ ‘ ‘I think it’s a travesty, because it’s completely dysfunctional. Jerry Only isn’t a singer,’ said Graves. ‘ ‘ ‘ ‘I think the fans deserve to see the whole band play the songs they love. I was for getting back with the band, but not so much anymore because the nature of [Only] is so negative that I don’t know if it’ll ever get back to a place where it can be productive. I even reached out to him before starting [the Illusions Live tour] but was turned down, as usual.’ ‘ ‘ ‘ Graves is also well-known in punk culture for his somewhat unusual political views, as the punk scene is often associated with radical liberalism. ‘ ‘ ‘ Graves is co-founder of the ‘conservative punk’ movement and Web site conservativepunk.com. ‘ ‘ ‘ ‘Conservativepunk.com was started to create the other side of the political argument against what punkvoter.com was doing ‘mdash; to show the other side of the story, especially to young people who were paying attention at the time to things that were going on in our country,’ said Graves. ‘Everybody gets too attached to wanting to attach labels to punk ‘mdash; to classify what punk is, what it isn’t. Why are you going to exclude people for what they believe ‘mdash; I always believed that this punk thing was all-inclusive, and I refuse to even try to give a definition to what punk is and isn’t.’ ‘ ‘ ‘ His tour in promoting Illusions Live, which will stop at The Smiling Moose in the South Side tonight, exceeded even his own expectations. ‘ ‘ ‘ ‘It’s been spectacular. I’ve accomplished everything I’ve wanted to accomplish with it,’ said Graves. ‘Lots of people have been coming out to my shows, and everyone’s been responding well to the acoustic effort,’ said Graves.