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Michale Graves - Vagabond
Released on: Feb. 26, 2013
Distributed by: Hydraulic Entertainment
First off, I have to say that I have a special place in my musical tastes for Michale Graves' work - from his some-say heretical stint with a reformed Misfits in the late 1990's through his time with Gotham Road, moving on to solo work and his passionate involvement and subsequent musical collaboration with Damien Echols while he was still on death row as part of the infamous West Memphis Three case. As a singer myself, I've always been envious of his voice and, as a Misfits fan, I enjoyed the new material he brought to that band as its new lead singer. It was more of a return to form for them, I thought, not only in fun, creepy subject matter but also stylistically, returning to their old rock and punk roots.
That diverse musicality only continued with his post-Misfits career as well. I had an opportunity to play with him during the Gotham Road horror-punk phase and while I wasn't a huge fan of their music but their performance ability (especially in front of a tiny, mid-week crowd) and dedication was inspiring. This was after Graves' notorious appearance on The Daily Show as a punk Republican as well as after his rejection from military service. But, after just speaking with him briefly, it became quite clear that he's a good kid with a great sense of humor, especially about himself. That's tantamount to successful punk rock, in my opinion, and Graves has that non-demeaning self-depreciation aspect that encourages and motivates empathetically.
Here's a good illustrative anecdote: As I was in a Misfits parody band at the time and we covered one of Graves' tunes in particular I was a bit anxious about how this would all go over. I saw him come into the venue during our set, hoodie up and arms crossed, standing in the far back. But as soon as he heard our version of his song (Don't Open 'Til Doomsday became Don't Open That Mayonnaise) his head went back with a humorous tilt, a big grin on his face. I had the opportunity to play with him a few more times, both with a backing band and also just armed with his acoustic guitar, and I've seldom met someone more genuine and honestly sincere about what he's doing musically.
So, call me both a fan and defender since it seems I'm still encountering folks that decry him for his time in The Misfits or some of his notable activity afterward. Recently, then, I had another opportunity to put my support into action as he announced that his next album would be funded through Kickstarter. While a little bummed that someone with his level of talent has to resort to crowd-sourced funding I nevertheless pitched in a tiny amount with the promise of receiving a pre-release copy of the CD. And stoked I was to see it arrive earlier this week.
Vagabond is his first full album release since Illusions With Damien Echols in 2008 and it finds Graves continuing to hone his craft. Proof to that are two new arrangements/versions of older songs of his, When We Were Angels (from Illusions) and Dig Up Her Bones (from American Psycho). The latter of those is one of my favorite Misfits songs but he's also managed to turn it into a signature song of his own, embellishing its moodiness and allowing himself to stretch himself vocally on it.
I suppose the best term to describe the album's sound is melodic punk rock. Here, he's mixed elements of pop punk, 77 punk guitar lines, and even a bit of fist-in-the-air bar rock into a slickly polished, diverse offering that showcases Graves' talent as both a writer and vocalist. The opening track, All the Hallways, is reminiscent of his earlier work on, say, Punk Rock Is Dead, conjuring up an ode for the isolated loner that's as catchy as it is highly melodic. Likewise, the next track, Hold Onto Yesterday, uses a disco beat to paint a bleak picture of the current political state in the U.S.
Things then slow down a bit with Revolution By Candlelight, wherein someone's searching for something to hold onto in a scarred, barren world, abandoned by society. The slower pace continues with Burn, Baby, Burn, with a bit of stripped down instrumentation voicing the frustration with one's place in the world, the only alternative or attempt at making life is to destroy it all. And then rounding out this bit of melancholy is Ode To Heath, taking a nod from Heath Ledger's depiction of The Joker and his embrace of anarchistic chaos as a sort of message of hope for a better tomorrow.
Best of Me kicks in deceptively at first, with a solo guitar picking away at what will then be a far more driving type of beat. It's also typical Graves, examining a hopeless despair and finding even the slightest point of light to follow out of the darkness. The album's title track, Vagabond, comes on next, a mid-tempo song depicting one's good-and-bad mental state as a vagabond existence that needs to quit doing so. Break Me Out comes next and can really be best described as a bar-rock anthem, what with its bluesy guitar breakdowns and spirited gang vocals. While this track is a bit of an aberration on the album it's still fun and keeps the overall mood far lighter.
I Can Feel Heaven starts like an old U2 song, with the sustained bass notes and the guitar tapping harmonics, all the while Graves' vocals suspended, hauntingly over it all, touching down to help drive it all forward. Chasing The Wind builds on this moodiness but with far faster beat that describes the weariness but ongoing pursuits within humanity's existence on this world. Oh, Please, Why? is closer to a love song here, a loving ode to someone who's gone on from this world. But it's up-tempo enough to belie its title and not seem like a moody poem by a middle school student, becoming instead a valid, mature acknowledgement of another and living with loss. Train To the End of the World is the final track that's new to this album and, like the preceding track, finds Graves exploring the notion of leaving this world alive, so to speak. It's mostly acoustic so the focus stays on Graves' vocals and lyrics, where the emphasis should be for such a song. Rounding out the album are the aforementioned new versions of both When We Were Angels and Dig Up Her Bones which both serve to highlight Graves' diversity as a songwriter and performer.
Overall, then, Vagabond is a welcome return to form for Michale Graves, a varied and very entertaining mix of styles that speak to the common punk themes of isolation, loneliness, being an outcast, and how to find some kind of hope and camaraderie in all that.
