Michale Graves, former lead singer for the legendary horror punk band The Misfits, keeps the legacy of horror punk alive on his solo album When Worlds Collide, delivering songs about the undead, haunted houses, killer robots and the end of the world.
The track “Dying on a Sunday Morning” presents a sequel to The Misfits’ 1999 fan favorite tune “Crying on a Saturday Night,” a crooning ballad about killing your girlfriend.
“Dying” regrets that decision. The song deploys the same sock hop soundtrack arrangements as the original, but with heavier, more penetrating electric guitar and percussion.
The single “House on Haunted Hill” is based on a 1932 horror movie of the same title. Graves obtained footage from that film and condensed it into a short music video with a prologue starring himself and a cast of naïve prey.
Graves grabbed the gig singing for The Misfits in 1996 when the band reunited without Glenn Danzig. Before that, he exercised his pipes with underground punk bands Bambi Slam and Valmont.
Graves left The Misfits in 2000 and formed other punk bands that eventually dissolved.
“Robot Monster,” on When Worlds Collide, stays consistent with the theme of doomed and deadly, but as degenerately gentle as “Dying on a Saturday Morning.”
“Do you think you could love a robot monster?” a robot pleads of a (presumably) human love interest, adding, “I would never harm you.”
“I Walk with a Zombie” is an ironically lively and appropriately infectious pop punk jaunt.
Graves’ politics are controversial for their conventionalism. He joins Johnny Ramone on the short list of right wing punks. “You can say we’re anti-anti-establishment,” he said of conservative punks to The Guardian.
Graves stops on his national tour behind When Worlds Collide at the Fox Theater in Salinas with an all punk line up, including The Irfimities, Phantom, Age, 808 Disturbing the Peace, and Dave Dalton of the Bloody Marys.
MICHALE GRAVES 7pm Wednesday, March 30. Fox Theater, 241 South Main St., Salinas. SOLD OUT. 758-8459, www.foxtheatersalinas.com