Against Me!

AGAINST ME were are an acoustic band (now electric) from Gainesville FL. I saw tom, the singer, play solo at a Laundromat show that my good pal mikey hot sauce set up in g-ville (way back in 2001?) and I was truly blown away. I remember how i felt that night. See, i was on tour with my band and THIS BIKE IS A PIPE BOMB and DAVE DONDERO. Mikey offered Dave a spot on this non-conventional venue show and it sounded fun. When TOM GABEL got up to play i had no idea what to expect. He looked very crusty and i had never seen a crusty punk play an acoustic set. I had no idea what he was gonna do. Then he started... I've never seen a solo guitar player sing with such charisma and charm and energy. it was one of those moments when music is honestly inspirational, I was in love. I was in love with tom and his weird acoustic guitar with an electric guitar neck and head. I was in love with his music. Against me wrote the anarchist anthems that we hoped our children be singing on our communes in 30 years when we smash the state (i'm not being sarcastic at all).

I wrote Tom a letter after i got home and asked him about doing a record. he sent me a "demo" which was the "Crime as forgiven by..." CD-EP. (just Tom and Kevin) and i loved it (and still do) and released it.

Since then they have moved on and are now on a major label. Being involved in the DIY punk scene (as i am assuming you are) you might already know that signing to a major label is often called selling out. Many DIY punk militants and casual underground music fans were very upset about the path the band chose to follow.

It's hard to explain how much this band meant (means) to people. seeing them play in a small personal setting was an amazing thing. singing their songs in your living room/at a party/around a fire (i know it's a cliche') IS SO MUCH FUN!

Sadly, plan-it-x is no longer involved with against me. We no longer sell the CRIME EP. for the full story of why, click on that release.

NO IDEA records is a good source for AGAINST ME stuff, i strongly suggest the CRIME EP (now on Sabot records) and REINVENTING AXLE ROSE and the "ACCOUSTIC EP"

DISCOGRAPHY

FULL LENGTHS
New Wave 2007
Americans Abroad!!! Against Me!!! Live in London!!! 2006
Searching for a Former Clarity 2005
As the Eternal Cowboy 2003
Reinventing Axl Rose 2002


DEMO TAPES
Vivida Vis 1998
Against Me! demo tape 1997

DVDS
We're Never Going Home 2004 (with me and Hannah interviewed)

SINGLES AND EPS
White People for Peace 12" 2007
Thrash Unreal single 2007
White People for Peace 7" 2007
From Her Lips to God's Ears 12" 2006
Don't Lose Touch 12" 2005
Sink, Florida, Sink / Unsubstantiated Rumors 7" 2005
Cavalier Eternal / You Look Like I Need a Drink 7" 2004
The Disco Before the Breakdown EP 2002
The Acoustic EP 2001
Crime EP 2001
Self-Titled 12"EP 2000



HERE IS A REVIEW FROM A BIG MAGAZINE OF THE NEWEST AGAINST ME ALBUM-"NEW WAVE"

A decade ago, Tom Gabel began his music career as a 17-year old solo acoustic act known as Against Me!, belting out songs of rebellion in Laundromats and any other venue that would have him.

Flash forward to today, and Gabel's agitation cycle is still cranked high, but not without a wild streak of optimism thrown in for good measure. For the past five years, the gravelly roar of the vocalist/guitar player has been part of a thunderous and thoughtful foursome featuring Andrew Seward (bass), Warren Oakes (drums) and James Bowman (guitar), still doing business under the Against Me! moniker. Churning out a distinctive blend of punk, rock, and even folk that is impossible to label, they have toured all 50 states and foreign lands from Iceland to Australia, forging an intense connection with their growing legions of fans.

Now, after three successful full-length records on indie labels-- Reinventing Axl Rose (No Idea, 2002); As the Eternal Cowboy (Fat Wreck Chords, 2003) and Searching For a Former Clarity (Fat Wreck Chords 2005), which reached #9 on the Billboard Top Independent Albums chart and featured the thumping "Don't Lose Touch"-- this Gainesville, Florida band is making its major-label debut on July 10, 2007 with New Wave (Sire Records). The title is tidal for a powerful reason.

"We felt like that was our mission statement, or our manifesto for the record," Gabel said. "Instead of sitting back and complaining about how there's no good music out there, you should be energized and take things over. Be the bands you want to hear. It meant 'wave' in a literal sense, coming and washing away mediocrity... Why let someone else have the loudest voice?" asks Gabel, and with his band's new record, he most surely has not.

The album opens with a colossal, angst-fueled one-two punch: "New Wave" and "Up the Cuts" are driving, irresistible tracks, seething with energy and alternately pleading and snarling for change. It's a theme that reverberates throughout the record, both on personal and artistic levels, coming up again most pointedly in "Piss and Vinegar," with Gabel caterwauling "Just say what you're thinking!" to the faceless pap-pushers of the mainstream.

For a D.I.Y. outfit like Against Me!, signing to a major label meant some changes in approach-- namely, that the band was going to enlist a full-time producer for the first time. They didn't mess around, teaming up with alt-rock heavyweight Butch Vig (Nirvana, Smashing Pumpkins, Sonic Youth, Garbage).

When the label was prepping a list of potential producers, Gabel and his mates were afraid the candidates would be hot-shots who "didn't even give a f*ck about our band," the singer says with a laugh. He confirms that a few mega-producers were indeed on the document, "but Butch was there, and I've been a fan of tons of his records, all across the board. I like the fact that the majority of his records are great-sounding sonically, but still sound like real bands. They don't sound like all the life has been drained out of them."

For his part, Vig was instantly drawn to the relative unknowns the first time he saw the band play live. "I was blown away by the way they played the intensity and the reaction from the crowd," Vig said. "The way the audience sings all the songs, I could see this passionate connection with their fans and the way the band communicates with them."

The veteran producer was excited to work with a band that's not shy about sharing their feeling on any subject. "One of things I found refreshing in their music, in Tom's lyrics, is that they give a shit, but they're never preachy or anything," Vig shares. "He's saying something that makes you think about what's going on. The songs lyrically are complicated and dense. They're not simple pop songs, but they rock."

The first single, "Thrash Unreal (Bah Bah)," is a perfect example. In the manner of early Tom Waits and Bruce Springsteen songs, it empathetically chronicles the damaged life of a typical college-town burnout-- a 40-something female junkie who says she has no regrets-- to a defiantly upbeat chorus.

Bass player Seward, who joined Against Me! in 2002, says the new step forward for the band is "not a new adventure-- it's an extension of the adventure. It's something we wanted to do-- we own this move [to a major label]. But I'm not going to lie to you," Seward added. "I was scared shitless, like 'Oh shit we're going to make a complete rookie mistake, we're going to go to Hollywood to some big-time studio and record something that sounds like..." he trails off with a laugh. Instead, Seward is proud of their latest work, saying "Tom has written by far the best batch of songs he's ever crafted...Everything is necessary in these songs, everything is there for the greater good. There's no bullshit or filler in there."

To make sure he had absolute focus on writing the record, Gabel holed up in a Gainesville motel whenever the band wasn't touring. As with previous Against Me! records, the subject matter on New Wave is freewheeling, as befits the mind of a 27-year old American male at a crossroads in his life. Conceived by Gabel as "in many ways, a reaction" to the "self-centered, dark and moody" terrain of Searching For a Former Clarity, the new 10-track, 34-minute CD covers the topics of love, lust, war, personal integrity and substance abuse, with a unique blend of attitude that Vig describes as "intense, but with a positive undercurrent."

New fans drawn by the incendiary 2006 "Jimmy Kimmel Live" performance of Former Clarity's sizzling screed "From Her Lips To God's Ears (The Energizer)," with its plaintive chorus of "Condoleeza! What are we gonna do now?" will find more in store. The former "Army brat" (until his parents divorced when he was 12) has stepped up to the plate and cranked out two more raucous fist-pumpers about war and national identity.

"White People for Peace" celebrates the nobility/futility of protesting war, while "Americans Abroad" rails against corporate greed with the aid of Oakes' road-rage drums and Bowman's ominous guitar tremolos, before boomeranging with a cautionary that maybe we're all part of the problem, even the band.

"I don't feel like I'm a person who has any answers," says Gabel, who self-published a 'zine called Misanthrope while in his teens. "But I often feel like I'm searching for identity in the world and trying to figure out where I fit in."

Wide-eyed and world-weary. Never naive, but often idealistic, Against Me! is in many ways the punk-rock embodiment of Matthew Modine's character, "Private Joker," in the classic Stanley Kubrick film Full Metal Jacket. They're flashing peace signs in a seething mosh pit, and there's no place else they'd rather be.