I was waiting for a movie showing and ended up at a Borders to kill the time. After having a cup of coffee I started walking down the CD aisles, looking to see if there were any albums I could listen to. I found some albums I had been meaning to check out and held them in my hands wondering if I could afford to buy them. Hell with it, I swiped my card.

One of the albums was New Wave by Against Me!

I remember I first heard about this band maybe around… 2002, in some obscure punk zine. The story of the band or rather singer Tom Gabel, really intrigued me so I found some Against Me! and took a hard listen. Immediately I was sucked in by Tom’s singing. Every line he sings sounds like he’s had an emotional revelation and he’s belting out something he truly believes in whether it be about politics or death on St. Patty’s day. It felt like a genuine punk album - and what criteria do I use to base this upon? The band sounded like pirates.

Their new album is produced by Butch Vig (Nirvana) on Sire Records - a fact that has caused a lot of debate amongst fans/ex-fans who have been doing so for a while. Personally, I’m totally over the “sold-out” type of arguments so let’s talk about the music.

New Wave is a collection of 10 tracks, each one somehow finding that awesome balance of catchy melodies juxtaposed to hard hitting lyrics and rough/raw vocals.

Stand out tracks include: “Up the Cuts”, “Thrash Unreal”, & “Americans Abroad”. A listen to these three tracks will give you a good idea of what the album is like.

Lyrically the songs range from subjects on politics… the punk kind, to vignettes of the hard knock life.

“Golden arches risin’ above the next overpass. These horizons are endless. Americans abroad! Americans abroad! Profit driven expansion into foreign markets. And while I hope I’m not like them, I’m not so sure.”
- Americans Abroad

“If she wants to dance and drink all night then there’s no one that can stop her. She’s going until the house lights come up or her stomach spills onto the floor. This night is going to end when we’re damn well ready for it to be over. Worked all week long now the music is playing on our time. We do what we do to get by, and then we need a release”
- Thrash Unreal

In the end I give this album an “A”

Here’s a video clip to watch:

video courtesy of ShitStroll
And here are some links to visit:
Against Me! Official Site - www.againstme.net
Against Me! Myspace - www.myspace.com/againstme