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Against Me! cemented their reputation playing in laundromats and basements on acoustic guitars and improvised drum sets. Many of their original fans will never forgive them for leaving the basements, folk-punk roots and relative obscurity for the Fat Wreck Chords label and a bigger rock sound and will hate “Searching For a Former Clarity.”
But according to Tom Gabel, Against Me!’s founding and central member, the last time they played in a basement the house collapsed under the weight of their fans. “Searching…” reveals that Gabel’s ambition and maturity have grown with his fan base, so logically Against Me! has developed a more muscular sound to support the added weight.
The opener “Miami” is the biggest, most devastating song in the band’s catalog thus far with a tense beginning, snowballing momentum, and a vicious, explosive release. That the rest of the album lives up to the standard set by “Miami” is amazing.
On the next few tracks, the band that once drew easy comparisons to The Dropkick Murphys sounds in turns like Fugazi and, in “Unprotected Sex With Multiple Partners,” like Franz Ferdinand. “Unprotected Sex …” sounds ironically radio-friendly, especially given its anti-music industry lyrics and its implication that signing to a major record label is as advisable as, well, having unprotected sex with multiple partners.
Gabel’s songs are so much better than they need to be, as evidenced by “Pretty Girls” which starts out like standard emo fare (“What are you gonna say when she picks up the phone?”) but gains depth. After several listens we realize the song’s protagonist isn’t just whining; he has an STD and can never have a serious relationship with the girl he’s pursuing.
Many former fans complain Gabel’s lyrics have become too personal and too far from the anarchist anthems that characterize early Against Me!. The songs “Mediocrity Gets You Pears” and “Holy Sh**” deal with the futility of using punk music for social change ever since it was co-opted by the industries that punks once sought to destroy. In the latter song, Gabel compares idealistic punks to “kids pretending to be astronauts, police officers and firemen.”
Against Me! acknowledges punk’s irrelevancy while creating the genre’s most exciting, authentic songs in decades. For what it’s worth, that makes them today’s most important punk band.
Against Me! will perform Wednesday, Sept. 21 at Ushuaia. Tickets are $13 at Bull Moose Music; doors open at 6:30 p.m.
