I remember the first time I was really introduced to punk music. It was 7th grade and my friend had just gotten a cd from his older brother by a band called "The Ramones". His brother had told him that they were "classic" and not like any of the "new shitty pop-punk bands out now". Well, they definately were not. The Ramones are classic. They are raw energy and power mixed with catchy hooks that had my friend and I rocking out for life. I wanted to get into more punk and was introduced as I got older to more "classic" bands like The Clash, Sex Pistols, and The Misfits, as well as newer bands such as NOFX, Less Than Jake, Bouncing Souls and more. All of this was great, but after a while, it started to get old to me. Sure, some bands like The Offspring started to do new things, but most of these bands stuck to the same repetitive drums and 3 chord guitars. Many of my friends seemed to love it, but I thought it was kida...sucky. Now I'm older and wiser, and realized that it wasn't that some punk was good and some wasn't, but that a lot of it was just awful. Sorry, but it was.
All this is to lead up to say that the new Against Me album is amazing. See, Against Me was one of the "new" bands that my friends thought were cool until they "sold out" with there 2005 album "Searching for a Former Clarity", an album I thought was actually pretty good. I thought this because unlike, say, NOFX, who have at least 10 cds under their belt and still sound the same as when they started, Against Me have shown a large amount of growth and experimentation, not afraid to stray from their harcore roots.
The self-titled track that opens the cd kicks in with a blast of energy that is hard to describe. Tom Gabel's voice roars like the tiger on the front of the cover and makes his....you know what? This is turning into a review that would rival Pitchfork Media in it's self-indulgence. How about this? The album is extremely fucking cool. Each song has it's own sort of intense joy to it, if that makes sense. Even on a song like "Thrash Unreal", which tells the tale of a girl lost to drugs and her mother's realization of this still has an upbeat flow to it, complete with a "bum-bum-ba" chorus to boot.
My only complaint? I'm a bit tired of hearing how the goverment sucks. You can only make so many cd's about that subject till there is nothing really left to say.
This isn't a very good review, but I'm just starting this whole blog thing so forgive me. Oh, and go pick up this cd now.
8/10
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