A Cent and a Half

Now that I've stolen Against Me!'s latest album, New Wave, from my editor and have listened to it, I can safely say the following:

Against Me! sold out. Not their punk ethics nor their original anarcho-stance nor their Gainesville roots--they sold out their fans.

See, after Green Day made their epic move to Reprise from Lookout! and got endless and increasing shit for being sell-outs, no punk band can move to a major and not expect to get shit on. Green Day could feign ignorance to the reaction. Nobody else since could ever doubt the shit storm. My question is therefore always, why? Why take the heat? Is the financial and promotional support really worth it? For the millionaire members of Green Day the gamble obviously paid off and wound up with them being the biggest band in America over the past couple years. Whether AM!'s gamble will pay off or not is yet to be seen. I doubt it though. And in the meanwhile, they isolated their older fans. They didn't appear to give two fucks what their fans thought about their move to Sire or any of the overproduced, boring music that followed. My impression of the situation is that Against Me! chose not to care about their fans because they thought, "Hey, we don't need you, we'll make a more accessible album and replace you." Not. Cool.

However, all was not lost. If AM! did make an incredible record, we could forgive and forget their major status and move on. They essentially had to prove that the punk ethics and boxed-in sound was indeed, restricting them. They had to make London Calling II. And they didn't. They made some slick, boring, toned-down Butch Viggy sounding record. They made an album that sounds like some-band-pretending-to-be-Against Me!. These guys were all punk and passion, they were fucking roots rock. Not only did the expensive studio sound not work in furthering their music, it tears them away from what made them Against Me! in the first place.

I waited for the album's release to pass judgment on these controversial minstrels. I went to their show a few months ago and had a killer time. I had hope. But now that I've heard New Wave, not only did it confirm my worst suspicions, but the music itself was far worse than I even thought it would be.

In the words of New Wave's miserable excuse for a song, Stop!