Punk Rock anybody?
“Total Clarity” is a collection of demos and unreleased songs from the 2005’s “Searching for a Former Clarity” recording sessions, released through Fat Wreck Chords, label which also released “The Original Cowboy”, an album of demos from the band’s 2003 album “Against Me! as the Eternal Cowboy”, in 2009.
Following the band’s decision to create their own record label, they decided to re-issue their fifth full-length album, “White Crosses”. The re-issue contains a second disc titled “Black Crosses”, a collection of demos from 2009 and acoustic sessions from 2010, serving as an inaugural release for their newly launched record label, Total Treble Music.
One one hand we’ve got a lot of releases and that’s nice, but it also smells like some record labels try to cash-in, don’t matter what. Zappa were joking about this – we’re only in it for the money – but too many jerks and dickheads are actually really don’t give a shit about music anymore…
On the other hand, I really enjoy listening demo collections, it shows sometimes a different face of the band, the sound mainly are not so polished, the edges are not rounded by (over) production and mainly on the demos we can actually hear what the band had in their mind and not what the record label, some producer and their manager expect from them.
Formed in 1997 in Naples, Florida by Tom Gabel and relocated to Gainesville, Florida in 1999, Against Me! delivering punk rock. Nothing more, nothing less. This is not pop punk, dance punk, chewing gum punk, eMpTyV punk or Bravo punk, although it’s true, Against Me! A.D. 2011 are a quite different band than back in ’97, and probably that “good-old” Against Me! will never return, still, Gabel delivering more authentic punk rock even only singing and playing an acoustic guitar, than many of the so-called nowadays teenage punks. No offense kids!
But just think about, who needs Axl Rose today? 😀
Against Me! studio albums:
2002 – Against Me! Is Reinventing Axl Rose
2003 – Against Me! as the Eternal Cowboy
2005 – Searching for a Former Clarity
2007 – New Wave
2010 – White Crosses
