So it's the day after Thanksgiving. You're at home trying to figure out what to do that night. You open up the paper and see a headline story (leading the front page of the "Scene" section) on a band that--according to Chris Riemenschneider--is not only all the rage, but most of all important:
At once bleeding-hearted but mostly apolitical, and apathetic but hopeful, the song "New Wave" is the opening track to the Florida punk band's new record of the same name -- one of the best rock albums of the year, and maybe the most important.
In the world of rock hipsters, the latter adjective is much more significant than the former. It might be the best album, but what really matters is that it's the most important. By the way, is it even possible to be both "apathetic" and "hopeful"?
The most surprising thing Against Me! has done was signing to Sire/Warner Bros. Records last year, after a decade climbing through America's indie-punk ranks.
It was a bold move: The band could bring substance and meaning to a corporate rock world dominated by fluffy-haired emo bands. But the punk world notoriously eats its own whenever a group like this joins the mainstream.
People like to pretend that punk is about rebellion and challenging authority. It reality, it's just a nihilistic ethos premised on self-destruction, emptiness, and most of all failure. The worst thing you can do in the world of punk is succeed. In that way it shares an affinity with gangsta rap culture which derides success in school as "acting white," while punk derides success in anything as "selling out." How dare you do well!
Gabel became the Angry Young Man of future Against Me! fame around age 12, when he moved to Naples, Fla. A coastal town where many wealthy retirees go to soak up the sun and tax breaks (including many Minnesotans), Naples "is absolutely oppressive to youth," he said.
"They don't even have a mass transit system in Naples. That tells you something."
Yeah, it tells me that they decided that didn't need it. It also tells me a lot about Gabel that he would describe spending his formative years in an "oppressive" environment. Part of being punk (and a big part of its appeal) means never having to grow up.
The album includes a song about a girl struggling with addiction ("Thrash Unreal") and even one down-and-out love song, "Borne on the FM Waves of the Heart," a surprisingly rocking duet with Tegan Quin of Tegan & Sara.
Sellout!
But the political fire-starters still drive the new record. "White People for Peace" finds Gabel decrying the futility of singing "protest songs in response to military aggression" (ironically, he's doing just that). In "Americans Abroad," he cringes at seeing the influx of U.S. corporations while on tour in Europe ("Wherever we go, Coca-Cola's already been").
Get it? He's using irony to make political statements. How original.
With tracks like those, plus past anthems such as "Don't Lose Touch" and the overtly titled "Turn Those Clapping Hands Into Angry Balled Fists," Against Me! has been positioned as the next Rage Against the Machine -- the one mainstream band of today channeling the tumult of the world into the angst of young rock fans.
Yeah, because God knows what would happen if some bold visionary wasn't addressing the angst of young rock fans.
"I do think that, unfortunately, a majority of kids out there aren't necessarily interested. Instituting a draft might be the only thing that will really make them political. But it's not just kids, most people in general are happy just to be ignorant to what's going on."
If you're not angry, you're not paying attention. Or maybe you are, but you're just drawing different conclusions from the average muddle-headed rock musician. Now that would be novel.
Even after comments like that, Gabel said the notion of Against Me! becoming the poster boys of political rock really makes him bristle.
"I have no interest in filling that role," he said. "I don't want that at all. Anytime someone has suggested that we try and ape that and go that way, I've always been against it."
The guy resists even when it comes to being a resister. How punk-rock is that?
What if he resisted the idea of resisting being a resister? How punk-rock would that be? Thankfully, we've got Chris Riemenschneider in the region's major daily newspaper to tell us.
UPDATE-- Heh, heh. So my wife wasn't the only one who thought that I was channeling JB in this post. I guess that's what happens when you combine scribblin' and imbibin'.
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