Surfing A New Wave

It's something of a coincidence that I'm covering a bunch of bands playing Lollapalooza 2007 this week. I did Silverchair yesterday, and today I'm doing Against Me! That worked out because their new album "New Wave" hits stores today. I don't talk about nearly enough punk rock, so in an effort to broaden horizons this is a good album for me to handle.

From what I can gather by listening back through some older tracks, Against Me! used to be a different sort of punk band a few years ago. They developed this strong following based on these seething and angry anthems combined with an insane live show. With "New Wave" not only are the songs a little less punk and a little more rock, but I've been told that the band has mellowed when playing live as well (I can't officially confirm or deny this). Yeah, this is the band's first album since signing to major label Sire Records, and there's a whole "selling out" factor here that's scaring older fans away. Actually, it's probably closer to the older fans giving the band the middle finger and abandoning them. The whole saga is neither here nor there in the end, because this will be a discussion of the present and present only.

"New Wave" is an album that's really easy to like. It's full of catchy songs that range from angry to depressed to "this is a pretty poppy song." But there's no way this is anything close to the "pop punk" genre from back in the Blink 192 heyday. There's a lot of balls to the wall rock here. By way of comparison, and because I immediately thought of this on my first listen through the record, Against Me! sound like some interesting combination of Bad Religion and The Clash. Seeing as how both those bands have long and storied histories, I'd call that comparison a positive one. Granted, I don't quite think they've got the chops to make a better record than The Clash did in "London Calling," but "New Wave" isn't exactly a half-assed job. Butch Vig produced it and as usual did a very good job

At 10 tracks in length, "New Wave" is a pretty short album. Of course what punk album isn't? Everything is very streamlined and focused to the point where the band doesn't need any more time or energy to get their point across. It's concise and that's exactly the way it should be. All killer, no filler. Particularly "killer" is an interesting duet between singer Tom Gabel and Tegan Quin (of Tegan and Sara fame) titled "Borne on the FM Waves of the Heart." It's almost like the punk rock version of Colin Meloy and Laura Veirs on the song "Yankee Bayonet (I Will Be Home Then)" from "The Crane Wife," but unlike that, this isn't something you can really prepare yourself for. Nevertheless, it was a welcome surprise in an already great album. Despite some of the hardcore fans of the band being let down by this effort, I couldn't be much more pleased with it. No, it isn't nearly the best punk album of the year, but it's absolutely a worthwhile listen, whether you like punk rock or not. Here's your litmus test, actually- if you like any Clash song, you'll find something on "New Wave" that works for you. Simple as that.

Against Me!- Borne on the FM Waves of the Heart (feat. Tegan Quin)

Buy "New Wave" from Amazon

Labels: against me, tegan and sara