V-1 Against Me!

Before becoming a full-fledged punk rock band, Against Me was an acoustic solo project. The in charge of that project was Laura Jane Grace. She began playing acoustic shows in Gainesville Florida at the age of seventeen.  In 1997, he would play her music wherever she could. By 2001, she had ditched the solo act idea, and gotten together a full band, which included guitarist James Bowman, drummer Warren Oakes, and bassist Andrew Seward. Against Me released a few free tapes, and by fan request released “Reinventing Axle Rose” in 2002. The album was an underground success. It blended folk, and country music into socially conscious, and passionate punk rock lyrics. The band is hard to describe. You can’t really get a feel for them until you take the time to listen to them. The band held a reputation for continuously being on tour, and they didn’t stop after they dropped their first album. The tour was to get their newly released album out. In 2003, 

a slightly more polished album was released. The album was titled “As the Eternal Cowboy”. The band released a DVD titled “We’re never going home”. After, the band returned with its most mature effort to date, 2005's “Searching for a Former Clarity”. After that was released the band went on their first real headlining tour. They proudly hit every state in the United States. The publicity of touring landed them a deal with Sire Records. They were back on the road by spring 2006, this time opening for the Alkaline Trio, and spent the summer months playing the main stage at the Warped Tour. In July of 2007, the band released their first major label album. It was called “New Wave”. The album lost most of its folk and punk roots. Although the words were still punk rock orientated, the sound just wasn’t there. That album lost a lot of dedicated fans, me being one of them. They changed their sound for record sales. That is something that will always make me lose respect for a group. I still love their first albums though.