Before becoming a full-fledged punk band, Against Me! was an acoustic solo by Laura Jane Grace starting in 1997. By 2001, she’d beefed up her sound with the help of a full band and after a few initial 12″ and 7″ releases, Against Me! issued the fan favorite “Reinventing Axl Rose” in 2002. The underground hit blended elements of punk, folk, and country into socially conscious and impassioned anthems. The album “As the Eternal Cowboy” was released in 2003 and in 2005 followed “Searching for a Former Clarity”. In July 2007 they released under a major-label New Wave, a decidedly more rock-oriented record. New Wave was the first album by Against Me! with no acoustic tracks and produced by Butch Vig (Nirvana, Garbage, Green Day); it was also their first on a major label’s tab. White Crosses debuted at 34 on the Billboard 200 and was the last album with this label. Nevertheless, Against Me! were prepared to launch an international tour. As Against Me! started work on a new album, they launched their own record label called Total Treble Music; In a May 2012 interview with Rolling Stone, Laura Jane Grace went public with her gender dysphoria, announcing her plans to transition to living as a woman and abandon her birth name, Tom Gabel. Against Me! began working on their latest album called “Transgender Dysphoria Blues” in 2012 and, a few months after the interview, the band played its first dates since Grace’s news. The band released Transgender Dysphoria Blues to wide acclaim in January 2014 and are coming on the 3rd of June to the LMB in Prague.
SUPPORT: INVSN (SWE)
