Delirious Tremors

What city best defines the birth of true punk? London’s Sex Pistols? New York’s Ramones? The debate will always continue. What is certain is that It definitely did not spring up in the sleepy city of Naples, Florida, but that’s where Tom Gabel and a few friends were stirring up a little anarchy.

When Gabel was 15 years old, he was roughed up by some cops and it was from that moment that he realized that the system wasn’t working and he became a “teenage anarchist.” Now, 15 years later, that moment still clings to his memory and was the inspiration for his band’s newest music video and song on his latest album White Crosses.

“The experience that I had [with the police] was a very formative experience for my life and a really politicizing experience for my life,” said Gabel. “The song is about that moment when my eyes were open to the world for the first time and ignited that spark that motivated my life.”

So Gabel assembled the band Against Me!, and spread the word with his own underground zines as well as exchanging letters with his teenage anarchist peers throughout the U.S. There wasn’t much of an audience for Gabel’s unusual brand of punk rock, but he knew he had to get it out.

“When I first started making music there was no folk punk music scene,” said Gabel. “No one liked the style of music that we were playing. I remember playing shows when it was just me and Kevin [Mahon] and people would heckle us. We kept doing it because we just came from the thought, ‘Well fuck what these people think. We’re doing what we’re doing because we like this and we’re going to pursue it.’”

Well shit… so what happens to the counterculture rocker nearing 30 years old who has a wife and infant son? In June Gabel and Against Me! band mates James Bowman (guitar), Andrew Seward (bass) and George Rebelo (drums) released a fine-tuned production consisting of reflective and reminiscent songs with themes of carrying on after youth into adulthood while still appreciating where you’re from.

“The record is pretty introspective for me,” said Gabel, “I spent a lot of time just thinking about people I used to know, things I used to do and places I used to hang out at. I look back at my previous records and associate them with very powerful memories and this record is representative of where our band is now. More refined sounding and polished. It’s also very upbeat and best played very loud. We did record acoustic versions of the songs and those should be coming out sporadically.”

I thought the album was also reminiscent for myself. I used to listen to Against Me! in high school back in the days when I also enjoyed smashing stuff and hatin’ on piggies. I enjoyed the shout-it-out rock ballad on “We’re Breaking Up,” obviously about breaking up and perfect for that “Fuck you, ex mix.” If you’re looking for a fist-pumper, “Rapid Decompression” is right up your dark and dirty alley and brings in all the essential elements: fast tempo and shouting.

Similar to their previous album New Wave, Against Me! enlisted Butch Vig (Smashing Pumpkins, Green Day, Nirvana) to produce the 10 song album giving it that that clean and pure, arena rock ready sound. Of course if you are pining for that good ol’ folk punk that put Gabel in the spotlight you won’t necessarily find it on White Crosses but you may be able to get the inside scoop by following @tommygabel on Twitter. Is Twitter really punk rock though? Ah fuck it.