Against Me!: Reinventing Axl Rose [FAT WRECK CHORDS]

Why you'll love it

This Fat Wreck Chords edition keeps the original 11-song album intact, from "Pints of Guinness Make You Strong" to "8 Full Hours of Sleep." It was the band's first album as a full electric four-piece, with five early EP songs rebuilt at full volume.

This edition

• Fat Wreck Chords edition
• Original 11-track album

About the album

Plenty of punk bands start out loud. Against Me! started out with an acoustic guitar and a drummer in Gainesville, Florida, and by the time they made their first full album they'd grown into a proper four-piece with electric guitars, bass and drums, and the songs grew right along with them.

Laura Jane Grace, Dustin Fridkin, Warren Oakes and James Bowman cut ten of the eleven songs with producer Rob McGregor at Goldentone Studios over three sessions around the turn of 2002. "I Still Love You Julie," "Walking Is Still Honest" and "Those Anarcho Punks Are Mysterious..." all get the full electric treatment. A gang of friends shout along on "We Laugh at Danger (And Break All the Rules)," and "Baby, I'm an Anarchist!" became a singalong for a generation of basement shows.

The album's title nods to the Guns N' Roses singer on the cover, and McGregor came back for the follow-up, Against Me! as the Eternal Cowboy. Following a record named after Axl Rose with one about an eternal cowboy suggests a band who were never short of a title.

Also at Kops: more Against Me! on vinyl · browse Punk

Tracklist

Listen

On No Idea / Fat Wreck Chords (cat# FAT 110-1), a reissue of the 2002 album.