Artist:
AGAINST ME!
Label:
FAT WRECK CHORDS
Video:
“DON’T LOSE TOUCH”
Director:
Philip Andelman
Add Date:
September 2, 2005
Late Summer greetings to all my beloved programming brothers and sisters! Andy Gesner and the staff at HIP Video Promo here with yet another awesome clip! We’re thrilled to be working again with Fat Wreck Chords, and not simply because we respect their commitment to uncompromisingly fierce punk rock. This year’s Fat Tour is an ambitious endeavor even by the tireless standards of the label: beginning on the eighteenth of September, shows are scheduled in all fifty states, including Alaska and Hawaii. It’s testament to the profound connection that Fat Wreck Chords artists have made with music fans all over America that such a tour is even possible. And the headliner of this caravan could only be Against Me!
The popularity of the Gainesville quartet has skyrocketed since the 2003 release of As The Eternal Cowboy, their debut album for Fat Wreck Chords. Here was a punk band set apart – energetic, aware, politicized, steeped in an evident knowledge of rock history from Elvis Presley to Elvis Costello, and drawing inspiration from pub rock, whiskey-soaked blues, down-and-out country, and soul-searching Americana. While the melodies were timeless and the playing was fierce, it was Laura Jane Grace’s incisive (and often self-deprecating) lyrics and hoarse, impassioned shout that really hooked young audiences.Searching For A Former Clarity, the band’s follow-up, is one of the most heavily-anticipated indie punk releases on the 2005 schedule, and its incipient arrival – it’ll be in stores on September 6th – is only heightening the enthusiasm for the group. Recently, Against Me! was profiled in SPIN and graced the cover of AMP magazine wherein the band was heralded as “this generation’s Clash”.
The rise of Against Me! has been so quick and so heady that it’s surely been disorienting for a band so committed to maintaining perspective and a sense of humor. In a typically wry writing voice, Grace addresses her sudden popularity in “Don’t Lose Touch”, the lead single from Searching For A Former Clarity. It’s an anthem, and a reminder to herself to stay grounded. Grace is well aware of the absurdity of the rock and roll promotional machine, and he’s not shy about casting a few stones: “Is there something wrong with these songs?” she asks, before raging “maybe there’s something wrong with the audience!” While the verse melody and the singalong chorus are pop-punk at its most infectious, there is, as usual with Against Me!, more going on than there initially seems to be: the guitar opening is all ska upstrokes, and the bass part positively boogies. Like Billy Bragg – an artist the frontwoman of Against Me! sometimes resembles – Grace and her band write blunt punk rock songs that subtly display a comprehensive knowledge of pop musical forms.
Laura Jane Grace and her bandmates do not look happy in Philip Andelman’s exciting performance clip for “Don’t Lose Touch”. As the camera closes in on their faces, they slam away at their instruments and spit their lyrics at their microphones. Andelman, who not only shot videos for Sum 41 and Ludicris, but also cut his teeth as a tour photographer for the Grateful Dead and shot a tour documentary for Lenny Kravitz, knows how to capture a rock band at their most sinewy and powerful. The director presents Against Me! as a tight, muscular unit, discharging their material with a refreshing directness. Shot in a white-walled warehouse with chairs, tables, and other detritus piled up behind the amplifiers, the band plays to no audience other than an obedient dog. Watching the group with curiosity, the animal still seems unmoved by the fury and passion that surrounds him. Are we meant to identify with Grace, or the uncomprehending puppy?
We are proud once again to be working with the incredible folks at Fat Wreck Chords on yet another punk rock masterpiece. Against Me! will be coming to a town near you, as they rock with fellow Fat Wreckers and HIP faves, The Soviettes on The Fat Wreck 50 State Tour! Both bands will be available for interviews and Video ID’s for all you punk rock fans, and we will have plenty of Against Me!’s forthcoming Searching For A Former Clarity on hand for on-air giveaways! If you need more info, call Andy Gesner at 732-613-1779 or e-mail us at info@HIPVideoPromo.com. You can visit www.FatWreck.com to find out more about Against Me!
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