AM! Next Album...make or break?

Foo Fighters play in small clubs and arenas and either way their shows are fantastic. But it's because they're good musicians and know how to play a small show, or a big show. I definitely think Against Me! is more in their zone in front of a smallish crowd, but I don't think them being in a bigger venue would affect their skills as a musician.

its hard to enjoy music when the band look like ants

that part is pretty true.
which is why i'm pretty sure i will make sure i am on the floor.

Eh, I've rocked out from faraway. I won't argue that the energy isn't different because it obviously is. It's just what you make of it. If you go pissed off, then you aren't gonna have a good time. But if you just go and listen to the music I think you can have a good time from wherever you're watching.

BettyOakes wrote:

that part is pretty true.
which is why i'm pretty sure i will make sure i am on the floor.

some stadiums don't have floors. at least MCI

lex wrote:

Eh, I've rocked out from faraway. I won't argue that the energy isn't different because it obviously is. It's just what you make of it. If you go pissed off, then you aren't gonna have a good time. But if you just go and listen to the music I think you can have a good time from wherever you're watching.

You sound like a jam band kid lol

for me the music makes up half the event. the other half is the energy for the crowd. like the surfing and knocking each other around with fists raised. you can't do that in a stadium. i've seen band that i wasn't really into and still had a great time and it was because of that energy

no matter what kind of show it is i try to knock people around but last show was a bunch of dumb groupies who weren't into that.
thank god there was an asian kid with poor sense of rhythm who jammed with me...haha.

for me i make my own energy.
i can't always rely on their being a good crowd.

I'm sure they'd make an exception for Against Me! and move the floor seats out. But honestly, I can't ever see them getting that big, there songs just aren't something that the average person can rock out to, at least I don't think so.

What's a jam band kid? I think the energy can still be awesome at a huge show, I guess it just depends on how many big shows you've been to. I saw Green Day back in 2005 (actually when AM! opened) and the energy at the show was crazy. It was my first big show and I just had the best feeling when I left that show.

the way you said "But if you just go and listen to the music" just reminded me of a long haired, sandal wearing, hippy jam band kid (phish, Great full Dead, kinda music) who smoke doobies and such.


well i guess we agree to disagree

Ahh, creepy. I am definitely not like that, haha.

I'd be the one taking the picture. I'm just that cool.

you are pretty cool i just wanna be in the pic :p

i dunno, new wave didnt have that 'feeling' that i connected with in the first place, and like someone els said, the crowd at the shows has changed since ive been seing them. If the next album has more 'major label rock' sound but has the same 'we hate the sterility of the major label music scene' i'll be disappointed.

Nautical Rudie wrote:

If the next album has more 'major label rock' sound but has the same 'we hate the sterility of the major label music scene' i'll be disappointed.

i think its kinda dumb that they write songs about the music industry yet they work for them now. The execs probably just laugh at AM! when previewing their songs at board meetings or what ever they do.

There definetly does need to be more emotion into the new album. New Wave is a great album with a lot of great songs but it just doesn't have that touch that you get in their older albums. Other than Trash Unreal I just don't feel the same emotional connection I feel with the old stuff. If their new ablum continues down the path that New Wave laid out I'll still listen to them but a lot of the passion will have faded. I have high hopes though.

I think New Wave has a tremendous energy to it.

It's just filtered through a 3 month recording process. It's easy to have a feeling of high energy when you record an album in a week, but I actually love that Against Me! took the time to record and mix an album properly (meaning recorded over time, instead of having the band just play through the songs live in a studio and use whatever happened. Not that there is anything wrong with the punk rock method of recording music, it's just that....well....it just sounds sort of flat.).

But I've heard Butch Vig is nuts, and that the band made all those YouTube videos out of sheer boredom. I think that the energy of the songs was tempered by the fact that before they could sing they had to wait a month for the drum tracks to be finished.

I just didn't get as in to New Wave because it was just a bunch of songs. I've heard that New Wave was supposed to be just a bunch of rock songs because the band thought "Searching..." was too dark and heavy. Fair enough, but I really liked having the songs sort of go into one another and carry a theme throughout the album.

But New Wave is just as good as any of their other material. They just spent more money on the microphones, is all.

arollo wrote:

It's just filtered through a 3 month recording process. It's easy to have a feeling of high energy when you record an album in a week, but I actually love that Against Me! took the time to record and mix an album properly (meaning recorded over time, instead of having the band just play through the songs live in a studio and use whatever happened. Not that there is anything wrong with the punk rock method of recording music, it's just that....well....it just sounds sort of flat.).

I think from a pure musical perspective New Wave is the best album they've made. But unfortunetly all that "filtering" has strainted out much of ther emotion. I love that raw, unrifined feel that you get from good punk, and Against Me! seemed to have that feel mastered. It just makes the music seem so much more personal and passionate.

seriously? i feel like as the eternal cowboy has far more going on musically than new wave, and i'd say from a musical perspective, atec is the best. just because there are guitar solos doesn't make the music any more interesting IMO

Well I think Searching For A Former Clarity is the best album they've made.

I think people just like certain things, that are quite hard to define. But it seems like even people who heard New Wave and were kind of unsure (I kind of went "what the...") are now really into it.

I don't agree with people when they say that the early stuff (the 12", the demo tape) was the best and most passionate. But everything they've made has some element of whatever Against Me! does put into it, and that's why they are such a fantastic band. They seem to be incapable of phoning it in. Or at least they can phone it in really, really well.

i wouldn't say the demos were the BEST, but i will say they have a lot of heart in them...more than anything on new wave anyway. my fave has always been ATEC though, it makes me feel like i can do anything i want.

This I think is something we'll have to see for ourselves, really. Me and my friends have an ungoing battle (which is slowly turning into an all out war...) over which is the worst and which is best. New Wave tends to get the ass end of the list on their parts, but then again, they're more into shit like the Ramones and Black Flag, so their tastes might naturally groove towards older shit. ( And who can deny AM!'s old stuff?)

I think the real question is for me, which way will they go? Will they keep rocking this new style and ride the wave, or will they try and moderate back to a style the that please all the old fans?

If they did go back, I'd be surprised. The majority of stuff I hear from old "HARDCORE!!" fans is bitching...

it damn well be better than new wave...........

They're not gonna change to "please the fans", I think that's been long established, they're above that. I still hope they do something that the old "HARDCORE!!" lot hate even more, their whining is getting beyond annoying to just being comical nowadays.

JamaicaSka wrote:

They're not gonna change to "please the fans", I think that's been long established, they're above that. I still hope they do something that the old "HARDCORE!!" lot hate even more, their whining is getting beyond annoying to just being comical nowadays.

I agree 100%. Thanks for putting it better than I could.