When you think of the town of Gainesville, Florida, what do you think of? If you’re like most people who are keyed into pop culture, you think of the Florida Gators and Tim Tebow. But you know what else came out of that swampy little college town? Tom Petty, for one, and Laura Jane Grace, the lead singer behind the punk band Against Me!! That’s right – before they were jamming tracks with heavy bass and drums, the group was just Laura, making acoustic (and angry) music.

Laura got inspiration from her shows from protest music and was performing around Gainesville, alone, starting in 1997. She didn’t get some musical backup for herself until about four years later. Her realizing the power of her voice with a full band behind her was the start of Against Me!!

The Birth of Against Me!

In 2001, Laura Jane Grace decided to hire James Bowman, Warren Oaks, Andrew Seward, and Billy Bragg to play with her. The new band, which they named Against Me!!, got to work fast. They put out multiple songs without a record label, including their debut album, Reinventing Axl Rose.

They wouldn’t get official representation until 2003, after they’d put out their second album, As the Eternal Cowboy. Representation came in the form of an offer from Fat Wreck, which is an Indie Label based out of San Francisco. The years between 2003 and 2007 were spent playing Warped Tour and putting out single tracks, along with some EPs.

New Wave

Against Me!!’s biggest breakthrough came in the form of their major-label debut album, New Wave, in 2007. It hit all the charts and took them from being a name on one of the smaller Warped Tour stages to being able to go on an international on their own. And that’s what they do now, all these years later: play their punk-rock music to crowds of thousands of people.