Punk rock band Against Me! have just released the new song "333," the lead single for their upcoming seventh studio album, Shape Shift With Me.
This will be the follow-up to their critically acclaimed 2014 album Transgender Dysphoria Blues, which highlighted lead singer Laura Jane Grace's experience as a male-to-female transgender. The track is not only a punk rock heavy tune, but is also quite catchy with its captivating chorus, "All the devils that you don't know / Can all come along for the ride."
In a press release, the band's frontwoman had a lot to share about songwriting for the album:
Tons of people have written about love. But while love is cliché, it’s infinitely relevant... For me, having always been in a punk band that was expected to be political, I never felt like I had that option to write about feelings in that way. That’s what I ended up being drawn to this time. It’s writing in a way I thought I could never write before, and not giving a shit about expectations...
Is there a record that is about relationships from a trans perspective?... There needs to be more records about trans rights and everything like that, but feeling like I already did that, I wanted to move on to write commentary on living from a trans perspective. I wanted to write the transgender response to the Rolling Stones’ Exile On Main St., Liz Phair’s Exile In Guyville and the Streets’ A Grand Don’t Come For Free. All those records are relationship records. There’s been an infinite amount of records talking about what love means from a cisgender perspective. I wanted to present the trans perspective on sex, love and heartbreak...
It was just about opening up to whatever comes my way karmically... Whatever everyone in the band is willing to offer, I just wanted to be open to it. I didn’t want it to be like what it was in the past where it may have felt closed. I want it to be different.
Shape Shift With Me will be available on September 16, 2016. Pick it up on Amazon. Additionally, fans can look forward to Laura Jane Grace's upcoming memoir, TRANNY: Confessions of Punk Rock’s Most Infamous Anarchist Sellout, scheduled for release on November 15, 2016.
Last week, Against Me! announced 2016 tour dates with Bad Religion.
For their latest music, news, and concerts, check out their Zumic Artist Page.
