Against Me!- As The Eternal Cowboy LP

DIGITAL DOWNLOAD INCLUDED

You get more beard for your buck on this Fat debut from Florida’s most mysterious anarcho-punks. Life is fleeting, but this cowboy is eternal!

1. T.S.R.
2. Cliche Guevara
3. Mutiny On The Electronic Bay
4. Sink, Florida, Sink
5. Slurring the Rhythms
6. Rice And Bread
7. A Brief Yet Triumphant Intermission
8. Unsubstantiated Rumors…
9. You Look Like I Need A Drink
10. Turn Those Clapping Hands Into Angry Balled Fists
11. Cavalier Eternel

Though not without the hallmarks of Fat Wreck Chords punk, Against Me!'s As the Eternal Cowboy marks a giant leap forward for the label by combining poppy punk rock with leftist politics, Billy Bragg's raspy anti-folk, and the Replacements' beer-soaked version of Americana. The Gainesville, FL, outfit may have embraced a slightly slicker production than with its fan favorite, Reinventing Axl Rose, but no matter how you stack it, As the Eternal Cowboy is an accomplished record of country-folk-punk that would only qualify as over-polished by the most hard-lined, anti-bar code punk kids' criteria. From the opening swampy croon and (decidedly un-swampy) Elvis -- that's Costello not Presley -- rant of "T.S.R." to the sleepy country ballad "Sink, Florida, Sink," Against Me! is inventive and strikingly emotional compared to its contemporaries, and uses its influences brilliantly without sounding derivative. The album's main weakness is that at under 30 minutes, it comes and goes before you know it. But if the Pogues of the South sounds of "ClichT Guevara" and "You Look Like I Need a Drink" are any indication, the band will put out its rambling, shambling slow album one day. At its best, As the Eternal Cowboy is one of the few early-2000s punk albums that transcends its genre and has the rock & roll clout to storm the mainstream. ~ Charles Spano, All Music Guide