Laura Jane Grace does Reddit AMA, announces Against Me! tour

Against Me!'s lead singer Laura Jane Grace has never been one to keep things hidden in her music. The Gainesville punks largely owe their success to their unflagging commitment to heart-on-sleeve songwriting and raw, emotional performances. Still, they are some deeper moments across their discography that fans wat explained. Grace did just that in a recent Reddit AMA.

On "Walking Is Still Honest":

"I wrote 'Walking Is Still Honest' when I was 17 or 18 years old. I had just moved out of my mom's house and was living on my own for the first time. I hated so much of what I saw in the world and was pretty angry. I walked all of the time, everywhere I went. It felt like the one true thing I could still do. There was nothing corrupt about it."

On which of her songs dealt with transgender dysphoria prior to her transition to life as a woman and the release of Transgender Dysphoria Blues:

"'Searching for a Former Clarity' with the line, 'Confessing childhood secrets of dressing up in women's clothes. Compulsions I never knew the reasons to.' Both 'The Disco Before the Breakdown' and 'Tonight We're Gonna Give It 35%' are about gender dysphoria. 'Pretty Girls,' pretty much all of [Against Me!'s 2005 album] Searching for a Former Clarity is about it, I guess, except for the obvious anti-war songs. At the time, the band was facing intense scrutiny from the punk scene about the politics of what label we were or weren't on. That album was me saying, 'I don't even care about these things. Do you really want to know how it feels on the inside right now and what I'm really thinking about?'"

On "Borne On The FM Waves Of The Heart":

"I wrote that song the summer I fell in love with [Grace's wife] Heather. I really didn't want to be in a relationship with anyone and I was fighting it. I wrote the song with Tegan's vocal in mind. I wanted her to sing on it from the start. She was incredible to work with. Really enthusiastic and really fun to be around."

On her musical influences:

"So many bands define periods of time in my life. Madonna inspired me to want to be a performer. When I was 8 I was obsessed with Guns And Roses. When I was 12 I was obsessed with The Doors. The punk band Crass forever changed and shaped the my politics and the way I approach music. The Mountain Goats have been one of the biggest influences on my songwriting. For the past year the only album I've been able to listen to is Roland S. Howard's Teenage Snuff film," she wrote. As for what Grace is listening to today? Shovels & Rope's "Birmingham" and Robin Hitchcock's "New York Doll."

Grace took the opportunity to announce a tour in support of their new album which kicks off on March 9 in Omaha.

3/9 Omaha, NE - The Slowdown
3/10 Columbia, MO - The Blue Note
3/12 - 3/14 Austin, TX - SXSW
3/15 Corpus Christi, TX - House of Rock
3/16 Houston, TX - Fitzgerald's
3/18 San Antonio, TX - Backstage Live
3/19 Dallas, TX - Gas Monkey
3/21 Denver, CO - Summit Music Hall
3/22 Salt Lake City, UT - Murray Theatre
3/23 Reno, NV - Knitting Factory
3/24 Portland, OR - Hawthorne Theatre
3/25 Seattle, WA - Neptune
3/26 Vancouver, BC - Commodore Ballroom
3/28 Edmonton, AB - Starlite
3/29 Calgary, AB - Republik
3/30 Regina, SK - Exchange
4/1 Winnipeg, MB - West End Cultural Centre
4/2 Minneapolis, MN - First Avenue
4/3 Madison, WI - Majestic Theatre
4/4 Palatine, IL - Durty Nellie's
4/5 Indianapolis, IN - The Vogue
4/6 Asheville, NC - The Orange Peel

(via Rolling Stone, Music Times)