Finding Your Future in a Camelot Music Five-Dollar Bargain Bin

Laura Jane Grace of Against Me! talks about the political fury of CRASS, perfect afternoons at the mall food court, and the joy of a pair of nasty punk pants.

In this edition of “WHAT’S IN YOUR TAPE DECK,” I talked to Laura Jane Grace, the founder, lead singer, songwriter, and guitarist for Against Me! The Gainesville, Florida-based punk band is known for their radical anarchist politics (with the arrest record to prove it) and anthems like “Baby I’m an Anarchist.” She was one of the first high-profile musicians to publicly identify as transgender.

ERIC SPITZNAGEL: You were a teenage punk fan growing up in Naples, Florida, during the ‘90s. Where did you find music that got your heart rate up?

LAURA JANE GRACE: It was easy to find all the classic punk bands, like the Sex Pistols, the Clash, the Misfits. I was attracted to the nihilism and the self-destruction of the Sex Pistols, especially living in a town like Naples. But there’s only so far you can go with that. In the pre-internet age, you were just searching for little drops of information about the history of punk, the history of music, or whatever the scene was outside of Florida.

ES: It’s hard to know until you actually hear the music.

LJG: That’s right. But I stumbled on an album, completely by accident, that changed everything for me. I used to hang out with my friends at the shopping mall and smoke cigarettes outside of the food court. And we would ask people for spare change to buy either beer or pot. But one day, I decided to start asking for spare change to buy a CD.

ES: A specific CD?

LJG: A very specific CD. There was a Camelot Music in the mall, and I was flipping through the five-dollar bargain bin and came across this record called The Feeding of the 5000. It’s Crass’s first album.