Hole In My Head

Cat No: BSM340CD

Following the release of her debut album, Stay Alive (2020) and the At War With The
Silverfish EP (2021), Emmy-nominated artist, author, musician, activist and Against Me!
founder/songwriter, Laura Jane Grace, returns with Hole In My Head - her beautiful new
album featuring eleven tracks that showcase her undeniable power as a songwriter &
storyteller. The album features her most personal and emotionally gripping songs of her
career - stripped down masterpieces like Dysphoria Hoodie paired with blistering distorted
anthems like Hole In My Head and Birds Talk Too, tracks that demand the listener’s attention
with an immediacy and urgency unlike anything Grace has written before.
Recorded at Native Sound in St. Louis, Missouri by David Beeman and mastered by Matt
Allison (Lawrence Arms, Rise Against), the album is a sonic curio cabinet containing
multitudes. Featuring warm 50s-rock-influenced guitar riffs and rock style melody a la
Jonathan Richman and Eddie Cochran, saved-for-later lyrics, love letters to St. Louis,
dysphoria apparel, and thoughtful reflections on a punk life lived, Grace's forward vocals are
backed predominately by her performances on guitar and drums but are bolstered by Drive
By Trucker's bassist Matt Patton.
The record's title track Hole in My Head takes off with a driving guitar-heavy approach that
will be welcome to long-time fans of Against Me! electric machinations, while first single
Dysphoria Hoodie has been a staple in Grace’s setlist, and one which is as personal as it is
pertinent in today’s climate.
Choice cuts I’m Not A Cop and Punk Rock In Basements are written through a post-
pandemic rose-colored lens, the latter looking back on the formative underground spaces of
Grace’s youth. Basement shows for decades were hallmark experiences for anyone
involved in their local punk scenes, shaping movements, connections, and culture through
the forced, sweaty proximity necessary to pour over raucous punk music.
Hole in My Head is a record which captures the nuances of humanity and experience in a
strangely optimistic manner. The lightness of its influence and the journalistic recollection of
experience set against a battered and warm folk-punk delivery from beginning to end
makes Hole in My Head a fun comfort. It is a welcome embrace of life and just the start of a
new chapter in Laura Jane Grace’s raucous journey.