Laura Jane Grace has just dropped the official music video for “I’m Not A Cop,” via the Polyvinyl Record Co. label. This is the latest single to be lifted from Grace’s recent studio album, Hole In My Head. The Jonathan Richman-inspired video features Grace playing Reno 911-esque pretend with her wife, Paris Campbell Grace, and is directed by filmmaking trio Weird Life Films. Grace and her band, the Mississippi Medicals, also just announced headline dates across the U.S. midwest, south and east coast for September. Support will be provided by Catbite and Taylor Hollingsworth. Find the new video, live listings, and more below.
Stream/purchase Hole In My Head here: https://laurajanegrace.ffm.to/hole-in-my-head
A musical force since Against Me!’s debut in the late-’90s and one of Billboard Magazine’s 50 Greatest Rock Lead Singers Of All Time, punk veteran Laura Jane Grace has never shied away from themes of political commentary, environmentalism, social critique and candid self-exploration. On Hole In My Head, she continues to showcase her songwriting genius across 11 tracks, issuing an album that 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 refreshing comfort and a welcome embrace of life.
From the scrappy acoustic anthem “Dysphoria Hoodie,” the Jonathan Richman-inspired “I’m Not A Cop” and jangle of “Punk Rock in Basements,” a Dion-inspired song where she looks back on the formative underground spaces of her youth, Hole In My Head also takes time to reflect on Grace’s ongoing travels and adopted homes, themes that have always been at the heart of her songwriting. Written in Amsterdam on a black hollow-body Gretsch guitar that was hand-painted by her friend Gakkin, “Birds Talk Too” is a song that commemorates Grace’s recent experience of having her head shaved and tattooed by the famed Japanese artist.
Elsewhere, the easygoing “Tacos and Toast” settles into the ease of living in her now part-time home of St. Louis. Assuming ownership of what was once Jajouka, a storied warehouse studio that previously belonged to Jay Farrar of Son Volt and Uncle Tupelo, Grace views St. Louis as a city where her ability to make music in a new place has been fully renewed. “St. Louis really opened its arms to me and I just have such a great time when I’m there. It’s a really special city,” she says. “To me, it feels like the way every city in America felt when I first started touring in the late-‘90s, and this crazy mix of fun and adventure, but danger and possibility.” Vibrant and direct as ever, Hole In My Head is an exciting hallmark in Grace’s colorful and ever-changing journey.
Laura Jane Grace & the Mississippi Medicals will be making the following appearances this September:
03 — Louisville, KY — The Whirling Tiger
04 — Memphis, TN — Growlers
06 — Pensacola, FL — Handlebar
07 — St Petersburg, FL — The Floridian Social
08 — Orlando, FL — The Social
10 — Gainesville, FL — The Wooly
11 — Athens, GA — 40 Watt Club
13 — Charlottesville, VA — Jefferson Theater *
14 — Ft. Monroe, VA — Supernova Ska Festival ^
15 — Atlantic City, NJ — Anchor Rock Club*
17 — New York, NY — The Liberty Belle
18 — Asbury Park, NJ — House of Independents
19 — Syracuse, NY — The Song & Dance
* — no Catbite
^ — no Taylor Hollingsworth
Follow Laura Jane Grace:
https://www.laurajanegrace.com/
https://www.instagram.com/laurajanegrace/
https://www.patreon.com/laurajanegrace
https://laurajanegrace.bandcamp.com/
https://music.apple.com/us/artist/laura-jane-grace/684303784
https://againstme.myshopify.com/