Rating my five favorite Gainesville bands of the last five years is not an easy task. At first, I attempted to address the issue in a kind of objective way. But then I discovered the disingenuousness of such an approach. Music is emotional, visceral, and subjective. And, of course, I would have it no other way: Music should be all those things. So here are—without consideration of genre, trend, or anything—my favorite Gainesville bands of the last five years.

5.) Gunmoll – These guys—alumni from I Hate Myself, Less Than Jake and other staple Gainesville bands—took a lot of slack for sounding like a combination of the seminal Gainesville bands Hot Water Music and Radon. However, by 2002 HWM and Radon’s best music was behind them, and, anyway, those two bands are pretty fucking good influences. Overall, Gunmoll wrote some of my favorite Gainesville rock songs ever: “Less Than You Hoped For,” “One Track Life,” “Apology of a Lifetime,” “Forget Me Not” and the startling “The Letter.”

4.) Bitchin’ – I’ve liked pretty much every band in which Sam Jones has played, and, of them all, Bitchin’ is probably my favorite—with The Crustaceans and Rumbleseat close behind. Sam had great support from the rest of the Bitchin’ crew, and overall they recorded some of my favorite Gainesville songs of the last five years—including “Bargained,” “Manual Resistance” and “I’d Rather Jump.”

3.) Whiskey and Co.­ – At first I thought there was a kind of sameness to W&C’s music, and to a certain extent there is. But it is a lovely “sameness” nevertheless. Songs about lost love, long nights, heavy drinking, drug use and early adulthood ennui are the stock-and-trade of country music, and these themes are employed unabashedly by W&C. Yet Kim Helm and company play with the traditional motifs of country in a thoroughly enjoyable and melancholy way: “I lost the boy that’d probably marry me” and “the morphine taking my soul” and “I hope that the high life is more than getting high”— Oh, indeed!

2.) Beat Buttons – The stalwart members of the Beat Buttons, Alex Lopez and James Hernandez, play pop music informed by their indie/punk roots. The BB’s song “Red” matches Unitas’ “Porch Life” as the best recent tune about life in Gainesville. The Beat Buttons know how to write hooks, and employ them in an economical way. Alex is a great singer and a melodic guitar player, and James gets an almost Staxx/Volt kind of sound out of his bass (and he should sing back-up more). Additionally, current drummer Micah hits hard enough to even get indie-rockers dancing. But, most importantly, the Beat Buttons write great friggin’ songs: The afore-mentioned “Red,” “The Middle,” “Hang Me,” “Unbroken,” “The Simple” and “Time Your Breathing” are all classics.

1.) Against Me! – There was really no question in my mind about this choice. Against Me! put on some of the most enjoyable shows I have ever seen in Gainesville, and all of their albums contain at least a few 5-star classic tunes.

Against Me!’s influence go behind the standard D4/Clash/Avail axis; they mix elements of Uncle Tupelo, Billy Bragg, The Replacements, This Bike is a Pipe Bomb and Bruce Springsteen with their punk-rock roots. Additionally, their catchy punk songs have lyrics that are probably way too intelligent for AM’s average listener. I am not entirely sold on the new CD, but their string of classics is undeniable. Their early song “I Still Love You Julie (Holding on for a Scam)” is one of the best lyrics ever written by a Gainesville band, and I am often tempted to think—cynically—that AM peaked at that moment.

But that is bullshit: They have continued to write amazing songs throughout their career, including but not limited to, “Pints of Guinness Make You Strong,” “We Laugh At Danger,” “Those Anarcho Punks are Mysterious,” Reinventing Axl Rose,” “T.S.R.,” “You Look Like I Need a Drink,” “Turn Those Clapping Hands into Angry Ballad Fists,” “Cavalier Eternal,” “Miami,” “Don’t Lose Touch” and “Borne on the FM Waves of the Heart.”

Whether singing about politics or romance, there is a tangible sense of loss in Tom Gabel’s voice that makes him the most compelling Gainesville vocalist I have heard, and—with the able support of the rest of the band—also makes Against Me! far and away the premier Gainesville band of the last half-decade.

That being said, I hope the following Against Me! lyrics still matter:

“We want a band that plays loud and hard every night; That doesn’t care how many people are counted at the door; That would travel one million miles and ask for nothing more than a plate of food and a place to rest; They’d strike chords that cut like a knife; It would mean so much more than t-shirts or a ticket stub; They’d stop at nothing short of a massacre; Everyone would leave with the memory that there was no place else in the world; And this was where they always belonged; We would dance like no one was watching; With one fist in the air, Our arenas are just basements and bookstores across an underground America; With this fire we could light.”

Any list like this is full of regrets. I have loved way more than five, or even ten, Gainesville bands since 2002. Hence, I have prepared a long “Honorable Mention” section. My heart-felt consolation prizes go to: The Horror, Unitas, Ithaca, Squeaky, Dear and Glorious Physician, Holopaw, Averkiou, Loaded For Bear, The Draft, Polline, Oh Sanders, The Mercury Program, Swayze, Bolero, Cyne, The Slip/Two Finger Suicide, Billy Reese Peters, The Remedies, Grabass Charlestons, Escape Grace, Tadpol Fad, Strikeforce Diablo, The Ones to Blame, Towers of Hanoi, Kokomo/Kollege of Musical Knowledge, Funkiller, Intellect, Dasi, Laserhead, True North, and a bunch of other bands I likely have forgotten.

Be seeing you.

J. Maggio