Against Me! slam their former label for 'serious mistakes'

Against Me! have slammed their former record labe Warner Brothers after they declined to re-sign them earlier this year.

The New Jersey band had released their last two albums on Warner imprint Sire, but frontman Tom Gabel told Rock Sound that the label passed up the chance to keep them.

"Our deal had run out - Warner had another option but they declined to take the option," he said. "I'm not specifically talking about Warner UK but Warner US is kinda going undergoing a massive restructuring. They’re just making massive cuts, and a lot of the people who are unfortunately losing their jobs are kind of our team at the record label who we’ve worked with on the past couple of records."

Gabel said the label had "made some serious mistakes" in the way they promoted the band. This included sending an unfinished version of their single 'I Was A Teenage Anarchist' out to Canadian radio stations.

The band have also parted ways with drummer George Rebelo, who has left the group to rejoin Hot Water Music. He has been replaced by Jay Weinberg, son of Bruce Springsteen's drummer Max Weinberg.

The band cancelled the UK tour they were scheduled to play in January and February, which Gabel has said was due to personal issues.

"There were a couple of things going on in people's personal lives that needed to be dealt with and we were also going through some stuff with our label," he said. "It was at a point where if the shows had been in the States or hadn't been shows that required a little more of a financial commitment I don't think we would have had to cancel them. But unfortunately it just worked out the way it did."

Against Me! will carry on despite leaving their label, and are scheduled to play a US tour in January.