"I Was a Teenage Anarchist" is a song by the Gainesville, Florida

Gainesville, Florida

Gainesville is the largest city in, and the county seat of, Alachua County, Florida, United States as well as the principal city of the Gainesville, Florida Metropolitan Statistical Area . The preliminary 2010 Census population count for Gainesville is 124,354. Gainesville is home to the sixth...

-based punk rock

Punk rock

Punk rock is a rock music genre that developed between 1974 and 1976 in the United States, the United Kingdom, and Australia. Rooted in garage rock and other forms of what is now known as protopunk music, punk rock bands eschewed perceived excesses of mainstream 1970s rock...

 band Against Me!

Against Me!

Against Me! is an American punk rock band formed in 1997 in Naples, Florida and relocated to Gainesville, Florida in 1999. Their first full-length album, released on No Idea Records in 2002, was Against Me! Is Reinventing Axl Rose. They have released music on Misanthrope Records, Crasshole Records,...

, released as the first single

Single (music)

In music, a single or record single is a type of release, typically a recording of fewer tracks than an LP or a CD. This can be released for sale to the public in a variety of different formats. In most cases, the single is a song that is released separately from an album, but it can still appear...

 from their 2010 album White Crosses

White Crosses (album)

White Crosses received generally favourable critical acclaim, despite being leaked three months before its retail release date. The album was mainly praised for its success in merging Against Me!'s long-time punk rock style with, according to critics, a new found ethos of "arena-" or "radio rock",...

. The single was released as a four-track digital download

Music download

A music download is the transferral of music from an Internet-facing computer or website to a user's local computer. This term encompasses both legal downloads and downloads of copyright material without permission or payment...

 through various online music store

Online music store

An online music store is an online business which sells audio files, usually music, on a per-song and/or subscription basis. It may be differentiated from music streaming services in that the music store offers the actual music file, while streaming services offer partial or full listening without...

s on April 6, 2010, including the additional album track "Rapid Decompression" and two B-side

A-side and B-side

A-side and B-side originally referred to the two sides of gramophone records on which singles were released beginning in the 1950s. The terms have come to refer to the types of song conventionally placed on each side of the record, with the A-side being the featured song , while the B-side, or...

s from the album's sessions, "One by One" and "Bitter Divisions". A 7" single was released on April 17 in conjunction with Record Store Day

Record Store Day

Record Store Day is an internationally celebrated day observed the third Saturday of April each year. Its purpose, as conceived by independent record store employee Chris Brown, is to celebrate the art of music...

, with an acoustic version of "I Was a Teenage Anarchist" featuring as the B-side.

Music video

The music video for the song features Tom Gabel

Tom Gabel

Thomas James "Tom" Gabel is the lead vocalist, songwriter, and a guitarist for Gainesville, Florida punk rock band Against Me!, as well as a solo artist. He was born on Fort Benning, Georgia a US Army post, where his father was stationed. At age 17, he dropped out of high school and formed Against...

 in traditional punk clothing running through a park being chased by a police officer, who catches and starts beating him. After a while members of a crowd that had formed attack the officer, freeing him. However, these members are accosted by other officers. Gabel begins to run away, only to be stopped by more police officers. At the end of the video he is shown being put into a police car. The entire video is shot in a long take

One shot (music video)

A "one-shot" is any music video which consists of action, continuous in time and space, from the perspective of a single camera — a single long take. In order to be able to make one shot videos several special techniques are used. Most commonly the stage props which are not currently caught on...

, and is entirely in slow motion.

Download version

7" version

Band

• Tom Gabel
  Tom Gabel
  Thomas James "Tom" Gabel is the lead vocalist, songwriter, and a guitarist for Gainesville, Florida punk rock band Against Me!, as well as a solo artist. He was born on Fort Benning, Georgia a US Army post, where his father was stationed. At age 17, he dropped out of high school and formed Against...
  
   – guitar
  Electric guitar
  An electric guitar is a guitar that uses the principle of direct electromagnetic induction to convert vibrations of its metal strings into electric audio signals. The signal generated by an electric guitar is too weak to drive a loudspeaker, so it is amplified before sending it to a loudspeaker...
  
  , lead vocals
  Singing
  Singing is the act of producing musical sounds with the voice, and augments regular speech by the use of both tonality and rhythm. One who sings is called a singer or vocalist. Singers perform music known as songs that can be sung either with or without accompaniment by musical instruments...
  
  
• James Bowman – guitar, backing vocals
• Andrew Seward – bass guitar
  Bass guitar
  The bass guitar is a stringed instrument played primarily with the fingers or thumb , or by using a pick....
  
  , backing vocals
• George Rebelo – drums
  Drum kit
  A drum kit is a collection of drums, cymbals and often other percussion instruments, such as cowbells, wood blocks, triangles, chimes, or tambourines, arranged for convenient playing by a single person ....