Never underestimate the power of a drunken dial.

Or in the case of Against Me! bassist Andrew Seward, the power of a drunken e-mail.

He doesn't recommend them in every situation, but Seward credits a bit of booze-fuelled back-and-forth with helping him land his current gig -- a six-year stint with rockers Against Me!, one of the most critically revered acts of 2007.

Though he wasn't around during the band's early days (when frontman Tom Gabel and buddy Kevin Mahon gigged as an acoustic guitar-and-drums combo), he was familiar enough with the act's work to issue a cocky challenge that wound up working in his favour.

"We had a copy of Crime (the EP Crime As Forgiven By) and a copy of Reinventing Axl Rose (Against Me!'s first full-length album), and they were both staples in the van when I toured with my old band," says Seward over the phone from Florida. "I was e-mail pals with Tom ... and after corresponding with him for a while, I sent him a drunken e-mail saying, 'You should kick out your bass player and let me join.' It was a joke, but he responded by saying, 'If you're serious, our bass player just went back to school. So if you move to Gainesville, you're in.' "

Seward accepted in time to help Against Me! cut another EP and a second record, and he was around when the major labels came out of the woodwork to start courting the band in earnest. That process -- documented in the tour DVD We're Never Going Home -- saw the advances of most of the winers-and-diners rebuffed, though execs at Sire Records eventually convinced the band to ink their first major label contract.

Helping to sweeten the deal even further was a chance to work with famed producer Butch Vig (Nirvana, Smashing Pumpkins), who took over the reins in the studio when Against Me! recorded their 2007 disc New Wave.

That album earned the band reams of positive press (Spin Magazine even named it the best release of the year), and helped expose them to a whack of new fans, who loved how Gabel's rabble-rousing punk lyrics complemented Vig's big-budget sound.

"Hopefully ... it's our best record," says Seward, when asked to explain the widespread appeal of New Wave. "I think people were very curious about us, especially with this record, to see what would happen to us after we'd signed with a major label. So there was that, the curiosity factor. But besides that, they're also great songs."

Boasting cameos by ska-combo the High School Football Heroes and Canuck indie-darling Tegan Quin (of Tegan and Sara), the new disc is a half-hour blast of punk-rock in its most polished, radio-friendly format.

All of the album's tracks were road-tested while the band was on tour, and Seward says Gabel made it clear from the outset that he wanted the record to be free of the emotional highs and lows of their 2005 effort Searching for a Former Clarity.

"I don't know if the words 'All Killer, No Filler' were actually used, but it was definitely something along those lines," he laughs.

Some fans have had trouble forgiving the boys for turning their backs on their punk-rock ethos, but a quick glance at New Wave's tracklist -- in particular, tunes like White People for Peace (a song protesting military aggression), Thrash Unreal (about a teen metalhead who grows up to be a junkie) and Piss and Vinegar (a challenge to fence-sitting mainstream acts) prove the bandmates aren't at risk of losing their trademark edge anytime soon.

"It's definitely a more positive record than Clarity," says Steward. "We're not going to preach to people, but hopefully the songs will make people think."