Against Me! Band • Page 13

New Wave is great great too

 

I Was a Teenage Anarchist is one of my favorite songs of all time

 

Baby, I'm An Anarchist! > I Was A Teenage Anarchist

 

both are amazing songs imo

 

Absolutely. WC is one of my favorite albums. Actually, basically whichever album of theirs that I'm currently listening to tends to be my favorite. That said, TDB holds a particularly special place in my heart and I relate to it the most. I love this band. Old, never, it's all so good imo.

 

Hated White Crosses when it came out but definitely top tier for me now

 

White Crosses came across weirdly at the time because she wasn’t out. Once you go back to that record knowing Laura was building up the courage to transition, it makes a lot more sense — and can be emotionally devastating.

Title track — very gendered lines about “college girls” that come off different when you realise Laura’s envious

I Was a Teenage Anarchist — comes off different when you realise it’s about Laura’s distaste at the masculine role in the punk community she had carved out

Because of the Shame — just look at the title. The song is about her dysphoric lyrics in Thrash Unreal being understood as misogynistic barbs at a now deceased friend.

Spanish Moss — these lyrics are all about pumping herself up to transition.

Bamboo Bones — same vibe as Spanish Moss, but hurts more (“I’m nervous to admit it, I’ve got no grip, I’m leading with my jaw/can you see it from a distance? Does it look ridiculous? Well I guess that’s just what I have to live with)


Where TDB is the perfect trans coming out record, I kinda see White Crosses as the perfect trans trauma record.

 

Has she confirmed any of what you just said, or are you just speculating?

 

Most of it is explicitly written in her autobiography, the rest is highly implied.

for example:

“At the funeral, C.C.’s mom approached me and asked if I still had the tattoo of her daughter’s name on the back of my leg. I was ashamed to tell the truth and say no, it had been covered. When she next asked if the song “Thrash Unreal” was about her daughter, I thought she wanted to hear me say yes, so I lied and said so. C.C.’s mom then told me how much the song had hurt and embarrassed her daughter. They had spoken about it a couple days before her death. She made me promise to make it up to her””

 

I would say that anything can be read as that, should be.

 

I’d say the title track and IWATA bits are slightly reaching, but, yes the ‘Shame’ part is straight out of her book.

 

Idk I mean, with the title track you need to look at how the lines are put together

“I wake up in the morning and I drink from the fountain
I wake up in the morning with the same unanswered questions”

What questions are those Laura???

“Pony tails swinging back and forth behind
Beach-blonde college girls out for a jog
St. Augustine, shine your light down on me”

to me this just reads like “here are some women living the lives I want, can’t god or someone make that happen for me?”

And with IWATA, the key line is:

“Narrow visions of autonomy, you want me to surrender my identity
I was a teenage anarchist, the revolution was a lie”

This strikes me as “I thought I’d feel freer as an anarchist, but I actually feel more constrained because I have to be the angry man”

she’s spoken a lot about the “angry punk male” persona she hated using in interviews

 

Maybe it was in her book, or in an interview, I can’t remember which I read it in, but I do remember her saying IWATA was about feeling like she was this poster child for anarchism at one point and she hated it. She was kind of stuffed into this box and couldn’t like certain things or do certain things because of what people expected out of her.

 

Wow, I drastically underrated Bought to Rot when it first came out, I just listened to it for the second time and it was basically a new album to me, it's great. Could easily have just been an AM! record though I think

 

Such an awesome bass line

 

I don’t think i’ve ever noticed how awesome that is haha

 

Let’s goooooooo

 

Because of the Shame has been in my head for the past several days and I haven't listened to it or any AM in about 2 months. (and oddly the little backstory to what that song was written about). Ready for new stuff!

 

I know i’m in the minority, but please let the sound quality of this record be better than the last. Production was awful.

 

agree

 

Love this record.

 

Made my morning!

 

I listened to Shape Shift With Me yesterday. I still think it’s a fun album. I dug the vibe in the crisp air while walking my daughter in the stroller.

 

really need a new record