Jesse Tiffen
A&E Editor
I first fell in love with Against Me! towards the end of eighth grade. Growing up in coastal New England, I was surrounded by a cesspool of a burgeoning hipster culture and social pathology. My middle school friends overwhelmed me with their irony, conservative politics and blink-182 records. Radical and dressed fully in black, Against Me! represented something that was missing from my life musically: a form of punk that was just as political and violent as the 1980s American hardcore scene, but more accessible and heartfelt. Unfortunately, my exposure to Against Me! was a little too late and in 2007 the band promoted to a major label for more money, abandoning any of their supposed punk principles. In 2010, on their release White Crosses, Tom Gabel (now Laura Jane Grace) took the ultimate stab at her past and sang: “You want me to surrender my identity/ I was a teenage anarchist/ The revolution was a lie.” Their sound transformed from clumsy and abrasive bro-hymns to polished arena rock. Their raw sound only grew more and more tame. These sudden changes left many feeling abandoned and disillusioned. Then in May 2012 in a surprising turn of events, Laura Jane Grace publicly came out as transgendered, announcing plans to transition to living as a woman.
On their most recent release, Transgender Dysphoria Blues, Grace skillfully weaves together her identity with the band’s reawakened roots in punk ideology with lines like, “You’ve got no c**t in your strut/ You’ve got no hips to shake” and “They just see a f****t.” It is clear the new album served a release and rejection of years of suppression for Grace. On the track, “Drinking with Jocks,” Grace thrashes and separates herself from the homophobic and poisonous culture she grew up in and belts, “There will always be a difference between me and you.” However, the album’s intensity is erratic and the lifeless instrumentation largely dilutes any emotion. The band’s instrumentation, production and melodies have become so tame; with each new release they fall closer to sounding like every other band on the radio, only with more obvious punk influences. For example, the song “Unconditional Love” is as obnoxiously sugary as any early 2000s pop punk. The verbose lyrics barely secure the staccato drums and guitars, and leave the listener indifferent. As much as I would like to believe Laura is pouring her heart and soul into the lyrics of this song, its production makes me feel like I could swap the lyrics out with any other pop rock song.
It’s easy to become distracted by this album’s weak production value and lackluster instrumentations, but once you consider the people behind the music of this record, Transgender Dysphoria Blues sounds anything but apathetic. Even if their sound has transformed into something completely different, Against Me! has returned to who they truly are.
They might not have the same tone-deaf, shouted choruses or political themes I remember hearing years ago, but something essential has remained. Grace never fully relinquished her identity and has kept the heart of punk ethics alive.
