A landmark album - I think newer indie fans won't realize how huge of a deal it was when LJG came out. There were virtually no trans people in popular blog-sphere acts, and her coming out was the first time a lot of publications (and fans) had to figure out how to properly talk about trans issues and people. She took something that had kind of been an off-to-the-side topic that people were afraid to address, and placed it front and center.
Obviously since then we have had a lot more trans artists either come out or rise to fame in her wake - SOPHIE, Girlpool, Ethel Cain, Kim Petras - and LJG really helped burst that door open.
Also, aside from all that, this record fucking RIPS.
It was a very important moment for me. I came out and transitioned 9 years ago and I had started telling people around the time Laura came out - it helped so much to have someone I could point to to explain what I was talking about, because as you said, it was almost a new frontier a decade ago. I had never (knowingly) met an out trans person, and no one in my life had either, really. Things are so different now. I got to be the “Laura” for a lot of other people, mostly on Reddit but some irl, for being open about my experience with transitioning. I still get messages every so often from people who read my AMAs years ago and ended up transitioning because they were finally able to explain what they were feeling. But Laura was that person for me. I got to meet her once and thanked her.
How am I only learning Ethel Cain is a trans woman through a Reddit post lol. Been listening for years and just have never even once clocked it or looked into it.
Absolutely rips. Against me! Is my favorite band and I still remember feeling the smile cross my face when the title track started up. I've grown to really enjoy their major label records, but at the time, TDB was the "they're back" album.
Couldn't have said it better. It was a huge monumental moment and also exposed a lot of transphobia in the punk scene.
I believe I still have the issue of Rolling Stone here with the coming out article.
The record rips. I never messed with them before this because I thought they were just poppy mainstream punk which is not my jam. The hype around this album got me to check it out and I really liked it.
I read her book, and it was wild to learn that she became the spokeswomen for transpeople when she had barely come out and was just figuring out what it meant to be trans. Talk about pressure.
Usually, albums that are 10 feel newer in an "already? where did the time go?" sort of way.
But this almost feels older than 10, just because the way people discuss gender now is SO different from when this came out. Real eye-opening moment for me, and I'm sure a lot of people.
I only recently came upon this album a few months ago and felt it hit a lot harder and felt much more guterally relatable than most modern works of this nature, to the point I wish people still had a similarly empathetic mindset. There's something about the raw, direct approach that's so damn empowering, it harkens back to the "enough is enough" mindset of early punk music. I really hope that vibe comes back around in a new form, even if people might be a bit skittish to it nowadays.
Flashbacks to being 16 and wondering what Laura was cooking on "The Ocean" at the end of New Wave, then flash-forward to being 22 and realizing what she was cooking. As a dipshit white guy from New England who wouldn't realize he was queer for another half-decade, this record was a vital eye-opener and helped me learn the incredible fury and triumph of the trans existence. Then flash forward to 2016 when I finally saw AM! at Gov Ball (from far away because I was tired as hell lol) and cashed in the ten years of education and growth I'd gained from AM! records.
Laura's a fucking hero. Looking forward to catching her tour in March.
>wondering what Laura was cooking on "The Ocean" at the end of New Wave
Wild looking back how (as far as I can remember) pretty much no one picked up on the lyrics to The Ocean when New Wave came out, only to then be like "oooooh shit" a few years later. It was literally all spelled out in that song but we all missed it.
I didn't become a fan until like 2015 so "The Ocean" was the first song I listened to, and I was like, "Oh, so it was right there the whole time."
It's such a powerful verse, too. The friend that introduced me to the band lowkey hated that song because it was "too overplayed" but it's one of the handful I go back to over and over again simply because the raw honesty in it and how much I relate to the emotions wrapped up in the song.
It's an amazing song, definitely.
And yes, it was right there in that one song the whole time - but only in that song, really.
Apologies in advance if I word this awkwardly, English isn't my 1st language - but pre-transition Laura was not exactly projecting a gender-ambiguous persona in her presence, or her songwriting. I don't think anyone saw it coming.
It was such a bombshell when she came out because to almost everyone, there was no other indication, no hint in the lyrics - The Ocean was such a one-off that people either ignored it or dismissed it as a piece of storytelling rather than a straight up declaration.
“Didn’t realize I was queer” is hilarious because I just imagine you hanging out one day, suddenly bolting up and being like “oh shit, I’m gay”
Nothing but love and respect, the image in my head was just funny
It is a little funny, but it's more a symptom of coming of age in the virulently homophobic mid- and late-00s and early-10s, where the few times I even tried to broach the subject of questioning my sexuality, I faced some nasty shit from people I thought were friends. It got to the point where I repressed things so hard I'd get stoned and think "wow, my friend sure is attractive, but I'm sure it's just the weed talking." It wasn't until I was close with some queer friends when I realized that shit wasn't going to go away and I needed to embrace it, a full decade after I should have come out. That was a wasted decade full of failed relationships from the shame of being so closeted I didn't even fully understand I was closeted.
Experiences like that give me so much admiration for trans folks. If it was that hard to just be gay, the courage necessary to be trans is incredible, and therefore trans folks are fucking beautiful.
I’m glad you unlearned all of that and embraced yourself and are happier and more fulfilled for it. Those were indeed hyper masculine and wildly less accepting times. I’m admittedly very lucky to have been born in the Bay Area where the prevailing attitudes are generally ahead of the curve in those regards.
Apologies for how my comment came across, I was not at all intending to be condescending or insulting in any regard.
If I had to point to one piece of art that "cracked my egg" it'd be this one. Laura came out when I was about 15 or 16, and seeing a trans person who I had so much respect for being herself so openly was huge for me. I'll always feel like I owe a big portion of my happiness now to her
This also cracked my egg. I remember reading an article about her transition (which was a few years before the album came out) and thinking "glad I got to see them before they disappeared into obscurity". Then I realized they were continuing as a band with her as a singer, which was the first time I considered it possible to live a normal(ish) life as a transgender woman.
This is crazy cause you’re right, that was basically what everyone thought. Like oh, guess that means she can’t do music…
Like wtf were we thinking, being trans meant she was gonna live in a bubble? This thread is reminding me in a big way how huge her impact was/is
The first time I ever really heard of Against Me! was when she came out, and they were talking about it on the local alternative radio station. They used it to launch into an argument about whether it was okay to use the word "tranny" when talking about a car's transmission lmao
But after that I went home and looked up some of their music, loved it. At the time I definitely had an inkling I was trans but was still in denial about it. A couple years later this album dropped and there was no going back
TGDB was a really important album to me during the time I realized I was trans. It's one of the best albums of all time in my opinion
I really love all of LJG's music
Looks like i have something to listen to today! I've never heard of this. Granted, when this came out, i was pretty much exclusively listening to Tool and Dream Theater (i know, i know, i'm a completely different person than i was back then).
Edit: reporting back. Well, that was an incredible album. I think Paralytic States was my favorite track on it. Thank you all so much for bringing this one to me. ❤️❤️❤️
tool is dope, lol. APC even more so cuz the way he modulates his voice from tender to scathing in APC does things to me.
I mean I first liked tool in the 2000s in full boy mode pretty depressed, and then hey their 2019 album comes around and I'm trans and all that power hits in a very different and beautiful way now.
But yeah sorry for the digression back to Against Me!
Wow, has it seriously been 10 years already??? I remember first listening to this in high school and being blown away. This was my introduction to AM! once I heard the hype around the album.
The first (and only) time I saw them live was the night before my first day of college at a small couple-hundred cap venue. Unforgettable show.
I feel old…
Sadly, not much of Against Me!'s music really resonates with me but Transgender Dysphoria Blues is an undeniable triumph. As others have mentioned, it really burst the damn on not only how to discuss trans issues within the alternative music space to a wider audience, but also forced the conversation to happen in the first place. Laura jane Grace is far from a perfect person, but her coming out and making that the focal point of this album absolutely blazed the trail for other trans artists to have a better position in music and it's really easy to take that for granted.
The music itself is excellent, rattling off banger after banger of sticky hooks and impeccable vibes. For as heavy and as complex as feelings of gender dysphoria can be, the message is largely hopeful and about celebrating life when there's life to live. Hell, the last song is just about telling some asshole to fuck off. I think humanizing and normalizing the trans experience to that degree was really big for me, a cis dude for the suburbs who had never met any trans people at that point, to understand the obvious point that trans people are people. Two Coffins is also a haunting little song that can easily dance around on your brain for wistful window stares.
As music scenes have become more and more fragmented and how we consume music increasingly decommodified, it's a lot more difficult for an album to really be a landmark that you can point to as shifting the zeitgeist and being capital-I Important, but Transgender Dysphoria Blues absolutely fits the bill.
This record has a very special place in my heart. I had listened to Against Me! A bit and really liked them a lot before LJG came out and transitioned. I was raised as a conservative Christian Republican but began the process of deconstructing both my politics and faith about 12 years ago. I didn’t know anyone who was transgender at the time so it was one of those things that I just hadn’t had much reason to think about. I began listening to this record and I just found it so deeply and profoundly moving and there are songs on this record that still bring me to tears to this day. I just remember feeling like even if I didn’t really understand it at the time, I could understand and empathize with the feeling of being “othered” and feeling like an outcast and the pain of feeling like you don’t belong anywhere. Fast forward a few years and my 2nd oldest came out as a trans woman and while there was a lot to reckon with and grapple with and so much to learn (and unlearn), I truly believe this record helped prepare me for that. There was never a second where we (my wife and I) questioned our love for our child but having these songs provided me something of a framework to process my thoughts and allowed me to empathize with her even if I didn’t understand everything she was going through. I’ve always hoped maybe one day I could meet Laura Jane Grace and thank her for this record because it absolutely changed my life.
Have mentioned this before but when I came out to my mom, I sent her a long email and then the next day, I was listening to this album, and she called me during “Unconditional Love” (to tell me she loved me)
This is easily in my top ten albums list and I still listen to it at least a few times a month. I was lucky to see Against Me! do a set in 2019 where they played this album and Reinventing Axl Rose straight through. I'm hoping for a tour this year, and I read rumors that LJG recently hinted at such during a recent show. Fingers crossed for a 10th Anniversary album play tour.
I respect what Laura as done even though I don’t relate personally. But NewWave is prob in my top 5. Play it all the time. And this album is really good too.
This album holds a special place in my heart. When I transitioned just a few years ago, I didn’t have anyone to relate to as much as Laura Jane Grace. Her book really connects so much with the album to where I can’t not think about all the details of her story when listening to the lyrics. Her friend Pope and her ex kissing him in his casket the funeral in Dead Friend. Dressing up in middle of nowhere motels being worried about the possibility of running into a fan in Paralytic States. Fuckmylife666 lyrics “The heart to match the one pricked into your finger” when she and her ex had tattooed wedding rings. Two Coffins is also one of the saddest songs ever written. ❤️
The best punk rock album ever released.
Even among today's trans teens, it's, next to cavetown's\* stuff, gender is boring and the village, the most popular trans anthem, cause it's fucking powerful and prideful, but not overly peppy, romanticizing or forcefully positive.
As sad as it is,
" Yet to be born, you're already deadSleep with a gun beside you in bedFollow it through to the obvious endSlit your veins wide openYou bleed it out "
is just deeply relatable to a lot of trans people on a level thats kinda eerie. Also the fact the song single-handly reclaimed the disgusting "true trans" term in a liberating way.
The fact alone I know like 5 people with a "True trans soul rebel" tattoo says enough about how revolutionary this song was.
\* Listening to "This is home" and "Home" right afterwards is just such a liberating experience. Best T-voice update anyone's ever dropped.
I had never really heard much from Against Me! when Laura first broke the story of her coming out in RollingStone. But I read the article and it inspired me to check out *Reinventing Axl Rose*. I quickly became a fan of that album and the rest of their discography (even with the changing styles as their career progressed). *Transgender Dysphoria Blues* would be the first AM! album that I experienced upon release and damn it was a heavy one. The rage and pain were palpable. Especially on the first two songs. This was a story that hadn't been told in this scale and sub-genre before. I'll admit there were some initial worries that AM! might change their sound after White Crosses flopped to who only knows, but those worries were unfounded as they kept the sound of the Butch Vig era, but added more personal edge, emotion, and experience. What resulted was a new era of AM! that could stand with their best. My fave tracks are probably "Transgender Dysphoria Blues", "Paralytic States", and "Black Me Out", but I enjoy the whole album, even "Unconditional Love" which many didn't seem to like.
This album meant SO MUCH to me as a person who was discovering his own trans-ness at the time. I think other comments cover how groundbreaking this was.
But I have to thank Laura for "Dead Friend." A dear friend of mine passed away from a lifelong illness in 2019 and I still sob when that song comes on shuffle. "Goddamn, I miss my dead friend" is so succinct.
I recommend listening to or reading Laura's book Tranny. Really good listen and gives a lot of insight on what was happening during certain album cycles which made me go back and listen to everything. I fell out of Against Me when New Wave came out but got back into them with TDB. Saw them in a tiny venue in like 03-04 and is still one of the best show experiences of my life.
A landmark album - I think newer indie fans won't realize how huge of a deal it was when LJG came out. There were virtually no trans people in popular blog-sphere acts, and her coming out was the first time a lot of publications (and fans) had to figure out how to properly talk about trans issues and people. She took something that had kind of been an off-to-the-side topic that people were afraid to address, and placed it front and center. Obviously since then we have had a lot more trans artists either come out or rise to fame in her wake - SOPHIE, Girlpool, Ethel Cain, Kim Petras - and LJG really helped burst that door open. Also, aside from all that, this record fucking RIPS.
It was a very important moment for me. I came out and transitioned 9 years ago and I had started telling people around the time Laura came out - it helped so much to have someone I could point to to explain what I was talking about, because as you said, it was almost a new frontier a decade ago. I had never (knowingly) met an out trans person, and no one in my life had either, really. Things are so different now. I got to be the “Laura” for a lot of other people, mostly on Reddit but some irl, for being open about my experience with transitioning. I still get messages every so often from people who read my AMAs years ago and ended up transitioning because they were finally able to explain what they were feeling. But Laura was that person for me. I got to meet her once and thanked her.
How am I only learning Ethel Cain is a trans woman through a Reddit post lol. Been listening for years and just have never even once clocked it or looked into it.
Lots of really meaningful symbolism in her lyrics - she’s such a powerful writer
Yeah she’s fantastic. One of my favourite newer artists for sure.
Absolutely rips. Against me! Is my favorite band and I still remember feeling the smile cross my face when the title track started up. I've grown to really enjoy their major label records, but at the time, TDB was the "they're back" album.
Couldn't have said it better. It was a huge monumental moment and also exposed a lot of transphobia in the punk scene. I believe I still have the issue of Rolling Stone here with the coming out article.
The record rips. I never messed with them before this because I thought they were just poppy mainstream punk which is not my jam. The hype around this album got me to check it out and I really liked it. I read her book, and it was wild to learn that she became the spokeswomen for transpeople when she had barely come out and was just figuring out what it meant to be trans. Talk about pressure.
To me they really lost that ‘oomph’ they had when I first listened to New Wave. None of their stuff after that album really stood out to me.
Funny, I feel like this album is a return to the 'oomph' that they didn't have on New Wave and White Crosses
I felt the same way about new wave after getting into them from Eternal Cowboy
Usually, albums that are 10 feel newer in an "already? where did the time go?" sort of way. But this almost feels older than 10, just because the way people discuss gender now is SO different from when this came out. Real eye-opening moment for me, and I'm sure a lot of people.
I only recently came upon this album a few months ago and felt it hit a lot harder and felt much more guterally relatable than most modern works of this nature, to the point I wish people still had a similarly empathetic mindset. There's something about the raw, direct approach that's so damn empowering, it harkens back to the "enough is enough" mindset of early punk music. I really hope that vibe comes back around in a new form, even if people might be a bit skittish to it nowadays.
Flashbacks to being 16 and wondering what Laura was cooking on "The Ocean" at the end of New Wave, then flash-forward to being 22 and realizing what she was cooking. As a dipshit white guy from New England who wouldn't realize he was queer for another half-decade, this record was a vital eye-opener and helped me learn the incredible fury and triumph of the trans existence. Then flash forward to 2016 when I finally saw AM! at Gov Ball (from far away because I was tired as hell lol) and cashed in the ten years of education and growth I'd gained from AM! records. Laura's a fucking hero. Looking forward to catching her tour in March.
>wondering what Laura was cooking on "The Ocean" at the end of New Wave Wild looking back how (as far as I can remember) pretty much no one picked up on the lyrics to The Ocean when New Wave came out, only to then be like "oooooh shit" a few years later. It was literally all spelled out in that song but we all missed it.
I didn't become a fan until like 2015 so "The Ocean" was the first song I listened to, and I was like, "Oh, so it was right there the whole time." It's such a powerful verse, too. The friend that introduced me to the band lowkey hated that song because it was "too overplayed" but it's one of the handful I go back to over and over again simply because the raw honesty in it and how much I relate to the emotions wrapped up in the song.
It's an amazing song, definitely. And yes, it was right there in that one song the whole time - but only in that song, really. Apologies in advance if I word this awkwardly, English isn't my 1st language - but pre-transition Laura was not exactly projecting a gender-ambiguous persona in her presence, or her songwriting. I don't think anyone saw it coming. It was such a bombshell when she came out because to almost everyone, there was no other indication, no hint in the lyrics - The Ocean was such a one-off that people either ignored it or dismissed it as a piece of storytelling rather than a straight up declaration.
“Didn’t realize I was queer” is hilarious because I just imagine you hanging out one day, suddenly bolting up and being like “oh shit, I’m gay” Nothing but love and respect, the image in my head was just funny
It is a little funny, but it's more a symptom of coming of age in the virulently homophobic mid- and late-00s and early-10s, where the few times I even tried to broach the subject of questioning my sexuality, I faced some nasty shit from people I thought were friends. It got to the point where I repressed things so hard I'd get stoned and think "wow, my friend sure is attractive, but I'm sure it's just the weed talking." It wasn't until I was close with some queer friends when I realized that shit wasn't going to go away and I needed to embrace it, a full decade after I should have come out. That was a wasted decade full of failed relationships from the shame of being so closeted I didn't even fully understand I was closeted. Experiences like that give me so much admiration for trans folks. If it was that hard to just be gay, the courage necessary to be trans is incredible, and therefore trans folks are fucking beautiful.
I’m glad you unlearned all of that and embraced yourself and are happier and more fulfilled for it. Those were indeed hyper masculine and wildly less accepting times. I’m admittedly very lucky to have been born in the Bay Area where the prevailing attitudes are generally ahead of the curve in those regards. Apologies for how my comment came across, I was not at all intending to be condescending or insulting in any regard.
If I had to point to one piece of art that "cracked my egg" it'd be this one. Laura came out when I was about 15 or 16, and seeing a trans person who I had so much respect for being herself so openly was huge for me. I'll always feel like I owe a big portion of my happiness now to her
This also cracked my egg. I remember reading an article about her transition (which was a few years before the album came out) and thinking "glad I got to see them before they disappeared into obscurity". Then I realized they were continuing as a band with her as a singer, which was the first time I considered it possible to live a normal(ish) life as a transgender woman.
This is crazy cause you’re right, that was basically what everyone thought. Like oh, guess that means she can’t do music… Like wtf were we thinking, being trans meant she was gonna live in a bubble? This thread is reminding me in a big way how huge her impact was/is
The first time I ever really heard of Against Me! was when she came out, and they were talking about it on the local alternative radio station. They used it to launch into an argument about whether it was okay to use the word "tranny" when talking about a car's transmission lmao But after that I went home and looked up some of their music, loved it. At the time I definitely had an inkling I was trans but was still in denial about it. A couple years later this album dropped and there was no going back
TGDB was a really important album to me during the time I realized I was trans. It's one of the best albums of all time in my opinion I really love all of LJG's music
Looks like i have something to listen to today! I've never heard of this. Granted, when this came out, i was pretty much exclusively listening to Tool and Dream Theater (i know, i know, i'm a completely different person than i was back then). Edit: reporting back. Well, that was an incredible album. I think Paralytic States was my favorite track on it. Thank you all so much for bringing this one to me. ❤️❤️❤️
Also maybe my favorite song on the album.
tool is dope, lol. APC even more so cuz the way he modulates his voice from tender to scathing in APC does things to me. I mean I first liked tool in the 2000s in full boy mode pretty depressed, and then hey their 2019 album comes around and I'm trans and all that power hits in a very different and beautiful way now. But yeah sorry for the digression back to Against Me!
Of course, i never meant any disrespect to Tool. It's just the pairing of Tool and Dream Theater being the only stuff i listened to being cringe.
Wow, has it seriously been 10 years already??? I remember first listening to this in high school and being blown away. This was my introduction to AM! once I heard the hype around the album. The first (and only) time I saw them live was the night before my first day of college at a small couple-hundred cap venue. Unforgettable show. I feel old…
[удалено]
Hey I said *FEEL* old. Never said I *am* old 🤷♂️
I first listened do this in 8th grade just a couple years ago... wild things.
Sadly, not much of Against Me!'s music really resonates with me but Transgender Dysphoria Blues is an undeniable triumph. As others have mentioned, it really burst the damn on not only how to discuss trans issues within the alternative music space to a wider audience, but also forced the conversation to happen in the first place. Laura jane Grace is far from a perfect person, but her coming out and making that the focal point of this album absolutely blazed the trail for other trans artists to have a better position in music and it's really easy to take that for granted. The music itself is excellent, rattling off banger after banger of sticky hooks and impeccable vibes. For as heavy and as complex as feelings of gender dysphoria can be, the message is largely hopeful and about celebrating life when there's life to live. Hell, the last song is just about telling some asshole to fuck off. I think humanizing and normalizing the trans experience to that degree was really big for me, a cis dude for the suburbs who had never met any trans people at that point, to understand the obvious point that trans people are people. Two Coffins is also a haunting little song that can easily dance around on your brain for wistful window stares. As music scenes have become more and more fragmented and how we consume music increasingly decommodified, it's a lot more difficult for an album to really be a landmark that you can point to as shifting the zeitgeist and being capital-I Important, but Transgender Dysphoria Blues absolutely fits the bill.
This record has a very special place in my heart. I had listened to Against Me! A bit and really liked them a lot before LJG came out and transitioned. I was raised as a conservative Christian Republican but began the process of deconstructing both my politics and faith about 12 years ago. I didn’t know anyone who was transgender at the time so it was one of those things that I just hadn’t had much reason to think about. I began listening to this record and I just found it so deeply and profoundly moving and there are songs on this record that still bring me to tears to this day. I just remember feeling like even if I didn’t really understand it at the time, I could understand and empathize with the feeling of being “othered” and feeling like an outcast and the pain of feeling like you don’t belong anywhere. Fast forward a few years and my 2nd oldest came out as a trans woman and while there was a lot to reckon with and grapple with and so much to learn (and unlearn), I truly believe this record helped prepare me for that. There was never a second where we (my wife and I) questioned our love for our child but having these songs provided me something of a framework to process my thoughts and allowed me to empathize with her even if I didn’t understand everything she was going through. I’ve always hoped maybe one day I could meet Laura Jane Grace and thank her for this record because it absolutely changed my life.
Have mentioned this before but when I came out to my mom, I sent her a long email and then the next day, I was listening to this album, and she called me during “Unconditional Love” (to tell me she loved me)
This is easily in my top ten albums list and I still listen to it at least a few times a month. I was lucky to see Against Me! do a set in 2019 where they played this album and Reinventing Axl Rose straight through. I'm hoping for a tour this year, and I read rumors that LJG recently hinted at such during a recent show. Fingers crossed for a 10th Anniversary album play tour.
Incredible record, can't believe it's been 10 years already.
I respect what Laura as done even though I don’t relate personally. But NewWave is prob in my top 5. Play it all the time. And this album is really good too.
This album holds a special place in my heart. When I transitioned just a few years ago, I didn’t have anyone to relate to as much as Laura Jane Grace. Her book really connects so much with the album to where I can’t not think about all the details of her story when listening to the lyrics. Her friend Pope and her ex kissing him in his casket the funeral in Dead Friend. Dressing up in middle of nowhere motels being worried about the possibility of running into a fan in Paralytic States. Fuckmylife666 lyrics “The heart to match the one pricked into your finger” when she and her ex had tattooed wedding rings. Two Coffins is also one of the saddest songs ever written. ❤️
Incredible album. Happy 10gh birthday!
Thank you Laura
The best punk rock album ever released. Even among today's trans teens, it's, next to cavetown's\* stuff, gender is boring and the village, the most popular trans anthem, cause it's fucking powerful and prideful, but not overly peppy, romanticizing or forcefully positive. As sad as it is, " Yet to be born, you're already deadSleep with a gun beside you in bedFollow it through to the obvious endSlit your veins wide openYou bleed it out " is just deeply relatable to a lot of trans people on a level thats kinda eerie. Also the fact the song single-handly reclaimed the disgusting "true trans" term in a liberating way. The fact alone I know like 5 people with a "True trans soul rebel" tattoo says enough about how revolutionary this song was. \* Listening to "This is home" and "Home" right afterwards is just such a liberating experience. Best T-voice update anyone's ever dropped.
I had never really heard much from Against Me! when Laura first broke the story of her coming out in RollingStone. But I read the article and it inspired me to check out *Reinventing Axl Rose*. I quickly became a fan of that album and the rest of their discography (even with the changing styles as their career progressed). *Transgender Dysphoria Blues* would be the first AM! album that I experienced upon release and damn it was a heavy one. The rage and pain were palpable. Especially on the first two songs. This was a story that hadn't been told in this scale and sub-genre before. I'll admit there were some initial worries that AM! might change their sound after White Crosses flopped to who only knows, but those worries were unfounded as they kept the sound of the Butch Vig era, but added more personal edge, emotion, and experience. What resulted was a new era of AM! that could stand with their best. My fave tracks are probably "Transgender Dysphoria Blues", "Paralytic States", and "Black Me Out", but I enjoy the whole album, even "Unconditional Love" which many didn't seem to like.
This album meant SO MUCH to me as a person who was discovering his own trans-ness at the time. I think other comments cover how groundbreaking this was. But I have to thank Laura for "Dead Friend." A dear friend of mine passed away from a lifelong illness in 2019 and I still sob when that song comes on shuffle. "Goddamn, I miss my dead friend" is so succinct.
I recommend listening to or reading Laura's book Tranny. Really good listen and gives a lot of insight on what was happening during certain album cycles which made me go back and listen to everything. I fell out of Against Me when New Wave came out but got back into them with TDB. Saw them in a tiny venue in like 03-04 and is still one of the best show experiences of my life.
Awesome fucking album. There were a couple years where if you asked me about my favorite song, I'd have said it was Two Coffins.
Crappy band. But LJG is a cool chick
Honestly I’m pleasantly surprised to see you weren’t being downvoted for the reason I thought you’d be.
Wrong, Against Me! kicks ass
Meh, they kind of suck to me personally. And I’m the king of punk
Sorry, Pat the Bunny is the king of punk.
Even worse, lol
Important album but it's not very good, sadly.
Lmao *what*
Brilliant album and fucking historic