Against Me!’s incredible recent album,
Transgender Dysphoria Blues, came in at #7 on our list of the 50 Best Albums Of 2014 So Far, although it’s pretty impossible to force the album into any such context: Our #1 album, Sun Kil Moon’s
Benji, is no less confessional or confrontational than
TDB,
but songwriters have been meditating on death since the first caveman
first banged together two rocks in 4/4. Laura Jane Grace, on the other
hand, is in uncharted territory — in mainstream music, only
Hedwig And The Angry Inch has dealt so openly with transgender life, and
Hedwig
is a fictional musical comedy that only arrived in the mainstream after
years playing to LGBT-sensitive audiences in Chelsea. (And
Hedwig STILL feels daring.)
TDB,
meanwhile, is a largely autobiographical work by a woman who grew up —
and became a hugely popular figure in punk rock, in real life — while
living in a man’s body, with a man’s identity. How can such an album be
adequately compared to others, and how can any other album compare to
that? Anyway, today Against Me! released a video for
TDB
track “Drinking With The Jocks,” which provides what feels like a look
into the subconscious of a transgender woman. It’s not exactly NSFW but
enough dirty words and bare asses flash across the screen that it’s not
totally appropriate for every workplace. When it’s safe for you, though,
you should watch.