I heard that single a few days ago myself and it upset me, because it was clear to me from the rest of the lyrics that the lie wasn’t the revolution itself, the lie was that he had ever been a part of the revolution. Which would have been a much more devastating thing to say, but it was obviously too much for him to take that degree of responsibility for his teenage gullibility–he was the victim of a universal fraud you see, not someone with personal weaknesses that were exploited.
As a single, outside of the context of an album or past work, it struck me as nothing more or less than another instance of proof that the easiest way for a leftist to make a paycheck is to talk shit about leftists. Which can’t have been what was intended. I know punk hippie-punching comes from a completely different place than Blue Dog or Republican hippie-punching, but in a vacuum (in a population as ignorant of punk context as the American public is) who can tell the difference?

I’m listening to the song right now and I couldn’t see it differently. Notice how the whole song is told from the perspective of Tom having bought into the whole thing. “I was a teenage anarchist/but the politics were too convenient.” He’s not exempting himself. The critical third verse about how “the scene turned too rigid/they set their rifle sights on me” breaks with his old self and raises the question of who Tom turned his rifle sights on way back when.

Hey, congratulations on the new position– it’s killing me a bit inside that after years of reading my first comment is about the new Against Me record. :P

anyway, the whole single just strikes me as a big whine. Did he stop buying into the revolution around the time he jumped to a major label? I’m not going to begrudge anyone making some money from their art but Tom certainly seemed ready to until the opportunity was presented to him. I guess my issue is basically the impetus for his change… did he recognize the weaknesses in the punk/anarchist intersection culture because of his own personal growth or because some kids in the scene were mean to him when he jumped on the warped tour?

When your single’s reaching hundreds of thousands of listeners a day, it doesn’t strike me as all that brave to tell a few thousand kids huddled in basements to go fuck themselves.

Good comment! Between you & Endymion, now I’m torn.

Yes, you shouldn’t shit on the kids who yelled along to your lyrics when you sang them between some dude’s mom’s washer and dryer. But I gather from your comment that you know something about hardcore sung in basements. And goddamn, if that scene can’t seem so hypocritical, constraining your personal growth in the name of personal liberation, especially if you love the scene. There’s a reason Blake wrote “Boxcar,” after all. The 18-year old me would have felt less alone and embittered had “I Was A Teenage Anarchist” been around back then.

“Did he recognize the weaknesses in the punk/anarchist intersection culture because of his own personal growth or because some kids in the scene were mean to him when he jumped on the warped tour?”

I have no idea. Only Tom can say. Maybe it’s my frame of mind right now, but I’m pretty inclined to accept that the first answer could be the right one. Check out “Harsh Realms” from his solo record in 2008. I’ve been listening to that a lot lately, feeling the same sort of anxieties about money as you age. It could be the dude came to this perspective honestly. He’s 30, after all, and the lifestyle that the basement fetishizes is really hard to pull off after your parents stop subsidizing you. (Of course, Hard is not Hopeless, as a dude once said, and a dear friend of mine basically went off the grid in order to structure his life exactly as he wants.) Is it so hard to believe that maybe he reconsidered some of his old beliefs after he figured out how difficult it would be to reconcile them with his life — both as he lives and as he wants to live?

Now, of course I’m projecting myself out onto Tom and his band. But these are the conversations we once had in fanzines, right, in the same terms? Why does hardcore always feel like it cycles back to the same subjects? I have a feeling that you understand.

I’ve had this LP on high rotation since I snagged an advance copy via torrent (though I got off my arse this weekend to get myself a physical copy).

Be it the power “acoustic” punk of Reinventing Axl Rose or the more personal songs of New Wave, AM!’s stuff has always felt like it was developing along the lines of my own experiences. (Though I’m sure that a number of their fans feel the same way)

I’m certainly not going to deconstruct the album, as there are many folk who would do that far better. But for those who haven’t had a listen, do it. Musically, thematically & emotionally it’s their most complete work to date.

Also, it takes a shit load of talent to write a song that has you pumping your fists AND singing along after your first listen…

Ahh yeah, a lot to unpack here but I understand where you’re coming from. It’s clear something about this post/song in particular hit home, much more so than even like the Manville Elks Lodge or A FIRESTORM TO PURIFY! I’m much more sympathetic to what he’s saying in the song Harsh Realms than in this new single– basically reiterating what you were saying, adult responsibilities are taxing, especially when you’re still trying to live by an ethic outlined by people too young or too angry to face up to them. It can be difficult moving on from that or feeling rejected by the scene and I guess by extension even the friends that nurtured you. As a musician myself, and someone who spent years touring/playing/vacationing with lockstep crimethinc kids in sleeveless black t’s I definitely appreciate how significant those relationships can be (and how isolating it all can become).

I hadn’t considered how it might read to someone younger just starting to get flexible in such a rigid scene and so I definitely get where you’re coming from there. It really just struck me as petty, hearing the guy complain about the diy scene now that he’s on dude rock radio. It feels less like, “I’m feeling disillusioned with hardcore politics, both personal and left-wing” and more like, “you guys were mean to me when I became successful.”
Who knows, really? I’d be interested to see a well-informed interviewer press him for more specifics (I might go google around a bit myself) because I feel I could be swayed to a more sympathetic take on it. As it stands now, though, it just seems to me less like’s frustrated by the actual politics and more by the reaction of fans/scene kids when he started to make money.

Petty or not, I think it’s awesome hearing something that hits so close to home sandwiched in between Bullet With Butterfly Wings and whatever the new Muse single is. I wish him all the success in the world if his singles remain this navel gazing.