The “inflammatory” anthem reportedly cited by Washington DC Jewish Community Center head Carole R. Zawatsky to singer Louisa Solomon when Zawatsky informed Solomon of the sudden cancellation of The Shondes‘ headlining concert at the center’s 2014 Washington Jewish Music Festival. Zawatsky’s public comment:

This band, which embraces boycotting Israel, exceeds the redline limits of the DCJCC’s open policy.”

The song, which combines Jewish liturgical music with the philosophy of Abraham Joshua Heschel to explore the failures of Zionism and condemn the occupation of Palestine, can be found on the band’s debut lp, The Red Sea. Solomon says:

We wrote “I Watched the Temple Fall” because we were thinking a lot about what Jews put our faith in, and where that faith really lives. We’d been talking about Abraham Joshua Heschel’s notion of Judaism as a religion of time, not space, and thinking about how that related to Zionism. Confining ideas into spaces (temples, states, what have you) can falsely polarize us and take us away from the big, important stuff. We wanted to write a song that clearly said, “Look, it might be devastating to face, but the state of Israel commits actions daily that violate the basic tenets of Judaism.”

Singer/bassist Louisa Rachel Solomon says of this song:

At some point, [Shondes' violinist] Eli and I were in my living room talking about how it seems like you can’t write songs about certain topics because they’re too uncool. One of those topics is the humiliation you can feel as an artist. “The Promise” is a song about how friendship can help you feel supported when you’re having doubts and feel embarrassed about staking your claim in your dream, you know? It’s really great to have a friend who can say to you, “You need to keep doing what you’re doing. You believe in it, it’s important.” I don’t know any song that will openly say, “I’m fucking embarrassed and humiliated about what I’m doing with my life.” People will write songs about failure, but embarrassment? No one wants to feel foolish."

Singer Laura Jane Grace has said that this song’s lyrics are about her own gender dysphoria

A rousing sing-along on a sharply painful subject: the inability of others to save you, even if they open themselves completely. Perhaps specifically inspired by singer Laura Jane Grace’s relationship with her wife and other loved ones, and the challenges her transition posed to the same, the lyrics resonate more broadly.

How many of us have not at some point struggled with depression and the realization that salvation cannot be found in another, even if that person accepts you entirely?

Against Me!’s classic anarchist anthem. In this song, the narrator contrasts those with more extreme political ideologies with the kinds of “liberals” and such who often talk the talk but don’t walk the walk.

The song was written by Laura Jane Grace before the creation of Against Me!

“Baby, I’m an Anarchist! was written by Laura Jane Grace, Cassidy Rist, and Rob Augman for a band that never happened, but was a really good idea. Although we played it live 2 or 3 times, it was never recorded. Cassidy was kind enough to come in and sing on this song; she was drunk. It was 11am.”

This song is a remnant of Grace’s original plan for the LP that would become Transgender Dysphoria Blues, before she came out to the rest of Against Me! as trans. She originally presented new songs as a concept album about a transgender sex worker:

A lot of that was feeling uncomfortable with what I was doing, trying to shift it as if it was not autobiographical… Oh, these songs aren’t about me. They’re about some other conceptual character.