Against Me! - Thrash Unreal (Video)

2007

Against Me! - Thrash Unreal (Video) (2007) Director: Adam Egypt Mortimer Era: Post-Hardcore Major Label Crossover (2007) - Against Me!'s major-label debut era on Sire/Warner, marked by polished punk production and mainstream chart breakthrough amid DIY punk controversy High curatorial value as a documented intersection of punk genre evolution, major-label censorship of queer content, and a transitional moment in one of punk's most culturally significant artist arcs. The video's suppressed original concept, only revealed publicly after Laura Jane Grace's 2012 transition, elevates this artifact beyond a standard performance clip into a primary source for discussions of identity, institutional resistance, and punk authenticity. The fast editing pace, practical effects, and basement performance aesthetic make it a strong representative text of mid-2000s alternative music video production. Context: Released in 2007 as the second single from Against Me!'s major-label debut New Wave (Sire/Warner Bros.), 'Thrash Unreal' marked a pivotal and contested moment in punk history, the band's transition from beloved underground act (Fat Wreck Chords, No Idea Records) to mainstream visibility. The song became their first US charting single, reaching No. 11 on Billboard's Alternative Songs chart. The video's house-party-and-basement aesthetic visually bridges the band's DIY roots with their new commercial platform. The suppressed original video concept, which engaged themes of gender dysphoria, adds significant retroactive cultural weight given Laura Jane Grace's later public transition in 2012, making this artifact a documented site of label censorship intersecting with queer identity in punk. Director notes: Directed the official music video for Against Me!'s 'Thrash Unreal,' released in 2007 on Sire/Warner Bros. Records. The video employs a dual-location narrative structure: a chaotic house party upstairs and the band performing in the basement below. Per documented production lore, the original video concept, which involved gender-exploratory costuming, was rejected by the label's A&R department; the released video was a substitute concept. The video features practical liquid effects (wine seeping through floorboards), a physical floor-collapse stunt, and ends on the empty wine-drenched basement with the band's equipment. This was one of Mortimer's early music video commissions before pivoting to horror features.