You're Not Punk and I'm Telling Everyone: The Jawbreaker Story
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- čas přidán 1. 06. 2024
- The early 90s was a boom time for getting rich off Alternative Rock. Due to the breakout commercial success of REM, Nirvana and Green Day, major labels grabbed any band that could approximate their sounds in the hopes of them becoming the next big thing. If there was one band that felt primed to succeed in this landscape it was Jawbreaker.
Formed in New York before transplanting themselves to California, they blended Husker Du, Psychedelic Furs and The Jesus Lizard, infused with ultra-literate lyrics that spat frustration, dissatisfaction and heartbreak. But when it was their chance to cash-in on the alt rock gold-rush, Jawbreaker lost everything. Not punk and punk in equal measures, this is the story of 24 Hour Revenge Therapy and how Jawbreaker sold out.
#jawbreaker #poppunk #musicdocumentary
Fact-checking by Chad Van Wagner.
00:00 Introduction
00:48 Origin: "Seven Hundred Miles to Play to Fifteen Angry Men"
08:36 24 Hour Revenge Therapy: "The Clarity of Cal to Break Your Heart"
18:24 Nirvana & Green Day: "My Enemies Are All Too Familiar..."
25:36 Dear You: "We Could Be The Next Band That You Rob"
33:41 Legacy: "Some Make Exhaustion a Mode of Expression"
Bibliography
Sellout: The Major-Label Feeding Frenzy That Swept Punk, Emo, and Hardcore (1994-2007) by Dan Ozzi, 2021, DeyStrBks
24 Hour Revenge Therapy 33 1/3 Book by Ronen Givony, 2018, Bloomsbury Academic USA
Gimme Something Better by Jack Boulware & Silke Tudor, 2009, Penguin Books
Don't Break Down: A Film About Jawbreaker (2017) dir. Tim Irwin & Keith Schieron
"Ep. 47: Blake Schwarzenbach discusses Jawbreaker's 'Boxcar'" by Chris DeMakes, Chris DeMakes a Podcast, Apr 2021
"Jawbreaker - July 3, 1993 @ 924 Gilman Street, Berkeley, CA (Soundboard Audio)" by BLoss_iZR39, CZcams, Apr 2021 ( • Jawbreaker - July 3, 1... )
"Jawbreaker - May 28, 1993 @ CBGB's, NYC (Soundboard Audio)" by BLoss_iZR39, CZcams, Feb 2021 ( • Jawbreaker - May 28, 1... )
"The Definitive Oral History of Jawbreaker’s 24 Hour Revenge Therapy" by Leor Galil, Pitchfork, April 2017
"The Oral History of Jawbreaker" compiled by Trevor Kelley, Alternative Press, September 2010
"Decoding Jawbreaker's Monumental 24 Hour Revenge Therapy 25 Years On" by Mischa Pearlman, Kerrang!, Feb 2019
"The Guide to Getting into Jawbreaker" by David Anthony, Noisey, Sep 2017
"Jawbreaker: Bivouac" by Kyle Ryan, AV Club, Nov 2006
"the last ever interview with JAWBREAKER" by Mike, Geek America, [date unknown]
"'You could shoot a gun in the air and hit a great song'-Jawbreaker discuss ‘24 Hour Revenge Therapy’" by Trevor Kelley, Alternative Press, Oct 2014
"‘Dear You’: Jawbreaker’s Emo Cult Classic" by Jeff Terich, Udiscovermusic, Sep 2023
"Jawbreaker’s Reluctant Return, 21 Years After Their Implosion" by David Anthony, Noisey, Aug 2017
"Jawbreaker: you're not punk and I'm telling everyone..." by Trevor Kelley, Punk Planet, Feb 2003
"Jawbreaker’s Blake Schwarzenbach On ‘Dear You’ And Getting Back On The Road To Tour Again" by Ian Cohen, UPROXX, Mar 2022
"Revisit SPIN’s 1994 Story on Jawbreaker’s 24 Hour Revenge Therapy" by SPIN Staff, Spin Magazine, Apr 1994
"Emo Scene, Their Fault" by Joe Gross, Spin Magazine, Feb 2004
"Jawbreaker's Adam Pfahler on the legacy of the band's most divisive album" by Dan Ozzi, Reply Alt, Mar 2022
"24 Hour Revenge Therapy Jawbreaker - Review" by Brandon Stosuy, Pitchfork, Oct 2014
"Jawbreaker Reflect on Debut Unfun" by Chris Ryan, Rolling Stone, Apr 2010
"Jawbreaker Reflect on 25 Years of Dear You, Promise “Guitar Catharsis” on Anniversary Tour" by Gary Graff, Consequence, Mar 2022
"Jawbreaker: You're Not Punk, and I'm Telling Everyone" by Melissa Fossum, Phoenix New Times, Jul 2012
"The Story Behind L.A. Band Jawbreaker's Return to Stage for 'Dear You'" by Ryan Ritchie, Los Angeles Magazine, Apr 2022
"Blake Schwarzenbach on Jawbreaker’s Bivouac and Chesterfield King reissues" by MW, Giant Robot, Dec 2012
"What Turn You On? Sufjan Stevens, Jarvis Taveniere, Blake Schwarzenbach" by Erika Bogner, Serial Optimist, August 2013
"Jawbreaker's Adam Pfahler: 'We don’t take credit or blame for what came after us'" by Stuart Williams, Music Radar, March 2019
Soundtrack
Luar - Citrine ( / luarbeats )
Jesse Gallagher - The Golden Present
Luar - Anchor ( / luarbeats )
You can also follow me here:
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Or support me on Patreon:
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Every now and then I get people asking for a playlist of every song mentioned in my videos: Well here's a Spotify link for this one:
open.spotify.com/playlist/5fF3DjWCue0QQ2f8lzpptN?si=ad897a608e2e478c
CZcams Music Link: music.czcams.com/play/PLooaZ33lSaleQDVeTOcLm9abE3QhF7lp8.html&si=PrCJOlYm35wkj_Un
Hi TT, do you do interviews for other people's podcasts?
Great documentaries!!
I love that point about Jawbreaker v Jawbox! Even kids of the era did that! Albini likely would’ve liked Jawbox. They had that Dischord feedback/ noise thing going on…
Thank you as well for identifying the idea that kids didn’t want to share their emotive connection with their underground bands. That feels true to me about that era.
Is it wrong for me to shed a tear at the end of this one?
I know you’re not American, but I’d say that Arkansas could very easily be in the Midwest.
Thank you for including a YTMusic playlist as well as Spotify ❤
Thank you for making a YT music list. I will never use Spotify.
When I was a teenager my band opened for Jawbreaker. My cymbals were cheap and cracked because I was just a poor nobody small town kid, and Adam (the drummer) gave me one of his cymbals. They were stressed out and probably a little bummed to be playing in some tiny community center in the dunes of Northern California, but it didn't stop them from being kind and humble.
Sweet! Do you still have that cymbal? Did your band record anything?
Dope story. Lucky.
That’s why we play! Hope you get some more live experience out there from either side of the stage. It’s all great
saw them couple months ago adam got me into the anniversary tour for free and gave me a free pick very down to earth guy
The fact that Jawbreaker suffered both the soulless greed of the music industry AND the entitled toxicity of the "legit punk" horde, but managed to become one of the most influential modern punk bands and are a formative pillar of emo in spite of breaking up, and would later reunite and get all the acclaim they always deserved is nothing short of inspiring.
But it is a shame they had to go through the ringer and wait decades to get it.
Blake said in ‘92, “I think scenes are very dangerous and you should do your best to destroy all scenes. Specifically your own.” Too self aware.
"Formative pillar of emo". Spoken as a true post-90s child. Naive and clueless and finding inspiration in what is truly the bottom of the barrel.
They brought a lot of it on themselves to be fair. I mean yelling on stage every night you will never sign to a major months before doing so is kinda silly
@@mikeherrera5302they did that due to gossiping and backbiting from the "scene", the whole "Legit Punk Police" boycotting them just for accepting to tour with Nirvana is even sillier.
Got it from both ends, really.
I detest how so many people don't want bands they like to actually make some money. I WANT bands I like to be successful.
This, 100%. I can't on the one hand decry Oasis for their unimaginative slop that sold millions, then on the other hand get annoyed when Pavement get rediscovered by today's generation.
I can’t agree with bands and artist taking taking partnerships in commercials, but I don’t see a problem with bands taking bigger record deals.
The problem comes in when making that money means abandoning your friends and letting some guy in a suit water down your art for radio play. It's not really a problem any more, but I completely get how it felt like a betrayal back then.
I personally resonate with artists due to whats being said and how strongly i can relate to them...when i realize in an instant they can do a complete 180 and be artists id never spend time listening to, its a straight disappointment.
Albini wrote The Problem With Music back in '93 outlining all the way the majors screw artists over and it's only gotten worse since then. Most bands end up a) releasing the record their label wants and not the one they want b) in debt to the label c) breaking up or d) all of the above.
Some bands (such as Jawbox), made less money on a major. Stories of label execs supplying band members with drugs (even when the artist has a serious drug problem and needs to stop) are pretty common.
My definition of success is a band getting to do what they want. Defining success as making money doesn't make sense to me (especially because major label CEOs make much more money than their artists; at beast all you're doing is making someone else obscenely rich).
Few bands end up like Jimmy Eat World. Most end up dropped by their label, their finished record left to sit in some file cabinet for years.
Jawbreaker's story is pretty unique, all things considered. It was either sign with a major and make one more record or break up. I'm glad they signed that deal and that we got Dear You out of it. Ditto Jawbox, ditto Jimmy Eat World. But not everyone's so lucky.
Punk gatekeepers, we had them in the UK too. Punk gatekeeper - what an oxymoron. They used to really effing annoy me (talking very early 80's). I was a punk and dressed like one. Whenever I met a so called punk purist I'd tell them my favourite band was ABBA and waffle on about them, talking like they were the real embodiment of pure punk. It rattled their cages. I'm currently into the Japanese punk/hard rock/metal scene, they laugh at "genres" and everyone - bands and fans - are all supportive of each other. It's a breath of fresh air.
That bassline in "want" from the "Unfun" record is so iconic. Love Jawbreaker pure 90s punk-rock
Totally with you on that 🙌
I'm so glad that as a teen in the 90s, a copy of Dear You wound up in my possession, though I had never even heard of Jawbreaker at that point. It's absolutely an album to listen to via headphones and full of teenage angst and heartache, so I'm glad to had been oblivious to the "not punk enough / sellout" kerfluffle and just enjoyed it on it's own merits.
The not punk thing was such a big bag of b@llocks. A clique deciding what does and doesn't count is the antithesis of punk.
kerplunk u mean
Decisions are complicated and have consequences. Major labels at the time were ruthless, if a band wasn't performing they'd drop them in a heartbeat. They also did all kinds of dirty tricks with contract language to lock a band in and force recordings to done by their engineers with the band having no real say in it, as well as messing with venues that were vital to punk taking off in the first place.
Jawbreaker did a ton of damage to the punk scene indirectly and made life really difficult for bands still on indie labels to have any success. Smash came out in 94 and there's a reason it never got eclipsed in sales for indie labels.
Jawbreakers music might be good but there's a reason they got the backlash they did. Even if you just look at it purely from their contribution to music it's not out of the question to say there's at least 10 records, if not 100's, that never got made because of them.
@@pulleyfm8585 It's fascinating to hear you toeing the DIY punk line from 1994. What you say about major labels treating bands like shit seems to be pretty uncontroversial, with some exceptions I guess. But then when you talk about the "damage" Jawbreaker did to the punk scene...you're passing off casual speculation and confirmation bias as an objective narration of "what actually happened". Which I'm not a huge fan of.
@@dingdongism Dookie sold 20million and was 2nd for the year 1994. Smash pushed 12million and was the 11th best selling record and was on a full indie label. Tragic Kingdom had a good 95, Insomniac did alright too.
Jawbreaker's struggles meant only really the already signed and fully proven bands like Green Day and the Offspring got to sell records for a minute, at least with punk.
Epitaph had huge issues with distribution post 95 and were just pushing out old stuff the stores would take like kerplunk and offspring releases.
At the end of the day Jawbreaker signed a really bad record deal that let the record company butcher their production. They could've stayed indie and kept control, it was their choice and when it backfired it hurt a lot of people not just the guys in the band.
I saw them on that European tour mentioned when his voice hit the wall. Before that Dublon show they played Cork at Venue called The Village. You could seriously see him struggle through the show. The crowd got behind him though. Everyone was passing pints of lager and cider up to him inbetween songs, which in retrospect probably made it worse. They came back years later and played another show . Pure troopers.
Class! Never knew they played Cork.
Got to see jawbreaker on Monday, never thought I'd ever be able to see them. I'll never forget that gig
hey i was at that show too!
Played the hell out of this album. Also enjoyed Blake's later band Jets To Brazil
yeah Jets were great saw them live in 2000 so good.
I was lucky to have seen Jawbreaker’s warm up show for Riot Fest and the entire 8 hour drive up to SF, I kept thinking it was a prank cause there was no way they were hours away from playing a club with a 300 peep capacity.
The road to Jawbreaker reuniting is almost worthy of its own video. It’s a roller coaster of emotions.
Dear you is a great album in retrospect even though it is often gruesomely dark for “pop punk”
Don't kid yourself you know it's an emo album.
I wouldn't call it a pop punk album at all.
I think it’s a record that was probably made 5 years too early. If it came out in the early. 2000’s, they’d have blown up.
@@dingdongismI totally would. But it depends on what you call pop punk. There are like 10 different kinds of pop punk.
@@joemiller7082 You can consider it what you like, obviously. I think placing the pop punk label on Jawbreaker does a disservice to both the genre and the band.
I'm forever in debt to Mitch Clem and his punk webcomic Nothing Nice to Say in the very early 2000s for introducing me to Jawbreaker and the whole hardcore/emo scene where I finally found my niche.
Mitch wound up printing his comics, wish is still had my copy.
NNTS was the best. I've been looking for another WWHRD sticker for a while.
I LOVED this one. Jawbreaker has always been close to my heart ever since I saw a kid in freshman algebra with Dear You on his desk in 1995. He let me listen to it for a few minutes. I rode my bike to Clark Baker music in El Centro, CA the same day, bought Dear You, and have been in love with them ever since. I paid for 24 hr Revenge Therapy and Bivouac with my paper route money. I love Jawbreaker and am super bummed I had to miss their show at RiotFest. Thank you for making this video, and thank you Jawbreaker.
Funny, I was in the punk scene in the early 90s and remember Jawbreaker from then, but their stuff wasn't doing it for me, so I just ignored it and moved on. I never heard about them getting big and making it onto a major or any of the controversy surrounding it. Didn't know they were an influence on later emo. It's weird hearing about a band you thought had faded away into local obscurity actually had enough going on to make a mini-doc about them.
Same. Although I admit I didn't know much about this scene. Other than Chesterfield Kings, Devil Dogs and Supersuckers I didn't listen to many American bands (of the time). I used to listen a lot of Aussie punk in the early 90s.
@@jal051 The 90s was pretty hit 'n' miss. Go look at my playlists for "Underappreciated 90s Punk/Alt" for a very incomplete list of some of the better stuff that never really got big (the Devil Dogs are on there btw).
there is a proper doc about them called 'Don't break down'.
I'm in a similar boat. Trash Theory's "How Emo Became Emo" video was stuffed full of my favorite 90s and early 2000s bands, but somehow Jawbreaker was totally in my blind spot. 90s me really missed out!
Everything is youtube now. It's entirely possible for some shitty high school band put out a recording on youtube and it could blow up anywhere and then could be considered "highly influential" without selling anything ever
Saw Jawbreaker with Seaweed. Fuck, I’m old.
Schwarzenbach is honestly one of the best lyricists of the 90s, especially when you look at his work with Jets to Brazil. Dude's got a way with words that is really, really, really impressive.
Big fan of Jawbreaker, big fan of Jets, big fan of all these guys. Absolutely essential parts of my late 90s musical education that I would never give up for anything.
In a way he's touching and tragic. But on the other hand I can also see how someone might think he was corny and morbid.
Eh he's far from the best of the 90s imo.
@@slack3021 One man's magic is another's plastic
Dear You was the album that I listened to all through the second half of high school. I’m in college now so it’s not like I was around for it’s release, but it still had a huge part in giving me what I needed to start finding myself.
I still have not totally found myself, and I don’t anticipate doing so for years. But on the days when depression is kicking my ass, Dear You still manages to help ground myself.
“You have to learn to learn from your mistakes
You can afford to lose a little face
The things you break, some can't be replaced
A simple rule: every day be sure you wake”
Jawbreaker have saved my life on more than one occasion. Blake is a lyrical genius.
Be sure to listen to all of his work. It’s truly amazing
I loved this band when I was younger back in the 90s, and was fortunate to see them many times and hang out with them as well when I was living in Olympia and Berkeley. Super friendly guys. It was a long time ago but I remember not really caring that they signed to a major label; I wanted success for them since they had worked so hard for so long. I hated that it turned into more dumb "sell out" drama, I think a lot of people were just really jealous.
😮 I learned so much! I'll admit I knew nothing about Jawbreaker but Jets To Brazil's Orange Rhyming Dictionary got me through a tough period.
One of my all-time favorite bands. To this day I can remember where I was when I first listened to Unfun, or Dear You, or 24 Hour… they really blew my mind.
And speaking of Kerouac, Jawbreaker got me into the Beats back in the day.
Anyway, I could go on, but suffice it to say that I owe a lot to messrs Schwarzenbach, Pfahler and Baumeister.
as someone that probably watches six+ hours of youtube a day, you're my favorite creator to follow. i've never finished one of your videos without feeling so very warm and fuzzy inside. I love to learn, and your formatting, writing, and the audio clips you choose all help paint a picture that is just so skillfully done. I feel truly moved to go listen to whomever you've talked about. Every time. 💯
I was hoping for a Jawbreaker doc on this channel! To me Dear You is one of the best albums of the 90s. I can sing almost every lyric from memory and honestly I could care less if they “sold out”. They recorded a pretty well-written, well-produced album that is full of anthems, and that’s what matters. Great video!
That show in Chicago for Riot Fest was Brutal. The crowd surged forward so hard I thought I would be crushed to death. It didn't let up until 4 or 5 songs in. It was the ultimate reunion and Jawbreaker deserved every minute of love that came from the soul of every person there. The next day I met Blake at the airport. He graciously signed a dozen or so records for a fan as I waited to speak with him. Our conversation was brief but meant the world to me.
This was amazing! You absolutely nailed it here. Also so glad you put on spotlight on how influential they were especially with the Julian Baker cover.
Excellent video. Jawbreaker is my all time favorite band, but I also appreciated the brief Banner Pilot shout out in there - finding out about them was such a blessing because they scratch that itch for catchy, heartfelt punk rock that Jawbreaker left when they split. They're the closest thing I've found to a spiritual successor to Jawbreaker. Love them
Banner pilot are/were underrated as fuck.
Collapser is an absolutely incredible record. Wish more people knew about them.
Springless is my jam but all their records are great.
It's so weird. Banner Pilot and Jawbreaker are two of my favorite bands but I never noticed the similarities until now. Especially Unfun and Banner Pilot's earlier releases
Kiss the bottle makes me well up every single time. I love Jawbreaker so, so much. They've been with me musically through good and bad since i was a much, much younger person.
I used to suffer from the same confusion as Albini back in the day. Like, all the time. I still do, apparently, because I spent the first 14:30 minutes of this video wondering, “When do they move to DC?”
I love your videos! I would love for some videos on artists like Tears For Fears, Glassjaw, At The Drive-In/The Mars Volta, Big Star, Phoebe Bridgers or maybe even Boygenius, etc. I’d also like to see a video on the history of the Bay Area Punk scene and how much it has grown over the years. Keep up the good work, man! I really enjoy your channel! 🤘
Thanks for this, I love Jawbreaker so much. And 2 J Church references, I'm looking forward to the J Church vid! 😊
Another banger of a music doc (despite the fact I never did get into Jawbreaker). Just brings me back to the 90s when punk had so many gatekeepers and rules. It's just interesting to see what happens after people grow older and realize that the actual music being made at the time had merit, whether it was released on Septic Pig Records or Atlantic.
Speaking of Wipers, there's a band that could use a Trash Theory doc! I still listen to them as much, if not more than I did back when I first heard them in the late 80s. (They were on the Rivers Edge soundtrack, right next to a bunch of Slayer tracks)
I fucking love Dear You.
Me too, and I was sort of anti major label back then. I made an exception for Jawbreaker though :)
“You’re not punk and I’m telling everyone” was the wry, knowing wink my friends and I gave one another in high school. An amazing video, as always.
Besides a few Soviet punk bands, I don't think anyone ever had it harder than Jawbreaker.
Definitely one of the things I have in common with Steve Albini, mixing up Jawbox & Jawbreaker more than once.
Another absolutely killer video! I love Jawbreaker and your videos. Have you ever thought about doing one for your fellow Brits in LEATHERFACE? Talk about a band that has such a massive influence on punk rock while being criminally underrated. Something to think about...
Seconded
Like, I was just saying how much I enjoy your content, and now you cover one of my favorite bands? You might be the greatest of all time.
It is massively ironic that punk, of all genres, every had rigid rules of belonging
Gotta lot of love for Jawbreaker and glad to see them getting recognition these days. Great songs, great lyrics, and able to cover everything from poppy 3 chord wonders to more complex and intense stuff like Parabola. I always through they hit a real sweet spot in that they were hyper-melodic, but at the same time they kept just the right amount of grit and rawness of the underground with them. Also, there's plenty interviews with Jim Ward where he talks about Jawbreaker being a huge influence on him and by extension At the Drive In and Sparta.
As a millennial who discovered punk in the 2000s, I’d never even heard of Jawbreaker until Riot Fest. Being there was something special, seeing punks in their 40s desperate to see a band they thought they’d never hear from again. And yeah, Jawbreaker blew the roof off it.
Now we go to their fund-raisers to pay for their hip reconstruction surgeries.
@@LividImp I’ve seen them twice since and I will gladly help fund their medical bills lol
@@markgaydosh4249 Believe me, its coming. I'm into the old school punk bands and those that have managed to stay alive are in their 50s/60s/70s, and most don't have good insurance. There's a lot of gigs to pay for chemotherapy and surgeries and such.
So glad you got to see the influences that influenced your favourite bands
When we were kids we checked the "thanks" bits of cd inlays, we didn't have the algorithms chucking stuff at us
There's ups and downs to both sides, but yeah still glad you got to see
Another fantastic one. I'd been heavily into hardcore punk in the 80s & grunge in the 90's - 2nd wave emo and pop-punk were on my radar, but not my scenes - I'd heard of and heard Jawbreaker and I've been digging into emo (I know, I know, they all say they aren't emo) - and discovering a ton of great music there.
Thanks for the deep-dive, I always learn a lot from your vids.
I love the second wave bands, I don't know if you've checked out Time Spent Driving, Elliott or Penfold, but they were part of that scene and they were criminally underrated.
No one really liked the “emo” label. It was meant to be derogatory in the first place. Most of the bands that got called emo just thought they were punk/hardcore bands.
Cool of jawbreaker to shout out this video! The 90s really were the best for music and you’ll hear so much of it in younger bands now. I always preferred the post voice change material as Blake sounded strained before. With Jets to Brazil you have one of the best lyricists ever.
trash theory is the only channel I can't watch at 1.5 or 2x because of the music clips peppered throughout. would be a great engagement strategy if intentional though I'm certain it isn't.
love these vids 🤘
I have an ex and some friends that listen to the watered down caricatures of Jawbreaker. Some of those bands were mentioned in this video. I tried to introduce them to Jawbreaker, but they never seemed to appreciate their greatness, or even show the slightest interest. You can lead a horse to water....
It's so striking how much "selling out" was a toxic fan base epitaph but now in 2023, Gen Z at least, doesn't seem to care much about chasing "the bag" and getting paid; not chasing opportunities is seen as dumb. There's less stigma about being yourself but wanting to make a living. Only time I've heard the same level of negativity is when an artist or group is an "industry plant". Thanks for the video. I feel bad because I never heard of this band although I was big into the emo scene in high school (the My Chemical Romance era) but I quickly moved onto the growing metallic hardcore & new deathcore Myspace scene. So I never really looked back at the progenitors of the sound.
These docos are fantastic. Thanx for the effort team.🤘
Man I got to see Jawbreaker live at Jabberjaw in LA with an amazing band called Slug opening some time around 92 and they were awesome. Those were the days. Thanks for bringing that memory up from cold storage.
One of my favorites! Thank you❤
I was about to watch the other video you mentioned jawbreaker in and this popped up
perfect timing
Jawbreaker has been one of my favorite bands ever since high school and i was finally lucky enough to see them a few wks ago in Cincinnati
Wow. This was a trip man. I loved Jawbreaker back in the day. But as a kid in the north of England scene politics meant shit all to me. I just loved them. Dear You is a classic. Thank you for this video. Top work.
I first heard of Jawbreaker in the early 00's because of The Ataris (both the Boxcar cover, and name dropping them in Song for a Mix Tape). At that time 24hr was my favorite, but as i got older Dear You has become my favorite
My man! A Jawbreaker vid just makes you that much more impressive.
Awesome video! I have always been a huge Jawbreaker fan but I have to say.. Jets to Brazil is the real deal. Those songs are magical.
Thanks for making this video. Jawbreaker saved my life more than once. 24 and dear you and not to mention jtb's orange rhyming dictionary mean more to me than i know how to express..
Been listening to these guys since the 90s. Glad to see them back together and touring
I've called jawbreaker my favorite band for over 10 years now. finding them was like finding kindred spirits. they make me happy, they make me sad, put them on when I'm happy, put them on when I'm sad, put them on when I feel nothing in particular. while I love each project it's impossible to not consider dear you the opus. would it have been better with slightly different production, more input from the rest of the guys, and more chris going nuts? probably - but all the performances are still insanely good. they aren't phoned in, that would have been something to really lament. I love having distance from the scene drama, something that barely existed at all when I was growing up and definitely didn't exist when I found jawbreaker in my 20s. I think we were too busy trying to salvage emo's reputation from the embarrassing myspace era and besides nobody actually needed major labels anymore thanks to the leaps in technology. funny how something so serious can become a non-issue so quickly, kind of like privacy, antiwar movements or human rights LOL
anyway this is a really well done video. I'm a little bummed it wasn't around back when I was ravenously looking for stuff like this as I checked if Don't Break Down was finally released but hey now it is. I know people are going to keep discovering this band until the wheels fall off of this whole thing, this kind of documentation gives rich context and makes it all that much more rewarding
here's hoping every frame a painting comes back
This was a really solid recap and filled in a lot of blanks, as I didn't know the history inside and out. 👍
Great video... After hearing them the first time in 1993, finally got to see them at a show in Phoenix in August of 2023, 30 years later...
I was there when then reunited at Riot Fest. I had no idea who they were but I was blown away from note one. I have been a huge fan ever since. I've seen them four times now.
Great retrospective as always ❤️
I wasn't into jawbreaker back in the 90s. It was Lucero that brought them to my attention with their cover of Kiss the Bottle, and the rest is history. Great vid.
Outstanding. My favorite jawbreaker album is all of them
First time i heard of Jawbreaker was NCAA Football 06, a college football game with one of the greatest soundtracks of all time for no reason. I was like 11 when that game came out and introduced me to: De La Soul, the Clash, Lush, Pixies, Guided by Voices, NOFX, Mr. T Experience, Mother Love Bone and Bad Religion. A random yearly college football video game. The next year, the soundtrack was back to being fight songs from the schools.
I'd love for you to make a video on The Offspring and how their 'Americana' brought what was probably thousands of kids into punk rock. I was one of them (exclusively listening to rap before that) and several of my friends too.
'Americana' lead me to their earlier albums ('Ignition' remaining my favourite) and to other SoCal bands, and from there on to Dead Kennedys, Minor Threat, Sex Pistols, New Bomb Turks, etc.
Who knows if I'd be listening to Circle Jerks and Reagan Youth today if it wasn't for 'Americana'...
They had an even *bigger* impact in 1994. It would basically be the same thing but on a much smaller scale.
I do flip flop between Dear You & 24 hour - condition Oakland is my favourite Jawbreaker song but…. I think dear you is my favourite album. Despite all the punk hierarchy telling us to not listen at the time, I did - it’s their best! it’s just so great!
i don't even have an entire year hearing Jawbreaker and they're already one of my all time favorites.
The Wipers are a Portland band from Oregon
I came here to say the Same:Wipers=Portland OR
@@willydee1983 We in Arizona do like to claim them since Greg Sage moved to Arizona at some point in the 90s (I think). Regardless, Wipers are one of the greatest bands no one quite remembers.
@johnchedsey1306 Greg still lives in Phoenix. And no sorry you cannot claim them lol (jk claim whatever you want) The Wipers are literally all Portland has
@@JammerAma I associate Sleater-Kinney with Portland and they're awesome! Also, Powells Books, which is still the most amazing book store I've ever been in.
@johnchedsey1306 LOL, but Sleater-Kinney is literally a street in Lacey here in Washington. Ok fine if Portland can claim a piece of Sleater-Kinney, Phoenix can have a piece of The Wipers. That sounds fair to me
The scene of their little junky van aside Nirvanas tour buses was crushing. To me, Dear You isn’t a sell out album, it’s an all time great masterpiece of music. I hope the three of them look back with smiles now about the hard road they’ve travelled and what they’ve accomplished in spite of it. When I get old I’ll still be a Jawbreaker fan.
Well said. Having been a fan since the late 1900’s, and still a fan at 47 years old, I suspect I’ll be playing their records til the day I kick that bucket.
@@erik198 yeah I’m 48 so same vibe here. Heard Dear You in ‘99 at age of 24. Knew I was late to the Jawbreaker party but I didn’t think that should thwart an honest appreciation for the music. To this day I think they have their very own sound and Blake is one of the best lyricists ever.
Hell yes! More channels like this need to feature Jawbreaker!!
Awesome video. Unfortunately, I was hostile toward bands that sold out. I cared about the music, but not the humans performing it. It's a mentality that lends itself to the naive side of our youth. Ironically, Dear You had an impact on me that lives on to this day. I guess I didn't know Jawbreaker enough to realize I wasn't supposed to like that album. I saw Jets to Brazil at a small club in '99... if my memory serves me right, they performed a Jawbreaker song.
Selling out is kind of a term used incorrectly by the hardcore punk kids. Selling out literally means doing something you wouldn't normally do in order to make money. Yeah sure Blake's voice was higher, but that was wayyyy before Dear You. 24 Hour Revenge Therapy was THE 1st post-surgery album, but information wasn't widely connected back then. I hate people attacking bands just because they signed to a major label. There's so much more to life than just their punk righteousness, something that was based on punk has one of the biggest rule books in the world.
Eh, you were just doing your part in preserving what was real. Nothing tastes as it's intended to when it's heavily watered down. You simply preferred the regular flavor over the diet, and that's what the world needs more of.
@@ultraslang but when it comes to punk, that mentality and backlash to bands like Green Day is tiring to people like me
@@ligmaballs2022 unfortunately if you have any contempt for Green Day, you turned all your PR points in a long time ago and need to start going to underground shows to get back into punk, cos green day hasn't been it for over two decades at least.
@ultraslang I do not have any contempt for Green Day at all because their success is well deserved and they should make their own decisions for their own band. We, as the audience, should not decide their career.
This is what I’ve anticipated!
Just came to say thank you for the Spanish subtitles it makes it really helpful to share with my friends
Great documentary. I grew up downloading punk in the 2000s and jawbreaker was never really my thing. Now I know why they were great. Cheers.
Cracking video, as always
I love your videos I would love to see some videos about artists and bands from my country Mexico there are many interesting bands.
What a nice surprise!
Crazy, I was just thinking about Jawbreaker earlier today at work.
Loved the hell out of this band growing up in my mid-20's in SLC Utah. They left a huge impact on me. And I know people hated it, but I loved "Dear You" when it first came out and its still my favorite album from them. The guitar work on "Save Your Generation" and "I love you so much its killing us both" is stunning and slamming. I would love to see them do a reunion show near me.
I wound up with a copy of Bivouac somehow as a trash metalhead in 1994 and I couldn't stop listening to it. Although I thought punk was crap, those ripping guitars and that bouncy bass and that throat slicing vocals were undeniable.
Still jamming to Jawbreaker and Jets on the regular!
I wasn't even alive when this band formed, and their music reached me in a really miserable part of my life. Being a twenty year-old cruising thru life barely knowing what should I do and barely scraping money to survive, this band put my thoughts into songs. But it's so lonely knowing that these people exist but was miles and decades away from me. I live in the Philippines and was barely making money for myself so it never crossed my mind that there would be any chance that I would ever see this band play. Aside from them being at the other side of the world, they split up years before I was even born.
I'm in a better place now, physically, mentally and even financially. And knowing that they're together again just was one of the plot twist of the century for me. I might still won't have the chance to see them anytime soon lmao, but them being together again alone made it feel like I'm somewhat closer to them than I was years ago. Things are looking up for everyone it seems.
The influence Jawbreaker and Blake had on latter day emo simply cannot be overstated. If there was any justice in this world, this video would already have 500K views.
There is *zero* objective value or worth to "emo as a whole so if there was any justice in this world it would never have been a thing🤣🤣 it's the most vacuous talentless wannabe "subculture" to ever exist and emo bands make the compositions of pop twats like Ed Sheeran and Taylor Swift look like Prince 🤦♂🤦♂
@@beowulf1417 Why so bitter?
I just overstated it... Right now.. Wannafightaboutit? 😂
The first time I saw them was in 90 or 91 at a “Food not Bombs” benefit at the Phoenix Theater in Petaluma. Ca. I was so excited to see them I screamed like a 9 year old girl. That was my favorite show ever up to that point. My favorite JB era too. Right before Bivouac.
I fondly remember Blake shaking with what I thought were nerves before they started. About 30 seconds in I realized he must have been shaking with excitement to get on with crushing the room with passionate energy that was as real as it ever got. For me it was perfect.
That show also featured a couple near riots when openers Heroin and Spitboy had some high energy stunts and audience altercations. Super entertaining indeed.
Never really got into Jawbreaker. Loved Jets to Brazil though. One of my absolute favorite bands.
I still have the Busy 7” I bought with my lunch tips from the restaurant I used to work at in the summer of 1990. Made the bike trek home to my apartment off of Mifflin. Loved them immediately.
I had the opportunity to see Jawbreaker three times, most memorable was with Bloodline at the Speedboat Cafe in St. Paul. Think it was 93-94? Hmm. Can’t remember. There was probably 30 ppl there that night.
Dear You is an amazing album and it’s too bad the scene at that time was so short sided.
Did also get to see Econochrist once with the Offspring in a Waukesha garage.
I have 24 hour revenge therapy and etc on vinyl I love both of them hopefully I can get dear you on vinyl
Another fantastic video. As always, I'm leaving with more music to check out besides the main band presented.
This is what I hate about punk, especially its fans: pulling a quote from Sum 41's guitarist Dave Baksh: "We just call ourselves rock... It's easier to say than punk, especially around all these fuckin' kids that think they know what punk is. Something that was based on not having any rules has probably been one of the strictest fucking rule books in the world."
Money dictates how you live your life. Even Trash Theory puts it in his Husker Du video: punk rock save your life, but seldom did it pay the bills. I rather be unhappy and rich rather than be poor and happy.
True. There's so many elitists and hypocrites in 'alternative' cultures.
It's more complex than that. The concern isn't making money, the concern is being used by a major label to make _them_ money and/or compromising your sound for the money. If you make a million dollars putting out an uncompromised album, no one with a brain would call you a sell out. With that said, there is a streak of people in the punk scene for which nothing is pure enough for them. I once knew a guy that looked down on Warsaw (early Joy Division) for not being punk enough. You just learn to ignore those types.
The most punk thing a band can do is to do everything everyone tells them NOT to do. If signing to a major label is bad, then that is easily to most punk move you can make. Fuck the street cred, I'd rather get paid to do what I love for a living rather than travel the country in a tiny van, living off t-shirt sales and gas station food for basically fuck all reward.
@@seanmckelvey6618 *"The most punk thing a band can do is to do everything everyone tells them NOT to do."*
No, that's nothing more than contrarianism. Not saving all the starving artist bullshit was much better than contrarianism, because it's not far from it, but their is a middle ground of staying true to the art without selling brainless dance records. The original punks were for the most part street intellectuals and art school dropouts. If you know the references, their music is full of references to classical literature and philosophy and art. They weren't stupid people giving into the whims of a kneejerk reaction.
@@LividImp I'd add there's been enough history of movements getting co-opted to understand the gatekeeping mentality (although, ironically, a lot of the co-opting is done by the gatekeepers themselves), most famously in "Flower Punk", and there is a certain betrayal to people who helped before you ascended.
It's essentially the same arguments used against gentrification, which, right or wrong, does have a point that with all the money sloshing around, you destroy what originally made things noteworthy in the first place.
I got into Jawbreaker because of Screeching Weasel. I met Blake too back in 2013 and he was a really sweet person.
I'm from the east coast and have worked underground venues for years (so take this like a grain of sand) from what I might remember Gilman street either decided on what bands aren't allowed to play based on popularity or if they were on a record label... Though that could have just been a rumor. If someone reading this could correct me, I'd appreciate that.
Folks still wear Jawbreaker shirts over here in Santa Cruz
I have a Jawbreaker tattoo.
24 Hour Revenge Therapy and Dear You are some of the best rock (not just punk, ROCK) records of all time. Some of the greatest lyrics ever written, fantastic instrumentation. As somebody who grew up in the East Bay in the 00's, these guys were my heroes in high school
Ah, jawbreaker was playing a lot around summer of ’07 or ’08 when I was driving my friends punkband around baltics and poland. Good times. Estonia/Latvia/Lithuania punk scene was fun and eyeopening.
My phone totally died while I was in Chicago the whole trip for Riot Fest 2017. I just soaked the whole thing in and it was an awesome time. At The Drive In and that dog. played as well. Cap'n Jazz played that first day and I was hella worried because they just intentionally tanked that show and I wasn't sure what would become of Jawbreaker, but from beginning to end that set was magical.
Jawbreaker shared this on instagram 😳
Saw them in ‘96 playing with Ween opening for Foo Fighters at the Hollywood Palladium. Jawbreaker was the first band I’d seen play live and I got caught in the eye of the mosh pit on their first song Boxcar. I’ll never forget that moment and I’ll never forget Jawbreaker. Bought Dear You that night at the merch table.
I saw Jawbreaker a bunch of times in the early 90s. They were an incredible force live. Now I'm old and it's almost painful to listen to them because the sound and the lyrics try to activate old parts of my heart that just don't work anymore.
This took me back.
Today, I felt something.
Thank you!
You should do a video on The Ergs. Quite possibly the greatest pop punk act of the 2000’s that never broke out of the underground, and when it seemed they were close, disbanded.