Jawbreaker

I first heard Jawbreaker at my friend Dan Kaufman's house in Simi Valley. It was 1994, the summer before my senior year of high school. When I left that day he handed me a cassette with 24 Hour Revenge Therapy dubbed onto both sides and a photocopy of the cover. That made it easy to listen to over, and over, and over, and over... which I did for the next few months. Soon after school started, they had a gig at The Roxy in West Hollywood. I was normally not permitted to attend such things, but Dan's 27 year-old brother in law was driving so my mother allowed it, with the caveat being that I had to call her to come get me if he had so much as ONE DRINK. Of course, the first thing he did when we arrived was head for the bar...

Opening that night were Tanner and Fluf. Dan and I bought a Tanner single, but Fluf didn't really do it for us. Jawbreaker came out and they were great. This was one of the first "punk" shows I ever attended, so I was pretty excited. I believe I was wearing my Church of the Subgenius shirt, featuring a fish with legs smoking a pipe with "BOB" in the middle (it was my favorite shirt at the time).

The year passed, and I moved into my friend's house because my mother and I couldn't get along. I started dying my hair blue, green -- you name it. The night before graduation, Jawbreaker played another gig at The Roxy. Since I wasn't living with my parents anymore, I didn't need permission. This time it was Chinchilla and Fluf opening, although I still was unmoved by Fluf. How did they keep getting on the bill? Jawbreaker played and were great. Most of the set was new songs from the as yet unreleased Dear You LP.

The summer passed, and I moved to Berkeley to start college. Not long after school started, Dear You came out. I immediately ran down to Amoeba (or was it Rasputin's?) and bought a copy. I was less than thrilled when I brought it home and listened to it. It didn't sound at all like their previous albums.

Listening to it now, I can see why so many of us were disappointed with it then. The thing is -- it's not bad. But it was their major label debut, their "sellout" album and rather than make them, it broke them. Luckily we still have 4 Jawbreaker albums (5 if you count Etc.), which is probably enough for most people anyway.



Ladies and gentlemen, for your listening pleasure, Jawbreaker.

Dear You (DGC)

1. Save Your Generation
2. I Love You So Much It's Killing Us Both
3. Fireman
4. Accident Prone
5. Chemistry
6. Oyster
7. Million
8. Lurker II: Dark Son Of Night
9. Jet Black
10. Bad Scene, Everyone's Fault
11. Sluttering (May 4th)
12. Basilica