A glaring omission

I was thinking recently about my occasional, music-related blog entries and why they belong on the only iPod that remains between me and the Noodle. Then I noticed that there was a musician, not just a band or anything like that, but a musician who is conspicuously absent. Those of you that know me and my obsessions in my musical taste should have noticed by now the lack of any mention of the punk rock Kerouac, Blake Schwarzenbach.

The trouble is, it´s nearly impossible to pick just ONE record that features this musical genius. Almost as hard, though not really, is deciding which of his bands from which to choose in album.

For those of you that don´t know, he was the guitarist/vocalist/songwriter for two very amazing bands, the seminal emocore/pop punk band Jawbreaker, and the more mature yet still rocking indie rockers Jets to Brazil. Which band I prefer kind of depends on the mood but I still find both bands very influential on my playing, and an album from each has made it to the Emergency iPod.

So, let´s discuss both of those records today.

First and foremost, and my preferred of the two, is Jawbreaker´s major label debut and swansong, Dear You. Yes, they were on a major label, and in fact, they have the distinction of touring with both Nirvana and the Foo Fighters, and they were close friends with the boys in Green Day in the heyday of the Bay Area scene in the late 80s and early 90s.

Each Jawbreaker album was a bit different. Unfun, their first, was full of fast, screamy, bitter pop punk with occasional experimentation within the punk confines. Bivouac, their second, was more progressive and a lot of songs slowed down the tempo. Yet somehow they don´t degenerate into hippie cheese, and also managed to write one of the best punk rock love songs of all time "The Chesterfield King". 24 Hour Revenge Therapy saw the band chase a much more conventional, yet still unique, strain of pop punk, even including a bit of humor in the song "Boxcar," where Schwarzenbach sings "You´re not punk/and I´m telling everyone/Save your breath/I never was one!" Brilliant.



MOving on to Dear You and why I think it´s their best record. To me, this combines everything that was great about all of their previous albums. It has the catchy, no-frills punk energy of 24 Hour, the borderlined experimentation of Bivouac, and the cutting lyrics of Unfun, but Dear You takes all of those elements to the next level.



It´s on this album where I think Schwarzenbach wrote lyrics that weren´t just cutting but also some of the most intelligent he wrote with Jawbreaker. Not to mention this record found him grafting the unconventional riffs of Bivouac to the pop of 24 Hour, as I said before. Take, for example, one of my favorite tracks "Accident Prone." It starts off with a moody, minor key riff that did NOT exist in most punk rock beforehand, and features Blake singing in a smoke-scarred croon, or the closes to a croon he had up to this point. But there are times when the song breaks into an almost doomy chorus, segueing at one point into a long interlude that goes into the stinging chorus one more time before the song ends. The whole album is kind of a roller coaster. There are songs liek "Bad Scene" that rock up and down with fun, catchy lyrics about a party, the bitter "Fireman" which goes from the moody, dark verses to the super catchy melodies and abrasive lyrics to the chorus, the absolutely livid, bitter "Sluttering" which features some of his best written yet most bitter lyrics throughout Jawbreaker´s catalogue, and the morose, beautiful "Basilica." it´s an amazing record, and there was no better way that hte band could have gone out. It wound up being their swansong, but as is the case with so many bands, it´s often because there´s no way to follow up something so great.

I think one day of Schwarzenbach fanboying is enough for you, loyal readers. Maybe an other day I will talk about Jets to Brazil, but for now...ta ta!