In 1995, Jawbreaker had reached a crossroads. The punk trio had constructed up a big following of their Bay Space scene, having fun with important acclaim and the approval of bands like Nirvana, who introduced them on tour in 1993. For years, Jawbreaker insisted they’d by no means relinquish their independence for the seductive lure of a significant label. However the put on of a half-decade of enjoying and touring began to indicate some cracks within the group’s basis.
Complicating issues, vocalist Blake Schwarzenbach required surgical procedure to take away a polyp from his throat, following a European tour that discovered him coughing up blood every night time. Other than the surprising expense, the bodily toll required some obligatory modifications of their M.O. Schwarzenbach, drummer Adam Pfahler, and bassist Chris Bauermeister had been left with a call: Name it a day, or do the factor they stated they’d by no means do and conform to main label backing. The one query was whether or not or not their followers would comply with—a state of affairs they noticed play out firsthand when native icons Inexperienced Day went mainstream. Jawbreaker, if something, had been held to an excellent stricter commonplace.
“It’s a very personal band for people,” vocalist Blake Schwarzenbach stated in Dan Ozzi’s guide, Sellout. “Those who identify with it identify with it as theirs, and sacred, and truthful in some way.”
Jawbreaker’s frenzied swirl of punk power and Schwarzenbach’s witty, introspective lyrics drew consideration from A&R scouts years earlier than the band was able to humor them. However in 1995 they signed with Geffen Information for slightly below $1 million, starting work on their fourth and remaining album, Pricey You, with producer Rob Cavallo, who additionally produced Inexperienced Day’s Dookie. They didn’t make a pop album with their newly ample funds – not precisely. Its first single, “Fireman,” featured a video that aired on MTV’s late night time alt.rock present 120 Minutes, however it was extra jagged and misanthropic than the likes of Inexperienced Day, juxtaposing harsh riffs in opposition to Schwarzenbach’s strains like “I dreamt I was a fireman, I just smoked and watched you burn.”
Moments of easy four-chord punk abound, akin to opener “Save Your Generation” and “Bad Scene, Everyone’s Fault.” However by and enormous, Jawbreaker had honed in on darker, extra refined materials. On songs like “I Love You So Much It’s Killing Us Both” and “Sluttering (May 4th)” that meant foregrounding extra abrasive riffs over larger hooks. However following his restoration from throat surgical procedure, Schwarzenbach toned down the screams and yelps, and used that extra nuanced method to put in writing slower materials with haunting layers, just like the epic, nearly shoegazey “Accident Prone” or the morose “Jet Black.”
Pricey You grew to become a pivotal and influential file for what finally grew to become emo, attributable to its stability of a extra refined punk sound with an intimately trustworthy lyrical method. Over time it’s turn into thought to be one of the important albums of the style. However discovering a bigger viewers for Pricey You proved elusive on the time. Album gross sales stalled round 40,000 copies in its first 12 months, and the backlash of their hometown scene started earlier than the album was ever launched. Tensions between band members boiled over as effectively, and a fistfight broke out within the van whereas they had been on tour with Foo Fighters. By the point they received house, Jawbreaker had referred to as it quits.
Jawbreaker’s Pricey You did discover its viewers, and one which vastly eclipsed its listeners in 1995, however it took 25 years to get there. It’s been praised by Rolling Stone as one of many best emo albums, and standout monitor “Accident Prone” was included on Vulture’s record of the 100 finest emo songs. The group additionally offered out greater than half of the dates on their Pricey You reunion tour months earlier than they had been to happen, which is probably essentially the most concrete measure of how far they’d come. The curse of being forward of your time signifies that generally it takes some time for everybody to catch up.
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