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Jawbreaker
Tribute: Bad Scene, Everyone's Fault
One important fact about Jawbreaker is that they were the last band to sign to a major label in the pop-punk mania of the mid-1990's. Yet for some reason, they are the first of the largely underrecognized bands from that era to evoke a tribute album. While Green Day and Rancid traded in their Gilman Street-Berkeley credibility for a shot at major-label stardom, the exact opposite happened with bands like Shudder to Think and Jawbreaker. Actual talent plus a big label deal proved fatal for a lot of the bands that were left in the dust by the opportunistic likes of Ruth Ruth and Superdrag. So with that history in mind, its pretty safe to assume that Jawbreaker would have been better off following the leads of bands like NOFX and Screeching Weasel, but instead, they released Dear You on DGC in 1994. Maybe Beck's explosive "Mellow Gold" overshadowed this major label debut (I hate calling it that, but perhaps theres irony in such a moniker, since it was their last studio album), and they subsequently fell off the face of the earth. Fast forward to 2003. Bands like the Ataris and Blink 182 don't really mind that they're essentially copies of copies of copies, etc. They'll accept their awards and politely thank their mindless 13- year-old fans for having mommy/daddy/Aunt Joyce pick their album up for them. Then theyll walk off stage and into the sunset as the millionaires they set out to be. It's not that things have changed in terms of musicians "only doing it for the money," but it's just too painfully obvious when bands like Good Charlotte continually shove it into our faces. So, here we are now with a tribute to an essentially ignored band with covers from a bunch of unknown bands, and it's easy to see how this is just begging for tragedy. I must not be cool anymore, but I can't for the life of me remember bands with the names Good Night Bad Guy, Counterfit, Bayside, or For Amusement Only. I have heard of Bigwig, Riddlin' Kids, and the Travoltas, but only briefly while I was in line at the grocery store. Yeah, there were some kids behind me that were 10 years younger than me and about 100% cooler than me. And I definitely remember that they were "stoked" to see one or more of those bands later that week but not until after they talked about a few of the kids in their class who were "total fags" and "complete homos." Those kids probably like all of the bands on this compilation. One of their favorite bands undoubtedly is The Reunion Show, and one listen to this band's cover of "Unlisted Track" on this Tribute proves how easy it is for bands to sound exactly like Jawbreaker and get away with it. Fallout Boy is another one of those emo-jerkoff bands that tries to act all tough by wearing studded belts with their cool black t-shirts along with their atrocious hair-dos. They'll probably change the title and the chorus of "Save Your Generation," so that they can put it on their next album to get more 15-year-old boys wetting their pants for them. What a bunch of sickos, but then again, they're on Fueled By Ramen. I'm sure you all remember Jimmy Eat World. I haven't heard from them in ages, but unfortunately I don't think their tour bus crashed or anything. I'm still wondering why they aren't on this compilation as well. On the topic of Feuled By Ramen, The Aeffect delivers another one of their retardation-driven energy electro-romps with their cover of "Boxcar," but the saddest point on this thing is surprisingly Sparta with their rendition of "Kiss the Bottle." I'm sorry if I'm being a bit bitter, but I think Jawbreaker should come out of retirement to pay homage to At the Drive In. Seeing Paul, Jim and Tony (of Sparta, formerly of ATDI) wussing it up along with these pop-punk rejects is truly saddening. While we're at it, if you were old enough to remember Weezer rip-offs Nerf Herder, guess what? They're back! Yeah, and they're crappier now than they ever were with their take on "Chesterfield King." But the real shining moment on this album is when Face to Face delivers a patronizing cover of "Boat Dreams from the Hill," which was actually recorded before Face To Face knew how to become big-label flops themselves. At any rate, it just seems a bit odd that most of the songs selected came from the poorly received Jawbreaker albums Dear You and 24 Hour Revenge Therapy, as opposed to the more influential albums Bivouac and Unfun, from which there are only two songs each. Overall, it's just disappointing because the bands that were actually inspired by Jawbreaker (e.g. Saves the Day, The Get Up Kids) don't show up for tribute albums; instead they go on pretending as if they've got their own style. Oh well, you can't please everyone. Especially me.
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