So this weekend i had the pleasure of going to visit one of the most important figures in recent punkrock history play in his new band 'Forgetters' i took a video of an upcoming song 'im not immune' they played at the amazing clubnight 'everything sucks'
they are currently on tour throughout europe go find them!
Showing posts with label jawbreaker. Show all posts
Showing posts with label jawbreaker. Show all posts
Thursday, 5 May 2011
Monday, 20 September 2010
On a Clear Day You Can See Manhattan by Blake Schwarzenbach
THIS IS SIMPLY A REPOST FROM THE FORGETTERS OWN BLOG, THEY HAVE A FULL ALBUM / DOUBLE 7 INCH OUT THIS WEEK - THE FORGETTERS ARE FRONTED BY ONE OF THE MOST IMPORTANT FRONTMEN IN PUNK ROCKS RECENT HISTORY THE VOCALIST OF SUCH BANDS AS JAWBREAKER & JETS TO BRAZIL
It is the eve of 9/11 in New York, the bat signal has been launched into the sky at Ground Zero, reminding us all to feel bad for some more time, to haunt us with the question, "Is anyone actually going to turn up?" It is an appropriately lonely beacon, catching you unawares as you round a corner at dusk, mired as you might be in your own evening concerns. Suddenly there it is: the twin columns of light silently blasting upwards into the void without words. If I may attempt an approximation of a not uncommon response to such a thing: (1) Surprise (“Ah, here it is again!”); (2) Self-examination (“Does this inspire any kind of feeling in me? It’s pretty, but quite divorced from reality”); (3) Needling guilt (“Have I changed as much as I could in the last decade?”); (4) Simmering resentment (“Don’t tell me how or when to feel”); (5) Wariness (“Here comes the punditry and the day of angry flags”); (6) Resignation (“We are lost; we can’t even handle sadness adequately.”)
Now look, I would actually prefer the soft jolt of this nighttime beacon to all the tearful, vengeful talking that will ensue – it actually seems commensurate with the events themselves: no words, seen from afar, it just happens and demands some kind of reflection, and ultimately it leaves us searching and feeling adrift. Unfortunately, and I think this is because we are an impressionable and deliberate people, the opening that such a spectral image provides is going to be immediately filled in with a variety of narratives. We will be told to be unwavering, to dig our heels in and find our mettle, to never forget; and we will congratulate ourselves on the enormity of the event that we have withstood – in a manner that I suspect has been found rightly offensive to the many people and students of history who know that “thousands dead” is an almost daily occurrence throughout the world. That fact doesn’t need to diminish anything. In fact if anything it ought to be (to borrow from current discourse) a kind of “message force multiplier”: We are a part of this vulnerable world. Or, perhaps, we were, for a moment, before wrenching ourselves apart from it and asserting our role as the standard-bearer for law and conduct. But this has been said before and need not be repeated here at much length – that we squandered an enormous amount of good will and collective empathy by lashing out in every direction at things deemed un-American. What concerns me now is that, over the course of the last decade, this battle has been brought home with laser-like intensity. Foreign policy has become domestic policy. The enemy is no longer out there; the enemy is in our midst, among us, laying eggs and taking root.
What distinguishes this September in New York from all the others is the sudden outcry against the proposed Islamic Community Center in our city’s downtown. This was not an issue when it was proposed and it is a project that has the approval of the mayor and the downtown community, to say nothing of the genuine interest it has sparked in many around the world. Again the world is watching and praying for something resembling common sense and basic humanism in America; something that says we don’t hate you or consider you to be a lesser form of citizen. Think of Obama’s June 2009 speech in Cairo – think whatever you will of it – at the very least it promised equanimity and acknowledgment of Islam as a legitimate social and spiritual entity in the world and in this country, specifically. No more, but no less, than Christianity or Judaism or Hinduism or Buddhism. Think, then, of all the arguments for bringing democracy and freedom to Iraq and Afghanistan – think what you will of them – they were the best possible outcome that Afghans and Iraqis might hope for as a result of foreign occupation. If we can hold these things in mind then the message of censuring this project becomes patently offensive: We will seize and upend your country for your right to make your own decisions – as partners in peace – but we will not countenance a social center for your community in our midst. (And let us put to rest the hyperbolic notion that this is either at the center of Ground Zero or a simple mosque. This is a community center in the neighborhood that happens to have a huge need for development, in a very closely compacted city, with a significant population of Muslims and other people who would be interested to visit it.)
Yet perhaps we could go even further than this by assuming the argument of the project’s opponents. It is indeed close to Ground Zero, a site where the so-called two disparate worlds of East and West were brought together in a horrific, unsparing moment. And now here is a distinguished figure from the Islamic world, Imam Feisal Abdul Rauf, who has repeatedly condemned the September 11th attacks as a violent aberration of, and not representative of, Islam, proposing a center for understanding and outreach in an area still visibly unhealed from the event. People rush in to fill holes. Here is a modest proposal to occupy a small amount of space in an area that has been consumed by ignorance. So, we might ask, “Why shouldn’t we want such a resource in downtown New York?” Arguably it will hold answers for many of the questions that may linger about the attacks, but more importantly it will provide a place of growth and empowerment for a community that is as legitimate and entitled as any other in our country. Does one stop a “clash of civilizations” by refusing any dialogue between the two? Imagine the message of disappointment and resentment such a refusal would send to the Arab world. Or, put another way, would you rather have a library, pool, 9/11 memorial, contemplative space and day care in downtown New York or would you rather have a Burlington Coat Factory (or a Staples or a Starbucks)?
I know that when people are critical of memorial holidays it can come off as churlish and arch, and I don't want to be that anymore; I don’t want to be part of the culture of complaint, the whinging left that can never be happy unless it is battling upwards against nefarious superpowers. So I would suggest this: let us be sad for once and re-affirm our commitment to being alive while we can. Again, I know it is unpretty to conceive of tragedy as opportunity, but I am afraid that such a determination was made almost at the moment of impact (arguably well before impact, if anyone bothers to read the minutes of the cabinet meetings in Washington.) So again we are confronted with an opportunity. What stories about ourselves do we want to believe and put forth historically? What do we want to remember someday and what will make us wince? Do we want to be remembered for unconditionally defending freedom or for defensive incarceration and exclusion? I think very few people in this country can honestly look back over the past decade and feel a sense of pride – the ransacking of the public trust and the plundering of foreign soil is simply too transparent, too vast to go undocumented. But because we are a plucky sort – and this is what the rest of the world finds maddening and lamentable but also terribly endearing about us – we can begin as if we were free. We can forget some of the terrible, cynical decisions we have made and remember the truth that is self-evident to anyone who sits seriously with the idea of an indivisible human community: to do to any other only what we would do for ourselves, an idea that is held in common between all national constitutions and books of prayer.
It is the eve of 9/11 in New York, the bat signal has been launched into the sky at Ground Zero, reminding us all to feel bad for some more time, to haunt us with the question, "Is anyone actually going to turn up?" It is an appropriately lonely beacon, catching you unawares as you round a corner at dusk, mired as you might be in your own evening concerns. Suddenly there it is: the twin columns of light silently blasting upwards into the void without words. If I may attempt an approximation of a not uncommon response to such a thing: (1) Surprise (“Ah, here it is again!”); (2) Self-examination (“Does this inspire any kind of feeling in me? It’s pretty, but quite divorced from reality”); (3) Needling guilt (“Have I changed as much as I could in the last decade?”); (4) Simmering resentment (“Don’t tell me how or when to feel”); (5) Wariness (“Here comes the punditry and the day of angry flags”); (6) Resignation (“We are lost; we can’t even handle sadness adequately.”)
Now look, I would actually prefer the soft jolt of this nighttime beacon to all the tearful, vengeful talking that will ensue – it actually seems commensurate with the events themselves: no words, seen from afar, it just happens and demands some kind of reflection, and ultimately it leaves us searching and feeling adrift. Unfortunately, and I think this is because we are an impressionable and deliberate people, the opening that such a spectral image provides is going to be immediately filled in with a variety of narratives. We will be told to be unwavering, to dig our heels in and find our mettle, to never forget; and we will congratulate ourselves on the enormity of the event that we have withstood – in a manner that I suspect has been found rightly offensive to the many people and students of history who know that “thousands dead” is an almost daily occurrence throughout the world. That fact doesn’t need to diminish anything. In fact if anything it ought to be (to borrow from current discourse) a kind of “message force multiplier”: We are a part of this vulnerable world. Or, perhaps, we were, for a moment, before wrenching ourselves apart from it and asserting our role as the standard-bearer for law and conduct. But this has been said before and need not be repeated here at much length – that we squandered an enormous amount of good will and collective empathy by lashing out in every direction at things deemed un-American. What concerns me now is that, over the course of the last decade, this battle has been brought home with laser-like intensity. Foreign policy has become domestic policy. The enemy is no longer out there; the enemy is in our midst, among us, laying eggs and taking root.
What distinguishes this September in New York from all the others is the sudden outcry against the proposed Islamic Community Center in our city’s downtown. This was not an issue when it was proposed and it is a project that has the approval of the mayor and the downtown community, to say nothing of the genuine interest it has sparked in many around the world. Again the world is watching and praying for something resembling common sense and basic humanism in America; something that says we don’t hate you or consider you to be a lesser form of citizen. Think of Obama’s June 2009 speech in Cairo – think whatever you will of it – at the very least it promised equanimity and acknowledgment of Islam as a legitimate social and spiritual entity in the world and in this country, specifically. No more, but no less, than Christianity or Judaism or Hinduism or Buddhism. Think, then, of all the arguments for bringing democracy and freedom to Iraq and Afghanistan – think what you will of them – they were the best possible outcome that Afghans and Iraqis might hope for as a result of foreign occupation. If we can hold these things in mind then the message of censuring this project becomes patently offensive: We will seize and upend your country for your right to make your own decisions – as partners in peace – but we will not countenance a social center for your community in our midst. (And let us put to rest the hyperbolic notion that this is either at the center of Ground Zero or a simple mosque. This is a community center in the neighborhood that happens to have a huge need for development, in a very closely compacted city, with a significant population of Muslims and other people who would be interested to visit it.)
Yet perhaps we could go even further than this by assuming the argument of the project’s opponents. It is indeed close to Ground Zero, a site where the so-called two disparate worlds of East and West were brought together in a horrific, unsparing moment. And now here is a distinguished figure from the Islamic world, Imam Feisal Abdul Rauf, who has repeatedly condemned the September 11th attacks as a violent aberration of, and not representative of, Islam, proposing a center for understanding and outreach in an area still visibly unhealed from the event. People rush in to fill holes. Here is a modest proposal to occupy a small amount of space in an area that has been consumed by ignorance. So, we might ask, “Why shouldn’t we want such a resource in downtown New York?” Arguably it will hold answers for many of the questions that may linger about the attacks, but more importantly it will provide a place of growth and empowerment for a community that is as legitimate and entitled as any other in our country. Does one stop a “clash of civilizations” by refusing any dialogue between the two? Imagine the message of disappointment and resentment such a refusal would send to the Arab world. Or, put another way, would you rather have a library, pool, 9/11 memorial, contemplative space and day care in downtown New York or would you rather have a Burlington Coat Factory (or a Staples or a Starbucks)?
I know that when people are critical of memorial holidays it can come off as churlish and arch, and I don't want to be that anymore; I don’t want to be part of the culture of complaint, the whinging left that can never be happy unless it is battling upwards against nefarious superpowers. So I would suggest this: let us be sad for once and re-affirm our commitment to being alive while we can. Again, I know it is unpretty to conceive of tragedy as opportunity, but I am afraid that such a determination was made almost at the moment of impact (arguably well before impact, if anyone bothers to read the minutes of the cabinet meetings in Washington.) So again we are confronted with an opportunity. What stories about ourselves do we want to believe and put forth historically? What do we want to remember someday and what will make us wince? Do we want to be remembered for unconditionally defending freedom or for defensive incarceration and exclusion? I think very few people in this country can honestly look back over the past decade and feel a sense of pride – the ransacking of the public trust and the plundering of foreign soil is simply too transparent, too vast to go undocumented. But because we are a plucky sort – and this is what the rest of the world finds maddening and lamentable but also terribly endearing about us – we can begin as if we were free. We can forget some of the terrible, cynical decisions we have made and remember the truth that is self-evident to anyone who sits seriously with the idea of an indivisible human community: to do to any other only what we would do for ourselves, an idea that is held in common between all national constitutions and books of prayer.
Wednesday, 22 October 2008
Jawbreaker news!
straight from the horses mouth...:
Jawbreaker News
Hey, just a quick update on what's going on in the Jawbreaker world...
The last bulletin I posted mentioned the Unfun remaster. I am going back down to LA this weekend to do it again. There were “flutters” in that first pass, which is a techie way of saying that gummy leader tape splices between the songs made the beginnings and endings sound like they had been drinking, which is a longwinded way of saying that it was fucked up, though no fault of the Man Himself John Golden. Unfun will be available online through the usual providers and in stores in early 2009 on Blackball Records. Extras will include the 7" mix of Busy and alternate mixes of Want and Fine Day. The CD and LP will be available exclusively at Hot Topic for the first few months of release, and then will go out to the mom and pops. Hot Topic, you ask? I said it. They have been incredibly supportive these past few years, stocking our records and shirts in all of their stores. Jawbreaker swag doesn't make it into a lot of national chains, so I'm happy that it's out there where kids can get to it. They recently added Etc. (the b-sides, singles and out-takes compilation with Kiss the Bottle). So if you happen to live out in the boonies, or your indie store just bit the dust of the download revolution, and you still like having something in your hands to peruse-- they carry our stuff. And while you're at the mall, why not visit Starbucks for a refreshing caffeinated beverage, and perhaps pick up a pair of pleated khaki slacks at the Gap? Ah, that's better...
A lot of the myspace people are asking me about the status of the documentary that Tim Irwin and Keith Schieron (We Jam Econo: The Story of the Minutemen) are making. I'd say they are halfway there. Like I said before, these guys have real jobs (and a new kid-- congrats, Keith!) and are making this movie catch-as-catch-can on their own dime, to mix idioms. We just got copies of the Dear You masters and they are going to interview Rob Cavallo next and have him go through a couple of songs.
Which brings me to sad news. Jerry Finn, our friend who mixed Dear You, passed away last month. I do not feel qualified to eulogize Jerry-- we worked with him all too briefly back in 1995. But our time was intimate, and we kept in touch via email over the years. I considered him a friend and ally. The last time we were in contact I begged him to be in our movie. But Jerry wasn't comfortable patting himself on the back in an on camera interview. I think he was content to let the music do the talking, as it were. That's a smooth character right there. Or maybe he just didn't want to give up any of his studio secrets (I'll divulge one here: to keep morale up, when greeting the still reeling from signing to a major label band, say, "Hey, Little Fighters!" That'll do the trick.) So the next time you hear a song made in the last fifteen years that punches you in the stomach while kissing you on the lips, you have Jerry Finn to thank.
I don’t like to speak for my fellow Jbs.
I‘ll hand it over to Blake and send a Chris update when I hear from him…
A Note/Update from Blake Schwarzenbach:
Because I am bad at speaking about myself but excel at projecting my identity onto others and then destroying them I will be brief. I am currently defending my master’s thesis at Hunter College in Manhattan, making music in an as yet unnamed group, and fighting with words on Facebook (it’s an all ages page, meaning you don’t have to be a ‘friend’ to read it; although I think you do need an account, which is free and relatively non-invasive.
Come on by!)
My thesis is on Percy Bysshe Shelley, who appears to have gotten almost everything right and paid dearly for it. The paper focuses on Shelley’s technique of pushing metaphor until all connection between sign and signified is shattered and either some new truth declares itself or a sublime vacuum opens up and we are confronted with the void. Exciting stuff, I assure you, especially when one considers that he was a fiercely principled Republican (in the 18th century meaning of the term: friend of suffrage and the French Revolution, foe of monarchy and moneyed interests), an atheist, a vegetarian, and a wild-eyed beauty in verse. What’s not to celebrate? Well, as it happens, he was universally ignored, reviled, humiliated or suppressed and died in exile. So, this is what I devote my academic energies to, which brings into even starker relief the historically blind trammeling and dismemberment of the U.S. constitution that has gone on these past eight years.
Musically, and I think maybe I can speak more clearly about this, I feel as though I am emerging from a kind of muted, reflective nuclear winter. It’s awkward to talk about one’s own music since that is what we ask the music to do; so I’ll say only that it meets my own inner-standard of truth. I believe in it enough to overcome my own fear of making it. Hopefully we’ll find a bassist (a woman, over 30, who rides a bike and can resolve any dictionary disputes that might arise between the drummer and myself) and come to a town near you.
Finally, thank you friends and enthusiasts of Jawbreaker. We did this thing for a long time in the dark – as all bands must – and it is gratifying to hear of younger people finding the band and getting it. The goal was always to connect with others and that seems to have happened so I think we can all claim success in that project.
Kind regards,
Blake
Jawbreaker News
Hey, just a quick update on what's going on in the Jawbreaker world...
The last bulletin I posted mentioned the Unfun remaster. I am going back down to LA this weekend to do it again. There were “flutters” in that first pass, which is a techie way of saying that gummy leader tape splices between the songs made the beginnings and endings sound like they had been drinking, which is a longwinded way of saying that it was fucked up, though no fault of the Man Himself John Golden. Unfun will be available online through the usual providers and in stores in early 2009 on Blackball Records. Extras will include the 7" mix of Busy and alternate mixes of Want and Fine Day. The CD and LP will be available exclusively at Hot Topic for the first few months of release, and then will go out to the mom and pops. Hot Topic, you ask? I said it. They have been incredibly supportive these past few years, stocking our records and shirts in all of their stores. Jawbreaker swag doesn't make it into a lot of national chains, so I'm happy that it's out there where kids can get to it. They recently added Etc. (the b-sides, singles and out-takes compilation with Kiss the Bottle). So if you happen to live out in the boonies, or your indie store just bit the dust of the download revolution, and you still like having something in your hands to peruse-- they carry our stuff. And while you're at the mall, why not visit Starbucks for a refreshing caffeinated beverage, and perhaps pick up a pair of pleated khaki slacks at the Gap? Ah, that's better...
A lot of the myspace people are asking me about the status of the documentary that Tim Irwin and Keith Schieron (We Jam Econo: The Story of the Minutemen) are making. I'd say they are halfway there. Like I said before, these guys have real jobs (and a new kid-- congrats, Keith!) and are making this movie catch-as-catch-can on their own dime, to mix idioms. We just got copies of the Dear You masters and they are going to interview Rob Cavallo next and have him go through a couple of songs.
Which brings me to sad news. Jerry Finn, our friend who mixed Dear You, passed away last month. I do not feel qualified to eulogize Jerry-- we worked with him all too briefly back in 1995. But our time was intimate, and we kept in touch via email over the years. I considered him a friend and ally. The last time we were in contact I begged him to be in our movie. But Jerry wasn't comfortable patting himself on the back in an on camera interview. I think he was content to let the music do the talking, as it were. That's a smooth character right there. Or maybe he just didn't want to give up any of his studio secrets (I'll divulge one here: to keep morale up, when greeting the still reeling from signing to a major label band, say, "Hey, Little Fighters!" That'll do the trick.) So the next time you hear a song made in the last fifteen years that punches you in the stomach while kissing you on the lips, you have Jerry Finn to thank.
I don’t like to speak for my fellow Jbs.
I‘ll hand it over to Blake and send a Chris update when I hear from him…
A Note/Update from Blake Schwarzenbach:
Because I am bad at speaking about myself but excel at projecting my identity onto others and then destroying them I will be brief. I am currently defending my master’s thesis at Hunter College in Manhattan, making music in an as yet unnamed group, and fighting with words on Facebook (it’s an all ages page, meaning you don’t have to be a ‘friend’ to read it; although I think you do need an account, which is free and relatively non-invasive.
Come on by!)
My thesis is on Percy Bysshe Shelley, who appears to have gotten almost everything right and paid dearly for it. The paper focuses on Shelley’s technique of pushing metaphor until all connection between sign and signified is shattered and either some new truth declares itself or a sublime vacuum opens up and we are confronted with the void. Exciting stuff, I assure you, especially when one considers that he was a fiercely principled Republican (in the 18th century meaning of the term: friend of suffrage and the French Revolution, foe of monarchy and moneyed interests), an atheist, a vegetarian, and a wild-eyed beauty in verse. What’s not to celebrate? Well, as it happens, he was universally ignored, reviled, humiliated or suppressed and died in exile. So, this is what I devote my academic energies to, which brings into even starker relief the historically blind trammeling and dismemberment of the U.S. constitution that has gone on these past eight years.
Musically, and I think maybe I can speak more clearly about this, I feel as though I am emerging from a kind of muted, reflective nuclear winter. It’s awkward to talk about one’s own music since that is what we ask the music to do; so I’ll say only that it meets my own inner-standard of truth. I believe in it enough to overcome my own fear of making it. Hopefully we’ll find a bassist (a woman, over 30, who rides a bike and can resolve any dictionary disputes that might arise between the drummer and myself) and come to a town near you.
Finally, thank you friends and enthusiasts of Jawbreaker. We did this thing for a long time in the dark – as all bands must – and it is gratifying to hear of younger people finding the band and getting it. The goal was always to connect with others and that seems to have happened so I think we can all claim success in that project.
Kind regards,
Blake
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