Dear You

Tea pairing: Earl Grey with honey

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When Jawbreaker signed to DGC, a major label, for $1 million, their following in the East Bay punk scene felt betrayed and labeled them as sellouts. Just a year before, fellow East Bay punk rockers, Green Day, signed to Reprise Records, and were also dubbed sellouts.

The San Fransisco based by way of New York City punk outfit consisting of Blake Schwarzenbach on vocals and guitar, Chris Bauermeister on bass, and Adam Pfahler on drums had felt their signing would excite their dedicated fanbase.

How Jawbreaker signing to a major label differs to Green Day doing the same was that they were on a fast track to stardom, whereas Jawbreaker were on the brink of falling apart. Ultimately they did, and it was after their 1995 masterpiece, Dear You, hit shelves and divided their entire fanbase.

Selling out was, and still is, a major talking point in the punk community. Ever since major labels signed The Clash and the Buzzcocks in the late '70s, there has been a stigma with "selling out".

For some punk bands and singers, being signed to a major label is a line they would ever cross as they feel it is an insult to the honesty and DIY ethos of punk. If one were to ask me about "selling out" I would say that it comes down to the band itself.

Did they sign to continue their careers and introduce a new aduience to punk? Then it is justified. Did they do it to get rich and release crappy albums just fulfill a contract? Then they are sell outs. However, that argument can go much deeper and cover more aspects.

The punk community did not take kindly to the album’s polished sound, namely the polishedness of Schwarzenbach’s vocals as he had undergone surgery to remove polyps from his throat. Before, fans and critics alike praised his raspy singing and singled it out as a distinction for the group.

Clean sounds aside, Dear You is still a very raw and unforgiving album with “Accident Prone” where Schwarzenbach sings “I cut in line/I bled to death/I got to you, there was nothing left”. Just like in his previous songs, Schwarzenbach very easily conjures up imagery that fits very well with his poetic songs.

The strong sense of poetry and rough edged punk are more than present in other tracks like “Sluttering (May 4th)”, “Chemistry”, and “Save Your Generation”. Driven by Schwarzenbach's insightful lyrics, their punk roots provided a necesary edge to their sound.

To say Dear You is only an emo album would negate the band’s punk credibility and their importance to the Gilman Street scene. However, it holds many hallmarks of emo, such as slower tempos and personal lyrics.

The album is a pretty hard shift in their sound, where the three piece trade their traditional three chord pop punk tunes for layered guitars, driving bass lines, and a wall of thunderous drums that are reminiscent of post-hardcore acts such as Jawbox, Big Black, and Fugazi.

Because of their newish sound, punk legends like Ben Weasel of Screeching Weasel and Fat Mike of NOFX were fast to discredit their new sound and effectively cast them out of the scene. But despite poor sales and either lukewarm or flatout negative reviews upon its release, Dear You gained massive recognition and love years later.

Chronicled in the well produced and put together documentary, Don’t Break Down: A Film About Jawbreaker, the album’s newfound love was chalked up to the band’s seemingly early approach to the second wave emo that would spring up in the early 2000s.

There is no doubt that Jawbreaker is just as important to the emo scene as it is to the punk scene, and their final effort is a definite hallmark of both as well.

It may have been only after the punk darlings finally called it quits that Dear You finally got its rightfully deserved love and appreciation, but if the punk community knows anything better than anyone it’s that it’s better to be noticed years later than not at all.