This is old news, and I don't quite know why I feel the urge to write about it today, but here we go with;

Bands you wouldn’t expect me to like that I do like, part one in an occasional series: JAWBREAKER.

Left to my own devices, I’m sure I’d never have bothered listening to Jawbreaker. For let us examine what we know about them; Three glum looking blokes. Lame, thuggish ‘hardcore’ name. Much venerated in emo-punk circles, and held to be an important influence on a million boring bands in that vein. Notable victims of the old sign to major label / get screwed over / split up syndrome.

Doesn’t look promising, does it?

But enter my friend Pete, whose unceasing enthusiasm for this band and accompanying campaign of mix tape evangelism caused me to eventually get round to borrowing one of their albums – namely ’24 Hour Revenge Therapy’ (another uninspired name), which is apparently their best one.

And... fucking hell, they’re great! Why are they great? Let us count the ways;

1. Jawbreaker do their rocking in the manner of a classic straight-up power trio, and as such instantly remind me of Husker Du, which is deeply good, and also immediately separates them from the generic banality of what we around here like to term Shitty Non-Metal Weiner Music. They rely pretty heavily on big, Nirvana-esque three chord trick riffs and stomp-box hitting choruses, but if it ain’t broke don’t fix it, and damn, they do it well. So that’s the first hurdle over with – they Rock!

2. Jawbreaker sing great, memorable songs you can instantly get the point of, with funny, confident, self-referential and slightly ludicrous verses that seem custom made to be scrawled on the front of discerning outsider school kids’ notebooks. Like; “you’re not punk and I’m telling everyone / save your breath I never was one / you don’t know what I’m all about / killing cops and reading Kerouac”.

3. Jawbreaker really fucking mean it, man. Not in the sense of the tired out, over-earnest “look at me, this means sooo much to me, I’m being iinteennssee!” gestures favored by of practitioners of Shitty Non-Metal Weiner Music, but in the sense that on any given song, they know exactly what they’re gonna say, they lay it down with guts and energy and honesty, and when it’s said they call it a day. It’s a great no bullshit approach that’s brilliantly refreshing in these days of dreadful, overwrought, empty whining, and one which hits it’s target every time.

4. Jawbreaker do ‘serious’ songs dealing with depression and other such emotional/personal hoo-hah, such as ‘Ashtray Monument’ and ‘Condition: Oakland’, and they’re actually talented enough to avoid cliché and bombast and make me care. In the context of contemporary genre punk, this is little short of a miracle. Those track titles are probably setting off your emo-alarms, and I don’t blame you, but seriously, they’re solid stuff – well worth checking out. They also sample the aforementioned Mr. Kerouac to great effect on the latter track.

So there you go – a damn fine band. Open up indie snobs, and let their love in.