Jawbreaker is an American punk rock band from San Francisco, California, Un… Read Full Bio ↴Jawbreaker is an American punk rock band from San Francisco, California, United States. The band has its root in Los Angeles, CA, where Blake Schwarzenbach and Adam Pfahler were students at the exclusive private Crossroads High School. The band came together when they met Chris Bauermeister at New York University in 1988.

With Schwarzenbach on guitar and vocals, Bauermeister on bass, and Pfahler on drums, the band gained recognition in the late eighties and early nineties for their melodic yet driven sound built on the foundation for Schwarzenbach's poignant, bleeding-heart lyrics and signature rasp.

The band's first full-length release Unfun was put out by Shredder in 1990. On this, the band stuck close to the sound coming out of their contemporaries in the nascent pop punk scene in their sound, with the exception of Bauermeister's prominent bass lines and Schwarzenbach's lyrics, at times walking the line of the melodramatic.

Unfun was followed by Bivouac on Tupelo/Communion in 1992. Bivouac proved thicker and darker - both thematically and melodically - yet served to elevate the band above a crowd of previously similar acts. This more ambitious release also artfully used pieces of found-audio, in what was becoming one of the band's signatures, weaving it in and out of the ten minute title track, "Bivouac."

Their third release, 24 Hour Revenge Therapy, produced by the ubiquitous Steve Albini, unveiled a sparse pop-punk with more carefully crafted lyrics. This album also holds what has become arguably their best known song, "Boxcar."

Jawbreaker had seemed poised for critical and commercial success by the time of their fourth, and last album, Dear You. Despite a vigorous marketing push, Jawbreaker's album sales were anemic in the wake of a post-Green Day market, and was one of the causes leading to the end of the band's career in 1996.

The group recently reacquired the rights to Dear You and have successfully put the long out-of-print album back into circulation on Pfahler's label, Blackball Records.

The band's cult status as the definitive nineties proto-pop-punk band has grown since its breakup, and songs like "Kiss the Bottle" and "Jet Black" are referenced as influences by bands such as Sparta, Lucero, and Rocky Votolato. In 2003, a Jawbreaker tribute album, Bad Scene, Everyone's Fault was released on Dying Wish Records, and featured covers by 18 bands including Fall Out Boy, Nerf Herder, Sparta, and Face To Face.

Singer Blake Schwarzenbach went on to form the New York City-based band Jets to Brazil, who have also since broken up, and is now an adjunct English professor at Hunter College (CUNY). In the fall of 2008, he debuted his new band, Thorns of Life, formed with Aaron Cometbus of Crimpshrine and Pinhead Gunpowder on drums and ex-Gr'ups bassist Daniela Sea.

Drummer Adam Pfahler is currently drumming in San Francisco-based Whysall Lane, whose LP was released in 2006 on his own Blackball Records.

Bassist Chris Bauermeister has been playing in post-hardcore band Horace Pinker and pop-punk band Shorebirds, which was formed with Matt Canino, formerly of Latterman; Shorebirds split in the summer of 2008.

In 2021, Blake Schwarzenbach teamed up with Joyce Manor on a release.

In spite of the similar name, the band Jawbreaker Reunion is unrelated.

Better Half
Jawbreaker Lyrics

Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴

I see him coming

We hold our rock we are ready

The thing we'll do to him

They aren't fit for anyone

Hey this is serious business

I'm gonna hate myself

Still I just can't wait to begin

The monster inside me
Can't be talked out of anything

He's got an appetite

Oh no he's hungry now

I just gotta restrain him
The seam inside me grows

Kiss your better half goodbye

All those things you trusted in
The man that you pride yourself on

All the control you think you hold
Anything that can go wrong

Will find itself come and gone
His body lies broken

Hey some harsh words were spoken

I feel terrible

It just got away
Had to make him pay

For the hole in my heart
It's been my fault from the start

If you think it all makes sense

Can you tell the difference
Anything that can go wrong
Between a quarter and twenty five cents

Will find itself come and gone

Overall Meaning

The lyrics of Jawbreaker's song Better Half tell the story of a person who is battling with their inner monster, represented by the line "The monster inside me can't be talked out of anything." The person knows that what they're about to do is wrong and that they'll hate themselves for it, but they can't help but want to give in to their urges. The lyrics imply that this monster inside them has caused them to do something terrible, and now they have to face the consequences of their actions.

The chorus of the song, "Kiss your better half goodbye," is a warning to others to pay attention to their behavior and try to control any urges they might have that could lead to hurting others. The phrase "better half" refers to the best part of themselves and is a call to action to keep that part of themselves alive and well.

Overall, the song explores the idea of the battle between good and evil that exists within all of us, and how the choices we make can have far-reaching consequences.

Line by Line Meaning

I see him coming
I notice his approach

We hold our rock we are ready
We prepare ourselves for his arrival

The thing we'll do to him
Our planned actions towards him

They aren't fit for anyone
Our actions are not suitable for anyone

Hey this is serious business
This is a matter to be taken seriously

I'm gonna hate myself
I will regret my actions

Still I just can't wait to begin
However, I cannot wait to start

The monster inside me
My inner demon

Can't be talked out of anything
Cannot be reasoned with

He's got an appetite
He is eager to indulge

Oh no he's hungry now
He has a sudden urge to satisfy himself