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.
Face Down
Jawbreaker Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
It's four A.M. in apartment three.
Muted sounds. A sealed room.
I turn the knob. The door is gone.
Yellow light. Kitchen floor.
An old woman is at the cutting board.
Just her back. Her old bent back.
How do you like that?
I died in my sleep. Face down.
Just a little dream I had. Face down.
It was more than real. Face down.
Just a little dream I had.
She turns around. Smiles up at.
Knife out. Head shakes.
Laughing teeth into me.
Silver gleam and out.
Face down.
Just a little dream I had. Face down.
It was more than real. Face down.
Just a little dream I had.
The lyrics to Jawbreaker's song Face Down paint a vivid and eerie picture of a dreamlike encounter the singer has with an old woman in the middle of the night. The first verse sets the scene, indicating that it's four in the morning and the singer is outside apartment three. They describe muted sounds and a sealed room, which sets the stage for the surreal and unsettling events that follow. When the singer turns the knob, they find that the door is gone, which adds to the dreamlike quality of the experience.
The second verse describes the singer's encounter with the old woman. They find her in the kitchen, hunched over a cutting board and chopping something with short, abrupt movements. The lyrics suggest that the woman is not aware of the singer's presence, which adds to the surreal quality of the encounter. When the woman turns around and smiles, the singer is taken aback. The lyrics then take a sharp turn, suggesting that the woman attacks the singer with a knife, described as a "silver gleam," and the singer ends up "face down" in a dreamlike death.
The lyrics of Face Down are open to interpretation and have been analyzed in various ways. Some speculate that the song is about vulnerability and fear of death, while others interpret it more literally as a depiction of a violent dream. Others have suggested that the song is about the way that dreams can seem more real than reality itself.
Line by Line Meaning
Beneath the door I see a light.
The singer notices light coming from underneath the door.
It's four A.M. in apartment three.
The time and location of the singer is identified as 4am in apartment number three.
Muted sounds. A sealed room.
The room is quiet and appears to be sealed off.
I turn the knob. The door is gone.
The artist attempts to open the door, but it's already open or non-existent.
Yellow light. Kitchen floor.
The artist sees yellow light and identifies the location as the kitchen floor.
An old woman is at the cutting board.
The singer sees an elderly woman using a cutting board.
Just her back. Her old bent back.
The singer only sees the woman's back which is bent due to her age.
Short, abrupt chopping jerks. How do you like that?
The woman is making abrupt chopping motions with a knife and asks the artist how they like it.
I died in my sleep. Face down.
The artist describes a dream where they died in their sleep while facing downwards.
Just a little dream I had. Face down.
The artist reiterates that the dream was small but still significant.
It was more than real. Face down.
The dream felt more real than reality to the singer even though it was face down.
She turns around. Smiles up at.
The elderly woman turns around and smiles at the artist.
Knife out. Head shakes.
The woman has a knife in her hand and shakes her head.
Laughing teeth into me. Silver gleam and out.
The woman laughs and puts her teeth on the singer's face, similar to how a jokester might pretend to bite someone. Then, she removes the teeth and the silver gleam of the knife comes back into focus.
Lyrics © Universal Music Publishing Group
Written by: RONNIE WINTER
Lyrics Licensed & Provided by LyricFind
notyoursavior78
Jawbeaker will always be one of the most relevant bands in music.
Ted Spider
Looking forward to the Jawbreaker documentary coming out. Wish I could make their first concert since the mid-90's in Chicago at Riotfest.
matthew andrus
I remember this my senior year of high school. Great memories!
Lisa Hibbard
Thank gods I found this one. Thought about it last night and tried looking it up but kept getting directed to the other song by the Red Jumpsuits(?) . Helps to remember the year the song was released. Awesome.
Ted Spider
Yeah, just came across that stupid Red Jumpsuits song. bleh.
Robyn Margaret McComb
awesome i started headbanging and ripped my headphones out lol