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.
Shield Your Eyes
Jawbreaker Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
It lit the whole damn sky.
It kept everything,
everything alive.
And there was a man once.
He looked it straight in the eye.
He saw everything.
Everything. He went blind.
The truth burns bright.
There's too much there sometimes.
The sun it shows, the sun it blinds.
Best to keep your eyes.
Stare at the sidewalk lines.
Let lies lie, don't let them shine.
The blind man staggers.
And he grabs at his eyes.
He can't do anything.
Everything is a lie.
Now he sits around.
And he stares at the walls.
He can't do anything,
anything at all.
The truth burns bright.
There's too much there sometimes.
The sun it shows, the sun it blinds.
Best to keep your eyes.
Stare at the sidewalk lines.
Let lies lie, don't let them shine.
Shield your eyes from all this misery.
Come along. Come along.
The song "Shield Your Eyes" by Jawbreaker is a contemplative piece that delves into themes of truth, perception, and the human condition. The lyrics begin by describing the power and beauty of the sun, which was once a source of life for everything on earth. However, the image is swiftly juxtaposed by the introduction of a man who looks directly at the sun and is blinded by its truth. The truth can be overwhelming, and it has the power to show us everything we need to see, but at the same time, it can be blinding, and we can't unsee what we've learned.
The chorus warns against the dangers of seeing too much, encouraging listeners to focus on the mundane and not let the raw, unfiltered truth blind them. The blind man in the song is unable to function in the world around him, paralyzed by his newfound knowledge. The song concludes with a directive to "shield your eyes from all this misery," suggesting that it is better to live in ignorance and find some measure of happiness than to be burdened by harsh truths.
Overall, "Shield Your Eyes" is a poignant reflection on the often-complicated relationship between truth, perception, and the human experience.
Line by Line Meaning
There was a sun once.
There was a time when everything was clear and bright.
It lit the whole damn sky.
Its light covered the whole world with its brightness.
It kept everything,
everything alive.
Its light sustained everything and kept them going.
And there was a man once.
There was someone who could see the world clearly.
He looked it straight in the eye.
He faced the truth without fear or hesitation.
He saw everything.
Everything. He went blind.
He saw the world as it truly was, and the realization was so powerful that it blinded him to everything else.
The truth burns bright.
The truth is powerful and can be overwhelming.
There's too much there sometimes.
The truth can be too much to handle at times.
The sun it shows, the sun it blinds.
The truth can be blinding, even when it is revealed in plain sight.
Best to keep your eyes.
It is better to keep your eyes closed to the truth sometimes.
Stare at the sidewalk lines.
Focus on the mundane and the everyday, rather than the profound and the existential.
Let lies lie, don't let them shine.
Ignore the falsehoods and the illusions, and don't give them any attention or energy.
The blind man staggers.
The person who sees the truth clearly can become lost and disoriented.
And he grabs at his eyes.
They may even try to shut out the truth, something they can never unsee.
He can't do anything.
Everything is a lie.
The person who sees the truth becomes overwhelmed by the knowledge that their reality has been a lie—an illusion the truth shatters.
Now he sits around.
And he stares at the walls.
They may become paralyzed by the realization that the world they once knew was a fiction, unable to process a new reality.
He can't do anything,
anything at all.
Unable to deny the truth or carry on with the illusion of his former life, he is left without purpose or direction.
Shield your eyes from all this misery.
Avoiding the truth can be a way to avoid the pain of reality.
Come along. Come along.
The singer exhorts the listener to join them on this journey of discovery and revelation.
Lyrics © O/B/O APRA AMCOS
Lyrics Licensed & Provided by LyricFind
@thelivinglibrary5133
Back in 97 I wanted this song played at my funeral. This still has not changed.
@kaiserdooder
Poetic
@AUR3LIU5
Saw them in austin in 2018. They ended the set with this jam. Deep stuff, this is the song i always sing to my daughter
@1thess523
There was this college radio station in the early 90's here in town that would play a bunch of punk stuff and i would sit there by my stereo with blank 120 minutes cassettes recording music and whem i first heard this song it was really cool because that was my first taste of (real) emo/pop punk stuff.
@poeticriffraff
That is awesome. Wish I had a sweet radio station growing up, luckily I had friends from diffreent countries who had awesome taste in music, and lead me in the right path musically.
@keri___
my favorite song of theirs
@notyoursavior78
Shield my eyes | from all this misery Blake Schwarzenbach is totally the man!
@joshuabos7195
The late 80's to mid 90's was a fucking fantastic period in music.
@houseofglass21
dreadful 90's? yeah right. the 90's from 1990-1996 was one of the best periods in music ever
@theLexingtonKid
My buddy Donovan showed me this song long ago. RIP, brother.