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.

Split
Jawbreaker Lyrics

Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴

I could walk a million miles

Suffer freezing rain and failure

It's familiar

This time you have gone too far

Stole my memories and teardrops

Now it all stops
Old truths have taken shape

They've formed themselves inside your landscape
And now I'm a million miles from home
I don't know

I don't care
Still I can see so clearly

Suffer sacrifice in vain
Keep my endless pain inside me

It's colliding

Still you've got no choice at all
Make a choice before your world stops

Before your smile drops

You make the same mistake again

Did you think I'd really buy it?
Couldn't you try it?

There's no one here in your defense
Are you getting tense?Know your lying don't make sense?

Overall Meaning

The lyrics to Jawbreaker's song Split in 2 are a reflection on a relationship that has gone wrong. The singer feels betrayed and hurt by their partner, who seems to have taken their memories and tears away from them. Despite this pain, the singer feels a sense of clarity and distance from the situation. They are willing to suffer and sacrifice for the sake of the relationship, but they also recognize that their partner needs to take responsibility for their actions and make a choice before it's too late.

The song's central theme is one of taking a stand in a toxic relationship. The singer is tired of being lied to and manipulated and is ready to move on. They have come to the realization that their partner's actions have caused irreparable damage, and they must take responsibility for the consequences. The line "Did you think I'd really buy it? Couldn't you try it?" suggests that the singer is no longer willing to accept empty promises and meaningless apologies.

Overall, Split in 2 is a powerful meditation on the pain and disillusionment that often come with relationships. It's a song that speaks to anyone who has been hurt by someone they loved and highlights the importance of standing up for oneself and taking responsibility for one's actions.

Line by Line Meaning

I could walk a million miles
I am willing to endure a great deal of hardship

Suffer freezing rain and failure
I will persevere even when faced with adversity

It's familiar
These challenges are not new to me

This time you have gone too far
Your actions have crossed a line

Stole my memories and teardrops
You have taken from me both cherished moments and emotional pain

Now it all stops
This pattern of behavior ends now

Old truths have taken shape
My previous beliefs have become concrete

They've formed themselves inside your landscape
These truths now exist within your world view

And now I'm a million miles from home
I feel far from where I belong

I don't know
I am uncertain

I don't care
I am indifferent