This video is sponsored by Squarespace. Easy to build websites for your independent business or band.
Emo isn't really so much a genre as an insult.
Since its origins in the mid-80s Revolution Summer, through the Midwestern “second wave”
and beyond pretty much every band that has been labelled with the word has despised it.
In many ways genre is just a way to group bands together, used by journalists to make
sense of the multitudes of music they have to listen to, define and review. But because
of this “emo” has been lazily applied to any punkish music with a emotional heartbeat.
Rites of Spring, Lifetime and My Chemical Romance have all been tagged with “emo”
despite sounding completely different.
Another band that shouldered the burden was
Jimmy Eat World, deflecting the term while inspiring a multitude under that vague banner.
Their 1999 album Clarity paved the way for a whole generation of heart-on-sleeve bands.
Their next album Bleed American was the album
that made this sound mainstream, charting on Billboard and making the previously underground
sound pop. But due to label issues that album and its resulting repercussions almost didn't happen.
This is how Bleed American saved Jimmy Eat World.
Jimmy Eat World formed in 1993 with dual guitarist/vocalists
Jim Adkins and Tom Linton, drummer Zach Lind and original bassist Mitch Porter. They independently
released their pop-punk indebted self titled debut in 1994, which sold well enough to attract
the attention of Capitol Records, keen to cash in on the post-Dookie goldrush. The album
differs from later releases as Linton would provide most all the lead vocals as well as
sounding a whole lot more like Face to Face or The Mr. T Experience.
Around this time, Porter left to be replaced by Rick Burch. Their major label debut, Static Prevails was
released in 1996, an album much more in sync with then-prevailing second wave emo bands
like Mineral and Christie Front Drive.
This change in sound lost them as many fans
as they gained; being influenced by a sound that had yet to break into the mainstream
wasn't a sure-fire way to sell albums. But it was a step toward the Jimmy Eat World people
would get to know and love in the early 2000s; it also featured a more prominent role of
Adkins as songwriter, who contrasted Linton's hoarse vocals with his cleaner timbre.
In 1999 the band released Clarity. A marked evolution on Static Prevails with more experimentation
within their sound. Key tracks like opener “Table for Glasses” and “For Me This
Is Heaven” showcased a more sombre and melodic version of the band,
while “Crush” and “Believe In What You Want” led them into more pop-rock territory.
Closing track “Goodbye Sky Harbor” is still their most adventurous track, 16 minutes of bittersweet vocal harmonies,
swirling guitars and a myriad non-rock instrumentation.
Though lead single “Lucky Denver Mint” had gained some radio airplay due to its placement
on the soundtrack of Drew Barrymore rom-com Never Been Kissed, Clarity sold very poorly
upon release. Jimmy Eat World parted ways with Capitol soon after, due to them not being
the pop-punk hitmakers the label had wanted. Said Adkins in 2002 “We were just about
invisible there and it wasn't going to get any better." Lind continued: “Capitol was
just sort of the wrong place at the wrong time, but in the end, really, without that
experience we wouldn't be where we are today. All in all it was a good thing, it just was
really frustrating. At the time it seemed like a waste of time and a big mistake."
Without a label Jimmy Eat World were in an
unsure position. They didn't want to quit, but moving forward they would have no external
financial backing. What they did have, unbeknownst to Capitol, was a growing fanbase amassed
from frequent merciless touring. Hopeful that this would pull them through, the band began
work on songs for their fourth album.
The tracks in general on Bleed American are much more concise and straight-forward
when compared to the more sprawling and diverse Clarity.
Part of the reason was merely a lack of studio time to over-experiment.
To raise funds for recording sessions they released Singles in August 2000,
a compilation of b-sides and non-album tracks, through Big Wheel Recreation.
During the recording process, the band's budgeted funding was insufficient, so their producer
Mark Trombino helped out by working for free, confident that once the band were signed to
another label he would be reimbursed. Despite their former label's indifference, other labels
became very interested during Bleed American's recording process; in part because of Clarity's
growing cult status and partly because of Trombino's industry connections.
“A lot of different people were saying, 'Hey, if you need a label we're here for you.'
... So they came down and listened (while the band was recording), and were like, 'Wow,
this is sounding pretty good.' And I guess they told their friends and it just kind of
worked through the grapevine. And the next thing we know, we had our choice of where
we wanted to go.” After much discussion the band went with Dreamworks, but still the
band needed to deliver a hit.
Jimmy Eat World took influence from a variety
of different sources for Bleed American. Its crunching title track recalls the post-hardcore
moments on Clarity
or even earlier singles “What Would I Say To You Now”.
You can trace this lineage back through At the Drive In to Fugazi.
Adkins has expressed that the Washington DC band are his favourite.
The track is suitably the most political on the album, dealing with “the bleaker side of the modern American
youth: depressed, stressed, isolated”, but being Jimmy Eat World its shot through a more
personal lens; lyrics like
originate from Adkins' experiences with panic disorder while touring to support Clarity.
Side two highlight “If You Don't Don't”'s guitar chords were originally a bit faster,
more ramshackle to mimic the style of British indie band The Wedding Present, and this can
still be heard on the demo version.
A phased effect was added in the studio that gave the
song a dream pop quality; its tale of romantic confusion given another woozy textured layer.
Not only are there sonic influences on Bleed American's songs, but the songs themselves
are in love with pop and rock history. Look no further than “A Praise Chorus”;
Proving that they remember the second wave emo scene that
they came from, this section is duetted with Cap N' Jazz and Promise Ring frontman Davey
Van Bohlen, who also sneaks in a couple of lines from his latter band.
There are also references to rock history
on the Jukebox anthem “The Authority Song”, a tune about finding the perfect song to get
up the courage to talk to a girl. It alludes to The Jesus and Mary Chain's Automatic album,
“What Goes On” by The Velvet Underground
as well as John Cougar Mellancamp's “Authority Song”
from which the song gets its title.
With Mellancamp, Velvet Underground references
as well as shoutouts from the band in the press to Bruce Springsteen and Tom Petty,
the album lives up to its name, metaphorically bleeding Americana.
Many journalists at the time clumsily compared
Jimmy Eat World to Weezer, in that both were emotive alt rock bands and were geekily obsessed
with music. But the connection goes beyond that:
stately ballad “Hear You Me” was written in tribute to Mykel and Carli Allan, the departed superfans of Weezer, its title
taken from the chorus of Weezer's tribute to them, “Mykel and Carli”.
It also features Rachel Haden. bassist from That Dog on backing vocals,
who also provided vocals on the Weezer song “I Just Threw Out the Love of My Dreams”.
One song that almost didn't make the album but ironically became its biggest single was
“The Middle”. The initial demo for the track was maligned by the band for its comparative simplicity.
Producer Trombino had warmed to the song,
so when the band had left for tour he mixed it to sound like 80s new wave, almost like The Cars.
The subtle synths throughout the song are a result of this experiment.
It was enough for the band to continue working on it, and eventually release it as a single.
To quell the apparent simplicity of the track and further the 80s-vibe, Adkins added a cheesy
guitar solo, seemingly evoking Cheap Trick or even Weezer, but he had another more indie
rock inspiration for his noodling. He told MTV in 2001: "In the last two or three years
country has crept into my CD collection, but so has a lot of Guided by Voices, and that
solo in particular is sort of a tribute to Doug Gillard from GBV." You can hear the influence
from the sometime Guided By Voices guitarist when compared to the solo in “Teenage FBI”.
While the melody came to Adkins fairly quickly, it would be a while until he confirmed the
chorus lyrics. These were inspired by both an email from a 13-year-old female fan who
felt she wasn't accepted by her school's punk kids, as well as Adkins asking himself the
most American question possible: “What Would The Boss Do?”
The chorus became a reassuring call-to-arms written with Springsteen in mind.
The lyrics though have that essential universality of all great pop songs. “The Middle” was
released as a single less than two months after the September 11th attacks, its peppy
chorus reaching through the radio and giving people solace in a very confusing and traumatic time.
Journalists have also pointed out that the words could in fact be a self-directed
mantra of reassurance, written when the band were at their lowest ebb without a record
contract and unsure whether Jimmy Eat World would last out the year.
Pitchfork wrote in 2009: "And if your band delivers that message of
hope with the kind of power-pop chorus hook that gives the best couple of Weezer songs
a run for their money, you've accomplished something."
Bleed American was released on 24 July 2001.
Due to the September 11th attacks American broadcasting company The Clear Channel wrote
up a list of songs that would not be suitable for play on radio in the nation's panicked
state, whether due to content or because the title itself would call to mind the recent trauma.
Songs as diverse as The Sufaris' “Wipe Out”, Lynyrd Skynyrd's “Tuesday's Gone”
and System of a Down's “Chop Suey” were blacklisted. Bleed American's title track
lead single was also on the list, but the band quickly temporarily renamed the track
“Salt Sweat Sugar” to remain on the air. The album was also eponymously retitled. Said
Adkins in 2011: “It was a pretty fast decision. We all felt we had worked way too hard on
it to have it sidelined by not having it given the opportunity to be objectively listened to.”
The album's success was not immediate, but
by March 2002 it had gone gold in the US, and by August secured Platinum status.
The critical consensus was also warm. Drowned in Sound stated about the album: “11 of
the finest songs you'll hear this year, or any other year”. Pitchfork though was initially
lukewarm on the album, their sarcastic 2001 review stating that the lyrical content was
too lightweight, too adolescent. They later changed tact, placing “The Middle” at
number 165 on their End of Decade 500 Tracks list. The track also reached number 5 on the
Billboard Hot 100 chart as well as number 1 on the Alternative chart, where it stayed
for four weeks.
Bleed American's real impact though would be in making their brand of emotive pop rock
a mainstream viability. In 2002 Dashboard Confessional managed to reach number 22 on
the Billboard Alternative Chart with “Screaming Infidelities” while later Taking Back Sunday,
Fall Out Boy, My Chemical Romance and Paramore would take the genre from one off fluke to
secure commercial presence. Something Corporate even make a Jimmy Eat World reference on their
song “Konstantine”,
given extra meta context in that its the exact kind of reference Jimmy Eat World would make.
Bleed American is many things: influential,
geekily pop literate and a mainstream hit. But more than anything else, it touched people,
it made people feel. Emotionally imbued pop rock isn't going to have any impact if no
one can latch on to that emotion. Every song has at some point meant everything to someone,
whether it be the bitter anger of “Get It Faster”, the confidence boost of “The
Authority Song” or the drunken regret of “If You Don't Don't”.
And the singles sucked people into Jimmy Eat World's world, “The Middle” being perhaps
the greatest pop-punk single of the decade, “The Sweetness”' ooey-gooey call-and-response
forever stuck in our collective head. People listened and they sung it back. Bleed American
was a comfort blanket, a big hug saying that everything will be alright, released when
the nation needed it the most. Jimmy Eat World, through cow-bell-assisted solos and heart-on-sleeve
singalongs, are there to tell you that it'll be just fine. Maybe not today. Maybe not tomorrow.
But someday. It just takes some time...
In 2001 Jimmy Eat World had to use industry connections and relentless touring to get
their name out there. But this is 2019:
If you need to get word out about your band, why not check out Squarespace.
Squarespace is a website building service that is ideal for independent businesses... like bands.
As a band with Squarespace you will be able to embed audio streams of your tracks directly
onto your site with a beautiful integrated player and album art display. You can also
set up a online shop for your digital and physical music. Who needs a label when you
are your own distributor? Squarespace makes the process of creating
your own business website super simple, not only are there templates but they are easy
to edit using responsive drag and drop tools. Let people know about your band with a Squarespace
website. Head to Squarespace.com for a free trial, and when you’re ready to launch,
go to squarespace.com/TrashTheory to save 10% off your first purchase of a website or domain.
Thanks for watching. Be sure to like, comment and subscribe if you haven't already. As always,
I'd like to give a big shoutout to all my top tiers patrons. You're all awesome.
See you next time.