Jawbreaker (band)

Jawbreaker
Jawbreaker performing at Fillmore Auditorium in Denver, April 2022. Left to right: Bauermeister, Schwarzenbach, and Pfahler.
Background information
Also known as	Rise (1986–1988)
Origin	East Bay, California, U.S.[1]
Genres	Punk rock pop-punk emo hardcore punk post-hardcore
Years active	1986–1990 1991–1996 2017–present
Labels	Blackball Records Shredder Tupelo Communion DGC
Spinoffs	Jets to Brazil
Members	Blake Schwarzenbach Adam Pfahler Chris Bauermeister
Website	jawbreakerband.com

Jawbreaker is an American punk rock band that was active from 1986 to 1996, and again since 2017.^[2] The band is considered to be extremely influential to the 1990s emo and punk genre with their "poetic take on hardcore."^[3][4] Their influence on the punk scene has led some critics to label Jawbreaker as the best punk rock band of the 1990s.^[5][6]

Lead vocalist and guitarist Blake Schwarzenbach, bassist Chris Bauermeister, and drummer Adam Pfahler formed the band while students at New York University, later relocating to Los Angeles where they released their debut album Unfun (1990) through independent record label Shredder Records. Relocating again to San Francisco the next year, they released 1992's Bivouac through the Tupelo Recording Company and The Communion Label.

Schwarzenbach's charismatic, frustrated, and personal lyrics helped establish him as a cult idol, even as he underwent surgery to remove painful, voice-threatening polyps from his throat. Jawbreaker toured with Nirvana in 1993 and released 24 Hour Revenge Therapy in 1994, attracting the attention of major labels. They signed a $1 million contract with DGC Records and released 1995's Dear You, but its more polished production and smooth vocals caused significant backlash from the band's core audience.^[7][8] Internal tensions led to Jawbreaker's dissolution in 1996 and Schwarzenbach had repeatedly stated that a reunion would never happen.^[9] However, the band announced a reunion in April 2017,^[2] and they are currently in the process of making the follow-up to Dear You.^[10]

Following the breakup, the members of Jawbreaker were active in other projects including Jets to Brazil and Whysall Lane. Pfahler continued to issue previously-recorded Jawbreaker material through his Blackball Records label, and public interest in the band continued due in part to nationally charting pop-punk and emo acts openly indebted to Jawbreaker's sound. In 2004, Pfahler licensed the out-of-print Dear You from DGC's parent company Geffen Records and re-released it to positive reviews. Remastered versions of the rest of the band's catalog have since been released.