a public service announcement

A Note/Update from Blake Schwarzenbach (Jawbreaker, Jets to Brazil): 

Because I am bad at speaking about myself but excel at projecting my identity onto others and then destroying them I will be brief. I am currently defending my master's thesis at Hunter College in Manhattan, making music in an as yet unnamed group, and fighting with words on Facebook (it's an all ages page, meaning you don't have to be a 'friend' to read it; although I think you do need an account, which is free and relatively non-invasive. Come on by!) My thesis is on Percy Bysshe Shelley, who appears to have gotten almost everything right and paid dearly for it. The paper focuses on Shelley's technique of pushing metaphor until all connection between sign and signified is shattered and either some new truth declares itself or a sublime vacuum opens up and we are confronted with the void. Exciting stuff, I assure you, especially when one considers that he was a fiercely principled Republican (in the 18th century meaning of the term: friend of suffrage and the French Revolution, foe of monarchy and moneyed interests), an atheist, a vegetarian, and a wild-eyed beauty in verse. What's not to celebrate? Well, as it happens, he was universally ignored, reviled, humiliated or suppressed and died in exile. So, this is what I devote my academic energies to, which brings into even starker relief the historically blind trammeling and dismemberment of the U.S. constitution that has gone on these past eight years. 

Musically, and I think maybe I can speak more clearly about this, I feel as though I am emerging from a kind of muted, reflective nuclear winter. It's awkward to talk about one's own music since that is what we ask the music to do; so I'll say only that it meets my own inner-standard of truth. I believe in it enough to overcome my own fear of making it. Hopefully we'll find a bassist (a woman, over 30, who rides a bike and can resolve any dictionary disputes that might arise between the drummer and myself) and come to a town near you. 

Finally, thank you friends and enthusiasts of Jawbreaker. We did this thing for a long time in the dark - as all bands must - and it is gratifying to hear of younger people finding the band and getting it. The goal was always to connect with others and that seems to have happened so I think we can all claim success in that project. 

Kind regards, 

Blake

Neato!

in other news the arsenal kids (no really) beat Prem side Wigan 3-nil yesterday in the Carling Cup! Quarterfinal birth secured. It will be interesting to see in Wenger let's the kiddos play out the remainder of the tourney... it has afterall been 3+ years since we lifted any silverware and the likes of Chelski and Liverpool will field senior players, but he has been adamant in the past that this competition is for the up-n-comers. hmmm...

a good day then,

brickwallboyout