"Do You Know That New York Guy?": Jawbreaker - Live 8/31/92 at ABC No Rio, NYC

This a pretty fun bootleg I came across early last year. The band is in the midst of a tour supporting Bivouac, but are playing a fair amount of songs that would eventually appear on 24 Hour Revenge Therapy, as well as covering Bad Religion's "Chasing the Wild Goose" (from their maligned experimental Into the Unknown album). The sound quality is ok, its a little muffled and has some weird noise effects going on, most likely from recording transfers, being 20 years old and all. For the most part its tolerable, but "Chesterfield King" is pretty gnarly. I mostly chose this one because of the Bad Religion cover and the early versions of 24 Hour songs, and all the other bootlegs I have from 1992 are from 924 Gilman, and I didn't want to post another of those. (I think I have 6 or 7 924 Gilman Jawbreaker bootlegs, half of which are from 1992, haha)

The banter is pretty worthwhile here, Blake and some members of the audience seem to be bouncing off of each other. Blake gets frustrated by heckling while trying to explain "Boat," as well at some other points, but not terribly so. The funniest is when they start calling him the guy from Anthrax, and Blake responds "I'm the guy from Anthrax, that's correct. That was a funny joke an hour ago, and now, not so funny! Hey, do you know that New York guy?"

yar.

Tracklist:

1. The Boat Dreams from the Hill
2. West Bay Invitational
3. Donatello
4. Face Down
5. Chesterfield King
6. Indictment
7. Parabola
8. In Sadding Around
9. Fine Day
10. Want
11. Tour Song
12. Chasing the Wild Goose

"Somebody say something snide please!": Jawbreaker - Live 8/11/90 at 924 Gilman St.

JaThis is a great early bootleg from the Unfun era, which as it turns out is the source of the "Live at Gilman" bootleg 7" that a few people I know have. The band blazes through this set at a hardcore-esque level of energy (especially on "You're Right"), including the two Bivouac songs that appear on this. The tracks fade in and out, which somewhat detracts from the momentum of the recording. According to loosecharm.org, a great deal of banter, a cover of Freebird, and a jam played by Adam and Chris while Blake fixes a broken string are cut from this version. One day I will find a full version of this bootleg, and all will be alright in the world. Most of the time stage banter isn't very interesting, but I enjoy it being on a recording. I guess it makes it seem more authentic, and is part of the reason why I download so many live bootlegs. Nevertheless, enjoy this at maximum volume!

Tracklist:
1) Welcome to Our Band
2) Gutless
3) Down
4) You're Right
5) Softcore
6) Lawn
7) Big
8) Want
9) Seethruskin
10) Driven
11) Fine Day
11) Equalized
13) Shield Your Eyes
14) Eye-5

Download

Also: surprise! new layout!

New Year, (Give Me) More Beer

In case you haven't heard, its the new year, which is cool, I suppose. 2010 was without a doubt one of the strangest years I've ever experienced. It was basically like the world's shittiest roller-coaster ride. Allow me elaborate:

Starting, oh, at about the beginning of 2009, it was nothing but going up that giant hill all slow and steady, for what seemed like forever, straight through 2010, and it was fantastic. The peak of this hill would be the end of July, when I suddenly dropped down without warning. What had been a wonderfully promising year turned into utter utter shit faster than I could believe. Now, I think I've gotten to the bottom of the drop, but now the car is stuck, and I have to wait for maintenance to come fix it. The worst part of the wait is having to sit there and stare at all the fun parts of the ride that I won't get to go through ("It's not fair, I came so goddamn close!") Its hard to believe its been five months, but I'm glad it flew by so fast. These past few months have been ungodly rough on me, but I made it through for two reasons: my friends and my music.

Why my friends saved me should be self-explanatory. They've been here for me this entire shitty saga, being nothing but supporting and awesome. From day one when I was left heartbroken, jobless, and potentially homeless, to now, when I'm bitter and drunk, but hopeful, they stuck by me, arm around my shoulder, and making me smile even when I didn't really want to be. Music has been my life since I was 13, which is when I discovered Jawbreaker. They were the band that changed my life, and they're still picking me up to this day. Without their songs, I might not have escaped these past few months fully intact. Numerous other bands/albums/songs helped me trudge through the shit, but none more the Jawbreaker.

So for the new year and for the band that will forever mean more to me than any two-faced harpy, starting today, I will be posting some Jawbreaker bootlegs all week. So here's to another lousy millennium!

Up first are the band's first two demos, recorded in 1989. Parts of the first demo appear on Etc, but there are several songs left off, including "World of Shit," which is the sole song that Chris Bauermeister sings.

Demo #1

Demo #2

Douchefest 08!

Ok the title is a bit of an exaggeration, but its still a fairly accurate description of the crowd at Rise Against last night. I went primarily to see Gaslight Anthem and Alkaline Trio, and both delivered.

I was bouncing with excitement for the 30min wait between my arrival at the Fillmore and when Gaslight took the stage. I told everyone around me who cared to listen about how the opening band was going to to trump every other band they would see tonight From the second they busted into "Great Expectations," I could tell that I was one of a handful of Gaslight fans in the audience. From what I could see, there was only one other dude in the audience singing along (I happened to run into him again while boarding the bus back to Boulder, funnily enough) but I didn't fucking care. I sang as loud as I could, and I'm sure everyone around me was getting annoyed. The set was '59 Sound heavy, as expected, but I went to the show so I could hear just that. Still wish they would have played "Drive" though. It was weird hearing them over such a loud system, as opposed to say, Asbury Lanes' or the Marquis Theater's. It seemed they won a good portion of the crowd over, and hopefully they hooked the Rise crowd enough for them to buy merch. I wasn't expecting to buy anything, but I couldn't pass up on the shirt that was a mockup of the Asbury Lanes' sign.

Great Expectations
The Patient Ferris Wheel
The '59 Sound
We Came to Dance
Old White Lincoln
Wherefore Art Thou, Elvis
Angry Johnny and the Radio
The Backseat
(this may be out of order in a couple places)

I used to really like Thrice back in the day, but I stopped listening to them after The Artist in the Ambulance. The opened their set with two songs from that album ("Hoods on Peregrine" and "Melting Point of Wax") and then proceeded to bore the shit out of me for the rest of their set. Although the cover of Helter Skelter was pretty cool...

Alkaline Trio played a phenomenal set filled primarily with oldies, but I wish they could have played longer. Matt Skiba's new look is a bit weird, but whatever, they fucking played "Cringe!" The pinnacle of the night was when they brought out Brian from Gaslight, and played a fantastic cover of "Astro Zombies" Goddamn that was amazing. Not too many Misfits fans in the house though...

Private Eye
Calling All Skeletons
I Lied My Face Off
I Found Away
In Vein
Emma
Cringe
Sadie
Goodbye Forever
Astro Zombies

I'll give it Rise Against, their recent material may kinda suck, but they still know how to put on a good fucking show. The amount of lighting they have seems to grow exponentially every show, and it adds a lot, to say the least. I stayed towards the middle of the crowd, near the pit, because I didn't feel like getting crushed while listening to mediocre new material. I had to leave early to go write a paper on Gandhi, but the set was surprisingly good despite a couple songs. As I made my way to the door, Tim started talking about the crowd not knowing their first album, and as their guitarist nonchalantly played a chord in the backround, I said audibly "no fucking way." My suspicions were correct, and they went into "Everchanging." I was on a tight schedule to catch the bus, but I couldn't miss this song. Thankfully I made the bus (with only seconds to spare) and got back to Boulder, rubbed the Misfits cover in my roommate's face, and finished my crappy essay about non-violence.

New Song (I think its the first track off the new album)
Give It All
State of the Union
New Song
Ready to Fall
Re-Education (Through Labor)
Chamber the Cartridge
Everchanging

I wish I knew what else they played...


and to top it off, I found the greatest news ever

http://brooklyndiy.blogspot.com/2008/11/jerk-house-110808.html

Blake Schwarzenbach is back and ready to unleash his musical fury on the world once again. (and with Aaron Cometbus none the less!)