7-Inch Corner: Dear Landlord/Chinese Telephones - Jawbreaker/Jawbox
Ready record nerds? It’s time for this week’s 7-inch corner. This time around, we’ll be focusing on two split 7-inchs, one featuring Jawbreaker-loving pop-punkers Dear Landlord and Chinese Telephones, and the other, fittingly, Jawbreaker and their famed split single 7-inch with Jawbox. Read on after the jump!
Dear Landlord/Chinese Telephones (Recess/It’s Alive)
I’ve been meaning to write about this one for quite some time now. Easily one of my favorites releases of this year thus far, this split is made up of two great Midwestern bands with a true knack for some good ol’ dirty pop punk. Dear Landlord is made up of two members of the defunct Rivethead, with the other half coming from The Copyrights. Both are bands that are quite popular with the Fest patrons. Hearing this, it’s not hard to imagine why. Both have the grittiness of an early D4, the pop sense of the Mr. T Experience and of course, some Jawbreaker to boot. Sometimes, small amounts of pop punk are just right for the downtrodden soul. Highly recommended.
Jawbreaker/Jawbox (Restless)
My friend Vinny was recently at Amoeba in San Francisco and found this hard to find gem on clear vinyl for only $15 bucks! Niiice! Anyone that knows me, knows that I’m pretty huge Jawbreaker nerd. Not too long ago, I acquired Dear You on vinyl and I nearly ran around the room for about 30 minutes. So when I added this to my collection, I did the same jog…maybe for about 20 minutes this time. “With or Without U-2″ is the Jawbreaker song on this split, which you can also hear on the band’s b-sides release Etc. Basically, it’s just a melody of some old punk and rock staples, piled into one big heaping mess, charming none the less. Easily the weirdest Jawbreaker song in existence. Jawbox goes the straight-up cover route with the Buzzcocks gem “Airwaves Dream.” I remember being younger and just getting into punk rock and always confusing these two bands often (I think many did, isn’t that why they did the split?). Now, years later, I am certainly a much larger Jawbreaker fan. In fact, I’m not really into Jawbox at all. All and all, not two of the greatest songs by both, but I still thought this was an awesome new addition to my 7-inch collection.
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While I think this particular record was released on account of the similarities in names (Jawbreaker v. Jawbox), I don’t think you can truly say they sounded similiar at all. I mean, you can — but you’d be wrong. I saw both bands (even played with Jawbreaker in ‘90 on the “Unfun” tour) and I feel that they had pretty different styles of indie punk. J Robbins is a remarkably underrated songwriter and the interplay between his guitar and that of Bill Barbot created a sound that Jawbreaker could not hope to reproduce live as a trio. Add to the fact that Jawbreaker was a sample-happy band with audio clips turning up on most of their records and the fact that they were a complete vehicle for Blake S.’s personal life and you have a unique band that in no way resembles the socially conscious quartet from D.C.