Day After Day #69: Accident Prone

Day After Day is an ambitious attempt to write about a song every day in 2024 (starting on Jan. 4).

Accident Prone (1995)

What is a sellout? In the punk world, the term carries a lot of weight, even if it might be a bit harsh. Nowadays, it's exceedingly difficult to make money if you're a rock band, but in the mid-'90s for a few years there, it seemed like everyone was going to get rich or die trying. 

The post-Nirvana indie rock explosion has been referenced early and often, but the post-Green Day 'splosion was also pretty notable. After the Bay Area trio's 1994 album Dookie blew up (it has sold 20 MILLION copies!), the major labels started checking out the other bands in their scene. One of those bands was Jawbreaker, a trio that had just released its third album 24 Hour Revenge Therapy a few months before Dookie. They weren't exactly unknowns, having toured with Nirvana a year earlier.

Although singer-guitarist Blake Schwarzenbach and drummer Adam Pfahler were from Santa Monica, they moved to New York City in 1986 to attend NYU and started a band, responding to a flyer posted by bassist Chris Bauermeister. They moved to LA the following year and called their band Rise, with Jon Liu on lead vocals. Eventually, Schwarzenbach replaced Liu as singer and the band renamed itself Jawbreaker. 

The band's 1990 debut album Unfun displayed a knack for pop hooks mixed into hardcore punk. Jawbreaker briefly split up after tensions increased during a grueling summer tour, but they reformed and moved to San Francisco. In 1992, they released the album Bivouac, which was more ambitious than their debut. But Schwarzenbach developed painful throat polyps that made it difficult for him to sing; they halted the tour so he could have the polyp and resumed a week later.

Jawbreaker's third album was recorded with engineer Steve Albini, although the band was dissatisfied with some of the songs and re-recorded them later. But 24 Hour Revenge Therapy was and is beloved by fans, although it was overshadowed by Dookie and the Offspring's Smash, which brought pop-punk to the masses. Nevertheless, the band caught flak from its fans for touring with Nirvana, as well as Schwarzenbach singing differently after the surgery; he was screaming a lot less than before.  

Despite having a much different sound than Green Day or the Offspring and more serious lyrical content, Jawbreaker were touted as the “thinking man’s Green Day” and began receiving major-label offers.  Schwarzenbach steadfastly denied any plans to sign with a major, and the band had decided to break up after the tour, but they ended up signing with Geffen Records anyway. This, of course, enraged their fan base even more than before.

Dear You was their major label debut in 1995, but Jawbreaker’s longtime fans were turned off by the cleaner sound and clearer vocals. The album was unable to get much in the way of radio or MTV airplay and sunk like a stone, and the band broke up in 1996 after the Dear You tour ended. 

I was unfamiliar with Jawbreaker prior to Dear You, picking it up after hearing the lead single "Fireman" on WFNX. I really enjoyed it, but was dumbfounded by the general apathy shown the band. Of course, I had no idea of the backlash Jawbreaker was dealing with. 

The second song on Dear You, “Accident Prone” talks about near misses of the emotional variety. “A near miss or a close call?/I keep a room at the hospital/I scratch my accidents into the wall/I couldn't wait to breathe your breath/I cut in line, I bled to death/I got to you, there was nothing left.”

A sad, intense song that builds as it goes, "Accident Prone" has provoked many online debates about its meaning, whether it's about a bad breakup or some close calls the band had touring in the winter. Whatever the case, it's a devastating song that is one of the standouts on an excellent album.

"What's the closest you can come to an almost total wreck/And still walk away, all limbs intact?/And when I go, you'll be there/Crying out, begging me/I won't hear/I'll just go fast into this night on broken legs."

As mentioned earlier, Dear You sunk like a stone, but in retrospect, critics have lauded its tight musicianship and introspective lyrics. The album has been cited as a big influence on the emo movement that emerged a few years later. Many artists have covered songs from Dear You, including Julien Baker (see below for her cover of “Accident Prone”).

Dan Ozzi's excellent book Sellout takes an in-depth look at Jawbreaker and 10 other indie bands who were decried as sellouts after signing major-label deals. It's well worth checking out if you're interested in such things.

The members of Jawbreaker reunited in 2017 and have toured a few times since but haven’t released any new music as of yet. I caught them when they came through Boston in 2019 and they were great. The sellout tag doesn't follow them anymore, nor should it.