I described Piebald as being long-awaited and highly requested, so I don't even know how to begin emphasizing what a landmark this band is to finally complete. Without a doubt, this has been the most requested band that I have gotten in the past 10 years, and in honour of post #1100, they are finally here. The timing couldn't be better either, as we're only a few days away from Jimmy Eat World Day (Dec 23), and I have long maintained that Clarity is a Christmas album, so Merry Christmas baby.
Jimmy Eat World are a four-piece emo/indie/alternative/punk/influential in many facets band that originally formed in Mesa, Arizona in 1993. The band's line-up has remained relatively unchanged, consisting of vocalist/guitarist Jim Adkins, guitarist/vocalist Tom Linton, and drummer Zach Lind. Mitch Porter was their original bassist, though the role was taken over by Rich Burch very early on, just after their first album. In their formative years, they took influence from acts such as The Mr. T Experience, with their debut LP coming out in 1994. It's a markedly different venture than what they would become renowned for in just a few years, with Linton taking on primary vocal duties, and a distinct pop punk sound that they would evolve out of, but never totally shed. It's a competent albeit unremarkable debut, which most likely would have been lost to the sands of time if not for where the band would go in the coming years.
While major labels were still hot for up-and-coming indie bands off the success of Nevermind, Jimmy Eat World got picked up by Capitol Records for their sophomore release, Static Prevails. While retaining a good deal of the pop punk energy they had established in their formative years, they had also matured to explore the slower, more melancholic and cathartic aspects of Sunny Day Real Estate, with the off-kilter rhythmic aspects of bands like Fugazi and Drive Like Jehu, alongside the clean, arpeggiated loud/quiet dynamics of the emerging midwestern emo scene. They become acquainted with like-minded bands in the underground scene with shared melting-pot sensibilities as them, including Mineral, The Promise Ring, and Christie Front Drive.
In February 1999, Jimmy Eat World released
Clarity. Though it initially went fairly unnoticed, it has retrospectively become one of (if not) the band's most beloved work. With Adkins finally taking over as their primary vocalist, the band delivered a set of sentimental, sprawling tracks that evoked a tender personability within their glean and shimmer. Though not very commercially accessible outside of the minor hit they had in "Lucky Denver Mint", it has become one of the most resonant and influential albums of its era. Thanks to its slew of expansive instrumentals and heart-throbbing lyricism, its importance cannot be understated. It's a unique album created by a band on the brink of collapse, yet not afraid to swing for the fences on their most ambitious and elaborate outpouring to date. If you're looking for an album that hits emotional and instrumental climaxes, it doesn't get much better than this. As I said before, for whatever reason, this album's sensibilities always strike hardest around winter/Christmas. This could be in part due to the track "12.23.95" or the bonus song "Christmas Card", but the sentiment remains appropriate regardless. If you have yet to hear this masterpiece, I implore you to make it the soundtrack of your current holiday season.
Post-Clarity, Jimmy Eat World were now without a label, as it did not garner the initial praise chorus (heh) that it deserved. Working again with producer Mark Trombino, the band landed a deal with DreamWorks Records for their first album after the turn of the new millennium. Released in July 2001 and originally titled Bleed American, it had to take a sudden swerve in September 2001 following 9/11, with the album being re-released as self-titled and its title track being re-named "Salt Sweat Sugar". This did not divert the immense commercial success that this album had, with its breakout song "The Middle" becoming widespread household hit. This album fused the band's dynamic instrumental palette following a near decade-long experiment of indie rock tinkering with their affinity for powerhouse acts like Cheap Trick, an affinity they weren't afraid to wear on their sleeve. This resulted in some of the band's most well-known tracks, in addition to "The Middle" it gave us "Sweetness", "Hear You Me", and many more songs that were just primed for the anxious optimism that this new decade would bring. The album did revert back to its original title in 2008, as it has been henceforth known, and appropriately so.
As a bit of a tangent, and as much as I do think these distinctions are arbitrary, I always think of Clarity as a marker for the closing of 2nd wave emo and Bleed American as the ushering in of its 3rd wave. Do with that information what you will. They did undoubtedly grow out of the same scene that solidified the "emo" distinction in the first place, but by 2001 had grown to a place that eschewed the term. It doesn't matter anyway, so this entire debacle is futile to begin with. It's just a notable-albeit-uninteresting anecdote and editorial regarding the evolution of a genre that this blog has accidentally fallen into documenting. Do with that information what you will.
Following the immense success and constant touring that
Bleed American brought the band, they regrouped in 2004 to record its follow-up, titled
Futures. Though it didn't have the many breakout hits that its predecessor did, it was its near-equal in quality, with a solid slew of songs that again saw the band branch out to hit a variety of alternative rock influences. Its lead single "Pain" did become a minor hit for the band, as well as being the first song I really remember hearing from (with the exception of "The Middle", unbeknownst to be that it was them). I fell in love with "Pain" at an early age (thanks THUG2), so when I was delving into "emo" and discovering this band years later, that song stood out as being an early indicator of where my music preferences had always laid.
I'm not going to go in to much detail regarding the band's career after this point, as they have been consistently active in touring and record releases, and all of this is well documented elsewhere. I'm also admittedly not as well-versed past this stage of career as I am prior to it, though Chase This Light and Damage are particularly strong outings, so do check those out if nothing else past this point. Jimmy Eat World are immensely important in our little corner of the niche music world, so they are worth taking the time to explore. Having said that, they do have a thousand B-sides over multiple singles and misc releases. The discography presented here is pretty comprehensive, but not actually 100% complete. If there is a release of theirs you're looking for that's not here, let me know and I'll try to find it for ya. Thank you for keeping this blog alive, and if nothing else, I can let it rest easy knowing Jimmy Eat World are finally a part of it. Not that this is the end, but it does feel full circle. Enjoy.
1. Splat Out Of Luck
2. Toad
3. Ugly Kid
4. Top Heavy
5. Anything
6. Grounded
7. Crooked
1. Look At You
2. Indecent Exposure
3. Angst For Joel
4. One, Two, Three, Four
1. Chachi
2. Patches
3. Amphibious
4. Splat Out Of Luck
5. House Arrest
6. Usery
7. Wednesday
8. Crooked
9. Reason 346
10. Scientific
11. Cars
1. Opener
2. 77 Satellites
1. Christie Front Drive - Slide
2. Jimmy Eat World - Digits
1. Jimmy Eat World - Better Than Oh
2. Emery - Flesher
1. Less Than Jake - Automatic
2. Less Than Jake - Shindo
3. Less Than Jake - Sugar In Your Gas Tank
4. Jimmy Eat World - Rockstar
5. Jimmy Eat World - Call It In The Air
6. Jimmy Eat World - Seventeen
1. Thinking, That's All
2. Rockstar
3. Claire
4. Call It In The Air
5. Seventeen
6. Episode IV
7. Digits
8. Caveman
9. World Is Static
10. In The Same Room
11. Robot Factory
12. Anderson Mesa
1. Robot Factory (Demo)
2. Untitled (Demo)
3. Better Than Oh (Demo)
4. Call It In The Air (Demo)
5. Digits (Demo)
6. School (Demo)
7. Thinking, That's All (Demo)
8. Call It In The Air (Demo)
9. What Would I Say To You Now (Demo)
10. Speed Reads (Demo)
11. What Would I Say To You Now (Demo)
1. Jimmy Eat World - Christmas Card
2. Jimmy Eat World - Untitled
3. Blueprint - In-Between Angels
1. Opener
1. Mineral - Crazy
2. Jimmy Eat World - Secret Crush
3. Sense Field - Every Reason
1. Jejune - Early Stars
2. Jejune - That's Why She Hates Me
3. Jimmy Eat World - What I Would Say To You Now
4. Jimmy Eat World - Speed Read
1. Lucky Denver Mint
2. For Me This Is Heaven
3. Your New Aesthetic (Demo)
4. Softer
5. Roller Queen
1. Table For Glasses
2. Lucky Denver Mint
3. Your New Aesthetic
4. Believe In What You Want
5. A Sunday
6. Crush
7. 12.23.95
8. Ten
9. Just Watch The Fireworks
10. For Me This Is Heaven
11. Blister
12. Clarity
13. Goodbye Sky Harbor
14. Christmas Card (Bonus Track)
15. Sweetness (Demo) (Bonus Track)
1. Instrumental (Demo)
2. Blister (Demo)
3. A Sunday (Demo)
4. Clarity (Demo)
5. Secret Crush (Demo)
6. What Would I Say To You Now (Demo)
7. Your New Aesthetic (Demo)
8. For Me This Is Heaven And Roller Queen (Demo)
9. Believe In What You Want (Demo)
10. Christmas Card (Demo)
11. Unreleased (Demo)
12. Lucky Denver Mint (Demo)
13. Goodbye Sky Harbor (Demo)
1. Opener
2. 77 Satellites
3. What I Would Say To You Now
4. Speed Read
5. Spangle (Wedding Present cover)
6. H-Model
7. Ramina
8. Christmas Card
9. Untitled
10. Carbon Scoring
11. Digits
1. Jimmy Eat World - The Most Beautiful Things
2. Jimmy Eat World - No Sensitivity
3. Jimmy Eat World - Cautioners
4. Jebediah - Animal
5. Jebediah - The Less Trusted Pain Remover
6. Jebediah - Harpoon
1. Bleed American
2. A Praise Chorus
3. The Middle
4. Your House
5. Sweetness
6. Hear You Me
7. If You Don't, Don't
8. Get It Faster
9. Cautioners
10. The Authority Song
11. My Sundown
1. Sweetness
2. Bleed American
3. Evil #1
4. A Praise Chorus
5. Authority Song
6. Splash, Turn And A Twist
7. Middle
8. If You Don't, Don't
9. Hear You Me
10. My Sundown
1. Last Christmas
2. Firestarter (The Prodigy cover)
1. The Middle (Acoustic)
2. Game Of Pricks (BBC Session)
3. The Most Beautiful Things
4. Cautioners (Early Version)
5. Spangle
6. A Praise Chorus (Live)
7. Softer (Live)
1. The Middle
2. A Praise Chorus
3. Bleed American (Live)
4. Firestarter
5. The Middle (Acoustic)
1. Futures
2. Just Tonight...
3. Work
4. Kill
5. The Word You Love
6. Pain
7. Drugs Or Me
8. Polaris
9. Nothingwrong
10. Night Drive
11. 23
1. Futures (Demo)
2. Just Tonight... (Demo)
3. Work (Demo)
4. Kill (Demo)
5. The Word You Love (Demo)
6. Pain (Demo)
7. Drugs Or Me (Demo)
8. Polaris (Demo)
9. Nothingwrong (Demo)
10. Night Drive (Demo)
11. 23 (Demo)
12. Shame (Demo)
13. When I Want (Demo)
14. You (Demo)
15. The Concept
16. Work (Acoustic Version)
17. Sparkle
1. Firestarter (Non-LP Version)
2. (Splash) Turn Twist
3. Hear You Me (Inner Ear Session)
4. My Sundown (Inner Ear Session)
1. Last Christmas
2. If You Were Born Today
1. Taking Back Sunday - Your Own Disaster
2. Jimmy Eat World - The Concept (Teenage Fanclub cover)
1. Disintegration
2. Over
3. Closer
4. Half Right
5. Drugs Or ME (Styrofoam Remix)
1. Open Bar Reception
1. Big Casino
2. Let It Happen
3. Always Be
4. Carry You
5. Electable (Give It Up)
6. Gotta Be Somebody's Blues
7. Feeling Lucky
8. Here It Goes
9. Chase This Light
10. Firefight
11. Dizzy
1. Big Casino
2. Let It Happen
3. Always Be
4. Carry You
5. Electable (Give It Up)
6. Gotta Be Somebody's Blues
7. Feeling Lucky
8. Here It Goes
9. Chase This Light
10. Firefight
11. Dizzy
12. Be Sensible
13. Distraction
14. Take 'Em As They Come
15. Dizzy (Acoustic Version)
1. Be Sensible
2. Big Casino
3. Chase This Light
4. Carry You
5. Distraction
6. Dizzy
7. Electable
8. Feeling Lucky
9. Firefight
10. Gotta Be Somebody's Blues
11. Let It Happen
12. Stop
Disc 1
1. Big Casino
2. Sweetness
3. Work
4. Always Be
5. Ten
6. Disintegration
7. Get It Faster
8. Futures
9. Blister
Disc 2
1. Here It Goes
2. Let It Happen
3. 23
4. Pain
5. Your House
6. Hear You Me
7. Dizzy
8. The Middle
1. Table For Glasses (Live)
2. Lucky Denver Mint (Live)
3. Your New Aesthetic (Live)
4. Believe In What You Want (Live)
5. A Sunday (Live)
6. Crush (Live)
7. 12.23.95 (Live)
8. Ten (Live)
9. Just Watch The Fireworks (Live)
10. For Me This Is Heaven (Live)
11. Blister (Live)
12. Clarity (Live)
13. Goodbye Sky Harbor (Live)
14. What I Would Say To You Now (Live)
15. No Sensitivity (Live)
1. Heart Is Hard To Find
2. My Best Theory
3. Evidence
4. Higher Devotion
5. Movielike
6. Coffee And Cigarettes
7. Stop
8. Littlething
9. Cut
10. Action Needs An Audience
11. Invented
12. Mixtape
1. My Best Theory
2. Futures
3. Big Casino
4. Work
5. The Middle
6. Sweetness
1. The Authority Song
2. Appreciation
3. Heart Is Hard To Find
4. Damage
5. 23
6. The Middle
1. Damage
2. Appreciation
3. Kill
4. Goodbye Sky Harbor
5. Chase This Light
6. I Will Steal You Back
7. For Me This Is Heaven
8. We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together (Taylor Swift cover)
1. Appreciation
2. Damage
3. Lean
4. Book Of Love
5. I Will Steal You Back
6. Please Say No
7. How'd You Have Me
8. No, Never
9. Byebyelove
10. You Were Good
1. You With Me
2. Sure And Certain
3. It Matters
4. Pretty Girls
5. Pass The Baby
6. Get Right
7. You Are Free
8. The End Is Beautiful
9. Through
10. Integrity Blues
11. Pol Roger
1. Integrity Blues (Acoustic)
2. Sure And Certain (Acoustic)
3. Get Right (Acoustic)
1. Get Right
2. Sure And Certain (Acoustic)
3. Always Be (Live feat. Hayley Williams)
4. A Praise Chorus (Live feat. Davey VonBohlen
5. Hear You Me (Live feat. Courtney Marie Andrews)
1. Love Never
2. Half Heart
1. Surviving
2. Criminal Energy
3. Delivery
4. 555
5. One Mil
6. All The Way (Stay)
7. Diamond
8. Love Never
9. Recommit
10. Congratulations
1. Call To Love (feat. Bethany Cosentino)
1. Table For Glasses
2. Lucky Denver Mint
3. Your New Aesthetic
4. Believe In What You Want
5. A Sunday
6. Crush
7. 12.23.95
8. Ten
9. Just Watch The Fireworks
10. For Me This Is Heaven
11. Blister
12. Clarity
13. Goodbye Sky Harbor
1. Futures
2. Just Tonight...
3. Work
4. Kill
5. The Word You Love
6. Pain
7. Drugs Or Me
8. Polaris
9. Nothingwrong
10. Night Drive
11. 23
1. Surviving
2. Criminal Energy
3. Delivery
4. 555
5. One Mil
6. All The Way (Stay)
7. Diamond
8. Love Never
9. Recommit
10. Congratulations
1. Something Loud
1. Something Loud (Acoustic Version)
1. Place Your Debts