Welcome to Jimmy Eat July
Or maybe July Eat World? Good evening folks, I’m bored, and it’s summer. You know what that means, time to kick out the jams (motherfucker). And as everyone knows (or at least should know), Jimmy Eat World are the best music for summer evenings. From their early emo masterpieces to pop punk and alt rock anthems and even on to later catchy power pop and indie rock choruses, they always have a way of capturing a specific atmosphere, and to me that is midsummer evenings. You know, when the sun’s setting and it’s actually nice out, there’s a light cool breeze and you’re hanging out with the people or person you care about most in a grassy field as you stare off at the horizon wondering how your life is gonna turn out. That beautifully disgusting nostalgic feeling. Most emo from around this time is really good at that (lookin’ at you American Football and Sunny Day Real Estate) but JEW do it in a whole new popier way. So many have been influenced by their sound, from third wave emo bands like Taking Back Sunday, The Movielife, and Brand New to more recent emo-leaning pop punk bands like The Wonder Years, Real Friends, and Candy Hearts. Basically, I really love Jimmy Eat World so I’m gonna try to share a song from them every day so maybe somebody will come to see how amazing they are and come to love them the way I do. Maybe I’m just biased cause they’re from my home state but man do they bring the tunes. So without further ado... Jimmy Eat World’s second album, Static Prevails, really feels like their debut release. It’s erratic, a little disjointed, but very powerful and raw and really shows what the band would become. Lots of emotion coming through, and probably their heaviest release to date. Released in 1997 near the height of second-wave emo, the record was pretty largely overlooked and the band were compared to similar bands of the time like The Get Up Kids, Texas Is The Reason, and The Promise Ring, who were showing just as much potential on their respective releases, if not more. To kick things off I picked the album’s (kind of) title track, World Is Static. I think this showcases a good amount of the band’s potential here, while also showing off their more punk influences. The slower, tamer, instrumental at the opening is something they would come to perfect on their next release, and then it just kicks in, blaring guitars and vocals alike. You can really hear influence from early 90s post-hardcore acts such as Drive Like Jehu, Fugazi, and Nation of Ulysses in the main riff there, as well as the harsher vocals on the track. Despite the attack the song has, it still has a soothing, melodic chorus, layered with multiple vocals, which it ends with as it fades into In the Same Room, making for a nice contrast in a punky, upbeat song and coming full circle from the softer buildup of the intro. Not as much 80s pop influence here as there is in a lot of their stuff, but the album was definitely not devoid of it as we’ll see tomorrow if I decide to keep doing this. I think the song is a good snapshot of the band’s punk roots as well as a glimpse of things to come. There is a lot of promise here, but they were really only scratching the surface on this record. Sooo uhh yeah I’m sure nobody is gonna read this. But I like sharing even if it’s with no one, which is why I talk to myself a lot. Anyway, tune in tomorrow for more rad sunset jams. I’ll try to make it less wordy.
