The Future of Jimmy Eat World

People tend to define the music of Jimmy Eat World as either fervent emo-core punk, a modern indie-rock marvel with the kind of noncommercial underground appeal synonymous with Nirvana, or as a modern pop-rock festival of chord-pumping adrenaline surges.

Given such disparate impressions, the question of whether Jimmy Eat World dwells in a hallowed punk-rock heaven or a fickle pop-rock hell is endlessly debatable.

Deemed by many as punk's quintessential middlemen, Jimmy Eat World resembles neither the unyieldingly bombastic attitude of Fugazi (but then again, who does?) nor the innocuous, A-side mildness of Blink-182. In fact, most critics resort to calling the group a crossover phenomenon, one which tips the punk scales to a slightly more commercially viable position.

Nonetheless, the quartet tries to get away from such notions, preferring to think of themselves as explorers of the abstract, complicated, distinct, obnoxious and unrefined. In the end, Jimmy Eat World is just four guys who revel in their lives as musicians.

"I love music, it is what I do," said drummer Zach Lind. "If I could define music in three words it (sic) would be bad, good, great."

Emo-core punk is a subcategory of "emo," a loosely defined genre that encompasses a wide range of emotionally charged punk styles. Artists who wearied of the genre's limited movements and transformed it into a style centralized around distorted guitars, medium-tempo rock sounds and fiery vocals invented emo-core. Though recently becoming the cool kid on the genre block, emo-core actually dates back to the early 1980s scene in Washington, D.C., from which it has evolved to include more listener-friendly compositions, melodic vocals and elements of pop.

According to Lind, however, Jimmy Eat World's biggest collective influences are not classic emo bands but Slayer and Kiss, and his own personal inspiration: U2.

"I think it would be a dream to sit in for Larry Mullen Jr.," he said. "(U2) are one of my all-time favorites and it would be a great honor to share the stage with those guys."

When asked to pick a superhero that best represents his style of playing, Lind chose the Incredible Hulk, "because I love to wear tight purple pants when I play."

Though by most accounts the punk genre breeds a rebellious temperament and a distaste of all that is mainstream and popular, Jimmy Eat World is a band with much less on its mind.

"If you want to get down to it, if you asked a room full of people what punk meant, I am sure you'd get a room full of different answers," explained guitarist Jim Adkins. "I don't think it's important. I think it's silly to write for one particular group of people or what you think one particular scene is. We don't do this, we don't try to hide the music we create."

For his own part, Adkins regards Fugazi as the ultimate punk band. "I don't think anyone else can make that claim. I think they are the only band that can really, truly back their s**t up," he said. "Every aspect of how they work and operate is uncompromising."
After Capitol Records dropped the band in 1999, the then-members of Jimmy Eat World proved why all along they've been associated with the punk ethic - they produced their best record to date on their own dime entitled, "Bleed American," which Dreamworks Records eventually picked up. The group later deleted the title from future copies of the album's cover following the tragic events of Sept. 11, 2001.

"In retrospect, I am glad our past records didn't blow up. It's tough living single to single, hit to hit. We're very fortunate we had the opportunity to tour and build a real fan base. We've been without the benefit of label support, a song on the radio or even a deal for the last two years, but we're consistently able to play to 600 people a night.

"These songs are more direct and to the point," Adkins said. "They are more rocking and, so far, it's our best work. There was no record company, no A&R guy, no manager - just us. We looked at the whole thing as a liberating experience rather than a part of any deliberate plan."

Since forming in 1994, Jimmy Eat World - also featuring Tom Linton on guitars/vocals and Rick Burch on bass, who has since been replaced by Mitch Porter - has put together a solid audience that begins with its hometown fans in Tempe, Ariz. The group took its name from a sketch drawn by Linton's brother when he was a young child.

"Tom's brother got beat up by his older brother Jim when he was like 7 or 8," explained Adkins. "So he drew this picture of Jim, who was kind of heavyset at the time, as very fat with a globe in his mouth. It meant that he was so fat he could eat the world. So he drew the picture and put (it) on his door before (Jim) came home from school one day."

The band's first record was a self-titled debut on the indie label Wooden Blue. Its three-year association with Capitol was first inked in 1996 and produced two albums, "Clarity" and "Static Prevails."

"It was slightly frustrating for us, because we would be working hard touring but Capitol had written us off and wasn't going to help us at all," Adkins recalled. "We were a band on their label, and they couldn't send out records to promoters because it (had) been six months and our album hadn't blown up on the radio. We weren't a priority at all."

"The best thing that company ever did for us was buy us a van," Lind said. "We treated touring like guerrilla warfare, which had other benefits aside from just saving money. It forced us to interact with people who had a real interest in the band's success, to make friends as well as fans. Even when we were on a major label, we always acted like we weren't. We acted like an indie band. Our attitude was, 'So what if we don't have the support of our label? We have the support of our fans.'"

"Bleed American" was released in July 2001 on DreamWorks, which the band is still signed with. Longtime collaborator Mark Trombino produced the album.

"'Bleed American' isn't about any one thing," said Adkins. "It's about a general dissatisfaction and a yearning for something more, not necessarily something material but emotional. It describes a feeling that something is missing.

"I've heard the best ideas are the ones you think you shouldn't use at first. You do your best work when you skirt your boundaries. If you like something you've written but you have issues with it, you're probably on the right track. With this record, I found it was more challenging to write concise pop songs than to get really progressive and abstract."

According to Adkins, working with DreamWorks has been quite a contrast to Capitol.

"DreamWorks vs. Capitol has been a night-and-day difference," he said. "DreamWorks is a place where I can walk (in) and say hello to the president. Everyone there is stoked that we're at their label. They are all so down-to-earth and they know where we are coming (from) as a band. They really have an understanding of what we are trying to do musically."

Adkins describes his band's music as "keen summer rock." The album's erratic subject matter ranges from sparked sulfur and sugar on asphalt to a game of hide-and-go-seek. The gusts of snare drum and throbbing bass chords often hearken back to the "Jaws" theme song. But the record is not without its softer moments, acoustic steel string ballads that spin constellations of rhythm and falsetto harmonies.

"I like melodies," said Adkins. "I like when I play melody with more of an accompanying rhythm. It's fun mixing them. It's like any form of artistic expression, whether it's art, music, literature or whatever - hopefully you get something out of it. If not, I guess we've failed. But hopefully, you do."

Since then, Jimmy Eat World has returned to the studio and recently finished work on its new album, "Futures," due out in early October.

Over the next few months, Jimmy Eat World will travel to Japan for one concert and will also make an appearance at the famed San Diego Street Scene Aug. 27 where fans and newcomers alike could possibly hear a few tunes off the new record.