Blake Schwarzenbach
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| Blake Schwarzenbach | ||
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| Background information | ||
| Birth name | Alexander Blake Schwarzenbach | |
| Also known as | Blake Schwarzenbach | |
| Born | May 20, 1967 |
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| Origin | Santa Monica, California | |
| Genre(s) | Punk/Alternative/Indie | |
| Instrument(s) | guitar, voice, pen | |
| Years active | 1988–present | |
| Associated acts |
Jawbreaker, Jets to Brazil, Hunter College | |
Alexander Blake Schwarzenbach is an American musician, born on May 20, 1967. He was the singer and left-handed guitarist of Jawbreaker (1988-1996) and Jets to Brazil (1997-2003).
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[edit] Education
Schwarzenbach attended the Crossroads School for Arts & Sciences, a private K-12 school in Santa Monica, California. He then attended New York University between 1985 and 1991, including a one-year stint at UC Santa Cruz in 1988. He received a Bachelor of Arts degree from NYU in English literature and creative writing in 1991.
[edit] Musical career
Jawbreaker
Jawbreaker formed in 1988 after Blake Schwarzenbach and drummer Adam Pfahler responded to a flyer that bassist Chris Bauermeister posted in a New York University dorm cafeteria. The band played their first show as Jawbreaker on March 16, 1989 at Club 88 in Los Angeles, CA. After eight years and four albums, Jawbreaker played their last show on May 19, 1996 at the Capitol Theater in Olympia, WA, as the trio officially disbanded that summer.[1]
Jets to Brazil
Schwarzenbach then formed the indie band Jets to Brazil in 1997 with Jeremy Chatelain of Handsome and Chris Daly of Texas is the Reason. Jets to Brazil released three albums before disbanding after their summer tour in 2003.
[edit] Influence
Schwarzenbach largely remains an influential figure in the punk/emo/indie music scene.[2] He is known to insiders as "one of the godfathers of emo".[3] As such, a devoted cult of musicians have much respect for his seminal efforts, particularly for his work in Jawbreaker. Empirical evidence of this includes the release of a Jawbreaker tribute album -- Bad Scene, Everyone's Fault -- in 2003.
Further influence can be indicated from cultural references. For instance, Blake has been appropriated into a character featured in Emogame 2, an online flash game . In addition, the main character "Blake" in Nothing Nice To Say, a webcomic, is named after him and bears some resemblance.
[edit] GameSpot reviews
During the summer of 1997, Schwarzenbach worked as a freelance writer and contributed several reviews of video games for GameSpot. Games reviewed included Independence Day[4], HeliCOPS[5], and Pandemonium[6]
[edit] Recent activities
Politics
Blake was involved in some efforts of Punk Voter leading up to the 2004 U.S. presidential election. In October of 2004, he wrote a "guest column" called "Empires" on Punk Voter's website.[7] Additionally, Blake was peripherally involved with the New York University antiwar protests of late 2002-early 2003. On March 27, 2003, Blake gave an antiwar speech, entitled "See How We Are", to a crowd assembled in Washington Square Park following a student walkout.[8] Some have reported that he "burst into tears" during this speech.[citation needed]
Literary and other artistic efforts
In 2004, Samantha Gillison commented on Blake's more recent literary and artistic endeavors in City Pages:
| “ | ...his writing has expanded beyond lyrics and liner notes. Employing Michel Foucault's theory of spontaneous and local anarchy, his artistic self-expression now includes deeply felt political essays, children's stories, and graphic representation in the form of agitprop stickers that have wound up on New York City cop cars, subway ads, Starbucks windows, and Fox News vans. And with what he calls "deep human hunger," he has delved into the world of filmmaking, starting with a Cindy Sherman-esque short entitled "Biko/Chico" that stars his cat and muse Chico Schwarzenbach. [9] | ” |
Teaching
Currently, Schwarzenbach teaches undergraduates as a member of the Adjunct Faculty in the Department of English at Hunter College, which is part of the CUNY public university system in New York City.
[edit] Miscellanea
- In October 1992, during the "Hell is on the Way" tour, Schwarzenbach underwent throat surgery in London in order to remove polyps after a spout of coughing up blood. The song Outpatient on the album 24 Hour Revenge Therapy concerns this experience.[10]
- In 1999, Blake auctioned off his Gibson Les Paul guitar on ebay for $1,275.[11]
- He is known to be a fan of 'beat' author Jack Kerouac, and during the song Condition Oakland off of the album 24 Hour Revenge Therapy, samples of Kerouac can be heard of him reading the poem October in the Railroad Earth. Kerouac is also referenced in the lyrics of the Jawbreaker song Boxcar.[12]
[edit] References
- ^ History of Jawbreaker from loosecharm.org
- ^ An interview with Blake from Mesh magazine Issue 1 (Sept 2003)
- ^ Artists of the Year, a Dec. 29, 2004 article in City Pages
- ^ Indepedance Day review by Blake posted April 3, 1997 on GameSpot
- ^ HeliCOPS review by Blake posted May 2, 1997 on GameSpot
- ^ Pandemonium review by Blake posted August 6, 1997 on GameSpot.
- ^ Empires guest column posted October 7, 2004 on Punk Voter
- ^ Transcript of Blake's "See How We Are" speech - retrieved from the Internet Archive's Wayback Machine as a record of Blake's original 3-31-2003 posting on the Jets to Brazil website.
- ^ Artists of the Year, a Dec. 29, 2004 article in City Pages
- ^ Lyrics to Outpatient from loosecharm.org
- ^ Screen shot of guitar at auction on eBay from loosecharm.org
- ^ Lyrics to Boxcar from loosecharm.org
[edit] External links
- Collection of Jawbreaker lyrics: http://www.loosecharm.org/song.html
