I invoke this late, great Oakland-Berkeley scene band on a daily basis.  Jawbreaker formed in New York when two Bay Area Emo guys (Blake Schwartzenbach and Chris Bauermeister) met at NYU.  They quit school and returned to Berkeley to form what is, for my money, the greatest band of all time (...right behind Iron Maiden and The Misfits...)

Jawbreaker recorded four studio albums, countless 7"ers and compilation album tracks between 1991 and 1996.  Their full lengths include: Unfun, 24 Hour Revenge Therapy, (the insanely brilliant-Scott) Bivouac and their one and only Major label album, Dear You.  Shortly after the tour for Dear You, they disbanded and moved onto other projects.  Blake Schwartzenbach now leads Jets To Brazil and drummer Adam Pfahler plays for Bay Area veteran band J-Church.

To state that Blake is the greatest lyricist that has ever lived sounds grandious.  Listen and learn first.  Before you can judge, check them out (particularly Bivouac...but listen to all of it) and dig the sampling.  They cover every emotion you've ever felt, from blind rage ("Parabola", "Fantastic Planet", "Donatello") to sadness and loneliness ("Bivouac", "Shield Your Eyes") from the joy of first love ("Chesterfield King") to divorce and heartbreak ("Ashtray Monument") and social outrage ("Kiss The Bottle", "Imaginary War"). 

Jawbreaker created a fusion of punk, pop and hardcore and then broke the mold.  They have been labeled "Emo" when in fact they created Emo.  Countless bands since their disbanding have tried to ape their sound (Weezer, The Laurence Arms, The Alkaline Trio).  I like the bands I just named, in particular The Trio.  However, none of them have even come close to re-creating the sound and intensity of Jawbreaker.  They've also been lumped in with absolute crap like Dinosaur Jr., Dashlight Confessional and Shudder To Think.  That's not what it's about either.

They are simply amazing.

Listen.

DINO is cool... J masciss or however his last name is spelt... rocks!

I love feel the pain and think it has one of the coolest little guitar hooks ever "well aside from EDGE's BAD hook and his ALL I WANT IS YOU SOLO"

JAWBREAKER is a decent band though... FIREMAN and WHATEVER are two of my favorite songs around.

I don't care for alot of their stuff though... it's alot of the same ol' same ol' to me...