Unfun is the debut studio album by American punk rock band Jawbreaker, released in May 1990 through Shredder Records. The band members met one another at university and began rehearsing together in late 1986. After going through several names and a lineup change, Jawbreaker sent a copy of "Shield Your Eyes" to punk publication Maximum Rocknroll, which later caught the attention of Shredder Records founder Mel Cheplowitz. Following the release of the Whack & Blite EP and the "Busy" single, members of the band returned to education. While this was occurring, they wrote material that later appeared on their debut album, which was then recorded with producer Richard Andrews in January and February 1990 at Radio Tokyo in Venice, California.
Unfun received generally positive reviews from music critics, who complimented the album's sound and praised Schwarzenbach's lyricism. It is a punk rock, pop-punk, and hardcore punk album that evoked the sound of the Descendents and Hüsker Dü, with most of the songs being written in frontman Blake Schwarzenbach's New York apartment. Between June and September 1990, Jawbreaker embarked on a ten-week tour of the United States with Econochrist and Filth to promote the album. Two weeks into it, tensions rose between the members of Jawbreaker, with bassist Chris Bauermeister and Schwarzenbach's conflicting personalities leading to hostility. After the tour's conclusion, the band broke up and the members returned to education. Shredder Records later reissued it on CD in 1992 and 2002; drummer Adam Pfahler re-released it through his label Blackball Records in 2010.
Background Upon transferring to the Crossroads School in Santa Monica, California, at age 16, Adam Pfahler met Blake Schwarzenbach.Givony 2020, pp. 8, 9 The pair bonded over a shared interest in Los Angeles, California-based punk music and SST Records bands. The two of them, plus mutual friend Rich,Ozzi 2022, p. 37 formed the band Red Harvest in their first year of attendance.Givony 2020, pp. 11, 12 Pfahler and Schwarzenbach both left the band after graduating from Crossroads in 1985. Following this, Pfahler attended the University of Santa Monica, while Schwarzenbach went to the University of California, Santa Cruz; Chris Bauermeister, meanwhile, enrolled in New York University (NYU).Givony 2020, p. 12 Bauermeister joined Butcher Clyde after learning they were looking for a bassist, though they broke up during his second year. Shortly after this, Bauermeister opted to form his own band.Givony 2020, p. 14 In late 1986, Pfahler and Schwarzenbach moved to New York to attend NYU,Givony 2020, p. 15 sharing a dorm near Washington Square Park. The pair saw a flyer in the cafeteria of NYU, and after calling the number, they met up with Bauermeister, who the two had seen around the college.Ozzi 2022, p. 38 The trio played their first rehearsal together in November 1986 at Giant Studios, which was close to their NYU dorms.Givony 2020, p. 16
The band went by the name Thumb before changing it to Terminal Island.Givony 2020, p. 17 For their first year, they unsuccessfully auditioned lead singers. Shortly afterwards, Pfahler transferred to the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA); instead of looking for a new drummer, the band continued to meet up and write songs when breaks in their education allowed. In early 1987, they recorded an instrumental five-track demo tape. While at UCLA, Pfahler drafted in Jon Liu as their singer. Liu was formerly the frontman for Magnolia Thunderpussy, who had previously played a show with Red Harvest. From mid-1988, Bauermeister and Schwarzenbach decided to take a gap year to focus on the band, moving to Los Angeles in the process. During this time, they were going by the name Rise, and by October 1988, they had recorded seven tracks at a studio in Santa Monica. Liu sung vocals on almost every song, bar "Shield Your Eyes", which Schwarzenbach sung on.Givony 2020, p. 19 The following month, after laying down new vocals for "Shield Your Eyes", Bauermeister and Pfahler decided that Schwarzenbach should be their new frontman and let Liu go.Givony 2020, p. 21
Label and recording A copy of "Shield Your Eyes" had been sent to the punk publication Maximum Rocknroll, who then played it on their radio station. Shredder Records founder Mel Cheplowitz heard the song and promptly asked the band to contribute to an upcoming various-artist compilation. They became aware of another band called Rise;Givony 2020, p. 22 the trio made notes of new names and put them into a hat, eventually landing on Jawbreaker.Ozzi 2022, p. 39 The World's in Shreds Volume II, which featured "Shield Your Eyes", saw release in February 1989. During the same month, the band recorded a demo tape.Givony 2020, p. 23 In the following weeks, they played at various club venues across Los Angeles.Givony 2020, p. 24 In May and June 1989, they recorded the Whack & Blite EP and "Busy" single with engineer Michael James; both of these were released through Pfahler's label, Blackball Records.Givony 2020, p. 26
Shortly afterwards, they recorded another demo tape, which featured darker-sounding songs with more of a focus on the bass. Bauermeister and Schwarzenbach returned to NYU for their last year of education, where they continued to write material. They arranged the songs that feature on their debut album during the Christmas period. In January 1990, the band flew to Los Angeles; Unfun was recorded through to February 1990, over the course of 60 hours, at Radio Tokyo, located in Venice, California. Engineer Richard Andrews produced the recordings with members of the band. During the sessions, the band re-recorded several of the songs from their demo tapes. In a retrospective interview, Schwarzenbach said they had a single mindset to create Unfun: "with limited abilities and unlimited enthusiasm". "Busy", which was originally recorded at the same studio in June 1989, was remixed for inclusion on the album. Engineer Michael James handled the recording for the original version of "Busy". The album was mixed at Radio Tokyo using a mixdown deck provided by Jeff Martin, who also provided amplifiers. John Golden then mastered the recordings at Golden Mastering in Ventura, California.
Composition and lyrics
Discussing the name Unfun in an interview with Maximum Rocknroll, Bauermeister explained it as the members of Jawbreaker having poor luck: "We seem to be building up litanies of disaster. Unfortunately, it's getting worse each time. One band's breaking point is basically our day-to-day." Musically, the sound of the album has been described as punk rock, pop-punk,Greenwald 2003, p. 20 emo and hardcore punk, with elements of post-punk. In his 33 1/3 book 24 Hour Revenge Therapy (2018) on the band, Ronen Givony said they sounded "uneven [and] embryonic: a band learning to shake off the weight of their heroes, or figuring out whether they want to sound more like Hüsker Dü, Scratch Acid, or The Jesus Lizard".Givony 2020, p. 18 Jorge Martins, staff writer for Ultimate Guitar, saw Unfun as the middle point between the sound of Descendents and Hüsker Dü, commenting that the revealing lyricism and "intense vocal delivery" from Schwarzenbach helped set Jawbreaker away from their contemporaries. Discussing the writing process, Bauermeister explained that Schwarzenbach or himself wrote a guitar riff, while the other comes up with an additional part; they would then "force Adam to learn it in a short period of time". Schwarzenbach said that Pfahler had collectively spent eight days learning all of the material. He estimated that about seven of the tracks were written in his New York apartment.Givony 2020, p. 29 In a 2010 interview, Pfahler said they were "not leaving well enough alone. It's gotta be this much. Like the fills gotta be this much longer and we're playing it this much faster and it's crazy."
With the album's opening track "Want", Givony compared the verse sections to the words of Allen Ginsberg: "the overflowing confession of a bibliophile with too much to say".Givony 2020, p. 28 Journalist Dan Ozzi, in his book Sellout: The Major-Label Feeding Frenzy That Swept Punk, Emo, and Hardcore 1994–2007 (2021), said the song, unlike the majority of Unfun, showcased the band's penchant for crafting "catchy earworms when they wanted to." He noted that the chorus did not appear until halfway into the song, "but it was unforgettable once it finally did." Schwarzenbach said "Seethruskin" was about the "far-reaching racism that is an outgrowth of apathy and classist divisions in schools and neighborhoods". "Imaginary War" incorporates a sample of a scream taken from the film The Warriors (1979). "Busy" sees Schwarzenbach attempting to help a friend that is having a mental breakdown and is followed by the anti-pornography track "Softcore". "Driven" has apocalyptic-themed lyrics, while the following track, "Wound", tackles guilt and self-doubt. In "Gutless", Schwarzenbach ponders if a friend is being true to themselves. "Lawn" details a Raymond Carver-esque scenario where a man watches his family from the afterlife. "Crane" recalls early hardcore punk; "Eye-5" foreshadows some of the sound the band explored with the second and third studio albums, Bivouac (1992) and 24 Hour Revenge Therapy (1994).Givony 2020, p. 27 Mischa Pearlman of Louder said it describes an immoral truck driver who turns into a murderer to "cleanse the world of evil-doers in a presumed attempt to ascend to Heaven."
Release and reissues Unfun saw release in May 1990 through Shredder Records; the artwork features a cat named Sammy, which lived with Schwarzenbach and his girlfriend in their New York City apartment. Schwarzenbach explained that he often rested on the floor while the animal was resting on the couch watching him. He "kept thinking, this is really cool looking, he looks larger than life, and there was a certain comic element there as well", and decided to take photographs of Sammy. The cover photograph was eventually supplied by Brendan Murdock of Mood Swing, while Wade Graham contributed the back photo. Jawbreaker, Murray Bowles, and Paul Robinson also provided insert photos; the latter of these also took the live photograph on the back cover. The band promoted the album with a ten-week-long cross-country trek across North America, which marked their first tour, between June and September 1990. They were accompanied for this trek by Econochrist and Filth.Boulware; Tudor 2009, p. 426 Schwarzenbach had booked the tour, dubbed the Fuck 90 tour, himself using his father's phone card and a copy of Book Your Own Fuckin' Life, Maximum Rocknroll guide to venues. Schwarzenbach's father had given him the card in the event of emergencies and was in trouble with him afterwards; he reasoned that "everything's an emergency when you're on tour." In hindsight, he said he had no concept of "what I was doing – and it shows"; he estimated that Jawbreaker had around six positive shows, with the rest being "maybe 25 utterly forgettable metal-club-in-Florida-type shows".