24 Hour Revenge Therapy is the third studio album by American punk rock band Jawbreaker, released on February 7, 1994, through Tupelo Recording Company and Communion Label. Before the release of their second studio album, Bivouac (1992), frontman Blake Schwarzenbach developed a polyp on his vocal cords. While on tour in Europe, he went to a hospital; upon returning to the United States, the band took up day jobs. Recording sessions for their next album were held at Steve Albini's house in Chicago, Illinois, across three days in May 1993. While on tour, they listened to tapes they made of the sessions; Schwarzenbach was unhappy with the recordings. Three songs were subsequently recorded in a single day at Brilliant in San Francisco, California, in August 1993 with Billy Anderson.
24 Hour Revenge Therapy received generally favorable reviews from music critics, some of whom praised the songwriting. Described as a blend of their traditional punk rock and pop-punk sound, it harkened back to the simplistic arrangements of Jawbreaker's debut studio album, Unfun (1990). They supported Nirvana on their US tour, which earned them backlash from members of the punk community, and then went on a stint with J Church prior to the release of the album. Jawbreaker supported them with a seven-week US trek, a West Coast tour with Jawbox, where further backlash followed, and a stint in Europe at the end of 1994. 24 Hour Revenge Therapy has been included on best-of lists for pop-punk and emo by the likes of Alternative Press and Rock Sound; Chris Conley of Saves the Day and Rise Against had expressed admiration for the album.
Background and writing
While Jawbreaker was touring across the United States, frontman Blake Schwarzenbach had developed a polyp on his vocal cords. They had planned to get their roadie, Raul Reyes, to sing for the remainder of the trek. After a single show where Reyes could not recall the lyrics, Schwarzenbach started singing again. The band then embarked on a tour of Europe; during it, he coughed up blood. As they were unable to fly home due to fog, Schwarzenbach went to a hospital in October 1992.Givony 2020, p. 43 As he was recovering, the rest of the band spent time in London with Lookout! Records staff member Christy Colcord. After leaving the hospital, Schwarzenbach was instructed not to talk or drink for a period of five days. His first show post-surgery saw his vocals being altered two octaves higher. A month prior to this, Schwarzenbach said that the band was eager to return to the studio to record, having written ten new songs. They had recorded their second album, Bivouac, a year ago, though it had yet to be released. Drummer Adam Pfahler explained that because a significant amount of time had elapsed since recording, many of the songs were no longer part of their live shows. While they had performed nearly half of the material that would end up on their third album by October 1992,Givony 2020, p. 47 Bivouac only saw release two months later.
Bivouac was a darker-sounding release that took inspiration from the Midwestern and Washington, D.C. post-punk scenes. Author Andrew Earles wrote in his book, Gimme Indie Rock: 500 Essential American Underground Rock Albums 1981–1996 (2014), that the album earned Jawbreaker fans in the American underground from post-hardcore to alternative and indie rock.Earles 2014, p. 160 After returning to the US, bassist Chris Bauermeister stayed at the band's residence on Sycamore Street in San Francisco, California, as Pfahler moved to Albion Street in Los Angeles, California, and Schwarzenbach moved to Oakland, California. Bauermeister worked at a toy store, and Pfahler spent time running a video store, as Schwarzenbach wrote new material alone and served as a librarian. The members met up and held practice sessions in the basement of a club. The material that Schwarzenbach came up with revolved around locations, relationships, and people; Ronen Givony, who wrote the 2018 33 1/3 book on the band, said that while the tracks on Bivouac were "figurative, the new songs were confessional, unguarded, [and] diaristic".Givony 2020, pp. 47, 48 Bauermeister and Pfahler acknowledged that Bivouac was a collaborative effort between the three of them, which contrasted with this new set of songs that were solely Schwarzenbach's creation.Givony 2020, p. 48 Prior to recording their next album, they had all of the material for it fully planned out and already had a sequence for it. Gary Held of Revolver Distribution lent the band $2,000 to cover the cost of recording as well as food, lodging, and gas.Givony 2020, pp. 51–52 They were prepared to the point where they performed what would be the album in order for Held.Givony 2020, p. 52
Production
Jawbreaker began their van trip from San Francisco to engineer Steve Albini's house in Chicago, Illinois, on May 14, 1993, arriving a few days later. 24 Hour Revenge Therapy was mainly recorded at Albini's residence across three days that same month. Albini had built up a reputation as an engineer recording revered albums by the likes of Nirvana and PJ Harvey, alongside the works of acts that members of Jawbreaker admired, such as Big Black and the Jesus Lizard.Givony 2020, p. 51 Though he was not that familiar with the band, he was aware of them and considered them "one of the few punk bands [...] that had a more melodic sensibility". Albini had upgraded the recording console at his house from 8-track to 24-track prior to this. As such, he recorded a large number of bands in a short time period in order to pay the bill for the equipment. Upon arriving, Schwarzenbach remarked that the Jesus Lizard were practicing in Albini's basement; Jawbreaker moved all of their gear into that location, which was where they would be recording. Pfahler said on the first day, he and Bauermeister had started taping basic tracks at 3 p.m. and were finished by 6 p.m.Givony 2020, p. 53
The day after, Schwarzenbach tracked his guitar lines and vocals; the next day, they began the mixing process. Two songs into the session, the tape machine became faulty and caught fire.Givony 2020, p. 54 Any further work was halted without a working machine; another act was scheduled to work with Albini at the weekend.Givony 2020, pp. 54–55 A national tour was planned to begin after sessions wrapped, though the initial first show in Dayton, Ohio, was cancelled as Jawbreaker remained in Chicago. On 25 May 1993, they restarted mixing as the machine was fixed, working from 9 a.m. to almost midnight.Givony 2020, p. 55 Albini ultimately billed the band $1,032 for the three full days of recording and mixing. The next day, they went to the residence of Screeching Weasel frontman Ben Weasel and listened to the album. Pfahler later regretted doing this, stating that they were "too close to it. We had no distance [...] we didn't have it in our head right".Givony 2020, p. 56 Schwarzenbach said: "There's always that point where you can really freak yourself out, and we did". They then embarked on the When It Pains It Roars tour through to July 1993.Givony 2020, p. 57 After 30 shows, they eventually relistened to the tapes, which Schwarzenbach was not satisfied with.
After the tour concluded, they spent a day with Billy Anderson, tracking at Brilliant Studio in San Francisco, California. The band self-produced the proceedings, while Anderson served as the engineer. During this, "The Boat Dreams from the Hill" and "Boxcar" were re-recorded, "Do You Still Hate Me?" and "Jinx Removing" were re-mixed, and "Condition Oakland" was recorded.Givony 2020, pp. 57–58 "The Boat Dreams from the Hill" was redone as the song did not have enough pauses in the music for Schwarzenbach to sing over. In addition, the pick slide and lead guitar part that opens the track was swapped for Pfahler's drums. "Boxcar" was also remade, with an increase in tempo. They altered those songs based on live performances sometime prior. Around this time, he wrote "Condition Oakland", which he felt was "a good summation" of recording music; as they had been playing it on tour, they opted to record it for their next album. Making the track at Brilliant was "pretty perfect" due to the studio's large size, making it "kind of a cavernous song." A sample of Jack Kerouac and Steve Allen was recorded for it by playing a cassette of performing, done by pointing a Shure SM57 microphone at a boom box speaker. Pfahler said the session with Anderson cost $500. As Albini preferred not to be credited, the engineer role was listed as Fluss in the album's booklet, which was the name of his cat. He reasoned that as Jawbreaker composed and played "and made the decisions [...] [they're] doing all the work, I'm sort of part of the equipment". For the 20th anniversary version of the album, he is credited as doing the recording, while Fluss is still listed as the engineer. John Golden mastered the album at K-Disc in Hollywood, California.
Composition and lyrics
Overview Musically, the sound of 24 Hour Revenge Therapy has been described as punk rock, pop-punk, and emo.Gross 2004, p. 103 Dan Fidler of Spin said it was "composed of short, tight arrangements", centered around Pfahler's "furious drumming" and Bauermeister's "barreling bass".Fidler 1994, p. 22 The latter realized "the value of pulling back and not doing fills every chance I got, but trying to put them in useful places and places that made sense." Schwarzenbach's vocals were compared to Paul Westerberg of the Replacements and Richard Butler of the Psychedelic Furs. The material on the album was Schwarzenbach-written, instead of the more collaborative efforts on Bivouac. The latter album saw the band lean towards a more progressive sound, while 24 Hour Revenge Therapy had simplified arrangements, closer to their debut studio album, Unfun (1990). Schwarzenbach highlighted five albums that he listened to while creating 24 Hour Revenge Therapy: Bad Moon Rising (1985) by Sonic Youth; World Outside (1991) by the Psychedelic Furs; No Pocky for Kitty (1991) by Superchunk; Something Vicious for Tomorrow (1992) by Treepeople; and The Problem with Me (1993) by Seam.
Schwarzenbach explained that 24 Hour Revenge Therapy dealt with a single relationship he experienced. The album's lyrics have been compared to those of the Replacements.Earles 2014, p. 161 Journalist Dan Ozzi, in his book Sellout: The Major-Label Feeding Frenzy That Swept Punk, Emo, and Hardcore 1994–2007 (2021), said Schwarzenbach separated himself from his pop-punk contemporaries by entwining cleverness, allegories, and self-observation into the songs' lyrics.Ozzi 2022, p. 49 The words avoided the literary vagueness of their previous releases in favor of directness. The band's uneasy mindset towards the strict attitude and rules-based philosophy of the punk scene was documented in "Indictment", "Boxcar", and "West Bay Invitational".Keeble 2022, p. 398 Givony wrote that the album largely details a story "familiar to every young person who moves to a new city, makes friends, falls in love, and reluctantly grows up"; the first three tracks fall out of this remit, as they are a send-off to a music environment that "had outlived its novelty, interest, or usefulness".Givony 2020, pp. 48, 61 Ozzi felt that Schwarzenbach's narrative form was in line with popular Great American writers such as Allen Ginsberg, Kerouac, and J. D. Salinger. Schwarzenbach was able to study their respective works when he was a librarian. Kerouac appears twice on the album, as a namedrop in "Boxcar" and the aforementioned sample heard in "Condition Oakland". Arin Keeble, in his piece on Jawbreaker collected in The Routledge Companion to Music and Modern Literature (2022), said both tracks employ literary imagery to repel against the conventions of punk rock.
Songs