ARTSETC.
Jimmy Eat World returns strong on Futures
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Also by David Steinhaus:
- Revealing secret sex lives of celebrities (February 1, 2005)
- Vanishing Point finds lyrical balance (January 19, 2005)
- Linkin Park, Jay-Z perfect collaborative records (December 3, 2004)
- Jimmy Eat World returns strong on Futures (November 4, 2004)
- Affleck's new seasonal flop (October 28, 2004)
Related Stories:
- Jimmy Eat World loses direction with latest (October 19, 2004)
- Taking Back Sunday showing maturity (April 27, 2006)
- Political mixtapes for conveying frustrations (October 28, 2004)
- Jimmy Eat's World wants you to Bleed American (September 13, 2001)
- Dial delight to perform at Club 770 with Five Dollar Foundation (November 14, 2001)
by David Steinhaus
Thursday, November 4, 2004
“It’s dealing with numbness. The theory behind it is like the character in the video. He’s been hurt so bad that he can’t feel anything, so he’s going throughout his day pushing his boundaries to see what he can get away with without getting hurt. Then he gets the girl back, and then he can feel again.” This is how Jimmy Eat World bassist Rick Burch describes his band’s latest single ‘Pain’, a song that has been saturating rock stations, rotating on MTV and was even featured last week on the WB’s Smallville. When the band talked to the Badger Herald they explained their reaction to the song’s increasing prevalence and Superman fame.
“It’s always good to try and get your music to people that might not normally (hear it) … some people actually seek out music and work for it and hunt it down and find it, unfortunately that’s not a lot of people, so it’s always good to get it out there anyway that’s possible,” said Burch.
The exhibition of the punchy, up-tempo ‘Pain’ coincides with the release of the band’s new album Futures. The disc, which debuts this week at number six on the Billboard album charts, is the group’s sixth full-length album.
Jimmy Eat World is best known for its 2001 single “The Middle.” A track that rented a suite in most of American brains’ ‘catchy song headquarters’ and refused to leave whether we wanted it to or not. Rolling Stone at the time described it as a song that “explodes into a pure pop heaven of cheery possibilities.” And the 2001 album Bleed American was slated as having “11 killer songs” including the follow-up singles “Sweetness” and “A Praise Chorus.”
The emo-rock sensations completed Futures in a down-to-the-wire race to record, a process they decided to tweak with a little this time around. For the new album, the band chose to leave Mark Trambino, their producer for the all their previous work, and venture into a new realm with uber-producer Gil Norton. Norton has worked successfully with numerous bands including the Foo Fighters and the Pixies.
“It was kind of a just wanting to get out of our comfort zone,” said Burch. “We had settled into a good thing with Mark Trambino, working with him has been nothing but good times. I think we got to a point where we’ve done three records with Mark and just try something new, try to push ourselves in a new direction. Try and shake it up a bit, for progress sake. Sometimes it wasn’t fun because he was really pushing us in ways we weren’t used to, but at the end of the day it was always like, ‘That’s cool, thank you for doing that, thank you for kicking my ass.’”
The result of all that work is what Burch calls a mix of their last two records. “Bleed American was really direct rock-oriented for the most part, but the record before that, Clarity, had a bit more atmosphere and moodiness to it. So we took the experience of making those different records and expanded on both directions. I think it went more atmospheric with some songs and then the rock songs got even more rock.”
The blend doesn’t come off as muddled, but instead as eleven tracks that are able to stand on their own and also mesh into an oil-swirling-on-water harmony. There are fast songs and soft, melodic songs. There is even one seven-minute epic that kicks your ass, dulls the pain, and then soothes it away.
Jimmy Eat World has been on the road promoting its new material and taking some time to remember the old. Touring is something the band has been at nearly non-stop since they formed ten years ago. This most recent album sparks a raging two and a half year tour schedule that will take them across the States, into Asia, through Scandinavia, and a plethora of other locales.
In all that touring, though, the inevitable has never happened: “Actually none of us so far (have dated Paris Hilton). But you never want to count anything out. I’m married though so I don’t think it’s going to be me,” said Burch.
But, in concession, he did divulge some info about Green Day’s backstage habits.
“They do some weird stuff,” he said. “I guess they get bored or something, but when we toured with them they would super-glue the meat from the deli-tray to the walls and mirrors and stuff. We still just eat the meat.”
With the election earlier this week, Jimmy Eat World had a lot to say about the big event in November. “(The Spongebob Squarepants Movie) is really going to come out and shock the world.”
The group, whose first track on Futures opens with the lines, “I always believed in futures/ I hope for better in November,” also had some thoughts on the then-pending political race.
“Reading the paper and seeing what’s going on as far as what directions our country is going, I don’t think it’s to a happy place,” Burch said. “Change could be a good thing. That’s what we’re hoping for. We don’t want to be that band on stage that’s telling you what to think or anything, but we just try and tell people to think and voice your opinion, that’s the main thing.”
The guys also had thoughts on the Vote Or Die campaign that urges kids to vote or else P. Diddy will kill them. “Just voting to vote if you really don’t have an opinion or aren’t aware is kind of a bad thing.”
The band that has formerly gone by the names Sideburn Circus, Creep Dive and The Ice Cubes may not have gotten the change they wanted this past Tuesday. But they are still doing their part to alter the earth by touring and spreading their message of music and peace across the world.
That message will be spread here in Madison on November 16th when the band plays at the Barrymore Theater; advance tickets are going for twenty dollars.
Jimmy Eat World had a few parting words of advice for their Madison fans:
“Just have a good time. However you have a good time have it. Whether it’s standing on your head consuming mass amounts of beverages, or it’s jumping around, or it’s sitting in the back, it doesn’t matter, just have a good time. See you guys at the show.”
Anonymous (November 4, 2004 @ 1:10pm):
good use of quotes fausto... at least with the band having interesting things to say.. a step up from the affleck movie review... well, a few steps. This one flowed a bit nicer, it seemed as if you tried too hard on that other one.
Anonymous (November 4, 2004 @ 10:57pm):
Who is this two bit hack from a one horse town who keeps writing in this rag of a paper? Why don't you review the Shins or the Drive by Truckers or do a piece on that song Tim McGraw sang with that darker fellow, I can't get that one out of my head.
Anonymous (November 8, 2004 @ 12:44pm):
Beautiful.
You know who this is.
