Office of Future Plans

thesongotheday:

Jawbox - Savory

There’s something about the 90s. It’s hard to put my finger on it, really. It just seems like many bands found a seamless way to bond pop sensibilities with raw, in your face aggression and experimentation. Perhaps it was the care-free attitude allowed after Nevermind charted the way it did, the overwhelming feeling that even YOUR band could make it regardless of your music’s immediate appeal. Maybe fans had better taste back then and determined that music in the 90s would be represented by a re-imagining of rhythm and melody; as we all know, even if a record is good, it has to be somewhat popular in order for it to carry over generations, especially in the pre-Internet times (oh, how sweet that would be!). Anyways, all I know is that the 90s were very much my favourite time in music and this song is representative of everything I loved about that decade. From For Your Own Special Sweetheart, Jawbox with “Savory.”

There was something special about the 90s, wasn’t there? To me, it was the last era in which one could truly rebel. You could still get beat up for wearing band t-shirts or listening to certain types of music in the 90s. Nowadays, the internet provides instant community and validation; if anyone makes fun of your music you can instantly go to a forum or “fuckyeah[weirdmusicorfetish]” site and feel validated. That can be a good thing, but it can also breed passivity.

To release a song like “Savory” in 1994 was to make a bold statement. Misfits had only been allowed on mainstream radio and MTV since Nirvana hit it big 2-3 years earlier. “Savory” instantly connected with my friends and I, growing up in rural PA in the pre-Internet age, where music was our only salvation. Those first jangly dissonances against those huge power-chords provided a hook catchy enough to immediately grab one’s attention, but beautifully twisted in such a way that we knew it was speaking directly to us. We grew up with Jawbox and other similar bands defining who we were and influencing how we approached art and life.

The flagrant musical rebellion of “Savory” against watered-down mainstream music (made all the more poignant and daring by being put on a major label!) directly paralleled the personal rebellions of the thousands of kids growing up at the time who identified with this kind of art. It was much, much harder to find your own and feel part of a community back then. Music was the critical piece that tied our lives together, though, and I’m thrilled that the best of it lives on. I know J. is humbled and perhaps a bit confused by the continued critical acclaim, the 9.x-rating on Pitchfork for the FYOSS re-release, etc. But to me, it’s not confusing at all - it makes perfect sense.

Thanks for the reminder of the greatness of this era!

- Gordon