Comments (0) Best '90s Musical Hero Hiding Out Scruffily in Brooklyn - 2009
Blake Schwarzenbach
November 2008, Brooklyn—Sixty or so people crammed into a living room meant for maybe five: This is the return of Blake Schwarzenbach, the former singer and guitarist of Jets to Brazil and, more importantly, Jawbreaker, the much-adored '90s proto-emo outfit. Schwarzenbach had been out of music since the demise of Jets, in 2003; a move to Brooklyn and an entrée into a quietly vibrant community of punk houses and DIY show spaces in Crown Heights brought him back. Thorns of Life, the band he formed last fall, played only a handful of unannounced shows, and released no music—most people found out about the band the day they announced they'd broken up. But Schwarzenbach took the songs and spirit of Thorns of Life into 2009 and, in August, debuted forgetters, a new three-piece with the former drummer of the now-world-beating Florida punk act Against Me! So far, forgetters have been a slightly more public affair. Their second show was a raucous, person-packed affair in the basement of the Lit Lounge; multiple audience members could be witnessed discreetly tugging down sleeves, covering up an old Jawbreaker tattoo or three—trés 1996.
