Jawbreaker Reunion! (...Is What Some Band Named Themselves)

Jawbreaker Reunion. Photo by Sam Williams. If the legendary Jawbreaker ever announce a reunion, it’ll probably explode the internet. Literally, all of the wires and cables that carry the internet will start smoking and routers and modems everywhere will burst into flames. But it doesn’t seem likely anytime soon. The band have not played together since 1996 and have reportedly turned down huge chunks of money to get back together for tours and festivals. So until that day comes, New York’s Jawbreaker Reunion are here to piggyback on that sweet, sweet SEO goodness.

That’s right. They named their band Jawbreaker Reunion. We talked to guitarist/singer Bella Mazzetti about the ups and downs of being in a band called Jawbreaker Reunion.

Noisey: So, obvious first question: Why’d you name your band Jawbreaker Reunion?
Bella Mazzetti: Alright, so the band name is actually thanks to a JadedPunkHulk tweet. I think it was something like, "If you want people to come see your shitty indie band, name it Jawbreaker Reunion." So we were like, "Yeah that’ll work!" And the rest is kind of history.

So you admit you are shitty.
Every band starts out pretty shitty, so at our beginning, yes, we were. But we've definitely grown as a group and we're proud of where we are now. We chose the name because we knew it would get people talking and paying attention, which it obviously did, so we're pretty happy about it.

Pictured: Jawbreaker. Not Jawbreaker Reunion. Sorry if that was misleading.

How much would you say you sound like the actual Jawbreaker?
Jawbreaker is pretty fun to listen to and we've been told that we are also fun to listen to, so theres that. Other than that, I think we take very little direct influence from Jawbreaker as a band but I mean, they are a classic so it’s hard to say that we don't incorporate similar sounds in our own music. We're also girls who write and sing twinkly songs about body positivity, beer, and old boyfriends, so the similarities are not really there.

Has anyone ever been disappointed to learn you are not an actual Jawbreaker reunion?
There are definitely a few people we come across every now and then that are, but they get over it pretty quickly when they see our show. Some sad tweets we creep on express extreme disappointment, but most of the time people really get behind it.

You had to have known you were gonna bum people out though, right? Are you cool with being a perpetual disappointment as a band?
Being a perpetual disappointment is what we run on, dude. But really, we knew that might have been the case when we decided to call ourselves Jawbreaker Reunion, and we don't actually think we're a perpetual disappointment. There are so many people who are relieved we're not really a Jawbreaker Reunion. But really, being a disappointment in name only is not a real concern of ours, because I don't think that reflects on our music.

Have you heard from Blake or anyone from Jawbreaker about it?
No, we haven't yet. But we have prepared for the worst in case we do get contacted about it and will fight to the death if necessary. We hope we don't because we love the name and everyone we know loves the name. I hope the guys from Jawbreaker can appreciate that if they do find out about us. At the same time, it would be cool as hell to be contacted by punk legends so I don't know, man.

Are you fans?
Never heard of them. Joking, obviously. We are all fans of varying degrees. Personally, I grew up listening to them and we all respect them and what they are for punk/emo music.

Again, Jawbreaker, not Jawbreaker Reunion. Apologies for the confusion.

So, if you were forced to change your name, what would you change it to?
We would change our name to Sheniqua and the Skull Fuckers. Or Kegel Stands.

May I make a suggestion?
Oh, sure.

Fugazi Reunion.
Good idea. Maybe that’ll be the name of the album we're currently recording.

Maybe call the album "Rare Fugazi T-shirt Will Ship Internationally."
And we'll only sell it on eBay one copy at a time with month-long auctions.

Dan Ozzi is the contributing editor of Noisey and is starting a band called The Misfits When They Were Good. Follow him on Twitter - @danozzi