Jets To Brazil
So the Jets to Brazil story goes a little something like this: After spending the better part of the '90s as the frontman for the celebrated San Francisco-based pop-punk outfit Jawbreaker, Blake Schwarzenbach decided he'd had enough of the rock and roll lifestyle and resolved to move to New York and become a writer. But, as luck would have it, on the night of Jawbreaker's last show ever, Schwarzenbach met Jeremy Chatelain, whose own band Handsome was about to hit the skids. The two met up in Brooklyn a few months later and, with former Texas Is the Reason drummer Chris Daly, initiated a new project -- Jets to Brazil -- that incorporated elements of all three members' former bands, while (like all truly great bands) adding up to more than the sum of its parts.
So what does it sound like? Well, there's certainly a generous dose of Jawbreaker's melodic, uptempo, emotional punk here, Schwarzenbach's trademark rasp, and smart, often poetic lyrics. But Jets to Brazil's sound has more layers; it's darker, moodier, more ambiguous. There is something epic -- and very powerful -- about these long songs full of rumbling, subterranean, slightly ominous bass and squalling, not-quite-clean guitars topped with atmospheric keyboards and occasional strings. The music conjures a sense of vast, slightly alien open spaces. One sometimes feels rather small, buffeted by the elements when listening to these complicated, dynamic sounds -- and often, Schwarzenbach's gloomy, slightly cynical lyrics seem to describe that very feeling.
With the 1998 release of their first album, Orange Rhyming Dictionary, Jets to Brazil took the expectations of their peers and turned them on their heads, surprising most with their breed of music that was (and still is) fresh and excitingly powerful. As the band members continued to move away from their namesakes and became more comfortable with their expanding sound, the world saw something quite intriguing evolve.
Jets to Brazil followed up their brilliant debut with the equally amazing Four Cornered Night in August 2000. Second guitarist Brian Maryansky (ex-Van Pelt), joined the band full-time shortly after their first tour, and is featured throughout Four Cornered Night and JTB's final record, 2002's Perfecting Loneliness.
Perfecting Loneliness could be considered Jets To Brazil's darkest, most inspirational material to date. Though most die-hard JTB fans still consider Orange Rhyming Dictionary tops. But, most Jets To Brazil fans (the real ones) can agree that all three albums are equally perfect, in their arrangements, lyrics, and overall magic.
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