Jimmy Eat World - Classic or Dud?

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Now here's a band I wouldn't mind seeing vault to superstardom. They're probably too emo (or not emo enough) to make it big, but this is seriously one great band.

― My name is Kenny (My name is Kenny), Thursday, 6 January 2005 18:24 (twenty years ago)

Didn't they already make it big? "The Middle" was #5 on the Billboard Hot 100, and was #1 on Billboard Modern Rock.

― Matt Boch (Matt Boch), Thursday, 6 January 2005 18:29 (twenty years ago)

I mean, like, huge. Like, Blink-182 huge. Yes, I have lofty hopes for this band.

― My name is Kenny (My name is Kenny), Thursday, 6 January 2005 18:30 (twenty years ago)

The songs are getting flacid. Clarity-era I would have been with you. Nowadays I find them rather dull and uninspired.

― Mackey, Thursday, 6 January 2005 19:22 (twenty years ago)

"Sweetness" is fantastic, easily my favorie single of theirs.

― The Ghost of Dan Perry (Dan Perry), Thursday, 6 January 2005 19:23 (twenty years ago)

Sweetness indeed. Haven't heard any songs that match the good tunes on Bloody Americans though.

― artdamages (artdamages), Thursday, 6 January 2005 19:28 (twenty years ago)

I like "The Middle," "Sweetness" and "Lucky Denver Mint."

― miccio (miccio), Thursday, 6 January 2005 19:33 (twenty years ago)

They are corny as all hell.

― miccio (miccio), Thursday, 6 January 2005 19:34 (twenty years ago)

I also like "The Authority Song," "A Praise Chorus," their cover of the Wedding Present's "Spangle." And a few of their early 7"s are great. I like that guy's voice. And the "Middle" video, with pretty young people in their underpants. Ah, fuck it, classic.

― Chuckling at the Tomkat's Marquee (Ben Boyer), Thursday, 6 January 2005 20:11 (twenty years ago)

i think "Lucky Denver Mint" was on the Never Been Kissed SDTK!

― artdamages (artdamages), Thursday, 6 January 2005 20:18 (twenty years ago)

It was. A version of the video featured clips from the movie interspersed with them playing football with jocks or something. It was on the radio quite a bit during a summer I spent as a dishwasher.

― miccio (miccio), Thursday, 6 January 2005 20:20 (twenty years ago)

CLASSIC

― Hari A$hur$t (Toaster), Thursday, 6 January 2005 20:20 (twenty years ago)

I haven't really cared about anything I heard off the new album.

― mi¢¢io (miccio), Thursday, 6 January 2005 20:26 (twenty years ago)

there is a blissful idiocy to their singles that remind me of andrew wk. or more appropriately andrew wk's kid brother who is a sissy. they need to hole up in a studio and make the emo Hysteria that Clarity and Bleen American only hinted at. maybe miccio could suggest an appropriate producer.

― artdamages (artdamages), Thursday, 6 January 2005 20:30 (twenty years ago)

Mutt, Don Gilmore or Eric Valentine

― miccio (miccio), Thursday, 6 January 2005 20:40 (twenty years ago)

they have a dumb name and the dude has a terrible haircut. that's just too much right off the bat to ask me to care further.

― g--ff (gcannon), Thursday, 6 January 2005 20:42 (twenty years ago)

OTM

― Aaron A., Thursday, 6 January 2005 20:46 (twenty years ago)

i just noticed that Trombino produces Clarity.

that is a great album

― Hari A$hur$t (Toaster), Thursday, 6 January 2005 22:06 (twenty years ago)

The songs are getting flacid. Clarity-era I would have been with you. Nowadays I find them rather dull and uninspired.

We coulda just stopped this thread after this comment.

Though the idea of a Mutt produced JEW record is kinda novel, I think they'd need to revisit their songwriting before committing to it. Well-polished turds and all that.

Maybe if the dude took a hiatus and got accepted to Harvard...

― martin m. (mushrush), Thursday, 6 January 2005 22:18 (twenty years ago)

I haven't listened to Futures at all. I'm guessing that it's not worth it at all, even if I like Clarity.

I wouldn't mind Jim Adkins coming to school.

My lunch with Rivers Cuomo was totally akward, but when I met Jim Adkins he was rather pleasant!

― Matt Boch (Matt Boch), Thursday, 6 January 2005 22:28 (twenty years ago)

Classic classic classic, in the way that some bands you love without considering them objectively Important or World-Changing or whatever, they just make me impossibly happy to hear them and I want to dance down the street singing along and sometimes even do, and my breath catches in my throat and everything feels for the space of sone song right.

About 50% of Futures is really good, I think; some of the rest is very meh.

― cis (cis), Thursday, 6 January 2005 23:38 (twenty years ago)

"The Middle" is greatness, but everything else I've heard from them was so-so or terrible (starting with Clarity).

I'll take the first couple of Get Up Kids albums for my whiny midwestern suburbanites fix.

― milozauckerman (miloaukerman), Thursday, 6 January 2005 23:43 (twenty years ago)

i'd like them more if they weren't so goddamned tasteful.

― fact checking cuz (fcc), Thursday, 6 January 2005 23:50 (twenty years ago)

My lunch with Rivers Cuomo was totally akward

tell us more!

― chaki in charge (chaki), Thursday, 6 January 2005 23:52 (twenty years ago)

"Bleed American" is hard to dance to.

― Dom Passantino (Dom Passantino), Thursday, 6 January 2005 23:52 (twenty years ago)

it's apparently quite easy to dance to if you're a pretty young boy or girl in underpants.

― fact checking cuz (fcc), Thursday, 6 January 2005 23:54 (twenty years ago)

Some European video station the other day played like seven or eight back to back tracks featuring bands playing at parties where people were scantily clad. "Bleed American", Metallica's "Whiskey In The Jar", some godawful song by Incubus...

― Dom Passantino (Dom Passantino), Friday, 7 January 2005 00:00 (twenty years ago)

Complete dud. Every song I've heard from them is like eating a big bowl of air.

Classic that I never noticed they acronymize as JEW, though.

― Joseph McCombs (Joseph McCombs), Friday, 7 January 2005 01:06 (twenty years ago)

About half of Clarity is classic and about half of Bleed American is classic, yet the band is oddly total dud.

― suki suki suki (Alvaro Espinoza), Friday, 7 January 2005 04:14 (twenty years ago)

Their new song, "Pain," is possibly my favorite rock song of last year.

― My name is Kenny (My name is Kenny), Friday, 7 January 2005 08:43 (twenty years ago)

I find these guys a cut above in the genre that I'd get castigated to mention; mainly because there's so much terrible stuff floating about in there.

I thought 'Clarity' was excellent but the last one didn't do much for me, although I tried and tried because apparently I was missing out on something, according to some.

I bought 'Futures' cos I couldn't find anything else at the time. I played it twice and thought it was flaccid awfulness to the extreme. Something was telling me to persist, which I did, and it's becoming worthwhile with its hooks and harmonies. Yeah, so what, it's 'nice' but sometimes that suits.

Not really bothered by bad names and bad haircuts. I find it's the music that counts.

Who did the song " If Jimmy ate the world I'd be pretty pissed off" Made me laugh anyhow.

― Lairy Hair (hullcity), Friday, 7 January 2005 16:41 (twenty years ago)

Classic that I never noticed they acronymize as JEW, though.

have they ever explained why they did that? is it jew by accident or was it intentional?

― fact checking cuz (fcc), Friday, 7 January 2005 16:43 (twenty years ago)

"The Authority Song"?!? Do they cover Mellencamp?!?!?

― hstencil (hstencil), Friday, 7 January 2005 16:44 (twenty years ago)

it's an original! that sounds like Jessie's Girl!

― m1cc1o, Friday, 7 January 2005 17:05 (twenty years ago)

weird.

― hstencil (hstencil), Friday, 7 January 2005 17:10 (twenty years ago)

no weirder than mellencamp covering the bobby fuller four but changing the title and the songwriting credit!

― fact checking cuz (fcc), Friday, 7 January 2005 17:19 (twenty years ago)

also, if i remember jimmy eat world circa 2001 correctly, "the authority song" was the one song of theirs i really loved. that's the one with all the classic power-pop call-and-response harmonies on it, right?

― fact checking cuz (fcc), Friday, 7 January 2005 17:22 (twenty years ago)

are you referring to "i fought the law?" you think those songs sound the same?

― hstencil (hstencil), Friday, 7 January 2005 17:22 (twenty years ago)

is it jew by accident or was it intentional?
Ya, they got together - distraught over the fact their label wasn't kosher with them naming the band "JEW" (already a compromise over their previous name "Jimmy Jew and the Hebrews") - and came up with "Jimmy Eat World" instead.

These guys went the same way as The Promise Ring for me. I had them on a pedestal and then they blew it. All their songs sound too similar now and they seem to have replaced their authenticity with production.

Pre Bleed American - Classic
Overall - DUD

― Thermo Thinwall (Thermo Thinwall), Friday, 7 January 2005 17:28 (twenty years ago)

(x-post)
i think they sound the same in the same way that "mystery train" and the carter family's "worried man blues" sound the same. steal a concept here, steal some words there, and your own chords, and voila! i have no problem with this. but i think the debt is plain as day.

― fact checking cuz (fcc), Friday, 7 January 2005 17:33 (twenty years ago)

*add* your own chords, i mean.

― fact checking cuz (fcc), Friday, 7 January 2005 17:35 (twenty years ago)

oh it's just appropriation, not stealing.

― hstencil (hstencil), Friday, 7 January 2005 17:36 (twenty years ago)

i agree. i also think that appropriation involves stealing. and i think it's ok. necessary, in fact.

― fact checking cuz (fcc), Friday, 7 January 2005 17:40 (twenty years ago)

i know i am just joshin'.

― hstencil (hstencil), Friday, 7 January 2005 17:41 (twenty years ago)

Trick Daddy stole "Let's Go" from Apples In Stereo!

― m1cc1o, Friday, 7 January 2005 17:41 (twenty years ago)

I think "The Middle" is a fantastic single. I knew a handful of people in college who used to big-up them Clarity-era, and who act all disappointed by them "selling out," but I never heard that record much, so I guess I don't care. I'll have to hear "Sweetness" and "Lucky Denver Mint" to see if I like them as much as "The Middle."

― jaymc (jaymc), Friday, 7 January 2005 17:44 (twenty years ago)

Plus, their acronym is JEW. That's funny!

(from one of Ryan Pitchfork's lowest moments)

― jaymc (jaymc), Friday, 7 January 2005 17:46 (twenty years ago)

they always sounded like sell-out dumbass raspheads to me (which doesn't mean they can't make a good single or five). "Lucky Denver Mint" sounds MORE like Jamie Walters than "The Middle" does, and that's on Clarity!

― m1cc1o, Friday, 7 January 2005 17:47 (twenty years ago)

I don't get how someone can give Bleed American a 3 and Source Tags & Codes a 10.

― m1cc1o, Friday, 7 January 2005 17:49 (twenty years ago)

unless you're just gaga about timpani.

― m1cc1o, Friday, 7 January 2005 17:51 (twenty years ago)

Skipping 110 messages at this point... Click here if you want to load them all.

ah jealous

― a nice controlled drift (Spottie), Friday, 29 January 2021 22:14 (four years ago)

"the world you love"... incredible

― mellon collie and the infinite bradness (BradNelson), Friday, 29 January 2021 22:21 (four years ago)

"kill" is also the best song ever

― mellon collie and the infinite bradness (BradNelson), Friday, 29 January 2021 22:21 (four years ago)

"kill" is top 5 for sure

― stylish but illegal (Simon H.), Friday, 29 January 2021 22:23 (four years ago)

i love kill and the world you love.

― a nice controlled drift (Spottie), Friday, 29 January 2021 22:25 (four years ago)

lmao well yeah this staging and arrangement are finally selling me on "drugs or me"

― mellon collie and the infinite bradness (BradNelson), Friday, 29 January 2021 22:27 (four years ago)

im gonna cry thinking about you crying to 23

― a nice controlled drift (Spottie), Friday, 29 January 2021 22:28 (four years ago)

lmao it's gonna happen

― mellon collie and the infinite bradness (BradNelson), Friday, 29 January 2021 22:28 (four years ago)

id be worried if it didnt

― a nice controlled drift (Spottie), Friday, 29 January 2021 22:31 (four years ago)

whole show was really special, songs i hadn't necessarily rated came alive, really ideal. also made me realize that futures has a lot of backing vocal action and guitar fx

― mellon collie and the infinite bradness (BradNelson), Friday, 29 January 2021 23:06 (four years ago)

also can't say enough how perfect the lighting and staging is, so much atmosphere

― mellon collie and the infinite bradness (BradNelson), Friday, 29 January 2021 23:10 (four years ago)

any screenshots?

― a nice controlled drift (Spottie), Friday, 29 January 2021 23:25 (four years ago)

i can make a few! i had started watching it all over again anyway lol

― mellon collie and the infinite bradness (BradNelson), Friday, 29 January 2021 23:31 (four years ago)

https://i.imgur.com/XjSNMaG.jpg
https://i.imgur.com/D29XwaX.jpg
https://i.imgur.com/xookMAi.jpg
https://i.imgur.com/etRajk4.jpg

― mellon collie and the infinite bradness (BradNelson), Saturday, 30 January 2021 01:57 (four years ago)

oh wow i'm so sorry for huge

― mellon collie and the infinite bradness (BradNelson), Saturday, 30 January 2021 01:57 (four years ago)

Oh wow those are sweet!

― a nice controlled drift (Spottie), Saturday, 30 January 2021 03:36 (four years ago)

I'm done, there's nothing left to show
I try but can't let it go
Are you happy where you're standing still?
Do you really want the sugar pill?
I'll wake up tomorrow and I'll start
Tonight it feels so hard
As the train approaches Gare Du Nord
As I'm sure your kiss remains employed
Am I only dreaming?

― mellon collie and the infinite bradness (BradNelson), Saturday, 30 January 2021 13:53 (four years ago)

Feeing pretty good about this. @FINALLEVEL #rhymesydicate #pod pic.twitter.com/Re505GvwVP
— Jimmy Eat World (@jimmyeatworld) January 30, 2021

― mellon collie and the infinite bradness (BradNelson), Saturday, 30 January 2021 13:57 (four years ago)

clarity show this friday!!!

― mellon collie and the infinite bradness (BradNelson), Tuesday, 9 February 2021 15:13 (four years ago)

might need to clear out my friday

― a nice controlled drift (Spottie), Tuesday, 9 February 2021 16:25 (four years ago)

tonight!!! :D

― mellon collie and the infinite bradness (BradNelson), Friday, 12 February 2021 14:25 (four years ago)

pic.twitter.com/is1RaoKSvT
— Zach Lind (@zlind76) February 12, 2021

― mellon collie and the infinite bradness (BradNelson), Friday, 12 February 2021 17:39 (four years ago)

table for glasses... goddamn

― mellon collie and the infinite bradness (BradNelson), Friday, 12 February 2021 22:10 (four years ago)

moshed in my room to "crush," felt great

― mellon collie and the infinite bradness (BradNelson), Friday, 12 February 2021 22:25 (four years ago)

wasn't sure if this performance was gonna be better than the futures one

it is

― mellon collie and the infinite bradness (BradNelson), Friday, 12 February 2021 22:38 (four years ago)

ugh im stuck working

― a nice controlled drift (Spottie), Friday, 12 February 2021 22:41 (four years ago)

this is all an A+ concept way more bands oughta do

― stimmy stimmy yah (Simon H.), Friday, 12 February 2021 22:41 (four years ago)

WHEN THE WORLD CAVES IN
WHATCHA GONNA DO

― mellon collie and the infinite bradness (BradNelson), Friday, 12 February 2021 22:45 (four years ago)

spottie you are in for such a treat after work, my god lmao

― mellon collie and the infinite bradness (BradNelson), Friday, 12 February 2021 22:49 (four years ago)

"goodbye sky harbor" exceeded expectations

― mellon collie and the infinite bradness (BradNelson), Friday, 12 February 2021 22:57 (four years ago)

i paid $45 for all three shows and i would've paid twice that for what i got

― mellon collie and the infinite bradness (BradNelson), Friday, 12 February 2021 23:02 (four years ago)

eight months pass...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cQAjoqqLwCw

just wanted to post this show from last month with the best setlist i've ever seen:

what would i say to you now
clarity
for me this is heaven
get it faster
criminal energy
no sensitivity
softer
thinking, that's all
kill
blister
night drive
surviving
goodbye sky harbor

― STOCK FIST-PUMPER BRAD (BradNelson), Wednesday, 10 November 2021 16:51 (four years ago)

sick

― Spottie, Wednesday, 10 November 2021 17:28 (four years ago)

that room is tiny. i'm sure some of you know.

― DT, Wednesday, 10 November 2021 22:32 (four years ago)

dang! if I was there I'd be annoyed by this ding dong holding up his phone for the entire show, but sitting here now I am super appreciative...

― a superficial sheeb of intelligence (jon /via/ chi 2.0), Wednesday, 10 November 2021 22:57 (four years ago)

audio from the phoenix sessions has been gradually appearing on streaming services, futures and clarity so far. listening back to clarity this morning... it sounds so good

― STOCK FIST-PUMPER BRAD (BradNelson), Thursday, 18 November 2021 15:15 (four years ago)

our weakness is the same
we need poison sometimes

― STOCK FIST-PUMPER BRAD (BradNelson), Thursday, 18 November 2021 15:16 (four years ago)

is tomorrow just a day
like all the rest

― STOCK FIST-PUMPER BRAD (BradNelson), Thursday, 18 November 2021 15:18 (four years ago)

three weeks pass...

attn: spottie!!!! the phoenix sessions have all been uploaded to youtube

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eJ96wkcGOpo

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RAlS5m2JKCI

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DTBTkahIdvo

― STOCK FIST-PUMPER BRAD (BradNelson), Wednesday, 15 December 2021 21:46 (three years ago)

bless you, brad! will be watching these asap

― Spottie, Wednesday, 15 December 2021 22:22 (three years ago)

"Just Watch the Fireworks", wow.

― the body of a spider... (scampering alpaca), Friday, 17 December 2021 01:37 (three years ago)

five months pass...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VOWnhMxJMMk

yes!!!!!

― flamenco drop (BradNelson), Friday, 10 June 2022 13:43 (three years ago)

so consistent these guys

― Spottie, Friday, 10 June 2022 16:16 (three years ago)

4:20 smoke weed listen to "just watch the fireworks"

― flamenco drop (BradNelson), Thursday, 16 June 2022 20:20 (three years ago)

one year passes...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1SYFqlshllM

the core, the heart music

― ivy., Tuesday, 2 January 2024 19:25 (one year ago)

"The Middle" is a total ear worm.

The video is a bit of a headscratcher, although I suppose having bunches of young people in their underwear sounded like an easy sell.

― immodesty blaise (jimbeaux), Wednesday, 3 January 2024 00:33 (one year ago)

lol yeah, huge gap between the video concept and the band's image/song subject matter. but also very 00s.

thanks for posting the warped video, ivy! enjoyed that, and the blink set too

― Roz, Wednesday, 3 January 2024 09:03 (one year ago)

love that concert footage

― infinite wiggles (Spottie), Thursday, 4 January 2024 17:18 (one year ago)

one year passes...

i meant to post here after seeing them at best friends forever fest. they could've coasted on a greatest hits set but they played this instead: https://www.setlist.fm/setlist/jimmy-eat-world/2025/downtown-events-center-las-vegas-nv-2345783b.html

within the first two songs i was fully sobbing and didn't stop, because i knew i was getting the jimmy eat world set of my dreams, and it just kept happening

― ivy., Monday, 27 October 2025 17:50 (one month ago)

that looks perfect for real

― Spottie, Monday, 27 October 2025 17:59 (one month ago)

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