Jimmy Eat World is the debut studio album by the American rock band Jimmy Eat World, released in December 1994 through Wooden Blue Records, limited to 2,000 copies. In 1993, musician Jim Adkins joined a band with his childhood friend and drummer, Zach Lind. With guitarist Tom Linton and bassist Mitch Porter in the lineup, the band named themselves Jimmy Eat World. They made their live debut in February 1994, but as their hometown of Mesa, Arizona, lacked a music scene, they started their own with their friends. With a tape demo made in early 1994, Adkins and school friend Joel Leibow started a promoters company, Bring Me the Head Of Productions.
Leibow and Jeremy Yocum then formed Wooden Blue Records, releasing Jimmy Eat World's One, Two, Three, Four EP. The band recorded their self-titled debut album over three days, co-producing it with Steve Naugton, at Phoenix Recording Company. The album, whose artwork features Linton's brothers Jim and Ed, is a pop-punk and skate punk release, drawing comparison to Face to Face, J Church, NOFX, and Superchunk. Linton handled the majority of the lead vocals, while Adkins sang one song, "Usery". Critics said it was not representative of the rest of their catalogue; Linton and Yocum were also dismissive of the album.
Background
Upon attending Mountain View High School in Mesa, Arizona, Jim Adkins began playing in bands with other musicians before starting his own. Originally named Sonic Pudding, they changed their name to I Ate the Sandbox and then to Schon Theory. This and other acts' sounds were representative of their respective music collections, which were predominantly alternative rock and pop-punk-oriented, the latter of these was gaining traction during this period. Adkins was enamored with two specific San Diego-based artists, Drive Like Jehu and Rocket from the Crypt. childhood friend Zach Lind asked him if he wanted to join a band he was drumming for. Lind was already playing with guitarist Tom Linton, who had just graduated from Westwood High School. The pair were looking for a bassist after their mutual friend and fellow Westwood attendee Rick Burch had turned them down, preferring to play with his own group, Carrier. Adkins initially performed bass for the pair until it dawned on him that his guitar was an appropriate alternative. Their music was keeping in tempo with releases from the likes of other punk bands, such as Green Day, NOFX, and Propagandhi. Alongside his role as a rhythm guitarist, Linton handled the majority of the vocals, while Adkins sang infrequently. After gathering a set's worth of material, they played locally, While Berkeley had 924 Gilman Street and New York City had CBGB, Mesa was a largely sports-oriented locale that did not have one place for punk youths to attend. As a result, it lacked a local scene, forcing Jimmy Eat World and their associates to start one. Subsequently, venues opened and were active between one and six months, ranging from a storage space to a rented warehouse. Shows consisted of small crowds, formed of friends and other acts playing on the bill. Jimmy Eat World looked for show possibilities in close-by areas of Tempe and Phoenix, Arizona, struggling in the former as they were unable to play in bars as the members were underage. As they played various shows, Jimmy Eat World was building up connections, leading to Leibow receiving an invite for them to record some material. He was in contact with studio owner Steve Naughton, who operated at Groove Factory and witnessed the band live. He enjoyed their performance and said that if they wanted to release music, he would do it at no charge. Though the opportunity was good for the band, they were not on any record label. Their friend Jeremy Yocum told them that he had some funds placed in a savings account that he got after sustaining a burn injury in 1989. In addition, Leibow thought his parents could lend him some money upon request. He reasoned that they wanted to release the music out into the public in order to locate like-minded individuals. They formed the label Wooden Blue Records, named after a joke in The State. and skate punk, in the vein of Face to Face, J Church, and NOFX. The staff at Consequence of Sound said Jimmy Eat World shared the "gnarled, almost punkish aggression" of Static Prevails while lacking that album's "contemplation and atmosphere." The artwork is an old picture of Ed and Jim Linton, with one of them holding the other in a headlock. In 2012, The A.V. Clubs Jason Heller noted its out-of-print status, declaring that there was an appropriate excuse for this: "It's not terrible, but it doesn't represent what the band would become." Ryan agreed with Heller, stating that the band who issued Jimmy Eat World and Damage (2013) are "the same in name only." Yocum told Ozzi that he was equally unfazed by the album, preferring to see them live rather than hear it.
Reflecting on the album in 2025, over thirty years after the album's release, Jim Adkins noted, "It’s a document of us in our senior year of high school, more or less. It’s not at all what we’re capable of doing now. But you really can’t be hard on your younger self for things you didn’t know or couldn’t do. It’s a time capsule."
Track listing
Track listing per booklet.
Jimmy Eat World
- Tom Linton – guitar, vocals
- Jim Adkins – guitar, vocals
- Mitch Porter – bass guitar
- Zach Lind – drums, cymbals, accordion
Additional musicians
- Sarah Pont – violins
Production
- Steve Naugton – recording, producer
- Larry Elyea – mastering
- Jimmy Eat World – producer
- Craig Robeson – band photo
- Jim Schroeder – CD layout
References
Citations
Sources