Jawbox to Reissue Seminal <i>Sweetheart</i> Album

BY Jason SchreursPublished Jul 30, 2009

At the risk of sounding completely cheesy, sometimes dreams do come true. According to Punknews, post-punk/pre-emocore rockers Jawbox will have their seminal 1994 album, For Your Own Special Sweetheart, reissued on Dischord Records and the band's label, Desoto Records.

The re-release will be remastered from the original tapes, include new artwork, as well as a trio of bonus tracks from the "Savory" single: "Lil' Shaver," "68" and Big Boys cover "Sound on Sound." Also, the vinyl version of the reissue will come with a MP3 download of the three bonus songs.

The Dischord reissue is a bittersweet moment, as Jawbox left the veritable DC hardcore/punk label shortly before the release of For Your Own Special Sweetheart to jump ship to Atlantic Records during the post-Nirvana alternative rock feeding frenzy. The band released one further, self-titled album for Atlantic in 1996 before disbanding, much to the chagrin of emo rock fans everywhere.

Members of Jawbox went on to such short-lived bands as the Up On In and Burning Airlines, and the currently running Channels, while guitarist/vocalist J. Robbins has also become quite the producer, helming records for bands such as Against Me!, Paint It Black and MeWithoutYou.

Desoto Records co-owners and husband/wife team Bill Barbot and Kim Coletta, who were the guitarist and bassist of Jawbox, respectively, bought the rights to the two Atlantic albums in 2006, but to date had only made them available on iTunes.

The first physical Jawbox reissue should hit store shelves and download folders by late October or early November. No word yet on whether the self-titled album, featuring an unforgettable cover of Tori Amos's "Cornflake Girl," will get the same treatment.

In related, too-good-to-be-true news, Dischord is also reissuing the first two records by DC emocore purveyors Gray Matter on vinyl. In particular, the reissue of Take It Back will include four bonus songs that originally appeared on the band's double seven-inch released in 1991.

And now all of this Dischord nostalgia has us reaching for our copy of the Flex Your Head compilation.

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