This review is part of a series looking back at significant albums on their anniversaries. Through the benefit of hindsight we will be viewing the album not just as it was released, but how it stands the test of time, as well as its place in the band’s discography and the genre in general.
Roadrunner Records – 9 May 2000
Side effects include a growing scene and violent rhetoric and behavior
When Long Island’s Glassjaw dropped their debut full-length, Everything You Ever Wanted To Know About Silence in 2000, the daily pillcase on the album cover seemed inconsequential beyond frontman Daryl Palumbo’s well-documented struggles with Crohn’s Disease. Looking back twenty-five years now though, that artwork might be a bit more telling, a photographic allegory of the healing and side effects one may experience when taking this record in heavy doses.
Sure, the immediate effect of the passionate, angry, cathartic lyrics feel healing, feel empowering but a few too many doses and patients are subject to litany of side-effects, the least of which is verbally abusive misanthropy, internally bleeding into our relationships going forward. Without this album, I’m not sure I’d have had the vessel to express my anger at relationships that required more work than I wanted to put in. Then again… as much as I have loved this record from this first listen and continue to love it today, I don’t know that I could make it to the second track if I picked it up today. There is a distinct knot in my stomach writing about how much I connected with this album, knowing full well our 16 & 11 year old children should never believe this is how to speak or be spoken to.
Its important to note that members of Glassjaw have admitted the toxicity of their lyrics. Its also important to note that no matter how violent their lyrics, there has never been any accusations levied against the Long Island band (at least to my knowledge). It’s most important to note that there’s really no way to rationalize lines like “suck on the end of this dick that cums lead” as forgivable. They are gross, they are wrong and goddammit, did 2001 me really fucking love singing along.
I wasn’t the only one. At the time, the album felt like an exclusive club only a certain few of us had access to. Looking back now, there were a lot of us sneaking behind that velvet rope and into the GJ fandom. The record is a milestone album within the scene, the introductory offering into wild and relentless post-hardcore that influenced acts like Bring Me The Horizon, Everytime I Die and Funeral For A Friend nicked the styles of Glassjaw to varied levels of success. Thanks to Glassjaw, these bands had the opportunity to be as big as bands that are heavy, artsy and screamy could be.
Glassjaw, specifically on Everything You Ever Wanted To Know About Silence, make themselves look pretty fucking awful in their lyrical content. As a girl dad, I listen to EYEWTS now and find so much about the way Palumbo responds to heartache as unhealthy, toxic and all the pop-psych terminology I’d like to raise our kids to be aware of and to rise above.
A big part of growing up is recognizing the parts of yourself that you aren’t proud of. Glassjaw has acknowledged their past indiscretion and made a point of capitalizing on the best parts while overcoming their most base lyrical content (as evidenced on Worship and Tribute And beyond). The band has come out in agreement that their lyrics to Silence were dangerous. It was also so necessary to young me hearing this record in that moment, in a new relationship, and in a mindset that anger is the only acceptable emotion. The album gave the genre a nudge in the right direction even if the misogyny threatened to push a couple of exes off a cliff. Looking back on the record today is a stark reminder of the danger of medications. Yes, the healing power is there and could work wonders for both a breakup and a genre… but the side effects if that healing may have dangerous consequences that the patient needs to be aware of.
Bad Dad (occasionally called Ed) has been on the periphery of the punk and punk-adjacent scene for over twenty years. While many contributors to this site have musical experience and talent, Ed’s musical claim to fame comes from his time in arguably the most punk rock Blockbuster Video district in NJ where he worked alongside members of Blanks 77, Best Hit TV and Brian Fallon. He is more than just an awful father to his 2 daughters, he is also a dreadful husband, a subpar writer, a terrible dresser and has a severe deficiency in all things talent… but hey, at least he’s self-aware, amirite?
Check out the pathetic attempts at photography on his insta at https://www.instagram.com/bad_dad_photography/