Emo Money

Record companies haven't made life any easier for Jimmy Eat World

A A A Comments (0) By Omar Perez Thursday, Nov 29 2001

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It's been feast or famine for Zach Lind, Jim Adkins, Rick Burch, and Tom Linton

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With Staind and at least a dozen other bands. December 1. Call 561-793-0333.

Read related story, "Buzzed and Baked"

Buzz Bake Sale, MARS Music Amphitheatre, 601-7 Sansbury's Way, West Palm Beach

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Now orphaned, the band mustered money to record Bleed Americanon its own but ran out of cash soon after laying down the drum tracks. Short of living on Top Ramen themselves, Adkins and the band worked day jobs to defray costs. Then, a twist of fate: Gary Gersh, CEO of Capitol Records while the band resided under its roof, approached the band in hopes of pushing them and their music. Even though they were hesitant at first, they realized Gersh wasn't accountable for Jimmy Eat World's bad experience there. "I don't think Gary could have helped one way or the other, so I don't fault him for us feeling frustrated," Adkins says of Gersh, who is now the band's comanager. "He certainly knows the insides of how the big record labels run their business, so he's definitely a good person to have onboard when he's swinging for you." Labels (including Capitol) started lining up for emo leftovers. After some wheeling and dealing, the band went with DreamWorks.

"It kind of feels like a new start, but it also feels like a natural progression at the same time," notes Adkins. "There's a lot of new things; everything that we have now is because of our experiences from before. We wouldn't be able to make the decisions we make now without experiencing the misinformed ones, or the uninformed ones."