Chattanooga Times Free Press - ChattanoogaNow
Jimmy Eat World hungry for more
It can be a risky thing for a band to take a lengthy break. It’s riskier still to come back and honestly ask, “Should we even make a new record?” Do our fans want a new record?”
But that is exactly what the guys in Jimmy Eat World did. The alt- rock quartet best known for the 2001 smash hit “The Middle” decided they had more music in them and that they wanted to make it together. Fans and critics are happy they did. “Integrity Blues,” their ninth album together, has sold well, gotten good reviews and delivered a Top 10 Alternative hit in “Sure and Certain.”
S o me h a ve called “Integrity Blues” the altrock quartet’s most personal record to date.
“Before we made this record, we’d taken a year off for the first time ever,” says drummer Zach Lind.
“We all decided, or we told everyone, ‘ Don’t worry about the band. The band doesn’t have to take up any real estate in your brain for a year.’ ”
Once they came back and decided t hey did indeed want to go into the studio again, they went in with a renewed perspective and a renewed intensity
The band started in 1993 in Mesa, Ariz. Lind, Ji m Adkins, Tom Linton and Rick Burch were all friends who decided to form a band, which Lind says is why they are together still.
“I think part of the reason [ the band is still together] is how we started,” he said. “We never held, like, tryouts or any- thing. We were just friends and young.
“We have that [through] thick-or-thin attitude with each other. We trust each other and like each other and we’re all on the same team.”