Jimmy Eat World will put fans in the middle of a big celebration this summer as the group tours to commemorate the 25th anniversary of its breakthrough and top-selling album, Bleed American.
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The Mesa, Arizona-formed alt-rock quartet hits the road June 9 at Red Rocks Amphitheatre in Colorado for a lengthy trek celebrating its fourth album, Bleed American (full dates below). The 11-song set was the band’s first top 40 effort on the Billboard 200, launching the Billboard Hot 100 top 5 hit “The Middle” and giving Jimmy Eat World headliner status. Bleed American has sold 1.7 million copies to date, according to Luminate.
“It changed our lives,” frontman Jim Adkins, who co-founded the band in 1993, tells Billboard via Zoom from his home in Phoenix. “It put us on a map. It gave us a new, broad audience of people that found something in it that they connected with. People have grown up with this record, right alongside us growing up, and I feel like it’s important to celebrate it. It’s important to acknowledge to people that we appreciate that, despite the obvious commerce involved.”
Adkins and his bandmates — guitarist Tom Linton, drummer Zach Lind and bassist Rick Burch — plan to play Bleed American in its entirety, but probably not sequentially, during the tour. Support acts on the outing include Sunny Day Real Estate, Rise Against, the Get Up Kids, Thrice, Girls Against Boys, Hey Mercedes, Motion City Soundtrack, Illuminati Hotties, Mom Jeans, Jay Som and Pup. The itinerary includes four Vans Warped Tour stops, three performances in the U.K. (its already sold-out Aug. 15 show in Cardiff Wales will be the band’s biggest U.K. concert ever) and one in Mexico City. Jimmy Eat World will also perform at the Hello Summer Music Festival in Alberta, Canada, the Louder Than Life Festival in Kentucky and Shaky Knees in Atlanta, where it will not be performing Bleed American.
The summer shows will rekindle plenty of memories for fans, and with the tour’s announcement we drew on a few of Adkins’ own remembrances from what was a dramatic time for the group.
The Band Was Without a Label
After two albums Capitol Records dropped Jimmy Eat World following 1999’s Clarity. But Adkins maintains that the move, not entirely unexpected, did not level his band.
“I could see how people would think, ‘Oh, their record label dropped them. What are they gonna do now?!’” he says. “That’s not how it was, at all. Everything with the record label was happening in the background, and we were just focused on the next gig we were gonna do that night. And what we saw was every time we’d come back to a city we’d be playing a slightly bigger venue, or we’d be opening for a slightly bigger headlining act. We were building opportunities and we were getting to go to new places. We felt momentum. So all that stuff happening with the record label is just noise.”
Capitol would, interestingly, try to re-sign the band after Bleed American was completed, but it inked instead with DreamWorks.
It Had To Pay For Bleed American Itself
Without the support of a label, Jimmy Eat World supported itself and funded the album with an independently released Singles compilation, by touring and by taking day jobs. “Tom and Rick worked at a temp agency,” Adkins recalls, “which is really convenient when you’re going on tour all the time. So they would always have wacky stories about where they’d show up, sorting postal things or light industrial, bagel bakery things.” Lind worked for an auto dealership, while Adkins was at an art supply store.
“I would give ’em plenty of notice when we had a tour coming up, and when we came back they would rehire me because I had so many skews memorized,” he says. “Those things are so scorched in my memory I can’t get rid of them.”
Mark Trombino, who produced Clarity and 1996’s Static Prevails, also cut Jimmy Eat World a break to help make ends meet. “We were very fortunate that (Trombino) agreed to basically do it for free up front and just figure it out later,” Adkins says. “He believed in us and believed in the record we wanted to make, so he put his time and energy into building it with us.
“To be honest, it didn’t seem like a freaky or scary thing to do. It didn’t seem like, ‘We’re putting it all on this, and if it doesn’t happen, oh well.’ It wasn’t like that. Whatever happened with it, we felt like we were just gonna keep (making music), no matter what.”
The Plan
Though the songs on Bleed American, which was recorded at Cherokee Studios in Los Angeles and Harddrive in North Hollywood, were notably tighter and more focused than on preceding albums, Adkins says that Jimmy Eat World “didn’t have an album in mind. There wasn’t, like, a concept or goal we were trying to achieve.” Instead, he explains, the band and Trombino took “a song-by-song approach,” even using digital technologies “to make the best versions of those songs that we could.”
“We made Bleed American to the best of our ability with what we knew about making records, with what we knew about writing songs, with our ability as physical players,” Adkins adds. “I feel like we did the absolute best we possibly could, given our knowledge and our ability. And we were proud of it because that’s what you have to achieve as a musician; Is this rewarding? Are you proud of this? If so put your name on it and send it forth and see what happens.”
“THE MIDDLE”
After Bleed American’s title track reached No. 18 on Billboard’s Alternative Airplay chart; its successor “The Middle” put the album and Jimmy Eat World on the map hitting No. 1 on the same chart and No. 5 on the Hot 100. It was not the band’s pick as the song most likely to succeed; however.
“‘The Middle’ came together really fast and felt at the time like a solid song,” Adkins remembers. “There was nothing wrong with it; I think when something arrives quickly and just feels right; that’s that. Cool. There’s something that feels maybe not as important as (a song) that’s a creative puzzle that you spend a lot of time solving. But when someone’s listening to an album they don’t care about that; I don’t know if we just underestimated (‘The Middle’) or what; It’s a solid song.”
A Mellencamp Moment
Bleed American‘s “The Authority Song” makes direct reference to (then) John Cougar Mellencamp’s “Authority Song” from his 1983 album Uh-Huh — as well as to Jesus and Mary Chain’s 1989 album Automatic. “That’s another one that came together pretty quickly; maybe around the same time as ‘The Middle,’ actually,” according to Adkins. “It really is a journal entry of being a kid in Tempe area in late ‘90s trying to figure out life in social circles and insecurities that come with your early twenties.”
Adkins says Mellencamp has never acknowledged the shoutout; nor has Jimmy Eat World ever crossed paths with him.
Haden Help
Rachel Haden from That Dog; which was on hiatus while Jimmy Eat World was recording Bleed American; provided backing vocals on five of album’s tracks. “I had met her through some mutual friends in L.A.;” Adkins recalls. “There were some vocal harmonies I really wanted to have different character than just me or Tom cutting them; That Dog material led me to her; she came in; it was like ‘Oh wow this really works; do you have another hour you can hang out? I have this other thing I want you to try.’ We wound up with her doing backups for most of record which was great.”
By Any Other Name…
Bleed American was already success when September 11 attacks on New York Washington D.C., took place which led copies issued from December 2001 being titled simply Jimmy Eat World; while title track was changed to “Salt Sweat Sugar.”
“The whole world was shaken; we had no idea what was going to happen,” Adkins says. “We were very proud of our album; In immediate aftermath of September 11 we felt like people should make their mind up about our music based on just that; We worked too hard on this to have something (like title) get in way of people having that experience for themselves; And solution we came to was turning album into self-titled.”
“It was sort of punk rock thing to do back then; Album titles? Whatever…We felt like it might be slightly subversive just calling it what it is; It’s our name.”
The Bleed American title was reinstated for deluxe edition of album in 2008 which featured second disc unreleased live studio material demos covers songs by Wham!, Guided By Voices Wedding Present.
For North America dates tickets are available starting with artist CITI American Express presale beginning Wednesday February 11 Additional presales will run throughout week ahead general sale Friday February 13 at local time Citi cardmembers will have access presale tickets U.S., beginning Wednesday February 11 at local time until Thursday February 12 at local time through Citi Entertainment program For complete presale details visit citientertainment.com For Canada shows American Express card members can purchase tickets before general public beginning Wednesday February 11 at local time through Thursday February 12 at local time Updates additional information can be found at jimmyeatworld.com.
The full itinerary for Jimmy Eat World’s 25 Years of Bleed American Tour includes:
June 9 –– Denver CO –– Red Rocks Amphitheatre
June 11 –– Chicago IL –– Huntington Bank Pavilion at Northerly Island
June 12 –– Sterling Heights MI –– Michigan Lottery Amphitheatre at Freedom Hill
June 13–14 –– Washington D.C.– Vans Warped Tour
June 16 –– Brooklyn NY –– Brooklyn Paramount
June 17 –– New York NY –– The Rooftop at Pier
June19 –– Philadelphia PA –– Highmark Skyline Stage at Mann
June20 –– Boston MA –– MGM Music Hall at Fenway
July3 –– Calgary AB –– Spruce Meadows
July4 –– Fort McMurray AB –– Hello Summer Festival
July17 –– Bend OR –– Hayden Homes Amphitheater
July18 –– Seattle WA –– WAMU Theater @ Lumen Field
July19 –– Vancouver BC –– Doug Mitchell Thunderbird Sports Centre
July22 –– Sandy UT –– Sandy Amphitheater
July24 –– Concord CA –– Toyota Pavilion at Concord
July25–26 – Long Beach CA Vans Warped Tour
August14 – Halifax UK The Piece Hall
August15 – Cardiff UK Cardiff Castle
August16 – London UK Gunnersbury Park
August22 – Montreal QC Vans Warped Tour
August23 – Toronto ON RBC Amphitheatre
September6 – Phoenix AZ Chase Field (supporting My Chemical Romance) September9 – Austin TX Moody Amphitheater
September10 – Dallas TX The Pavilion at Toyota Music Factory
September12 -13 Mexico City MX Vans Warped Tour
November12 Nashville TN Venue info TBA
November14 Tampa FL MIDFLORIDA Credit Union Amphitheatre
November14 -15 Orlando FL Vans Warped Tour
