The Thorns of Life were a punk rock band from

Brooklyn Brooklyn () is a borough of New York City, coextensive with Kings County, in the U.S. state of New York. Kings County is the most populous county in the State of New York, and the second-most densely populated county in the United States, be ...

, New York. In October 2008,

Blake Schwarzenbach Alexander Blake Schwarzenbach (born May 21, 1967) is an American musician. He is the singer and guitarist of Jawbreaker (1986–1996; 2017–present), and was also a member of Jets to Brazil (1997–2003), The Thorns of Life (2008–2009), a ...

, formerly of Jets to Brazil and Jawbreaker, revealed that he had started writing music for an "as-yet-unnamed group" with the drummer

Aaron Cometbus Aaron Elliott (born May 20, 1968), better known as Aaron Cometbus, is an American musician, songwriter, roadie, and magazine editor, best known as the creator of the punk zine ''Cometbus''. Career Born in Berkeley, California, Cometbus started ...

(formerly of

Crimpshrine Crimpshrine was an American punk rock band from Berkeley, California. The group was formed in 1982 by Aaron Cometbus, founder of the seminal punk rock zine ''Cometbus'', and future Operation Ivy vocalist Jesse Michaels. They grew out of the East ...

and

Pinhead Gunpowder Pinhead Gunpowder is an American punk rock band that formed in East Bay, California, in 1991. The band currently consists of Aaron Cometbus (drums, lyrics), Bill Schneider (bass), Billie Joe Armstrong (guitar, vocals) and Jason White (guitar, ...

, among other bands) and the bass guitarist Daniela Sea, formerly of the Gr'ups (as "Danyella Dislexica") and Cypher in the Snow, but best known for a recurring role on television's ''

The L Word ''The L Word'' is a television drama that aired on Showtime from January 18, 2004 to March 8, 2009. The series follows the lives of a group of lesbian and bisexual women who live in West Hollywood, California. The premise originated with Ilene ...

''. The name may come from

Percy Bysshe Shelly Percy Bysshe Shelley ( ; 4 August 17928 July 1822) was one of the major English Romantic poets. A radical in his poetry as well as in his political and social views, Shelley did not achieve fame during his lifetime, but recognition of his achi ...

whose poem ''

Ode to the West Wind "Ode to the West Wind" is an ode, written by Percy Bysshe Shelley in 1819 in Cascine wood near Florence, Italy. It was originally published in 1820 by Charles Ollier in London as part of the collection '' Prometheus Unbound, A Lyrical Drama in ...

'' has the line "I fall upon the thorns of life! I bleed!". In November 2008, the group had played a couple of shows in Brooklyn with videos and reviews available online. In January 2009, they played a string of shows across California including dates in

San Diego San Diego ( , ; ) is a city on the Pacific Ocean coast of Southern California located immediately adjacent to the Mexico–United States border. With a 2020 population of 1,386,932, it is the eighth most populous city in the United State ...

Los Angeles Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the List of municipalities in California, largest city in the U.S. state, state of California and the List of United States cities by population, sec ...

San Francisco San Francisco (; Spanish for " Saint Francis"), officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the commercial, financial, and cultural center of Northern California. The city proper is the fourth most populous in California and 17th ...

, Oakland,

Santa Rosa Santa Rosa is the Italian, Portuguese and Spanish name for Saint Rose. Santa Rosa may also refer to: Places Argentina *Santa Rosa, Mendoza, a city * Santa Rosa, Tinogasta, Catamarca * Santa Rosa, Valle Viejo, Catamarca * Santa Rosa, La Pampa * S ...

, Berkeley (selling out

924 Gilman Street The Alternative Music Foundation located at 924 Gilman Street, often referred to by its fans simply as "Gilman", is a non-profit, all-ages, collectively organized music club. It is located in the West Berkeley area of Berkeley, California, about ...

) and ending with a final date on February 1, 2009, in Santa Cruz. Their music has been described has including some pretty raw smart-punk riffs. Regarding the band, Schwarzenbach said, "I can say only that it's loud and tender and we're called the Thorns of Life. Whether it's more Jetsesque or

Breaker Breaker may refer to: Objects * A breaking wave on water, or a "breaker", a shallow over which waves break * Circuit breaker, an electrical overload switch * Breaker (hydraulic), a percussion hammer attached to an excavator People * Breaker Mo ...

-like I honestly don't know; it sounds like a storehouse of fond hatred from the last few years and in the now. Some rumors mentioned a first album ''Legislators or Prophets'' in June 2009 but it was never recorded. In August 2009, Schwarzenbach announced that The Thorns of Life had broken up and that he had started a new band named Forgetters. Although the band never released any studio recordings, the various bootlegs of their live performances indicate that they wrote a total of twelve songs during their formation: "My First Time", "Available", "I Hate New York", "Kryptonite", "Subway", "Vivid Green", "We Build Al Qaeda in Washington", "From a Tower", "Black Art", "Not a Track Bike", "O Deadly Death" and "Ribbonhead". The last four songs listed were carried over by Schwarzenbach to Forgetters' setlist. "O Deadly Death" and "Ribbonhead" also appear on the band's first album, '' Forgetters''. Since 2018, Jawbreaker has been performing "Black Art" live.

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Thorns of Life, The Musical groups established in 2008 Punk rock groups from New York (state) Musical groups from Brooklyn Musical groups disestablished in 2009