Yoo Hoo

IMPERIAL TEEN

written by Imperial Teen

produced by Mark Freegard and Steve McDonald

More or less the “theme” song to Jawbreaker—a murderously inane

dark high school/teen comedy from ’99—this song was originally

released on San Fran-based Imperial Teen’s album What Is Not To

Love the previous year. To my knowledge, the song was not released

as a single or made into a video until the movie dropped. Now with some broader exposure, the band made a video for the song themed after Jawbreaker, complete with Rose McGowan essentially reprising her role as killer Courtney, restraining and slowly preparing to off the band members. I used to watch this film regularly, keeping in mind that for its release date—despite the flak reviews and similarity to Heathers—it could be seen as underrated and a bit groundbreaking at the era. And like many non-commercial hits with discernable appeal, it’s achieved cult status since. Words hardly do it justice; the pastels, shiny objects and overall silliness tell you all you need to know. As for the band, having separated from larger label London since the “Yoo Hoo” days, Imperial Teen has most recently (as of this entry) released Now We Are Timeless in ’19, with 21st century label Merge. No singles released from it as far as I can see... and we’re little likely to see any more albums released, from IT here or anyone else, for that matter, in the 2020s. As a final note, while perhaps less than intended, Jawbreaker seems to have been emulated (in a slightly less criminal manner) by Mean Girls in ’04. Now picture this. Imagine Reagan High and North Shore High were one and the same. That the teen dream killers got to go up against the Plastics. Courtney “Satan in heels” Shane versus Regina “queen bee” George. Who do you think would come out on top?

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YT:

full version

music video