going blind. In the feedback-laden "Big", a wordsmith finds himself incapable to discuss his emotions. "Chesterfield King" sees the narrator contemplating loving someone; he describes an encounter with a homeless woman at a 7-Eleven. Mischa Pearlman of Louder said after this exchange, he "pits the folly and freedom of youth against the experience and wisdom of age, while also confronting the human mortality head on". With "Donatello", a creative process is employed as an analogy for a doomed relationship; it is followed by the art punk track "Face Down". "Tour Song" discusses being on the road; they had written it prior to the 1990 North American trek. It opens with an answering machine recording from Schwarzenbach addressed to his girlfriend. The song is followed by two covers: "You Don't Know..." (1980), originally recorded by Joan Jett, and "Pack It Up" (1981), originally recorded by the Pretenders. Discussing audience reactios in an interview, Schwarzenbach said "Pack It Up" acted as a reference towards people that would ask for them to play older material that they no longer played. He said "Parabola", which has a Jesus Lizard-esque bassline, was a track for "mean people". The lyrics in it were influenced by the work of Jack Kerouac and talks about self-loathing. The album concludes with the experimental track "Bivouac", which lasts for ten minutes and amalgamates the various musical elements from across the rest of the songs. AllMusic reviewer Fred Thomas described it as: "dialling in the swirling basslines and big grunge choruses with beat poet-inspired lyrics aiming to reconcile Holden Caulfield-esque displacement and alienation from immediate family". Release Hahn previously worked at Revolver Distribution, which worked with several labels in a warehouse in San Francisco, such as Tupelo Recording Company and The Communion Label. Hahn convinced Gary Held from Revolver to sign Jawbreaker; Hahn told the band that they should talk to Held as he liked their new material. Revolver was based in the UK, which was hoped to give the band better distribution in Europe for their upcoming releases. "Chesterfield King" was released in May 1992; it featured "Tour Song", "Face Down", "You Don't Know..." and "Pack It Up". As all of the material would not fit on a single LP, it was spun off into the EP. Pfahler said splitting the songs ultimately delayed their forthcoming album. That same month, the Eugene Register-Guard reported that Bivouac would be released in