American Football reunites; emo revival over!
April 21, 2014 4:50 PM   Subscribe

American Football, the quintessential emo/math-rock band of the 90's, has announced their first two shows in 15 years.

Formed in 1997 by the now-legendary Mike Kinsella (formerly of The One Up Downstairs (which was pre-American Football with Steve Lamos), Cap'n Jazz, Owen, and Joan of Arc), Steve Lamos (formerly of The Firebird Band, currently in The Geeze and DMS), and Steve Holmes (also in The Geese), American Football broke up soon after the release of their eponymous "American Football" album in 1999.

On May 20th Polyvinyl Records is reissuing American Football with a second disk of live songs and demos. You can hear a song from it here.

This news comes not too long after the release of Mike Kinsella's other band, Owls', new album "Two", which was released on March 25th, 2014. Owls features Mike's brother Tim Kinsella (also formerly of Cap'n Jazz but more recently in Make Believe), Victor Villareal and Sam Zurick (both of whom are in Ghosts and Vodka).
posted by gucci mane (18 comments total) 20 users marked this as a favorite
 
Is it Kinsella Day on Metafilter?
posted by duffell at 4:55 PM on April 21, 2014 [2 favorites]


Great band and a great album. I've always wanted to hear a new album from them but, as they themselves pointed out in the release, they're 15 years older. What would (hypothetically) a new American Football album sound like with 15 years of perspective behind them?
posted by anifinder at 5:18 PM on April 21, 2014


Aw yissssss!
posted by wemayfreeze at 5:56 PM on April 21, 2014


I saw Cap'n Jazz at their reunion show in SF a few years back. It was everything I could have hoped for.
posted by wemayfreeze at 5:57 PM on April 21, 2014


These guys should hook up with All-Time Quarterback and create a super bowl.
posted by locidot at 6:06 PM on April 21, 2014


"American Football" is one of those albums that just nails everything so well that I can listen to it from the first track to the very last.

I don't even know if I know any other albums like that.
posted by Quilford at 6:20 PM on April 21, 2014 [2 favorites]


anifinder: What would (hypothetically) a new American Football album sound like with 15 years of perspective behind them?

Not sure, but it's been almost a decade since that first Owls album and the newest one. They said they didn't listen to the old material at all so that they'd come at the new material with fresh, older ears.
posted by gucci mane at 6:23 PM on April 21, 2014


What would (hypothetically) a new American Football album sound like with 15 years of perspective behind them?

The chemistry of rock bands tends to be transient. Keep them together too long, or reassemble them years later, and it just doesn't work. With great bands, I'd rather see them move forward and apart than reuniting to record the musical equivalent of Clerks 2.

On a tangent, my vote for quintessential math-rock band of the '90s goes to Don Caballero. If you can't get into What Burns Never Returns then you haven't listened to it enough.
posted by cribcage at 6:24 PM on April 21, 2014 [5 favorites]


I'd vote for Don Cab also but American Football gets slapped with the label all the time and I imagine they may have turned more people onto Don Cab rather than the other way around, but who knows.

Ian Williams is one of my favorite guitarists though for sure.
posted by gucci mane at 6:55 PM on April 21, 2014


Damon Che's (from Don Caballero) Wikipedia page must be written by either Damon Che himself or the most obsessive fan ever.
posted by Quilford at 7:30 PM on April 21, 2014


Is "glowing gable-roofed house under a green sky" a thing for math-rock album covers1,2?
posted by narain at 8:15 PM on April 21, 2014 [2 favorites]


Slint.
posted by WASP-12b at 9:34 PM on April 21, 2014 [1 favorite]


Mike Kinsella's other other other band is Their / They're / There.
posted by obscurator at 6:58 AM on April 22, 2014


"American Football" is one of those albums that just nails everything so well that I can listen to it from the first track to the very last.

I don't even know if I know any other albums like that.


I would argue that the Owen album "Declaration of Incompetence" hits that mark.
posted by LizBoBiz at 7:26 AM on April 22, 2014


Looks like tickets go on sale Friday for the show in Illinois. I am so going to this - Chvrches and Sun Kil Moon, oh hell yeah. Time to get mellow. Already have Slint tickets for the May show. I am in math-rock heaven.
posted by misterpatrick at 1:51 PM on April 22, 2014 [1 favorite]


I'm gonna buy tickets also for the show in Chicago if you wanna meet up!
posted by gucci mane at 8:14 PM on April 22, 2014


Apparently there is a possible Mineral reunion too.
posted by gucci mane at 11:07 AM on April 23, 2014



I actually never heard of them until this post: thanks for post! Before I listened to them, I wasn't expecting to like them much, I'm generally not a fan of emo; but I had the album on while I was cleaning my house and really enjoyed it.
I'd definitely classify them more as math-rock than emo... I definitely found AF to be influential to Minus the Bear. I'll take another listen to see how these lyrics are (I found most emo bands lyrics to be insufferable.
posted by fizzix at 7:18 AM on May 8, 2014


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