American Football - Topic

Before attaining global recognition as a defining pillar of the “Midwest Emo” sub-genre, American Football was a humble University of Illinois-based indie rock band led by Mike Kinsella (founding Cap’n Jazz member / guitar & vocals) along with Steve Holmes (guitar) and Steve Lamos (drums / trumpet).

Together, American Football would play no more than a dozen sparsely attended shows before going their separate ways. With college graduation and some variation of adulthood looming, the band’s parting gift would be shared in the form of a self-titled album, released in September of 1999 via the locally founded Polyvinyl Record Co. What would transpire over the ensuing 15 years, however, is something made of rock and roll legend – where word of mouth meets message boards, and mixtapes, burned CDs, and early file sharing platforms allowed for the lore of an otherwise unknown band, with a nondescript house on their lone album cover, to grow into something much larger.

In 2014, American Football would reunite to international acclaim. With the addition of bassist/multi-instrumentalist and cousin Nate Kinsella, the quartet has since released 2 additional (and equally beloved) self-titled records in 2016 and 2019, while steering a natural evolution in their evergreen sound towards post-rock, post-punk, and more experimental influences. They’ve collaborated with admired peers and fans alike, including Paramore’s Hayley Williams, Slowdive’s Rachel Goswell, Ethel Cain, and others.