Join DJ Emo King on Wednesday, May 29th @ 1:30PM when he airs his recent interview with the stalwarts of Midwestern emo, American Football.
Comprised of guitarist Mike Kinsella, guitarist Steve Holmes, and drummer Steve Lamos, American Football formed at the University of Illinois in 1997. The band’s 1999 self-titled debut, was to reunite two shy siblings: emo and post-rock. It was a pioneering album where lyrical clarity was obscured and complicated by the stealth musical textures surrounding it.
The band is back in 2019 with their third self-titled full-length album (now with Nate Kinsella on bass), which features guest vocals from Paramore’s Hayley Williams, Slowdive’s Rachel Goswell, and Land of Talk’s Elizabeth Powell.
The band used the same producer, Jason Cupp, and recorded the album at the same studio (Arc Studios in Omaha, Nebraska) as its predecessor – yet they approached it in a markedly different way. There was a determination to let the songs breathe, to trust in ideas finding their own pace. The final result is a definite, and deliberate, stretching of the band.