American Football

Description

Second disc features 10 unreleased live recordings, demos, and never-before-heard material. Expanded packaging with new photography by Chris Strong. 2LP and 2CD include full-color booklets with lyrics, detailed liner notes written by the band, and never-before-seen band pictures. Video of Never Meant has nearly 500,000 views. // In the 15 years since its release, American Football's self-titled debut full-length has quietly become one of the most fiercely beloved titles in the Polyvinyl catalog. Though the trio -- Mike Kinsella (Cap'n Jazz, Owen, Owls), Steve Lamos, and Steve Holmes -- only played a few shows and released just one other record (a three-song EP that preceded this full-length), their influence and legacy has steadily continued to grow in the time after they disbanded. From its now iconic artwork to the band's unique songwriting approach (highlighted by an emphasis on shifting time signatures and sincere lyrics), American Football proves a record doesn't become a true classic through flashiness or catering to trends, but rather the deep emotional connection it forges between the music and the listener. After guitarist Steve Holmes discovered a set of cassette tapes containing a variety of unreleased recordings, the band curated an album's worth of these rare live recordings, demos, and practice sessions (in which the group rehearsed material they never recorded elsewhere) to complement the original record. Review: An absolute stone-cold essential. - Without a shadow of a doubt, this is one of my favourite records of all time. If ever I was invited onto Radio 4's Desert Island Discs, this would definitely be up there. I remember the first time I heard the first song, Never Meant; I was in my late-teens and had never heard any guitar music with anywhere near as much emotion and heart as this. Twinkly guitars and driving melodies, this record inspired an entire generation of guitar players and arguably spawned it's own sub-genre of emo. Now that this band is back together and playing shows, there really is no excuse not to own this record. I honestly believe it's one of rock music's most under-appreciated LP's; an absolute stone-cold essential. Review: Magisterial American indie rock classic - Like the oft-quoted (probably apocryphal) factoid about the first Velvet Underground album, "American Football" likely launched one thousand bands of the earnest, emo-ish kind (sans black eyeliner); a touchstone for those sensitive types who grew their fringes out in order to avoid eye contact. From the tumble-down start of "Never Meant" (sounding as natural and laidback as an out-take from the band's rehearsal room), the driving hypnotically repetitive riff of "Honestly?" and through the mantra-like chorus ending of "The One With the Wurlitzer", the lo-fi intensity and delicate intimate intricacy of "American Football" accidentally set the format for other US Mid-western, math-y indie bands to follow for the rest of the decade and beyond.