Rolling Stone releases lists like these all the time — but this is still noteworthy from the heralded music publication. Three C-U related acts have been listed amongst the “40 Greatest Emo Albums of All Time” — American Football’s self-titled record, Braid’ Frame & Canvas, and throwing Cap’n Jazz in there as well. All in a row, no less!
Check out the entries:
7. Cap’n Jazz, ‘Burritos, Inspiration Point, Fork Balloon Sports …’ (1995)
“I would say 90 percent of the lyrics on that record were all written in one night, the first time I ever took mushrooms and sat by a campfire,” said Cap’n Jazz vocalist Tim Kinsella. “Yeah it was just, the whole record, lyrically, was just this one night in the woods in Wisconsin.” Upon first listen, one might dismiss Cap’n Jazz as a sloppy experiment between a bunch of band geeks gone wild. But little did anyone know that their first and only proper LP would provide a significant blueprint for dozens of emo and post-hardcore acts to follow. Tim Kinsella briskly slurs cracked lines like “Hey coffee eyes/You got me coughing up my cookie heart,” scrambling to meet his kid brother’s erratic time signatures. Kinsella’s zany lines meet some zanier blasts of French horn in “Basil’s Kite.” Victor Villarreal and Davey Von Bohlen (later of the Promise Ring) temper the absurdity with perfectly sublime tendrils of guitar and bass – before shredding it all to bits, most exemplary in the thrashy “¡Qué Suerte!,” a skittish love song for a very skittish crush. S.E.
6. American Football, ‘American Football’ (1999)
If there is one thing that nobody ever tells you about young love, it’s that your days are numbered from the start. Former Cap’n Jazz drummer Mike Kinsella learned this the hard way before graduating high school at 17, prompting one of the most devastating breakup albums in the history of breakup albums. Pulling lyrics straight from his old journal – including heart-stoppingly simple lines like “You can’t miss what you forget” – Kinsella shares his teen confessions atop a tightly wound fusion of jazz and math rock. He and fellow guitarist Steve Holmes remain in constant dialogue through calculated trills and seamless repetitions, their tension interjected by the occasional trumpet and a Wurlitzer organ, which captures the magnitude better than Kinsella’s words. Just as the prospect of college drove the star-crossed lovers apart, its conclusion would force the band to split as well – that is, until their reunion in 2014. S.E.
5. Braid, ‘Frame and Canvas’ (1998)
Braid weren’t shy about their Washington, D.C. emo influences – the Illinois quintet’s first two albums were practically homages to Rites of Spring and Jawbox. The band’s propensity for wearing its heart on its sleeve, however, is what makes Frame & Canvas so compelling. Written and recorded during a particularly tense touring cycle, Braid’s third and final album is a bittersweet lamentation on homesickness, long-distance love and, in standouts such as “Breathe In,” surfacing tension between singers/guitarists Chris Broach and Bob Nanna. Producer (and Jawbox/Burning Airlines alum) J. Robbins’ mix brings drummer Damon Atkinson’s wild, asymmetric grooves to the surface, elevating the songs beyond standard-issue melodic hardcore, while the D.C. worship gets subsumed under a new, uniquely Midwestern sound that would mark Braid’s own influence on the generation that followed. A.B.
Check out this recent feature in Noisey about American Football, and Isaac’s feature on the band prior to their Pygmalion 2014 performance.
