Biography
American Football are an American emo band formed in Urbana-Champaign, Illinois, in the mid-1990s by Mike Kinsella, Steve Holmes and Steve Lamos, with Kinsella and Holmes having met at Wheeling High School in the Chicago suburbs.[1] The trio wrote mostly instrumentally in a quieter, jazzier and more post-rock-leaning style than the hardcore-leaning emo around them.[1] They played roughly 25 to 30 shows before disbanding around graduation in 1999, leaving behind one self-titled album on Polyvinyl.[1]
The album became a cult classic by word of mouth and streaming. The band reunited in 2014, and Kinsella, who also records as Owen, has described the group's later success as dumb luck.[1][2]
References
- Never Meant: The Complete Oral History of American Football (Vice) — Band history.
- American Football: "We fell into this thing totally backwards 25 years ago" (NME) — Kinsella interview.