{"title":"American Football","description":"","products":[{"product_id":"american-football-25th-anniversary-edition","title":"American Football (LP1 - 25th Anniversary Edition)","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eThis is the definitive version of America Football's classic debut album\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eSONGS\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003cbr\u003e1. Never Meant\u003cbr\u003e2. The Summer Ends\u003cbr\u003e3. Honestly?\u003cbr\u003e4. For Sure\u003cbr\u003e5. You Know I Should Be Leaving Soon\u003cbr\u003e6. But the Regrets Are Killing Me\u003cbr\u003e7. I'll See You When We're Both Not So Emotional\u003cbr\u003e8. Stay Home\u003cbr\u003e9. The One With The Wurlitzer\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eVINYL DETAILS\u003c\/strong\u003e \u003cbr\u003e+ 2 x LP Silver Vinyl\u003cbr\u003e+ 45 RPM\u003cbr\u003e+ Remastered (2024)\u003cbr\u003e+ \u003cspan\u003eEmbossed Gatefold Jacket on Metallic Silver stock\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cbr\u003e+ \u003cspan\u003ePrinted Cardstock Innersleeves\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cbr\u003e+ \u003cspan\u003eExpanded packaging includes a large-format 24-page booklet featuring new liner notes and handwritten lyrics by Mike Kinsella\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cstrong\u003e\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eAmerican Football cut its first – and, for a long time, only – LP in four days, as the spring of 1999 slid into summer. Steve Holmes, Steve Lamos, and Mike Kinsella were college kids who knew that as soon as their album of spacious and tenderly sad songs was done they likely would be, too. Aside from a few shows, they would break up at the end of the school year and perhaps go on to other bands, jobs, and lives. And for a long while, of course, that is exactly what happened: American Football's sole album was a twinkling and circuitous entry in the annals of Midwest emo, remarkable for its musical tenderness and lyrical ellipses but largely unremarked upon, too.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eBut what happened over the next two decades is an inspiring saga of wonderful work slowly finding its audience. American Football went from cult classic to emo linchpin, its reputation and sales accreting like sand piling up in some endless hourglass. The little white house on its cover, a physical manifestation of the Anywhere, U.S.A. melancholy of its songs, became a musical landmark. Reunions, reissues, and two new albums followed, American Football finally climbing atop its own steady growth curve and staring out to the massive and enchanted crowd it had created, to the scene it had helped foster. Made at the end of the last century, American Football, or LP1, unequivocally stands as one of this century's most influential rock records.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eWhen Polyvinyl released American Football in 1999, it was still an upstart label, an outgrowth of a fanzine with a simple business model and a pure passion for releasing the music co-founders Matt and Darcie Lunsford loved. They didn't gripe much, then, when their new trio splintered into other acts. Both label and band have grown in the quarter-century since in ways neither would have predicted. After a years-long hunt for the original Digital Audio Tapes and a subsequent quest for a machine that would render them properly, American Football has been lovingly remastered by original mastering engineer Jonathan Pines in Urbana's Private Studios, where it was recorded. The intertwined guitars have more sparkle, the drums more bounce and flash, the occasional bass more depth. This is the definitive version.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eAmerican Football\u2028\u003cbr\u003eSteve Holmes - guitars, wurlitzer\u2028\u003cbr\u003eSteve Lamos - drums, percussion, trumpet\u003cbr\u003e\u2028Mike Kinsella - vocals, guitars, bass\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eAlbum Packaging Design by Joby Ford\u2028\u003cbr\u003eArt Direction by Janelle Abad\u003cbr\u003e\u2028DAT Tapes Photography by Jonathan Pines\u003cbr\u003eOriginal Recording by Brendan Gamble at Private Studios Urbana, IL\u003cbr\u003eRemastered by Jonathan Pines at Private Studios, Urbana, IL.\u003cbr\u003eOriginal Photography by Chris Strong\u2028\u003cbr\u003eOriginal Design by Chris Strong and Suraiya Nathan\u003cbr\u003ei\u2028Illustrations by Brad Hale\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"American Football","offers":[{"title":"VINYL : 2 x LP Silver","offer_id":53423437349182,"sku":null,"price":35.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0007\/0182\/files\/AF1-cover.jpg?v=1777922017"},{"product_id":"american-football-lp2","title":"American Football (LP2)","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eSONGS\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003cbr\u003e1. Where Are We Now?\u003cbr\u003e2. My Instincts Are the Enemy\u003cbr\u003e3. Home Is Where the Haunt Is\u003cbr\u003e4. Born to Lose\u003cbr\u003e5. I've Been So Lost for So Long\u003cbr\u003e6. Give Me the Gun\u003cbr\u003e7. I Need a Drink (or Two or Three)\u003cbr\u003e8. Desire Gets in the Way\u003cbr\u003e9. Everyone Is Dressed Up\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eVINYL DETAILS\u003c\/strong\u003e \u003cbr\u003e+ Limited edition orange vinyl\u003cbr\u003e\u003cstrong\u003e\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eNot long after Polyvinyl Records released American Football's self-titled debut album in 1999, the band called it quits, having only played a smattering of Champaign-Urbana college house parties and sets at small clubs like Chicago's legendary Fireside Bowl. Such an inauspicious turn of events made what followed all the more incredible. Over time, the record went on to become one of Polyvinyl' best selling releases to date, and ended up serving as \"one of the single most influential rock records of its time‚\" according to Noisey and many others. To most everyone that found them after the fact, the band was no more than an apparition. The record the only artifact left behind as a timeless snapshot of a group of individuals in transition, newly discovered each year by a fresh crop of music fans reaching a similar inflection point in their own lives.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eWhen American Football announced in 2014 that they would play live for the first time in 15 years, the built up appreciation for that eponymous LP physically manifested itself as they sold out 3 nights at Webster Hall in New York City in a matter of hours, and then went on to do the same at venues around the world. A quarter of a lifetime removed, and at times thousands of miles away from the house on the sleepy street in the middle of Illinois depicted on their debut album's iconic cover, they found themselves playing to sold out crowds that numbered in the thousands in London, Tokyo, Barcelona and beyond.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe again self-titled American Football finds the band with new material that takes them on a serendipitous detour down a familiar road. It is replete with the swelling emotions that might be spurred on by locked away memories unearthed by a familiar scent or crack in the concrete, or the rush of warm apprehension when coming face to face with a lover left before the fire was close to going out. \"The past still present tense‚\" sings Mike Kinsella on \"Home Is Where The Haunt Is,\" but while the house on the cover and the title of the album are the same, they are made strange by time and new found perspective. \"We've been here before,\" he declares on album opener \"Where Are We Now?‚\" \"but I don't remember a lock on the door.\"\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eAt a time when reunions have become rote, American Football is decidedly an anomaly. There is no past glory to relive or reignite, nor the burden to branch out and break from a well worn formula. Seventeen years later everything still feels brand new, because for them it is. They are a band that for one reason or another closed the lid on their creative output just as they were beginning an unforeseeable upswing, and are just now after a stasis returning to uncork it with the benefit of greater maturity and better musicianship. The sound is even more expansive, the lyrics less naive and more world weary, the songs have greater depths to explore and layers to peel back throughout. \"You can't just forget all the other lives you've lived,\" Mike Kinsella sings, and every single one of the nearly two decades worth of experiences since they last put pen to paper as American Football seem to bleed through on this record.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eAmerican Football is Steve Holmes (guitar), Mike Kinsella (vocals, guitar), Nate Kinsella (bass), and Steve Lamos (drums, trumpet). American Football was recorded at ARC Studios in Omaha, NE, and SHIRK Studios in Chicago, IL, and was produced by Jason Cupp.\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"American Football","offers":[{"title":"VINYL : Orange","offer_id":53423488565566,"sku":null,"price":24.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0007\/0182\/files\/AF2-cover.jpg?v=1777923318"},{"product_id":"american-football-lp3","title":"American Football (LP3)","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eSONGS\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003cbr\u003e1. Silhouettes\u003cbr\u003e2. Every Wave To Ever Rise (feat. Elizabeth Powell)\u003cbr\u003e3. Uncomfortably Numb (feat. Hayley Williams)\u003cbr\u003e4. Heir Apparent\u003cbr\u003e5. Doom In Full Bloom\u003cbr\u003e6. I Can’t Feel You (feat. Rachel Goswell)\u003cbr\u003e7. Mine To Miss\u003cbr\u003e8. Life Support\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eVINYL DETAILS\u003c\/strong\u003e \u003cbr\u003e+ Limited edition light blue vinyl\u003cbr\u003e\u003cstrong\u003e\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eAmerican Football's original triumph, on their 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.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eLike Slint's Spiderland, or Codeine's The White Birch, even Talk Talk's Laughing Stock, American Football asked far more questions than it cared to answer. But there wasn't a band around anymore to explain it, anyway. The three young men who made the album – Mike Kinsella, Steve Holmes, and Steve Lamos – split up pretty much on its release.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eFifteen years later, American Football reunited (now as a four-piece, with the addition of Nate Kinsella). They played far larger shows than in their original incarnation and recorded their long-anticipated second album, 2016's American Football (LP2). The release was widely praised, but the band members still felt like their best work was yet to come.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\"I feel like the second album was us figuring it out,\" says Nate. \"For me, it wasn't quite done. I knew there was still more.\"\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eEnter American Football (LP3). \"We put a lot of time and a lot of energy into it,\" says Mike. \"We were all thoughtful about what we wanted to put out there. Last time, it was figuring out how to use all of our different arms. This time, we were like \"Ok we have these arms, let's use them.\" 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.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eAs a result, LP3 is less obviously tethered to the band's past than the second album. An immediate contrast between LP3 and its two predecessors is its cover. The two previous albums featured the exterior and interior of a residence in the band's original hometown of Urbana, Illinois (now attracting fans for pilgrimages and photo opportunities), by the photographer Chris Strong. But American Football knew that LP3 was an outside record. Instead of the familiar house, this time the cover photo (again by Strong) features open, rolling fields on Urbana's borders. It is a sign of the album's magnitude in sound, and of the band's boldness in breaking away from home comforts.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eAmerican Football also joked that LP3's genre was \"post-house\" because of this very conscious visual break. But, in a strange way, there are links in LP3 with an actual post-house genre: shoegaze. The more exploratory members of the original British shoegaze scene were inspired by the dreamtime and circularity of house music (ambient house in particular), cherishing its sonic possibilities. That spirit drips into LP3, most obviously on \"I Can't Feel You,\" a collaboration with Rachel Goswell of Slowdive.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe album also features Hayley Williams from Paramore on the album's catchiest moment, \"Uncomfortably Numb‚\" and Elizabeth Powell, of the Quebecoise act Land Of Talk. Mike wrote lyrics in French especially for her.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eLP3 is contemplative, rich, expressive, yet with a queasy undercurrent. It is heavy with expectancy, revealing its ideas slowly, eliciting the hidden stories people carry around with them. \"I feel like my lyric writing has changed a lot over the years,\" says Mike. \"The goal is to be conversational, maybe to state something giant and heavy, but in a very plain way. But, definitely in this record, I keep things a little more vague.\" As on the first album, the lyrics on LP3 may seem confessional and concentrated, but the more you scrutinize them, the further their meaning slinks away. Or, as Mike tellingly sings on \"I Can't Feel You\": I'm fluent in subtlety.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\"Somewhere along the way we moved from being a reunion band to just being a band,\" says Steve Holmes. American Football is now a bona fide ongoing focus, and they are making some of the best music of their lives. American Football (LP3) stands with two other rare reunion successes – Slowdive and My Bloody Valentine's mbv – as a fine example of how a band refinding one another can augment, rather than taint, their legacy.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\"I think that there are those albums, or the music that you heard when you were younger, and they imprint on you,\" says Nate. \"And no matter where you go, or what you do they're always there.\" He is talking of Steve Reich – an early and ongoing influence on American Football – but he might as well be reflecting what is said of his own band, and the ardent following they inspire. American Football stands as an enduring symbol of elusive emotional landscapes, where introspection can be as dramatic as confrontation.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"American Football","offers":[{"title":"VINYL : Light Blue","offer_id":53423531950398,"sku":null,"price":24.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0007\/0182\/files\/AF3-cover.jpg?v=1777923953"},{"product_id":"american-football-lp4","title":"American Football (LP4)","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eSONGS\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003cbr\u003e1. Man Overboard\u003cbr\u003e2. No Feeling (American Football, Brendan Yates)\u003cbr\u003e3. Blood On My Blood (American Football, Caithlin De Marrais)\u003cbr\u003e4. Bad Moons\u003cbr\u003e5. The One with the Piano\u003cbr\u003e6. Patron Saint of Pale\u003cbr\u003e7. Wake Her Up (American Football, Wisp)\u003cbr\u003e8. Desdemona\u003cbr\u003e9. Lullabye\u003cbr\u003e10. No Soul to Save\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eVINYL DETAILS\u003c\/strong\u003e \u003cbr\u003e+ Limited edition \u003cspan\u003eGoldenrod Mix vinyl\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e+ Deluxe Gatefold Jacket w\/ Printed Innersleeves\u003cstrong\u003e\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eFor a band once defined by understatement, \u003cstrong\u003eAmerican Football\u003c\/strong\u003e has become something increasingly rare: one whose stature has grown less by nostalgia than through patience, self-interrogation and the long view. Since reuniting in 2014 after a decade-plus dormancy, American Football hasn’t simply returned to its past. It has moved forward in parallel with its audience, writing music that reflects the disorientation, compromise, grief and hard-won perspective of middle age.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eIts fourth self-titled album \u003cem\u003e(LP4)\u003c\/em\u003e is the clearest and most satisfying expression of that evolution yet. It’s simultaneously the band’s darkest and most playful, its most complex and — paradoxically — its most generous. Throughout, \u003cem\u003eLP4\u003c\/em\u003estares matter-of-factly at despair while refusing the comforts of melodrama or easy resolution.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eIndeed, on “Patron Saint of Pale,” frontman Mike Kinsella proposes playing Rock Paper Scissors with his soon-to-be ex-wife as a way to avoid signing their divorce papers. And on the gripping, eight-minute “Bad Moons,” he jokes about actually being two little kids disguised in a trench coat rather than a flesh-and-blood 40-something dad of two teens, before the reality of the situation can no longer be avoided: “I lost my mind in the dark \/ I told all my lies in the dark \/ I poured my drinks in the dark \/ I explored new kinks in the dark,” he sings, his voice seemingly cracking at times under the cold, hard truths.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e“That's the one where I was like, ‘Oh, fuck. My mom's gonna listen to this.’ But I’m proud of it,” Kinsella says. “I think only a grown person would think those things or say those things, and I'm a grown man.” “Those are not funny lyrics,” drummer Steve Lamos adds, “but there’s a weird ‘fuck it’ to the whole thing that I love.”\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThat restless desire to grow and evolve has guided American Football since its return. The band’s 1999 self-titled debut became a touchstone almost accidentally — a record whose elliptical lyrics and interlocking guitar lines sneakily rewired Midwestern emo and post-rock alike. During the 2014 tour, the quartet was surprised to find itself playing larger rooms than it ever had the first time around. “It felt like stumbling into being a mid-level band without having earned it,” guitarist Steve Holmes says of those first shows back.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eBut over time, American Football leapfrogged existing as a mere reunion act and instead became a vibrant, ongoing concern. \u003cem\u003eLP2\u003c\/em\u003e (2016) and \u003cem\u003eLP3\u003c\/em\u003e (2019) documented that transition — the former cautious and connective, the latter expansive, exploratory and welcoming of new voices such as Paramore’s Hayley Williams and Slowdive’s Rachel Goswell. \u003cem\u003eLP4\u003c\/em\u003e completes this arc with one astonishing song after another.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e“The charm of the first record is that it could have only been made by kids,” Holmes says. “This record could only have been made by adults. There's a swagger that comes with the confidence of having done this for a long time, and there’s gravitas to Mike's lyrics. There's still breakup and heartbreak in there, but it’s much more real.”\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cem\u003eLP4\u003c\/em\u003e was initially born out of an interruption. After touring \u003cem\u003eLP3\u003c\/em\u003e in 2019,  the band planned a break. The pandemic stretched that pause into a three-year hiatus, during which Lamos, by day a college English professor in Colorado, stepped away for personal and professional reasons. Attempts to write remotely faltered. “It was not easy to do on Zoom,” Holmes admits. “And honestly, it wasn’t clicking.”\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eIn the meantime, Kinsella and his cousin Nate channeled some of that material into an album for their synth-y side project, LIES, sharpening their shared language in the process and beginning the relationship with Sonny DiPerri, who they enlisted to mix. When Lamos returned and the band reconvened in earnest, something shifted. “It felt much more like a band again,” Lamos says. “There was a certain organic piece to this one that harkened back to what I associate with the first record.”\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe Kinsellas then suggested recording \u003cem\u003eLP4\u003c\/em\u003e in Stinson Beach, Ca., with DiPerri (My Bloody Valentine, Trent Reznor), whose presence proved crucial. “Sonny was a great, calming influence,” Holmes says. “Thanks to his energy and approach, it was easy for me to do what I felt like I needed to do,” Lamos explains. “For me personally as a player, this is maybe the best representation of what I would want to say on the drums.”\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eAmerican Football also overhauled its process. Nate Kinsella devised an elaborate system of scratch tracks and modular demos, allowing ideas to evolve before the band ever entered the studio, while touring members Cory Bracken and Mike Garzon added the kinds of subtle touches that have made them indispensable onstage. “This record would not exist in the way it does without Nate masterminding a lot of the sonic details,” Holmes says. “He’s our Brian Eno or Jonny Greenwood.”\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe result is American Football’s most sonically ambitious album: layered, dissonant, occasionally confrontational and always deeply felt. Piano, vibraphone, synths, trumpet and unexpected harmonic and tonal shifts disrupt the band’s famously smooth surfaces but invite new levels of depth and discovery. “The goal was to make the best record we could possibly make and not worry about how we’re going to recreate it live,” Holmes laughs. “That’s somebody else’s problem — which is currently our problem.”\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThat ambition is evident immediately. Expansive opener “Man Overboard” is built around a knotty, almost prog-like drum pattern that Lamos admits he had to later relearn. Lyrically, it sets the tone: resignation without self-pity, isolation rendered in stark maritime imagery. “I was born castaway \/ Lost at sea,” Kinsella sings, before the devastating refrain “Man overboard \/ It’s hopeless” previews what’s to come.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eAcross \u003cem\u003eLP4\u003c\/em\u003e, Kinsella’s narratives are unflinchingly heavy. Suicide, shame, divorce, addiction, self-loathing and rebirth all surface, often within the same song. “If you read the lyrics on the page, they can seem grim,” Holmes says. “But there’s hope in them.”\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThat tension is central to the album’s emotional arc. “It feels like stages of grief to me,” Lamos offers. “Raging against how things work, and then increasing moments of acceptance as the record goes on.” Mike Kinsella doesn’t frame it so explicitly, but acknowledges the weight. “The goal has always been to say something giant and heavy in a very plain way,” he says. “On this record, I keep things a little more vague — and I think that makes it more honest.”\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eSongs like “No Feeling” and “No Soul To Save” flirt openly with annihilation, yet the music beneath them is lush, even inviting. “Bad Moons” stitches together two previously unrelated demos into a towering release Holmes describes as “maybe our most cathartic song ever,” while “Desdemona” threads phased, wordless vocals straight out of Steve Reich’s \u003cem\u003eMusic for 18 Musicians\u003c\/em\u003e through the kinds of classic American Football guitar lines that still make people cry in bedrooms around the globe (“It's incredible,” Mike Kinsella raves about the musical juxtaposition. “That might actually be my favorite part of the record”).\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eGuest vocalists further deepen the world of \u003cem\u003eLP4\u003c\/em\u003e. Longtime peer Caithlin De Marrais of Rainer Maria brings history and familiarity to “Blood on My Blood,” Wisp’s Natalie Lu provides the perfect ethereal contrast on the almost poppy “Wake Her Up” and Turnstile’s Brendan Yates contributes a key vocal harmony on “No Feeling” that was recorded the day after the band casually asked if he’d like to stop by DiPerri’s L.A. studio. Says Nate Kinsella, “There’s a shimmery, sort of silver quality to his voice when he sings high and nails those long pitches. It’s so beyond what I expected on that song.”\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eAmerican Football now speaks with rare authority — not because Kinsella has raised his voice, but because he’s earned the weight behind it. \u003cem\u003eLP4\u003c\/em\u003e stands as a document of endurance, friendship, creative trust and the strange grace of growing older without growing static.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e“From the instrumentation to the arrangements to Nate running into a microphone and apologizing and us leaving it on the album, I’m really proud of the decisions we made,” Mike Kinsella says. “We’ve gotten nothing but better at writing songs.  We worked together way better than we ever had before. This album is a leap of faith, musically, but I’m proud of us for being ambitious enough to try something different.”\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"American Football","offers":[{"title":"VINYL : 2 x LP Goldenrod Mix","offer_id":53423731802430,"sku":null,"price":32.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0007\/0182\/files\/AF4-cover.jpg?v=1777933328"},{"product_id":"american-football-lp1","title":"American Football (LP1)","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eAmerican Football's classic debut album on limited edition blue smoke vinyl\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eSONGS\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003cbr\u003e1. Never Meant\u003cbr\u003e2. The Summer Ends\u003cbr\u003e3. Honestly?\u003cbr\u003e4. For Sure\u003cbr\u003e5. You Know I Should Be Leaving Soon\u003cbr\u003e6. But the Regrets Are Killing Me\u003cbr\u003e7. I'll See You When We're Both Not So Emotional\u003cbr\u003e8. Stay Home\u003cbr\u003e9. The One With The Wurlitzer\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eVINYL DETAILS\u003c\/strong\u003e \u003cbr\u003e+ Limited edition blue smoke vinyl\u003cbr\u003e+ Includes lyric insert\u003cbr\u003e\u003cstrong\u003e\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eAmerican Football\u003c\/strong\u003e's first album showcases cleanly picked guitars, intricate drumming, and the vocals of Mike Kinsella (\u003cstrong\u003eOwen\u003c\/strong\u003e, \u003cstrong\u003eCap'n Jazz\u003c\/strong\u003e). The band, made up of Kinsella, Steve Holmes and Steve Lamos rooted itself in Champaign and recorded this album at Private Studios with Brendan Gamble (Braid).\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eDespite little touring and with only an EP behind them, these nine songs highlight the trio's uncanny songwriting abilities.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe album's photos and layout mark the first Polyvinyl design done by Chris Strong.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-size: 0.875rem;\"\u003eAmerican Football\u2028\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-size: 0.875rem;\"\u003eSteve Holmes - guitars, wurlitzer\u2028\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/span\u003eSteve Lamos - drums, percussion, trumpet\u003cbr\u003e\u2028Mike Kinsella - vocals, guitars, bass\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"American Football","offers":[{"title":"VINYL : Blue Smoke","offer_id":53423800254782,"sku":null,"price":24.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0007\/0182\/files\/AF1-cover_8e2167f9-ba28-4ade-8ef9-0658439b1920.jpg?v=1777934742"},{"product_id":"american-football-covers","title":"American Football (COVERS)","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eSONGS\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003cbr\u003e1. Iron \u0026amp; Wine - \"Never Meant\"\u003cbr\u003e2. Blondshell - \"The Summer Ends\"\u003cbr\u003e3. Novo Amor \u0026amp; Lowswimmer - \"Honestly?\"\u003cbr\u003e4. Ethel Cain - \"For Sure\"\u003cbr\u003e5. Yvette Young - \"You Know I Should Be Leaving Soon\"\u003cbr\u003e6. Girl Ultra - \"But the Regrets Are Killing Me\"\u003cbr\u003e7. M.A.G.S. - \"I’ll See You When We're Both Not So Emotional\"\u003cbr\u003e8. Manchester Orchestra - \"Stay Home\"\u003cbr\u003e9. John McEntire - \"The One With the Wurlitzer\"\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eVINYL DETAILS\u003c\/strong\u003e \u003cbr\u003e+ Limited edition Frosted Glass vinyl\u003cbr\u003e+ \u003cspan\u003eDeluxe Die-Cut Album Jacket \u003cbr\u003e+ Printed Cardstock Innersleeve.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cstrong\u003e\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eAlongside and in celebration of American Football (25th Anniversary Edition) arrives American Football (Covers), an ingeniously programmed set that highlights not only the way American Football fueled an eventual “emo revival,” but also and perhaps more important how their songs and sounds infiltrated and inspired so many corners of music. From string-swept and imaginative folk to idiosyncratic international pop, from intricate instrumental splendor to open-road shoegaze wonder, (Covers) traces—or at least teases—the endless ways the source material has cut across borders of generation, genre, and geography. It affirms just how important the nine songs three college kids cut in four days remain.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eKinsella’s lyrics on American Football were specific in detail but vague in situation. What we knew was that a relationship was collapsing with less animosity than regret, a sense of future nostalgia shaping words that asked how an ex-couple might feel as the summer passed and they maybe saw each other again. This framework, then, is a perfect invitation for different singers to climb inside and find their own interpretation. There is, for instance, a sweet sense of hope to Iron \u0026amp; Wine’s opening rendition of “Never Meant,” Sam Beam’s singular falsetto pealing like an apology, hoping to pull his lover back toward a relationship’s center. Ethel Cain, meanwhile, lingers and wallows in the uncertainty of the paradoxically titled “For Sure.” Above long, soft drones and guitars that twinkle like stars being extinguished forever, she settles into this song about never really knowing what’s happening. Doom is a foregone conclusion. It is beautiful and tragic, every scene of being together rendered as a pure hypothetical.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eIn one of the most faithful interpretations here, M.A.G.S. borrows the bitterness and conviction of “I’ll See You When We’re Both Not So Emotional,” less a break-up song than a reckoning with the breaks reality sometimes requires. His keyboard-traced and drum-driven version is sweet but sharp, a reminder that a stop can be an act of self-care. Blondshell slinks into a similar realization during “The Summer Ends,” taking shelter beneath a haze of multi-tracked harmonies and circular guitars to wonder what it’s going to take to move toward happiness—for herself and her partner, either together or apart. “Both been so unhappy,” she sings faintly after a fever breaks. “So let’s just see what happens\/when summer ends.” Appropriate for a band who could never have predicted what the future held for these songs, American Football is about not knowing what’s up ahead. Each band here sings that eternal plight in their own tone and tongue.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eWhen American Football wrote and recorded these nine songs in 1999, they were also punk kids who were becoming interested in jazz and modern classical. The touchstones that always appear are Miles Davis, Steve Reich, and The Sea and Cake, but the bigger lesson is their interest in engaging other textures and approaches than distortion and drive. That’s clear in the sparkling guitars and shifting rhythms, in the traces of trumpet and whiffs of keys. And it is obvious on (Covers) in the assorted shapes these songs take.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThough never forsaking the tune itself, Manchester Orchestra imbue “Stay Home” with Reich’s pulsing repetition and Electric Miles’ opalescent glow. They find a way to reconnect the song to its burgeoning references. Yvette Young, of Covet, uses webs of guitar, layers of granular synthesis, and lines of mercurial strings to turn the once-skeletal “You Know I Should Be Leaving Soon” into a lush world. And there at the end, John McEntire, busy back in 1999 scheming Tortoise’s Standards and The Sea and Cake’s Oui, routes “The One With the Wurlitzer” into a Motorik anthem. It feels as emotionally unsure as all of American Football, the beat pushing forever forward while the bittersweet keys seem to turn backward, staring off at what might have been.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eOn the sidewalk outside of the famous house on the cover of American Football, several lines mark where Chris Strong likely stood when he snapped the photo. They are invitations to capture the scene, just as Strong did in 1999. But on the cover of (Covers), nine different images show the home during subsequent phases of the night, the glow from the upstairs window eventually overrunning the frame. That’s more fun than a mere replication, the same lesson that this compilation holds: Eschewing mimics for acts that took a little bit of American Football and made their own way, (Covers) is a testament to the imagination not only of the original but to those who continue to find it twenty-five years after the band assumed they were done.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eAll songs originally by American Football\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eExecutive Producers:\u003cbr\u003eAmerican Football, Amber Leone, Natalie Davila, Seth Hubbard \u0026amp; Matt Lunsford\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eArt Direction by Janelle Abad \u0026amp; Ryan Miller\u003cbr\u003eLayout by Bradley Hale\u003cbr\u003eMastered by Emily Lazar\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eNever Meant\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003cbr\u003eProduced By Brad Cook and Sam Beam\u003cbr\u003eEngineered By Paul Voran\u003cbr\u003eMixed by Paul Voran and Brad Cook\u003cbr\u003eAcoustic Guitar and all Vocals: Sam Beam\u003cbr\u003eDrums and OP-1 Synth: Matt McCaughan\u003cbr\u003eAcoustic Guitar, Organ, Samples and Additional Production: Brad Cook\u003cbr\u003eAdditional Production: Paul Voran\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eThe Summer Ends\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003cbr\u003eProduced By Yves Rothman\u003cbr\u003eEngineered By Yves Rothman \u0026amp; Jake Supple\u003cbr\u003eMixed By Lawrence Rothman\u003cbr\u003eRecorded at Sunset Sound Studios 3 \u0026amp; The Bungalow on Sunset, Hollywood CA\u003cbr\u003eDrums : Bosh Rothman\u003cbr\u003eElectric Guitar:\u003cspan class=\"Apple-converted-space\"\u003e  \u003c\/span\u003eSam Stewart\u003cbr\u003eBass : Keith Karman\u003cbr\u003eElectric Guitar \u0026amp; Wurlitzer : Joe Kennedy\u003cbr\u003eMS20 : Yves Rothman\u003cbr\u003eVocals : Sabrina Teitelbaum\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan class=\"Apple-converted-space\"\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eHonestly?\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003cbr\u003eProduced and engineered by Ali Lacey and Ed Tullett\u003cspan class=\"Apple-converted-space\"\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/span\u003eMixed by Ali Lacey\u003cbr\u003eStrings by David Grubb\u003cbr\u003eTrombone and trumpet by Dave Huntriss\u003cbr\u003eAdditional vocals, trumpet and synth by Jemima Coulter\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan class=\"Apple-converted-space\"\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eFor Sure\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cspan class=\"Apple-converted-space\"\u003e\u003c\/span\u003eHayden Anhedönia - vocals, synths, bass, guitar, production\u003cbr\u003eHayden Anhedönia - mixed\u003cbr\u003eAngel Diaz - guitar, lapsteel\u003cbr\u003eMatthew Tomasi - guitar\u003cbr\u003eBryan De Leon - drums\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eYou Know I Should Be Leaving Soon\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cspan class=\"Apple-converted-space\"\u003e\u003c\/span\u003eGuitars\/strings\/arrangement : Yvette Young\u003cbr\u003eRecorded, mixed: Dryw Owens\u003cspan class=\"Apple-converted-space\"\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/span\u003eDrums: Ali Lacey\u003cbr\u003e\u003cspan class=\"Apple-converted-space\"\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eBut The Regrets Are Killing Me\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cspan class=\"Apple-converted-space\"\u003e\u003c\/span\u003evocals: girl ultra\u003cbr\u003ebacking vocals: sam katz\u003cbr\u003evocal arrangements: girl ultra \u0026amp; sam katz\u003cbr\u003eproduction: sam katz\u003cbr\u003emix: kalifrn\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eI’ll See You When We’re Both Not So Emotional\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/strong\u003eDrums, guitars,bass, vocals:\u003cspan class=\"Apple-converted-space\"\u003e  \u003c\/span\u003eElliott Douglas\u003cbr\u003eGuitar, synth: Ehmed Nauman\u003cbr\u003eProduced \u0026amp; Mixed: Elliott Douglas\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eStay Home\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003cbr\u003eAndy Hull – Vocals, Guitar\u003cbr\u003eRobert McDowell – Guitar, Keys, Bass\u003cbr\u003eTim Very – Drums\u003cbr\u003eAndy Prince -Bass\u003cbr\u003eBrooks Tipton - Additional Keys\u003cbr\u003e\u003cspan class=\"Apple-converted-space\"\u003e\u003c\/span\u003eMixed by: Tj Elias\u003cbr\u003eEngineer: Robert McDowell\u003cbr\u003eAddition Engineering: Jamie Martens\u003cbr\u003eRecorded at Favorite Gentlemen Studios, Atlanta GA\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eThe One With The Wurlitzer\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cspan class=\"Apple-converted-space\"\u003e\u003c\/span\u003eAll Instruments; John McEntire\u003cbr\u003eMixing: John McEntire\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"American Football","offers":[{"title":"VINYL : Frosted Glass","offer_id":53423833055550,"sku":null,"price":25.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0007\/0182\/files\/AF1-covers.jpg?v=1777936267"}],"url":"https:\/\/undertowstore.com\/collections\/american-football.oembed","provider":"Undertow","version":"1.0","type":"link"}