American Football

Formed in the late 1990s in Champaign-Urbana, Illinois, American Football developed at the crossroads of indie rock, Midwest emo and math rock. The trio brings together Mike Kinsella, Steve Lamos and Steve Holmes from the local college scene, and quickly honed a writing style built on clean guitars with interlocking arpeggios, shifting meters and introspective vocal lines, with the trumpet sometimes taking on a prominent role. After an EP in 1998, American Football released a self-titled debut album in 1999 on Polyvinyl, recorded shortly before their split in the early 2000s, while Kinsella went on to pursue his solo project Owen. The gradual rediscovery of that record led to a reissue in 2014 and the band's return to the stage the same year, followed by regular concerts in the United States, Europe and Japan. The group then recorded two new studio albums, also titled American Football, released in 2016 and 2019, in which the original sound opened up to denser arrangements and guest vocalists, notably Hayley Williams and Elizabeth Powell. American Football still operates around this historic core, expanded for live performances, and remains associated with an aesthetic combining restrained melancholy, complex structures and an intimate atmosphere.