The Summer Ends: The Tale of Midwest Emo
The Summer Ends: The Tale of Midwest Emo
It was an autumn night when a 20-year-old undergraduate went through the painful process of a friendship slowly coming to an end. Mike Kinsella decided to express his grief through music. Steve Holmes and Steve Lamos, two of his friends, were invited to join him in his musical venting. In the autumn of 1997, American Football was formed. Kinsella wasn’t new to music, at just 13 years of age, he played drums for his brother’s indie/post rock band, Cap’n Jazz. Together, they recorded and released over 30 songs and gained moderate fame. Things were different now. Over the years, Kinsella had become a more seasoned musician, started playing the guitar, and experimented with more intricate musical concepts. Within a year, they recorded three demos and eventually signed with Polyvinyl Records. Over the following year, they worked on several new songs for their first release. After long sessions of practicing, writing, and several last-minute changes, LP1 was released.
The album primarily discusses the feelings of teendom. Kinsella’s crooning vocals form the perfect bed for his confessional lyrics to rest on. Two perfectly layered sombre and twinkly guitars, perfectly punchy and tight drums, and the occasional trumpet round out the instrumentation. The songs masterfully incorporate math rock influences, which create a soundscape that reminds you of those times when you’re awake and thinking too much. The album did not immediately gain popularity since it was one of the more subtle post-rock records of its time. With hardly any hard riffs and distortion, the album opts for a much more mellow tone, which is evident in the coda of "Stay Home" and the intro to "The Summer Ends." The occasional trumpets, courtesy of Steve Lamos, further build up the wall of sound along with his jazzy drumming. Even after the complex rhythms, and melodic ideas it brings forward, it manages to be minimalist. The tasteful repetition and subtle ear candy hidden throughout the songs make the songs amazing to listen to on loop.
Unfortunately, good things don’t last forever, and the band mutually broke up in 2000. The album exists in a continuum where there are subtle differences, but after ending your journey, looking back at where you started from leaves you amazed. Despite their short initial lifespan, the album grew in popularity over time as the music struck a chord with the listeners, and it proved to be every bit as resonant. Bringing together so many musical ideas and tying them together with heart-on-the sleeve lyrics was something done for the first time. Countless bands of various styles have been inspired by their music, but have never truly reached the level of beauty that they have. This new blend of math rock, post rock, and emo was termed "midwest emo," which also became one of indie rock’s biggest inspirations. They reformed in 2014, with Mike's cousin Nate Kinsella on bass, and have since released two new albums. Several third-wave emo and indie bands refer to American Football as their biggest inspiration.
My hope with this article is to convince you to look beyond the time when emo was simply a "phase" with eyeliners, long straightened hair, and black skinny jeans. I hope that I was able to inspire you to go a bit deeper down the rabbit hole of this confessional style of music and find the hidden gems it has to offer.
New music and experiences await!
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