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American Football
Posted: Sat Apr 07, 2012 3:50 am
by pianoforte
American Football were a truly great, somewhat math-y band from the late 1990s. Their songs were generally very subdued and featured poetic, emotive lyrics.
They only ever did two records, a self-titled full length and an EP which to the best of my knowledge is named "EP".
Give them a listen, if you're in the mood.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OV0LJ0Dnl7A "Never Meant"
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QVDAXNO5frU "Letters And Packages"
Posted: Sat Apr 07, 2012 8:19 am
by turquoise70
omg
i looooooooooooooove American Football so much.
I do not have their EP, though. I would love to hear it sometime.
Seriously, American Football the album is one of my top 10 favorite records of all time.
Posted: Tue Jul 24, 2012 5:32 am
by pianoforte
turquoise70 wrote:I do not have their EP, though. I would love to hear it sometime.
I'm digging up ancient history for a moment to point you in the general direction of this YouTube upload:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jC1ygJ5XKr0
Enjoy!

Posted: Tue Jul 24, 2012 5:51 am
by OverTheHorizonRadar
I learned one of their songs just the other day on guitar, it had a nice alternating pattern that made it interesting.
Posted: Tue Jul 24, 2012 11:02 am
by fujee
This is SO awesome !
Posted: Wed Jul 25, 2012 9:15 pm
by Treefingers
One of my friends is really into this band. Really like what I've heard so far, and now have an excuse to look further thanks to this thread!
Posted: Sun Nov 04, 2012 7:46 am
by pianoforte
Here is an incredibly interesting Instagram photo/post/whatever from Polyvinyl Records, AF's label:
http://instagram.com/p/QqEKQLBtHk/
Just got a package from Steve Holmes (American Football) w/ 7 old cassettes full of AF gems. Some songs are unreleased, some are boom box practices. Let the digitizing begin!
Holy. Fucking. SHIT! An AF boombox demo?
edit: punknews did a little blurb about this -
http://www.punknews.org/article/49280/u ... gs-surface
Posted: Sun Nov 04, 2012 8:01 am
by pianoforte
pianoforte wrote:Here is an incredibly interesting Instagram photo/post/whatever from Polyvinyl Records, AF's label:
http://instagram.com/p/QqEKQLBtHk/Just got a package from Steve Holmes (American Football) w/ 7 old cassettes full of AF gems. Some songs are unreleased, some are boom box practices. Let the digitizing begin!
Holy. Fucking. SHIT! An AF boombox demo?

I have just emailed Polyvinyl Records to ask nicely for any further information about these tapes and whether or not they may see a release in future. I will keep this thread updated if/when I receive a reply.
Posted: Wed Nov 07, 2012 2:20 am
by pianoforte
pianoforte wrote:pianoforte wrote:Here is an incredibly interesting Instagram photo/post/whatever from Polyvinyl Records, AF's label:
http://instagram.com/p/QqEKQLBtHk/Just got a package from Steve Holmes (American Football) w/ 7 old cassettes full of AF gems. Some songs are unreleased, some are boom box practices. Let the digitizing begin!
Holy. Fucking. SHIT! An AF boombox demo?

I have just emailed Polyvinyl Records to ask nicely for any further information about these tapes and whether or not they may see a release in future. I will keep this thread updated if/when I receive a reply.
Well, I received a reply a few hours ago;
Thanks for your interest in the AF tapes. We're super excited too! We're actually in the process of getting them digitized right now. We're gonna take a listen at what's on there and then figure out what we're gonna do with them. We should have more info on it sometime next year.
Thanks!
Andy
I'll see what I can do to hold my excitement until next year. I am REALLY excited about this

Posted: Mon Nov 12, 2012 5:31 am
by turquoise70
WHAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAT
OH MY SWEET SALLY
PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE NOTIFY ME BY ANY MEANS POSSIBLE IF THIS BECOMES A THING
i love american football too much to say, and this must be a thing I hear <3 <3 <3
Posted: Wed Nov 14, 2012 6:19 pm
by pianoforte
turquoise70 wrote:WHAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAT
OH MY SWEET SALLY
PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE NOTIFY ME BY ANY MEANS POSSIBLE IF THIS BECOMES A THING
i love american football too much to say, and this must be a thing I hear <3 <3 <3
agreed 100%

Posted: Sun Dec 30, 2012 1:49 am
by pianoforte
Posted: Sun Dec 30, 2012 6:46 am
by pianoforte
For those of you who are able to use BitTorrent, I have uploaded the DVD to ZOMB.
http://zombtracker.the-zomb.com/details.php?id=44798
From the description:
My heartfelt and eternal thanks to michaelish and j.scott at the Joanfrc forums.
American Football
Fireside Bowl, Chicago, IL (USA)
199x.xx.xx
1. The One With The Tambourine
2. Letters and Packages
3. Five Silent Miles
4. I'll See You When We're Both Not So Emotional
5. ??? (Unreleased)
Neither the video or audio is particularly great, but both are serviceable. I think we can certainly put aside the not-great quality given the pure awesomeness that was captured here.
I cannot specify the exact date of this performance with much confidence at the moment; I would place it to be circa 1998-1999. Someone suggested to me that it may have been April 30th, 1999 and as a result I am marking it as such until I find out otherwise through my active research on the subject.
This is the only American Football live video that I know of. If you have or know about something else (audio or video), please contact me! I'm also interested in live audio/video of Mineral and various other indie/emo bands of the 1990s and early 2000s.
You'll need an account with ZOMB in order to download the torrent. Please feel free to ask any questions which you may have; I will do my best to answer them.
Posted: Fri Feb 08, 2013 4:51 am
by pianoforte
pianoforte wrote:turquoise70 wrote:WHAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAT
OH MY SWEET SALLY
PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE NOTIFY ME BY ANY MEANS POSSIBLE IF THIS BECOMES A THING
i love american football too much to say, and this must be a thing I hear <3 <3 <3
agreed 100%

the project seems to be coming along nicely. i emailed andy from polyvinyl recs and he wrote back and said that they are currently trying to work out a viable tracklist for the release.
as turquoise said: oh my sweet sally

Posted: Wed Feb 13, 2013 11:45 pm
by powershoes
i used to play the drums in an 'emo' band, which feels like a lifetime ago. we often listened to american football between rehearsals.
good work is happening here.
Posted: Thu Feb 14, 2013 4:48 am
by pianoforte
powershoes wrote:i used to play the drums in an 'emo' band, which feels like a lifetime ago. we often listened to american football between rehearsals.
good work is happening here.
WAAAAAAAAIT A SECOND
what band were you in?
Posted: Thu Feb 14, 2013 10:14 am
by powershoes
pianoforte wrote:what band were you in?
the michael quilling project. pm sent.
Posted: Sun Sep 15, 2013 6:08 am
by pianoforte
Those AF rehearsal tapes need to come out ASAP.
Posted: Sun Nov 10, 2013 8:05 am
by pianoforte
some news on those demo recordings:
http://joanfrc.com/forum/viewtopic.php?p=18446#p18446
also, mike's new project is called their / they're / there and it's good.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KTWqHgjVuX8
Posted: Mon Nov 11, 2013 7:23 am
by North by North
Haven't pulled out AF in a long while. Overdue.
Their / They're / There sounds good.
Love the Kinsella clan.
Good posts, thx.