American Football Artistfacts

1997-2000, 2014-
Mike KinsellaVocals, guitar
Steve HolmesGuitar
Steve LamosDrums, trumpet
Nate KinsellaBass2014-
American Football found a following during the emo boom of the early '00s when word of their 1999 debut album spread on the internet. Just one problem... they had been broken up since 2000. Their legend grew in the social media era, and finally they re-formed in 2014. Their long-awaited second album was issued in 2016.
The band formed in Urbana, Illinois, while Mike Kinsella, Steve Holmes and Steve Lamos were attending the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. Kinsella and Holmes had gone to the same high school, where they became best friends, and also were roommates at the university. Before the band formed, Kinsella played drums in another influential Chicago-area emo band, Cap'n Jazz, which was fronted by his brother Tim. After Cap'n Jazz split, Kinsella and Lamos played together in a short-lived group called The One Up Downstairs. When that band broke up, Holmes and Lamos started jamming together, and were soon joined by Kinsella, leading to the formation of American Football.
American Football are known for gentle melodies, unusual guitar tunings, off-kilter rhythms, understated vocals and introspective lyrics. The members were part of the hardcore scene before the band formed, but they wanted their group to sound different.

"We intentionally were like, 'Okay, let's do the opposite,'" Steve Holmes said on the Life of the Record podcast. "Let's try to make a band that's slow and quiet and pretty.'"
They've been on the independent label Polyvinyl Records since 1998, when they issued their three-song self-titled debut EP.
Nate Kinsella, who joined on bass when the band re-formed in 2014, is the cousin of lead singer Mike Kinsella.
All of their albums are self-titled. They're known as LP1, LP2, LP3...
A deluxe 25th anniversary reissue of LP1 was released in October 2024. On the same day, a covers album was released featuring versions of the nine songs from LP1 recorded by Iron & Wine, Manchester Orchestra and others.
The house on the cover of their debut album is located at 704 West High Street in Urban, Illinois - it's where Chris Strong, who took the photo, was living at the time. That house become a pilgrimage site for fans of the band, and the cover photo is now among the most recognizable images in the emo community.

The cover of LP2, meanwhile, features a photo taken inside of the same house. In 2023, American Football announced that they had purchased the residence along with a collective of friends and associates that included Polyvinyl Records, Strong, and others. In August 2024, the band began making the house available to rent via Airbnb "for artists, creative retreats, events, and nightly stays."

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