American Football to Release Demos

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American Football will release Year One Demos on December 14th. The press release can be found below, and pre-orders are now up.

American Football’s seminal eponymous debut LP will celebrate the 20th anniversary of its unassuming release tomorrow on September 14th. Polyvinyl Record Co. marks the occasion with the announcement of a collection of newly mastered and previously unreleased instrumental demos. Year One Demos will be released on 12” vinyl and digitally on December 13th, and is available for pre-order now (https://plyvnyl.co/af-20).
“American Football struck an emotional chord,” wrote Pitchfork in their “Best New Reissue” review of the LP. Noisey deemed the album “one of the most influential records of its time.” The LP has found its way on to a myriad of best of genre lists, and in a more modern gauge of popularity and impact, seen its album cover art become iconic, and songs (“Never Meant” in particular) transformed into popular memes on twitter, reddit and music message boards.

Yet as is well known to anyone who has followed the band’s revival as a recording and live act over the past half-decade, American Football’s current status as a foundational entry into the indie rock canon was likely the furthest thought from the band’s or Polyvinyl’s minds when it was released, or for that matter in the years that followed. “We finished the whole thing in a week and handed Matt Lunsford the mastered tapes and broke up,” recalls Steve Holmes in an interview with Noisey on the album’s oral history. “No press, no record release show, no supporting tour or anything.”

“American Football was never intended to be a real band,” Holmes writes in the liner notes for Year One Demos. “The band was our creative outlet, and gave us something to do outside of schoolwork. Not to say that we didn’t take the music seriously. We spent an enormous amount of time crafting and arranging these little songs, but we had zero interest in a ‘music career’.”

The recordings found on Year One Demos are a glimpse back at that inauspicious time, and according to Steve Lamos who recently re-discovered the original tape (labeled with the date May 31, 1997), is the first proper set of demos the band ever made. “My dad ‘recorded’ this in the basement of the house I grew up in,” says Lamos. “As far as I can recall, he set up two vocal mics, at 90-degree angles, set the levels, showed me how to turn the Roberts two-track to ‘record,’ and then went upstairs while we played.”

Lamos last remembers coming across and listening to the demos in the mid-2000s, nearly a decade before American Football’s eventual reunion. He hadn’t thought about the recordings since until the approach of the LP1s 20 year anniversary reminded him of their existence.

American Football will play Riot Fest in Chicago this weekend on Sunday 9/15, following gigs in Kansas City and St. Louis tonight and Saturday night respectively. The band are also excited to announce an intimate three night stand at Schubas Tavern, with shows on December 29th, 30th, and culminating on New Years Eve. The shows will coincide with the legendary Chicago venue’s 30th anniversary. All upcoming tour dates are listed below.

Track Listing

1. Five Silent Miles (Demo)
2. Song #1 / Song #2 (Demo)
3. The Summer Ends (Demo)
4. For Sure (Demo)

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