Cap'n Jazz: Analphabetapolothology (2LP) [JADE TREE]

Why you'll love it

This 180g 2LP set comes in a gatefold jacket with a 12-inch booklet of liner notes. It gathers the Chicago-area band's whole short life in one place: their album, singles, compilation tracks, demos and a cover of a-ha's "Take On Me."

This edition

• 2LP set
• 180g vinyl
• Gatefold jacket
• 12-inch booklet

About the album

Brothers Tim and Mike Kinsella started the band as teenagers in Buffalo Grove, Illinois, under the name Toe Jam, before settling on Cap'n Jazz. They made one full-length album, a record with a title so long it was nicknamed Shmap'n Shmazz, and split in July 1995 after a show in Little Rock. In 1998 Jade Tree gathered everything they'd recorded into this anthology.

Sides A and B hold that album, recorded in December 1994 by Casey Rice: "Little League," "Oh Messy Life" and "Puddle Splashers" are all yelping vocals, tangled guitars and sudden bursts of melody, with Victor Villarreal's playing pointing the way for a whole generation of Midwest emo. The second disc rounds up the rest, from the a-ha cover to "Forget Who We Are" and "Olerud," the last two songs they ever wrote, along with singles and compilation cuts.

The members scattered into Joan of Arc, American Football, Owls, Owen, The Promise Ring and Make Believe, and the anthology became the band's calling card for every emo revival since. The title, for the record, is a good deal easier to sing along to than it is to spell at the till.

Also at Kops: more Cap'n Jazz on vinyl · browse Alternative

Tracklist

Listen

On Jade Tree (cat# JT1036), a reissue of the 1998 compilation.