American Football never meant to pioneer ‘midwest emo.’ Their new LP is far from it.

Here’s a story that might sound familiar: A band gets together, releases an album and promptly breaks up, never to be heard from again.

American Football didn’t suffer that fate. Yes, they released a debut album and broke up, but that album took on a life of its own, becoming a cult classic and a landmark of Midwest emo.

The band reunited in 2014 and began making new music that felt just as vital. Their latest self-titled album (LP4) might be their best yet. It’s dense, layered, lush, and it takes chances.

Today, Mike Kinsella, Nate Kinsella, Steve Lamos and Steve Holmes join us to talk about how they’ve grown as musicians and people over the past 25 years, and how they feel about the term “Midwest emo.”

This episode of World Cafe was produced and edited by Miguel Perez. Our senior producer is Kimberly Junod and our engineer is Chris Williams. Our programming and booking coordinator is Chelsea Johnson and our line producer is Will Loftus.