American Football’s Year One Demos, a collection of previously unreleased and newly mastered instrumental demos are out today, marking the 20th anniversary of the band’s seminal eponymous debut LP.

“American Football was never intended to be a real band,” Steve Holmes writes in the liner notes. “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.”

You can listen to Year One Demos now on all digital platforms and if you managed to miss the vinyl pressing a little bird told me there will be copies available at the band's intimate three night stand at Schubas Tavern in Chicago this month, with shows on the 29th [SOLD OUT], 30th, 31st. Tickets onsale now with very few remaining!

Year One also closes out a phenomenal year for the band that included the release of American Football (LP3). Their latest album earned widespread praise upon its release, and has recently been included in NPR's Best of 2019 list –

“The band's third eponymous album (and second since reuniting in 2014) is impressionistic in its quietly bursting arrangements and attuned to the individual talents of its vocal guests (Land of Talk's Elizabeth Powell, Slowdive's Rachel Goswell and a stunning duet with Paramore's Hayley Williams).”