by chuck bell
It is truly incredible how an entire music scene can boil down to just one band. Not only did Cap’n Jazz change the 90’s indie rock scene in Chicago, but they did so while they were all still just a bunch of kids. Brothers Tim and Mike Kinsella formed the band in 1989, when they were only 15 and 12 years old, respectively. With Tim on vocals and Mike on drums, they were later joined by bassist Sam Zurick and guitarist Victor Villareal. In the early 90’s, they put out a handful of singles on various Chicago indie label compilations, and released the extremely long titled 7″, Sometimes If You Stand Further Away From Something, It Does Not Seem As Big. Sometimes If You Stand So Close To Something, You Can Not Tell What You Are Looking At in 1993. Their sound was often sloppy, but surprisingly technical, resulting in a sort of calculated chaos. Tim’s vocals were often out of tune, but always endearing. They could easily have been mistaken for Fugazi’s teenage little brothers.
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With the addition of second guitarist/vocalist Davey von Bohlen in 1994, the group recorded their only full length, the obnoxiously titled, Burritos, Inspiration Point, Fork Balloon Sports, Cards in Spokes, Automatic Biographies, Kites, Kung Fu, Trophies, Banana Peels We’ve Slipped on and Egg Shells We’ve Tippy Toed Over. Most people just referred to the album as Shmap’n Shmazz. The album was released on a small label, Man With Gun Records, which did not have the means to properly distribute the record. Because of their tendency to put their material out on tiny labels, all of their releases have since become nearly impossible to track down. After a few months of touring, the band broke up in July of 1995, following a show at Das Yutes a Go-Go in Little Rock, AR. All of the members had been working on side projects, which they began to pursue much more seriously. Today, it is difficult to find an indie band that has come out of Chicago in the past 15 years that has not drawn some inspiration from Cap’n Jazz or their various spin-off bands.
After Cap’n Jazz broke up, Zurick and Villareal formed the instrumental group Ghosts & Vodka. Mike Kinsella went on to become the singer/guitarist in American Football. Both bands broke up after only one proper full length. Mike has since been performing under the name Owen, having just released his fifth solo album. He has also worked on a number of projects with his brother Tim, including the experimental Joan of Arc, which still exists today as a collective of Chicagoland musicians. Tim has also recently been working with the touring version of Joan of Arc, called Make Believe. Von Bohlen moved back to Milwaukee and started the famously under-appreciated band The Promise Ring, and is currently playing in Maritime. In 1998, Jade Tree Records released a collection of all of the songs that Cap’n Jazz ever recorded, the double-disc Analphabetapolothology. In the liner notes, the band informs the reader, “You hold a self-gratifying and indulgent object.” Despite their dismissive attitude toward their early work, the band (with the exception of von Bohlen) reunited in 2001, and recorded a self-titled LP under the name Owls. There has not been any talk of another reunion since Owls, but with the staggering amount of output they have created collectively, there is luckily a great deal to explore outside of Cap’n Jazz.
