Cap'n Jazz - Basil’s Kite

I have talked about the genre Midwest Emo quite a few times over the years, and if there is one band that helped codify what Midest Emo is all about, it is Cap'n Jazz from Buffalo Grove, Illinois. The band consisted of a collection of high school friends making energetic and haphazard punk music that always sounded like it was on the verge of falling apart. Tim Kinsella’s vocal style was a combination of amateurish singing, shouting, and talking, expressing a surrealistic stream-of-conscious wordplay. Instrumentally, Cap'n Jazz was a combination of jangly and melodic guitar lines, occasionally punctuated by a rapid tempo change or a burst of guitar virtuosity, with the rhythm section just barely holding it all together. The band only released a single full length album, the ridiculously titled Burritos, Inspiration Point, Fork Balloon Sports, Cards in the Spokes, Automatic Biographies, Kites, Kung Fu, Trophies, Banana Peels We’ve Slipped on and Egg Shells We’ve Tippy-Toed Over (often referred to as Schmap’n Schmazz), before breaking up in 1995 during their first tour due to drug issues with their guitarist, Victor Villarreal. Despite the band’s short existence, they were the template for what has become Midwest Emo. A remastered version of Schmap’n Schmazz was just released in 2025 to celebrate the album’s 30th anniversary, and the band is getting back together to play a few shows in June and July of 2025.

Camping in Alaska - Turncoat

I first came across the Midwest Emo group Camping in Alaska via a YouTube recommendation. Their mixture of melodic guitar lines and whiny vocals, occasionally punctuated by impassioned shouting, really struck a chord with me. Despite having Alaska in their name, the band is from Huntsville, Alabama, having formed when Austin Davis (lead vocals, rhythm guitar) and Jacob Stewart (drums) were only 15 years old. They released their first album, please be nice, in 2013 when they were still teenagers. In the next three years they released two other albums, BATHE (2014) and WELCOME HOME SON (2016), before dissolving due to the band struggling with drug addiction. Fortunately, the band reformed in 2023 to release a 3 song EP called Hollow Eyes. And now, in the final days of 2024, they have released their latest full length record, Eggbeater Jesus! The name and album art is derived from a mural of Jesus on the First Baptist Church Huntsville, where Jesus’ robes look suspiciously like a whirling eggbeater.

Camping in Alaska - why can't i be snowing?

Anyone who has stuck around here long enough will know that I have a soft spot for Midwestern Emo, a subgenre of emo music that does not necessarily hail from the midwest. The genre revels more in the melodic guitar lines of indie rock than the unrestrained anger of the emo’s forefathers in the hardcore punk scene. YouTube’s algorithms have done a great job of helping me find Midwestern Emo, with the band Camping in Alaska being one of the highlights. 

Song Highlight: Cloud District - 2sad2swim

Spotify informed me that the genre that I listened to most over 2021 was Midwestern Emo. You might remember me talking about the genre in my post about The World Is a Beautiful Place & I Am No Longer Afraid to Die. It is a branch of emo music that is usually characterized by unconventional vocals (sometimes whiny with moments of abrasiveness) and glimmering guitar lines, making it more approachable than some of the more hardcore-influenced emo bands. A friend of mine recently turned me on to the New York-based emo band Cloud District, and they fit in neatly with the whiney, introspective emo music that I have really come to enjoy.