Does it seem strange to anyone else that Cap’n Jazz isn’t talked about more often these days in the context of influential early 90’s independent rock? Maybe I’m just talking music with the wrong crowd (couscottgh), but it seems to me that they should be right up there with the likes of Archers of Loaf, Superchunk, and Chavez in that general era. I mean: weird rambling lyrics, angular guitars that can’t seem to decide what to do, breakneck tempos, awful singing/screaming interspersed with quirky melodies… If that doesn’t equate to a spot in the indie rock canon, I don’t know what does. I guess they have the highly undesirable, unwanted, and undeserved emo tag attached to them, which is incredibly unfair considering how much that term has devolved since 1990 when they were still kicking it. un. Cap’n Jazz is just rock music with Tim Kinsella singing.
Anyway, end rant. Here’s one of my favorite tracks off their lone available release, Analphabetapolothology. I love how instead of trying to walk that fine line between being edgy and being melodic, they blatantly sprint back and forth, with no one in the band seemingly knowing which side they’re suppose to be on at any one time.