Analphabetapolothology

Released January 8, 1998 via Jade Tree, Analphabetapolothology collects the recorded works of Cap'n Jazz. The band formed in Buffalo Grove, Illinois, in 1989 as Toe Jam, with high-school friends Tim Kinsella on vocals, Victor Villarreal on guitar, Sam Zurick on bass and Tim's younger brother Mike Kinsella on drums. Davey von Bohlen joined on second guitar in 1993 and started The Promise Ring on the side a year later. Their only album came out in spring 1995 under a title too long for any spine, 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, and they broke up that July, on tour, after a show in Little Rock.

Twenty-four tracks on vinyl gather the album, a gleefully unhinged cover of a-ha's "Take On Me" that had never been released before, "Tokyo" and "Ooh Do I Love You," and a run of early singles and compilation cuts from "Hey Ma, Do I Hafta Choke On These" to "Sergio Valente." Villarreal's tapped, tangled guitar lines, Tim Kinsella's yelped word-salad poetry, cracking and strained at the top of his range, and a rhythm section that plays like a house collapsing in odd time signatures. Songs drift, erupt and still find a pop hook. The blueprint the whole genre traced afterward, and Pitchfork gave it 8.5.

The family tree alone justifies the shelf space: von Bohlen fronted The Promise Ring, Tim Kinsella went on to Joan of Arc and Owls, and Mike Kinsella to American Football and Owen. Every twinkly guitar and confessional yelp of the last three decades routes back through these sessions.

2010 US reissue on two 180g black LPs in a gatefold.