Shmap'n Shmazz

File:Timkinsella.jpg (pictured, 2006) was the frontman for Cap'n Jazz and formed the band during his high school years.]]

In 1989, Tim Kinsella met Sam Zurick on the first day of high school and became friends due to their mutual taste in music. Tim later met Victor Villarreal while skateboarding at Wheeling High School. Villarreal introduced Tim to his band, Toe Jam. Toe Jam contained two other members at the time: Jim, a neighbor of Villarreal, and Jeff, the high school's football star running back.{{sfn|Gormley|2014}} Tim joined the band as a guitarist, Zurick joined as a "roadie", and Tim's younger brother, Mike, joined as a rhythm guitarist.{{sfn|Gormley|2014}} Despite these initial collaborations, the songs produced by the original lineup of Toe Jam failed to captivate Tim and Mike, who found the music "mundane".{{sfn|Gormley|2014}}{{sfn|Terry|2016}}

Jim and Jeff later quit the band. After their departure, the remaining band members overhauled the band; Zurick started playing bass guitar, while Mike started playing drums after being gifted a drum kit by his mother.{{sfn|Gormley|2014}}{{sfn|Terry|2016}} The band chose the name "Cap'n Jazz" after Zurick blurted the name while eating the cereal Cap'n Crunch with the band.{{sfn|Gormley|2014}} The band started touring and recording multiple extended plays. Davey von Bohlen, from Milwaukee, joined the band as a second guitarist, having previously played in the band Ten Boy Summer.{{sfn|Gormley|2014}} In 1994, Mark Corley, the owner of the record label Man With Gun, persuaded Tim to record a full-length album for the label.{{sfn|Gormley|2014}}

The band recorded the album at Idful Music Corporation, owned by Brad Wood, while Casey Rice produced the album. While recording for vocals, little thought was put into structure, which Tim said hindered his relearning of the lyrics.{{sfn|Gill|2017}} Pitchfork{{'s}} Ian Cohen noted the vocal structure as the band focused on "shout first, process later".{{sfn|Cohen|2018}} The band recorded the album during the final five days of 1994.{{sfn|Kinsella|1995}}

{{Listen

| filename = Cap'n Jazz - Little League.ogg

| title = Cap'n Jazz - Little League

| description = A 24-second sample clip of the second verse in Little League, the opening track in the album. Tim equivocally describes a "Ringwald haze" and bruises.

| pos =

}}

Musically, the album is described as "frantic," and has been categorized as math rock, post-hardcore, and emo with its subgenre Midwest emo.{{sfn|Cohen|2018}}{{Cite web |date=2020-05-12 |title=The 20 best pre-2000s emo albums |url=https://www.kerrang.com/early-emo-albums-best-american-football-saves-the-day |access-date=2025-04-18 |website=Kerrang! |language=en}} However, Tim believed it was more of a different type of punk at the time, claiming it was "weirdo punk". Tim's cousin Nate Kinsella said the uniqueness of the songs made him assume that Tim "was a manic".{{sfn|Staple|2017|loc=21:56-22:36}} Theo Katsaounis, a future drummer for the band Joan of Arc where Tim was the frontman, also noted that he would "freak out" with a French horn on live sessions.{{sfn|Staple|2017|loc=21:56-22:36}} AllMusic's Steve Huey describes the band as shifting from emo's musical focus to post-hardcore and post-punk to a more art punk style.{{sfn|Huey}}

{{Quote box |quote=When Cap'n Jazz was happening, we didn't ever thought of ourselves as an emo band. Maybe they all called this "emo band"

but I thought we were like "weirdo punk band". I never felt connected to [the emo] scene. It was also like jockish, you know?|author=—Tim Kinsella{{sfn|Staple|2017|loc=24:33-24:53}} |source= |width = 33%|align = left}}

Tim wrote most of the album's lyrics and recorded his vocals with a naïve art style and amateur singing, becoming the band's focal point.{{sfn|Cohen|2018}}{{sfn|Huey}} Critics described Tim's lyrics as cryptic and surrealist.{{sfn|Cohen|2018}}{{sfn|Huey}} Tim claimed that most of the lyrics were written when he took psilocybin mushrooms for the first time.{{sfn|Gill|2017}} Pitchfork{{'s}} Ian Cohen has said that, despite the enigmatic lyrics and "incomprehensible guitar interplay", it still expressed the same ideas as other influential emo bands like Rites of Spring or Sunny Day Real Estate.{{sfn|Cohen|2018}} Bob Nanna, who played in the emo band Braid, is credited on the song "Yes, I Am Talking to You" for the line "I'm dying to tell you I'm dying".{{sfn|Kinsella|1995}} The band also credited Ryan Rapsys for the track "Precious" and Kevin J. Frank for "¡Qué Suerté!".{{sfn|Kinsella|1995}}

The album was released in 1995 through Man With Gun Records. To promote the album, the band embarked on a tour. However, at the time, Zurick and Villarreal were addicted to drugs to the point where both of them thought Tim was straight-edge since he did not "[show] up to school on acid every day".{{sfn|Staple|2017|loc=25:12-25:34}} Mike commented on the band's attempts to intervene on the problem, particularly about Villarreal, but no successful attempt was made.{{sfn|Staple|2017|loc=26:22-27:18}}

After playing a show in the first week of the tour in Little Rock, Arkansas, Villarreal was seen by the other band members urinating all over himself and other equipment.{{sfn|Staple|2017|loc=27:44-29:35}}{{sfn|Cohen|2018}} Band members described the moment as terrifying due to his eyes being "rolled back", how his body being "jitterily", and Villarreal being uncommunicative.{{sfn|Staple|2017|loc=27:44-29:35}} The band transported Villarreal to an emergency room, where it was revealed that Villarreal suffered an overdose caused by Ritalin.{{sfn|Staple|2017|loc=27:44-29:35}}

Villarreal was released to the band members the morning after, although still unconscious.{{sfn|Staple|2017|loc=27:44-29:35}} The band members were conflicted on the course of action the band should take. Von Bohlen and Tim advocated for canceling upcoming tour dates and continuing with the tour, while Mike and Zurick insisted on disbanding. Ultimately, Cap'n Jazz disbanded, leading to the end of the tour as the band members returned home.{{sfn|Staple|2017|loc=29:36-30:50}} Several members pursued other musical endeavors following the dissolution. Von Bohlen formed The Promise Ring, Mike attended the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign and formed American Football there, Tim formed Joan of Arc, and Villarreal and Zurick created Ghosts and Vodka.{{sfn|Huey}}

Due to the band breaking up shortly after the release, the album received minimal attention from publications.{{sfn|Cohen|2018}} The band reissued their album, including their extended plays, appearances in compilation albums, and unreleased content on their anthology album on Jade Tree titled Analphabetapolothology in 1998.{{sfn|Kelley|1998}} This was due to many fans contacting the band members about how they could find the album during their concerts with other bands.{{sfn|Kelley|1998}} Jason Ankeny of AllMusic called the reissue "excellent".{{sfn|Ankeny}} Nick Mirov of Pitchfork called it the "Holy Grail to the post-emo indie-rock world".{{sfn|Mirov|1999}} Mirov further praised Tim's vocals for his rapid-fire delivery of lyrics, describing the album as a "messy glory".{{sfn|Mirov|1999}} Folk singer Devendra Banhart described Cap'n Jazz as inspiring in his career due to how Tim attempts to be Arthur Rimbaud and compared Tim's vocals to "going to the zoo on quaaludes, but all the other animals are on speed".{{sfn|Staple|2017|loc=22:35-22:44}}

Shmap'n Shmazz is considered to be a significant influence on the Midwest emo scene.{{sfn|Cohen|2018}}{{sfn|Huey}} NME listed the album as one of "20 Emo Albums That Have Resolutely Stood The Test of Time".{{sfn|Barker|2015}} In Rolling Stone{{'s}} list of the 40 greatest emo albums of all time, the album came in 7th, with Suzy Exposito writing that the album was "a significant blueprint for dozens of emo and post-hardcore acts to follow".{{sfn|Exposito|2016}} The opening track, "Little League", appeared 3rd on a best-of emo songs list by Vulture.{{sfn|Cohen|Anthony|Corcoran|Garland|2020}} Vulture described the song as "like a teenager's bedroom — a seemingly incoherent mess that, upon closer inspection, reveals the most intimate secrets".{{sfn|Cohen|Anthony|Corcoran|Garland|2020}} Several bands and artists have cited Shmap'n Shmazz and Cap'n Jazz as influences on their music, including Algernon Cadwallader,{{sfn|Conoley|2009}} Ryley Walker,{{sfn|Alexander|2021}} and The Get Up Kids.{{sfn|Skinner|2009}}

File:DaveyVonBohlen.jpg

Many of the band members reflected positively on the record. Villarreal claimed that the music they recorded was therapeutic and allowed him to release his emotions.{{sfn|Staple|2017|loc=18:30-19:00}} However, band member von Bohlen was rather dismissive about the album after its release.{{sfn|Kelley|1998}} He cited only "regret and contempt" for the recording in an attempt by the Phoenix New Times for an interview in 1997.{{sfn|Kelley|1998}} When Phoenix New Times interviewed Tim about Cap'n Jazz, he said that von Bohlen might hold some contempt due to him having to commute an hour and a half for practice, his appearance in the band being short, and von Bohlen not getting along with Villarreal.{{sfn|Kelley|1998}} Von Bohlen specifically said that the commute was the main issue. He stated that when his car died, he was "Greyhound-bussing it to Chicago after work" and wanted to join another band.{{sfn|Grubbs|2008|p=160}} Cap'n Jazz reunited for multiple tours, but although present during Cap'n Jazz's 2010 reunion, von Bohlen was notably absent from the 2017 reunion due to scheduling conflicts, with Cap'n Jazz's 2025 reunion having Tim and Mike's cousin Nate fill in for von Bohlen.{{sfn|Sacher|2017}}{{sfn|Jones|2024}}

Shmap'n Shmazz has been reissued by Polyvinyl, first on cassette in 2018 and then on vinyl in 2025.{{sfn|Minsker|2018}}{{sfn|Sacher|2025}}

All music by Cap'n Jazz. All songs produced by Casey Rice.{{sfn|Kinsella|1995}}

{{tracklist

| headline = Shmap'n Shmazz track listing

| extra_column = Lyricist

| title1 = Little League

| extra1 = {{hlist|Tim Kinsella}}

| length1 = 3:57

| title2 = Oh Messy Life

| extra2 = Tim Kinsella

| length2 = 2:03

| title3 = Puddle Splashers

| extra3 = Tim Kinsella

| length3 = 2:07

| title4 = Flashpoint: Catheter

| extra4 = Tim Kinsella

| length4 = 3:21

| title5 = In The Clear

| extra5 = Tim Kinsella

| length5 = 1:58

| title6 = Yes, I Am Talking To You

| extra6 = {{hlist|Tim Kinsella|Bob Nanna}}

| length6 = 2:32

| title7 = Basil's Kite

| extra7 = Tim Kinsella

| length7 = 2:36

| title8 = Bluegrassish

| extra8 = Tim Kinsella

| length8 = 1:08

| title9 = Planet Shhh

| extra9 = Tim Kinsella

| length9 = 3:00

| title10 = The Sands've Turned Purple

| extra10 = Tim Kinsella

| length10 = 2:45

| title11 = Precious

| extra11 = {{hlist|Ryan Rapsys|Tim Kinsella}}

| length11 = 2:39

| title12 = ¡Qué Suerté!

| extra12 = {{hlist|Tim Kinsella|Kevin J. Frank}}

| length12 = 3:02

| total_length=31:10

}}

The album's personnel are found in its booklet.{{sfn|Kinsella|1995}}

• Tim Kinsella – lead vocals (credited for "belts")
• Davey von Bohlen – guitar, backing vocals
• Victor Villarreal – guitar
• Sam Zurick – bass
• Mike Kinsella – drums

;Additional personnel

• Anja Westerweck – backing vocals (on track 1, credited for "kitty, kitty cats")
• Casey Rice – tambourine (on tracks 1, 3), recording, mixing
• Kevin J. Frank – piano (on track 8), songwriting (on track 12)
• Ryan Rapsys - songwriting (on track 11)
• Bob Nanna - songwriting (on track 6, credited for the line "I'm dying to tell you I'm dying")

{{notelist}}

{{Reflist}}

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• {{Musicbrainz release group|f73c53b4-0ffe-3eb2-a71d-2ec2d2386557}}

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Category:Cap'n Jazz albums

Category:1995 debut albums

Category:Emo albums by American artists

Category:Art punk albums

Category:Post-hardcore albums by American artists