Mike Kinsella - AbsoluteAstronomy.com

Mike Kinsella is one of three musicians in his family (brother Tim Kinsella

Tim Kinsella

Tim Kinsella is a musician from Chicago, Illinois. He has been a part of many bands including Cap'n Jazz, The Sky Corvair, Joan of Arc, Owls, Friend/Enemy, Everyoned, and Make Believe...

and cousin Nate Kinsella

Nate Kinsella

Nate Kinsella , is an American musician who currently resides in Urbana, Illinois. Nate's musical resume is vast, including most notably projects such as Joan of Arc, Make Believe, Mata Hari and Decembers Architects. Nate assisted Mike Kinsella, his cousin, in the creation of Owen's I Do...

) involved in many Illinois-based bands (Cap'n Jazz

Cap'n Jazz

Cap'n Jazz was an emo band formed in Chicago in 1989 by brothers Tim and Mike Kinsella, who were joined by Sam Zurick and Victor Villareal. After a number of name changes and the addition of guitarist Davey von Bohlen the band began to earn a cult following in the Chicago area and the...

, Joan of Arc

Joan of Arc (band)

Joan of Arc are an American indie rock band from Chicago, Illinois. They formed in 1995, following the breakup of Cap'n Jazz.Singer Tim Kinsella has been the only permanent member of the group; he has also recorded as a solo artist....

, The One Up Downstairs, American Football

American Football (band)

American Football was an indie rock band from Champaign-Urbana, Illinois, active from 1997 to 2000. The band was formed by guitarist/bassist and singer Mike Kinsella and drummer Steve Lamos American Football was an indie rock band from Champaign-Urbana, Illinois, active from 1997 to 2000. The band...

, and Owen

Owen (band)

Owen is a solo project of Mike Kinsella, and part of the Chicago indie scene.Kinsella is one of the dominant and influential figures in the Chicago indie scene, having also led the band American Football, and played in the bands Cap'n Jazz, Joan of Arc and Owls .Owen is known for its soft melodies,...

). He was first recognized in the music scene in Cap'n Jazz

Cap'n Jazz

formed by his brother Tim in 1989 while at the age of 12. In 2001 Kinsella began his current solo project, Owen

Owen (band)

, in which he performs vocals, guitar, bass, drums, keyboards, loops, etc. Kinsella is also in a band, called The Shirts and Skins, with his wife.

To this day, Kinsella continues to play with Joan of Arc

Joan of Arc (band)

, as well as Owen. Many of Kinsella's albums including Owen
Owen (album)
Owen is the eponymous full length debut album by the band Owen. It was released on September 18, 2001.-Track listing:# "That Which Wasn't Said" – 2:11# "Most Days And" – 5:01# "Most Nights" – 2:14# "Accidentally" – 6:18...

and No Good for No One Now
No Good for No One Now
No Good for No One Now is the second studio album by Owen released on November 19, 2002.-Track listing:# "Nobody's Nothing" – 5:20# "Everyone Feels Like You" – 7:01# "Poor Souls" – 5:30# "The Ghost of What Should've Been" – 5:08# "Good Deeds" – 3:25...

were recorded in his mother's home.

Literary references

Mike Kinsella tends to reference literature often in his writing.

In American Football's "Letters and Packages," he references For Esmé – with Love and Squalor, a J. D. Salinger
J. D. Salinger
Jerome David Salinger was an American author, best known for his 1951 novel The Catcher in the Rye, as well as his reclusive nature. His last original published work was in 1965; he gave his last interview in 1980....

short story.
In the Owen album title, "No Good For No One Now," he is probably making a reference to a line from Gazebo, a Raymond Carver
Raymond Carver
Raymond Clevie Carver, Jr. was an American short story writer and poet. Carver is considered a major American writer of the late 20th century and also a major force in the revitalization of the short story in the 1980s....

short story.
Likewise, in Owen's "Gazebo" he suggests he is reading Raymond Carver
Raymond Carver
Raymond Clevie Carver, Jr. was an American short story writer and poet. Carver is considered a major American writer of the late 20th century and also a major force in the revitalization of the short story in the 1980s....

's What We Talk About When We Talk About Love
Raymond Carver
Raymond Clevie Carver, Jr. was an American short story writer and poet. Carver is considered a major American writer of the late 20th century and also a major force in the revitalization of the short story in the 1980s....

, and makes another reference to the short story Gazebo, with both the story and the song ending in the line "In this too, she was right."
In Owen's "The Sad Waltzes of Pietro Crespi," he references Gabriel García Márquez
Gabriel García Márquez
Gabriel José de la Concordia García Márquez is a Colombian novelist, short-story writer, screenwriter and journalist, known affectionately as Gabo throughout Latin America. He is considered one of the most significant authors of the 20th century. He was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature in...

's One Hundred Years of Solitude
One Hundred Years of Solitude
One Hundred Years of Solitude , by Gabriel García Márquez, is a novel which tells the multi-generational story of the Buendía family, whose patriarch, José Arcadio Buendía, founds the town of Macondo, the metaphoric Colombia...

.
In Owen's "I Woke Up Today," he references T. S. Eliot
T. S. Eliot
Thomas Stearns "T. S." Eliot OM was a playwright, literary critic, and arguably the most important English-language poet of the 20th century. Although he was born an American he moved to the United Kingdom in 1914 and was naturalised as a British subject in 1927 at age 39.The poem that made his...

's poem "The Hollow Men
The Hollow Men
The Hollow Men is a major poem by T. S. Eliot. Its themes are, like many of Eliot's poems, overlapping and fragmentary, but it is recognised to be concerned most with post-World War I Europe under the Treaty of Versailles , the difficulty of hope and religious conversion, and, as some critics...

."

Discography

Year	Title	Band	Label	Format	Additional Information
1994	Burritos...(AKA: Shmap’n Shmazz)	Cap'n Jazz	Man With Gun Records	LP/CD	Drums/Vocals
1997	A Portable Model of...	Joan of Arc	Jade Tree Records	LP/CD	Drums
1998	Analphabetapolothology	Cap'n Jazz	Jade Tree Records	2xCD	Cap'n Jazz Anthology. Drums/Vocals
1998	Self Titled EP	American Football	Polyvinyl Records	EP/CD	Guitar/Vocals
1999	American Football	American Football	Polyvinyl Records Polyvinyl Record Co. Polyvinyl Record Co. is an American independent record label based in Champaign, Illinois. It has released notable records by of Montreal, Japandroids, Braid, Mates of State and many others.-History:...	LP/CD	Bass/Vocals
1999	Live in Chicago	Joan of Arc	Jade Tree Records	LP/CD	Drums, not a live album.
2000	Gap	Joan of Arc	Jade Tree Records	LP/CD	Drums
2000	The Jordan Marx EP	Dantom Sucks Theory	Unknown	EP/CD	Listed as playing "Sexy"
2001	Owls Owls (album) Owls is the only studio album by Chicago based Indie rock band Owls.Owls was featured in The A.V. Club's Best Music of the Decade "orphan" list .-Track listing:# "What Whorse You Wrote Id On"...	Owls Owls (band) Owls was an emo indie rock band from Chicago, Illinois, from 2001-2002. The band was formed by the original lineup of seminal experimental emo indie band Cap'n Jazz soon after its second breakup ; Cap'n Jazz guitarist Davey von Bohlen, who played in the band's second incarnation, had gone on to...	Jade Tree Records	LP/CD	Drums
2001	Owen	Owen	Polyvinyl Records	CD	Guitar/Vocals
2002	Heart's Desire	Niamh Parsons	Green Linnet	CD	Harmonica
2002	No Good For No One Now	Owen	Polyvinyl Records	CD	Guitar/Vocals
2002	Open Ground	Kyle Fischer	Polyvinyl Records	CD	Drums
2003	Best of Altan	The Songs Altan	Green Linnet Records Green Linnet Records Green Linnet Records was an American independent record label that specialized in Celtic music. Founded by Lisa Null and Patrick Sky as Innisfree Records in 1973, the label was initially based in Null's house in New Canaan, Connecticut. In 1975, the label became Innisfree/Green Linnet and Wendy...	CD	Harmonica
2003	In Rape Fantasy and Terror Sex We Trust	Joan of Arc	Perishable Records Perishable Records Perishable Records is an independent record label founded by Chicago musicians Ben Massarella and Tim Rutili. Some artists include Califone, HiM, Joan of Arc, oRSo, Red Red Meat, and Fruit Bats....	CD	Bass, Percussion, Drums
2003	So Much Staying Alive and Lovelessness	Joan of Arc	Jade Tree Records	CD	Bass, Drums
2004	Anyone in Love With You (Already Knows)	Rainer Maria	Polyvinyl Records	CD	Tambourine
2004	The Rutabega/Owen Split EP	Owen	Polyvinyl Records	CD	Guitar/Vocals
2004	Total Eclipse of the Heart	The Love of Everything	Record Label Records	CD	Drums
2004	The EP	Owen	Polyvinyl Records	CD	Guitar/Vocals
2004	Joan of Arc, Dick Cheney, Mark Twain	Joan of Arc	Polyvinyl Records	CD	Drums
2005	I Do Perceive	Owen	Polyvinyl Records	CD	Guitar/Vocals
2005	Association of Utopian Hologram Swallowers	Owen	Polyvinyl Records	CD	Guitar/Vocals
2005	Presents Guitar Duets	Joan of Arc	Record Label Records	CD	Guitar
2006	At Home With Owen	Owen	Polyvinyl Records	CD	Guitar/Piano/Vocals
2007	Many Times I've Mistaken	Joan of Arc	Polyvinyl Records	EP/CD	Guitar
2007	Owen/The City on Film Split 7"	Owen	Red Cars Go Faster	7" vinyl	Guitar/Piano/Organ/Vocals
2008	Boo Human	Joan of Arc	Polyvinyl Records	LP/CD	Drums
2009	The Seaside EP The Seaside EP The Seaside EP is a rarities release by Chicago artist Owen. It was released on July 7, 2009 by Polyvinyl Records digitally and as a CD . The album was said to ship on June 26, 2009, but was sent out a week earlier as Polyvinyl received them. The EP's cover art was designed by UK illustrator David...	Owen	Polyvinyl Records	CD	Guitar/Vocals
2009	New Leaves New Leaves New Leaves is the fifth full-length studio album by Chicago artist Mike Kinsella under the name Owen. It was released on September 22, 2009 on Polyvinyl Records.-Track listing:#"New Leaves" - 4:12#"Good Friends, Bad Habits" - 3:54...	Owen	Polyvinyl Records	CD	Guitar/Vocals/etc.
2010	Abandoned Bridge	Owen	Polyvinyl Records	7" EP	Guitar/Vocals
2010	Darling, Darling	Crissi Cochrane	Independent	CD	Drums/Guitar
2011	Oh, Evelyn	Owen	Polyvinyl Records	7" EP	Guitar/Vocals/etc.

External links

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