Shmap'n Shmazz

In 1989, Tim Kinsella met Sam Zurick on the first day of school and became friends due to their shared music taste. 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: a neighbor of Villarreal, Jim, and the high school's football star running back, Jeff. Tim joined the band as a guitarist. Zurick also joined the band as a "roadie" and Tim's younger brother, Mike, joined the band as a rhythm guitarist. 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".

Jim and Jeff quit the band, but the remaining members still wanted to play in the overhauled the band, putting Zurick on bass guitar while Mike took drums after being gifted a drum kit from his mother. The band name chosed the name "Cap'n Jazz" after Zurick blurted the name while eating the cereal Cap'n Crunch with the band. The band started touring and recording multiple extended plays. Davey von Bohlen, from Milwaukee, Wisconsin, joined the band as a second guitarist, who played before in the band Ten Boy Summer. In 1994, Mark Corley, the owner of the record label Man With Gun, persuaded Tim to record a full-length album for the label. Tim accepted the deal to record the album.

The band recorded at Idful Music Corporation, owned by Brad Wood. Casey Rice would produce the album. When recording for vocals, little thought was put into structure, which Tim said hindered his relearning of the lyrics. Pitchfork's Ian Cohen noted the vocal structure as the band focused on "shout first, process later". The band recorded the album during the final five days of 1994.

Musically, the album has been described as Midwest emo, but Tim, at the time, believed it was more of a different type of punk, claiming it was "weirdo punk". The album has also been described as math rock and post-hardcore. The music was often commented on its irregular techniques. For example, Theo Katsaounis, a future drummer for the band Joan of Arc, where Tim would later be the frontman, noted that Tim would "freak out" with a French horn, which was uncommon in punk rock. 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.

Tim wrote most of the lyrics and recorded his vocals with naïveté and amateur singing, which became the band's focal points. The lyrics were described by critics as cryptic and surrealist. Tim said that he made most of his lyrics when he took psilocybin mushrooms for the first time. Pitchfork's Ian Cohen said that despite the enigmatic lyrics it still expresses the same ideas from other influential emo bands like Rite of Spring or Sunny Day Real Estate. Bob Nanna is credited on the song "Yes, I Am Talking to You" for the line "I'm dying to tell you I'm dying". The band also credited Ryan Rapsys for the track "Precious" and Kevin J. Frank for "¡Qué Suerté!".

The album was released in 1995 through Man With Gun Records. Despite its limited mainstream exposure, it garnered a favorable reception within the local midwestern emo scene. In efforts 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 due to not "showing up to school on acid every day". Mike commented on the band's attempts to intervene on the problem, particularly about Villarreal, but no successful attempt was made.

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. Band members described the moment as terrifying due to his eyes being "rolled back", how his body was "jitterily", and uncommunicative The band transported Villarreal to an emergency room and was concluded that he suffered a non-lethal overdose of Ritalin.

Villarreal was released to the band members the morning after, although still unconscious. The band members were conflicted on the course of action the band should take; while Von Bohlen and Tim advocated for canceling upcoming tour dates and continuing with the tour, Mike and Zurick insisted on disbanding. Ultimately, Cap'n Jazz disbanded, leading to the end of the tour as the band members returned home. 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.

Due to the band breaking up shortly after the release, the album received minimal attention from publications. However, the band reissued their album, including their extended plays and appearances in compilation albums, on their anthology album on Jade Tree titled Analphabetapolothology in 1998. This was due to many fans contacting the band members on how they could find their out-of-print records during their concerts in other bands. Jason Ankeny of AllMusic called the reissue "excellent". Nick Mirov of Pitchfork called it the "Holy Grail to the post-emo indie-rock world". Nick further praised Tim's vocal for his rapid-fire delivery of lyrics, describing the album as a "messy glory". 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".

Shmap'n Shmazz is considered to be a significant influence on the Midwest emo scene. NME listed the album as one of "20 Emo Albums That Have Resolutely Stood The Test of Time". 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". "Little League" appeared 3rd on a best-of emo songs list by Vulture. Vulture described the song as a "teenager's bedroom" where "a seemingly incoherent mess that, upon closer inspection, reveals the most intimate secrets". Many bands and artists cite Shmap'n Shmazz and Cap'n Jazz as influences on their music, including Algernon Cadwallader, Ryley Walker, and The Get Up Kids.

While many of the band members reflect positively, such as Villarreal claiming that the music they recorded was therapeutic to him and that it helped him to release his emotions, band member von Bohlen was rather dismissive about the album after release. He cited only "regret and contempt" for the recording in an attempt by the Phoenix New Times for an interview in 1997. When Phoenix New Times interviewed Tim about Cap'n Jazz, he said that von Bohlen might hold some contempt for commuting an hour and a half for practice, that the band only lasted for a couple of years, and that he did not get along with Villarreal. Although present during Cap'n Jazz's 2010 reunion, von Bohlen was notably absent from the 2017 reunion due to scheduling conflicts.

All music by Cap'n Jazz. All songs produced by Casey Rice.

Personnel per booklet.

• Tim Kinsella – lead vocals (credited as "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)
• 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")

Notes

Citations

Sources

• Shmap'n Shmazz at MusicBrainz (list of releases)