Joan Of Arc
An enduring indie rock project that fascinates with persistent experimentation, Joan of Arc formed in Chicago following the breakup of emocore band Cap'n Jazz in 1995. Tim Kinsella proved to be the only consistent member over the decades and lineups that followed as the group negotiated emo intimacy, punk influence, and post-rock atmospherics with albums of melodic rock, dark instrumentals, noise experiments, protest song, and high-concept theater music. Joan of Arc made their full-length debut with the off-kilter emo of A Portable Model of Joan of Arc in 1997, then consistently pushed boundaries and challenged expectations across releases like Joan of Arc, Dick Cheney, Mark Twain (2004), the historical court case-inspired Testimonium Songs (2013), and, after 20 years and even more albums, He's Got the Whole This Land Is Your Land in His Hands (2017), an improvisation-based set that reached the Top 30 of the Billboard Independent Albums chart. They broke up in 2020, recording their final album, Tim Melina Theo Bobby, knowing it would be their final statement.
Singer/guitarist Tim Kinsella, drummer Mike Kinsella, and bassist Sam Zurick came from Cap'n Jazz; when that band broke up, the trio wanted to change their musical direction. They did just that when they started playing with keyboardist/guitarist Jeremy Boyle and guitarist Erik Bocek in summer 1996, removing the boundaries and structures of punk and including more experimental elements like tape loops and electronics.
Calling themselves Joan of Arc, the group went on tour with their friends the Promise Ring (who also featured ex-Cap'n Jazz members) in August 1996. Joan of Arc's live set met with a strong, positive audience, just in time for their first 7" single, Method & Sentiment. After spending the fall of that year writing and recording, the band re-emerged in 1997 with A Portable Model of Joan of Arc, their full-length debut. The album continued Joan of Arc's evolution into an equally hard-hitting and progressive outfit that appealed to emo and post-rock fans alike. The following year they returned with How Memory Works, a more clearly stated version of their ambitious style. Joan of Arc rang in 1999 with the release of Live in Chicago 1999. Gap was released a year later. In February 2003, the band returned with So Much Staying Alive and Lovelessness, although plans for a much bigger release were skirted to the side. Three months later, that extra material found its way onto In Rape Fantasy and Terror Sex We Trust, capturing Tim and Mike Kinsella's darkest work yet. After moving to Polyvinyl, the band recorded the experimental Joan of Arc, Dick Cheney, Mark Twain and released the album in 2004. Eventually, All at Once, which the band described as a "casual folk-drone record," arrived in 2006 on Record Label. In October 2007, the band scored the creepy and instrumental Orchard Vale Soundtrack, and Boo! Human arrived in 2008.
Joan of Arc's lineup remained in flux throughout the 2000s, with Tim Kinsella always remaining at the center of the group. In 2009, the frontman decided to reach out to his former bandmates and assemble Don't Mind Control, a unique record featuring 18 different bands. Each group included a onetime member of Joan of Arc, and the resulting album included songs by Vacations, Ghosts and Vodka, and Pillars & Tongues. Another collaborative record, Oh Brother, followed in 2011, although by that time the core band was a four-piece: Tim Kinsella, bassist Bobby Burg, and drummer Theo Katsaounis, joined by guitarist Victor Villareal. (Villareal and Kinsella were longtime friends who forged a new working relationship after Cap'n Jazz reunited in 2010.) The quartet returned from a month-long European tour and immediately entered Electrical Audio to record Life Like with Steve Albini. The release followed in May 2011. Testimonium Songs, an album that was high concept even for Joan of Arc, was released in 2013. The record was a document of songs written for a live collaboration with experimental theater group Every House Has a Door in the group's production based on poet Charles Reznikoff's Testimony, a translation of courtroom transcripts in cases of workplace negligence in early America. With Boyle back in the lineup to replace the departing Villareal, and artist/vocalist Melina Ausikaitis named as an official fifth member, He's Got the Whole This Land Is Your Land in His Hands arrived in early 2017. Following their full-length debut by 20 years, it marked their first appearance on Billboard charts including the Heatseekers and Independent Albums charts. Their next album was originally intended to be half Joan of Arc instrumentals and half a cappella by Ausikaitis. Tim asked his cousin and prior Joan of Arc collaborator Nate Kinsella to produce, and Nate quickly combined the two instead of keeping them separate. Featuring only Ausikaitis on lead vocals, the resulting 1984 was released in mid-2018. The band decided to break up sometime after touring for 1984 wrapped up, and they entered the studio one last time knowing the songs they were tracking would make up the last Joan of Arc album. That album, the volatile and disruptively beautiful Tim Melina Theo Bobby, was released in December of 2020.
All the members of the group continued making music in other forms after Joan of Arc disbanded. In 2024, Joyful Noise released A Window & a Mirror, a collection that compiled Joan of Arc's albums from 1996 to 2003, focusing on their time with their first label, Jade Tree. In addition to repressing the first five albums, certain editions of A Window & a Mirror also included an exclusive 7" with previously unreleased material, a hardbound book with photos and other ephemera from the time, and access to a massive online archive with hundreds of live songs, demos, and other uncommon Joan of Arc material from their lengthy career.
© Heather Phares & Marcy Donelson /TiVo
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Discography
44 album(s) • Sorted by Bestseller
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Tim Melina Theo Bobby
Alternative & Indie - Released by Joyful Noise Recordings on 4 Dec 2020
Available in24-Bit/44.1 kHz Stereo -
How Memory Works
Alternative & Indie - Released by Epitaph on 1 May 1998
Available in16-Bit/44.1 kHz Stereo -
A Portable Model Of
Alternative & Indie - Released by Epitaph on 1 Jun 1997
Available in16-Bit/44.1 kHz Stereo -
Life Like
Alternative & Indie - Released by Polyvinyl Records on 9 May 2011
Available in24-Bit/44.1 kHz Stereo -
Life Like (Joan of Arc)
Pop/Rock - Released by Polyvinyl Records on 9 May 2011
Available in16-Bit/44.1 kHz Stereo -
Boo Human
Alternative & Indie - Released by Polyvinyl Records on 20 May 2008
Available in16-Bit/44.1 kHz Stereo -
Live In Chicago, 1999 (Live)
Alternative & Indie - Released by Epitaph on 19 May 1999
Available in16-Bit/44.1 kHz Stereo -
He's Got the Whole This Land Is Your Land in His Hands
Alternative & Indie - Released by Joyful Noise Recordings on 20 Jan 2017
Available in16-Bit/44.1 kHz Stereo -
So Much Staying Alive And Lovelessness
Alternative & Indie - Released by Epitaph on 27 Jan 2003
Available in16-Bit/44.1 kHz Stereo -
Joan of Arc's Greatest Hits
Alternative & Indie - Released by Joyful Noise Recordings on 1 Jan 2015
Available in16-Bit/44.1 kHz Stereo -
1984
Alternative & Indie - Released by Joyful Noise Recordings on 1 Jun 2018
Available in16-Bit/44.1 kHz Stereo -
Joan of Arc, Dick Cheney, Mark Twain...
Alternative & Indie - Released by Polyvinyl Records on 10 Aug 2004
Available in16-Bit/44.1 kHz Stereo -
Flowers
Alternative & Indie - Released by Polyvinyl Records on 8 Jun 2009
Available in16-Bit/44.1 kHz Stereo -
Testimonium Songs
Alternative & Indie - Released by Polyvinyl Records on 17 Jul 2013
Available in16-Bit/44.1 kHz Stereo -
My Summer-Long High Wipeout
Alternative & Indie - Released by Polyvinyl Records on 18 Nov 2008
Available in16-Bit/44.1 kHz Stereo -
Oh Brother
Alternative & Indie - Released by Joyful Noise Recordings on 8 Feb 2011
Available in16-Bit/44.1 kHz Stereo -
Testimonium Songs (Joan of Arc)
Rock - Released by Polyvinyl Records on 17 Jul 2013
Available in16-Bit/44.1 kHz Stereo -
The Intelligent Design of Joan of Arc
Alternative & Indie - Released by Polyvinyl Records on 25 Jul 2006
Available in16-Bit/44.1 kHz Stereo -
Many Times I've Mistaken
Alternative & Indie - Released by Polyvinyl Records on 24 Jul 2007
Available in16-Bit/44.1 kHz Stereo -
How Can Anything So Little Be Any More?
Alternative & Indie - Released by Epitaph on 15 May 2001
Available in16-Bit/44.1 kHz Stereo