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 to
follow, as the group negotiated emo intimacy, punk influence, and
post-rock atmospherics through 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.