Tim Kinsella

Hunky Dory TK was an electronic collage composed entirely of samples from David Bowie’s classic, orchestral pop album, Hunky Dory, performed as part of the Museum of Contemporary Art in Chicago's 2015 exhibition "David Bowie Is".

The 2017 Noisey documentary Your War (I'm One of You): 20 Years of Joan of Arc focuses heavily on Kinsella's biography and personal experiences.

Other solo work has work has appeared on Joyful Noise Recordings, where Kinsella was artist in residence in 2015. His residency boxed-set included: Issues EP, Firecracker in a Box of Mirrors LP, Joan of Arc's Greatest Hits 7", JOA 99 LP, Hunky Dory TK, and the book All Over and Over.

Tim has also worked on numerous collaborations. One example of these collaborations would include 2014's "Tim Kinsella sings the songs of Marvin Tate by Leroy Bach featuring Angel Olsen." Kinsella worked with an array of Chicago heavyweights including the prolific poet Marvin Tate, multi-instrumentalist (& former Wilco member) Leroy Bach and singer-songwriter Angel Olsen for "almost two years" to record the eponymously titled LP, released by Joyful Noise Recordings. Kinsella is the album's narrator, walking the line between judgment and sympathy, and shepherding all of the characters through their various struggles. Themes of race, private culture, and psychological stress rise throughout the work. Eventually the consensus was made that some of the stories could be enhanced by an additional singer. The trio enlisted their friend Angel Olsen Jagjaguwar Records. The release is limited to just 1000 copies on splatter vinyl.

In 2013, Joan of Arc worked with the Chicago experimental theater-ensemble Every House Has a Door, to produce a dramatization of Charles Reznikoff's Testimony.

The band did eventually get back together in 2012, and went on to tour and release a new album in 2014.

Tim Kinsella is the writer-director of the feature film Orchard Vale, which opened at the Chicago Underground Film Festival on August 15, 2007. His first novel, entitled The Karaoke Singer's Guide to Self-Defense, was published by Featherproof Books in September 2011. His second book, Let Go and Go On and On (Curbside Splendor Publishing), takes its inspiration from the late actress Laurie Bird's brief film career in the '70s, and was published in April 2014.

Make Believe is 2003's touring version of Joan of Arc, consisting of singer Tim Kinsella, guitarist Sam Zurick, bassist Bobby Burg, and drummer Nate Kinsella. After 3 months of touring solidified their playing together, they returned home and decided to follow this impulse and write new songs with a more aggressive approach. But they all knew it had to be something different than Joan of Arc. For it to be represented as a true collaboration and reflect its totally different approach to songwriting and speak for itself it had to shake whatever connotations the band name Joan of Arc had acquired. Their first full-length Shock of Being was released on October 4, 2005. In June 2007 Kinsella left the band to focus on other projects and married life. However, months after his departure from the band, Kinsella rejoined his bandmates and recorded their third album in fall 2007. On February 22, 2008 the band played their first show since Kinsella's departure at Chicago's Subterranean. The third full-length Goin' to the Bone Church was released on April 29, 2008.

Kinsella is known for his eccentric singing voice, and has worked as a bartender at the Rainbo Club in Chicago's Ukrainian Village neighborhood for most of his adult life. His brother Mike Kinsella refers to his bartending in the song "Breaking Away" on Owen's (The EP) (2004).

The band released an album, Owls, in 2001. Unfortunately, the band dissolved after one tour. Rumours circulated that this was largely due to the complications arising from guitarist Victor Villareal's heroin dependency. When Mike Kinsella left to continue his solo project Owen and to play guitar for Maritime, he was replaced for a few live shows by Ryan Rapsys.

Friend/Enemy was formed in 2001 as the next in a series of projects fronted by Kinsella. The band's core members include Kinsella, Todd Mattei (also of Joan of Arc), and Jim Becker (Califone). Friend/Enemy can best be described as a loose folk-punk somewhere between T.V. Smith and Captain Beefheart. Kinsella's trademark postmodern beat poet routine takes a sharper, more adult turn and Becker adds a host of incidental noises including banjo, pedal steel, and percussion. The first release, 10 Songs, was recorded at the Slabb in Chicago and had a handful of the city's musical intelligentsia adding sounds. These included vocals by Caryn Culp (Plastic Crime Wave), keyboards by Andy Lansagan (the 90 Day Men), bass by Nick Macri (Euphone, Sunny Day Real Estate), piano by Azita Youssefi (Bride of No No), drums by Zach Hill (Hella), and bass by Sam Zurick (Joan of Arc, Owls).

Following the release of Cap'n Jazz's first and only album, Burritos, Inspiration Point, Fork Balloon Sports, Cards In The Spokes, Automatic Biographies, Kites, Kung Fu, Trophies, Banana Peels We've Slipped On and Egg Shells We've Tippy Toed Over (also known as Shmap'n Shmazz), and their last show on July 14, 1995 they disbanded, and member Davey von Bohlen left Chicago to focus on his side project The Promise Ring. Three years after the breakup, in 1998, Jade Tree Records put out a double disc compilation, called Analphabetapolothology, which included all the songs from Shmap'n Shmazz, as well as songs from various 7", singles, demos and outtakes. Victor Villareal went home, and after a year of playing music independently, Tim, Mike, and Sam recruited Erik Bocek and Jeremy Boyle for what would eventually be called Joan of Arc. On January 22, 2010, Cap'n Jazz played their first reunion show since the split in 1995 at the Empty Bottle in their hometown of Chicago. They have since released details of their shows at The Bottom Lounge for July 17 and 18th of 2010.

The Sky Corvair began as a side project for members of Braid, Cap'n Jazz, and Gauge. They played their first show in October 1994, and recorded nine songs that December. Shortly thereafter, Tim Kinsella left the band to pursue Cap'n Jazz full-time. Tim's credit on The Sky Corvair's only album includes, guitar, vocals, and mixing.

Owls is an indie rock band from Chicago, Illinois. The band was formed by the original lineup of seminal experimental indie rock band Cap'n Jazz soon after its second breakup (the first came in 1994); Cap'n Jazz guitarist Davey von Bohlen, who played in the band's second incarnation, had gone on to found, and was now playing in The Promise Ring. The band's lineup consisted of brothers Tim Kinsella and Mike Kinsella (on vocals and drums, respectively), along with guitarist Victor Villareal and bassist Sam Zurick. Tim Kinsella and Zurick have also played together in Joan of Arc and Make Believe, and Villareal and Zurick have played together in the instrumental-rock Ghosts and Vodka.

Tim Kinsella got his start musically around 1989 when he, his brother, Mike Kinsella, met Sam Zurick, and Victor Villarreal to form Cap'n Jazz. They were all in school at the time, and it took them a while to get serious about playing music. After going through several name changes, and adding guitarist Davey von Bohlen, the group decided to make music seriously, ultimately garnering a cult following, and fame in the independent music scene of Chicago and the midwest.