Celebrating a subgenre that came out of flyover country but connected with the world, Midwest Emo traces modern emo's ubiquitousness back to its origins in Illinois, Wisconsin, and surrounding Midwestern states through more than 50 original interviews with members of formative bands like Cap'n Jazz, The Promise Ring, American Football, Braid, Rainer Maria and Gauge (plus Steve Aoki).

Over the course of one haunted night at The American Football House—the actual Urbana, IL home depicted on American Football’s legendary 1999 album cover—a writer preserves the collective memory of “Midwest Emo”: a genre that doesn’t really exist, except as a placeless descriptor applied decades later.

Midwest Emo is a documentation of 1990s Midwestern DIY music, but also a meditation on nostalgia, community, and the irrelevance of labels. It’s about the relationship between music and place: the basements, living rooms, and cornfield highways of physical location, and the ethereal elsewhere songs transport us.