The For Carnation has been played on NTS in shows including Bradley Zero Presents: Rhythm Section, featured first on 9 August 2015. Songs played include Snoother, Emp. Man's Blues and Winter Lair.

The seeds for The For Carnation were sown in 1994 by former members of Slint, Shipping News, Squirrel Bait, and The Palace Brothers.

To date, The For Carnation have released an EP and two albums: Fight Songs (Matador Records, 1995); Marshmallows (Matador Records, 1996); and The For Carnation (Touch & Go Records, 2000).

Fight Songs and Marshmallows were compiled to achieve Promised Works, which was released by Runt in 1997, and then again by Touch & Go in 2007.

Musicians that have served as part of The For Carnation include Brian McMahan, Michael McMahan, Todd Cook, Bobb Bruno, Steve Goodfriend, Britt Walford, John Herndon, Doug McCombs, David Pajo, Tim Furnish, Kip McCabe, Rafe Mandell, Tim Ruth, Michael Faeth, Mark Greenberg, and Ben Vida. TFC has been graced by guest appearances from John McEntire, Rachel Haden, Kim Deal, Christian Frederickson, Noel Kupersmith, Allison Chesley, Dan Fliegel, John Weiss, Dan Bitney, and Andrew Bonacci.