American Music Club: Classic or Dud?

California in particular has had a rough time of it with regards availability

RIP

UK was my first AMC album. Got it when it came out, loved it, then picked up California. Mallon played drums on California and bass on UK, right? My California LP has no info about band roles, but I seem to remember it was Mallon on drums.

Rest In Peace.

I like "Animal Pen" quite a bit.

Been on a huge Eitzel/AMC kick lately. He has written an incredible number of great songs, and Don't Be A Stranger contained several. "We All Have to Find Our Own Way Out" in particular is just a stone-cold stunner.

It seems a shame he'll probably never get a later-career boost a la Kozelek, who I like a lot, but isn't half the singer, arranger or songwriter.

it's especially shitty given how fucking GREAT the last couple of AMC records were

Totally. A dozen or so songs anyone would kill to have written between 'em.

Mark is playing Noisepop this year in SF, opening for Mark Mulcahey (should be the other way around) and opening for Throwing Muses.

finally got around to listening to don't be a stranger, it's totally gorgeous

YEP!

i even really dig the rerecorded "all my love," it's sounds more spacious and aching

Yeah, that threw me at first, but it's pretty wonderful. "Costumed Characters..." has been in my head lately, everything I love about his work distilled into 2.5 minutes.

! I really liked the original "All My Love"

Thread inspired me to give Klamath another spin. "I Live In This Place" was apparently the opening number for a musical he wrote?! It's an incredible song:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aspneMZXNY0

he wrote the music for a musical that was done in Brighton a few years ago, yeah. That is a great song. Klamath is underrated because it's a 'home production' but several of the songs on there are excellent. I really like "Remember"

One of my favourite bands, late 80s/early 90s. I know Mark E is still doing it good.Excellent

I need to rediscover.

Slight tangent but their version of "Goodbye to Love" Carpenters always sounded just fine. I'm off for a listen now which is so boring of me.
Sorry for posting

I listen to Engine often.

I love Klamath. That album returned my enthusiasm for Mark's solo work, a joy which had waned upon the release of the Invisible Man. Okay, I've since found some affection for The Ugly American, his Greek interpretations of AMC songs. But looking back on the 2000s, it sure seems like he earmarked his stronger material for the reunited AMC.

Aquarium Drunkard has an interview with Mark Eitzel up: http://www.aquariumdrunkard.com/2015/02/06/mark-eitzel-the-aquarium-drunkard-interview/

I really hope Eitzel doesn't need to keep relying on lottery winners to get records made. Would he be a good candidate for a crowdfunding effort, I wonder?

Now that Fall is here properly it's Eitzel season again.

https://youtu.be/xNVbvhM46MY

Did anything ever come of reissuing AMC's early catalogue again?
Is much of it in print.

Nothing of that nature is happening AFAIK, stalled by all that tragedy upthread I'd guess. Which is really too bad since I bet a decent number of folks would buy the fuck out of some remastered reissues.

"Help Me" might be their finest pop moment

"Did anything ever come of reissuing AMC's early catalogue again?"

I'm working with the management on this. It will happen, we are just trying to secure a few things.

!!!

Recently found a decent vinyl copy of United Kingdom, I'd kill for California and Everclear.

it'll only be the albums through UK; Alias still owns the masters for Everclear unfortunately.

Glad to hear this, Do hope that means cd too. Would love physical copies of that stuff again. Shame about Everclear since i don't think I've had a physical copy of that.

Plenty of reasonably priced vinyl and CD copies of Everclear on discogs.

What are the AMC records that sound the most like Don't Be A Stranger? (if any)

The last one, The Golden Age, is closest.

Thanks.

it'll only be the albums through UK; Alias still owns the masters for Everclear unfortunately.

wtf how does Alias still own anything

The Golden Age is an f'in' masterpiece imo

agreed, it and California are tops imo

new Eitzel album out in January, produced + accompanied by Bernard Butler (!!!)

http://www.stereogum.com/1907667/mark-eitzel-the-last-ten-years/music/

tbh the song is just OK but an album of Eitzel gone Britpop is intriguing

Eh, not much chance for Britpop. Have you heard the last two Ben Watt records?

don't forget that Butler also produced Duffy

So is AMC definitely over now? Has he said anything about that?

I've had the album for a few months. It's def. not 'britpop', more akin to the last Ben Watt album if anything. Butler did a great job; he did this as a favor to our friend in London (they are neighbors) who manages Mark right now. This is probably the 'poppiest' arrangement, the rest of the album is more in the lines of the last solo Eitzel job. Butler did play almost everything but the drums on this though (and acoustic which was played by Mark).

AMC: don't hold your breath. I've been working with management on possibly doing reissues of the first four albums (fingers crossed this still happens). The dream would be to do a few shows with Danny and Vudi if/when that happens but who knows. AMC albums don't exactly make any money, and Mark feels like he needs to pay people (and people want to get paid) at this point. Vudi is a bus driver in LA at the moment.

Would be cool if you could get the tour-only albums re-released too (Atwater Afternoon/Everclear Rehearsals/Mercury Demos) since the only people making money on those are resellers and not the band.

I like the new album, too.

I like the single a lot, it reminds me of 60 Watt

Surprised how few monthly listeners on Spotify Eitzel has: ~2k, and AMC ~4K

AMC hasn't enjoyed the popular legacy of many of their inferior peers, mostly (I think) because many of their albums are not easy/cheap to find. Hoping that will be rectified as mentioned upthread.

The offering of AMC on Spotify could be better, too (the 1985-95 greatest hits, California, United Kingdom for starters) but I'm sure that's a licensing nightmare.

(but they got Songs of Love from Demon, so maybe there's hope...)

re: first four album streaming. we are working on it.

everclear/alias: alias are a fucking pain in the ass, they've never paid the band or given any accounting.

dont' know why the WB/Rhino licensed later albums aren't up there

tour albums/streaming: working on talking mark into putting these all on bandcamp at this point.

There was a great live recordin from the Mercury tour tgat came packaged with as part of a promo version of one of the single or eps. I wish I could track this down.