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(Created page with "{{DISPLAYTITLE:BAM - August 9, 1991}} '''Membership Has Its Privileges'''<br> Publication: Bay Area Musician<br> Author: Steve Solder<br> Date: August 9, 1991 File:AMC-BAM-...") |
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'''Membership Has Its Privileges'''<br> | '''Membership Has Its Privileges'''<br> | ||
Publication: Bay Area | Publication: Bay Area Music Magazine<br> | ||
Author: Steve Solder<br> | Author: Steve Solder<br> | ||
Date: August 9, 1991 | Date: August 9, 1991 | ||
[[File:AMC-BAM-91.jpg|200px|thumb|left]] | [[File:AMC-BAM-91.jpg|200px|thumb|left]] | ||
It's hard not to size up [[Mark Eitzel | It's hard not to size up [[Mark Eitzel]] and picture him with one ear. | ||
It's one of those rare San Francisco summer days when the temperature climbs into the nineties and nobody wears a jacket. The 4th of July looms two days away. [[Mark Eitzel]], [[American Music Club]]'s chairman of the bored, you might say, is sweating like everyone else at La Boheme, a Mission District Coffeehouse. | It's one of those rare San Francisco summer days when the temperature climbs into the nineties and nobody wears a jacket. The 4th of July looms two days away. [[Mark Eitzel]], [[American Music Club]]'s chairman of the bored, you might say, is sweating like everyone else at La Boheme, a Mission District Coffeehouse. | ||
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On Mark Eitzel: "I have a lousy personality and I'm not the most literate person in the world, so that's pretty much why I put it all in a song. I mean, I'll never make it on my good looks, and I'll never make it on Johnny Carson." | On Mark Eitzel: "I have a lousy personality and I'm not the most literate person in the world, so that's pretty much why I put it all in a song. I mean, I'll never make it on my good looks, and I'll never make it on Johnny Carson." | ||
Johnny Carson? No, probably not but Jay Leno, maybe. After all, with a tangled history that stretches back to the early 80s,AMC is poised to take its place among America's elite independent bands. A wonderful new album, ''[[Everclear]]'', comes out on the Alias label this month (the group celebrates its release August 15th at SF's Great American Music Hall), members of the group say they were ecstatically received at this summer's New Music Seminar (and this is one outfit that doesn't engage in self-promoting hyperbole), and a growing cult is championing this disarmingly involving and self-involved singer/songwriter and the sympathetic ensemble that surrounds him. | Johnny Carson? No, probably not but Jay Leno, maybe. After all, with a tangled history that stretches back to the early 80s, AMC is poised to take its place among America's elite independent bands. A wonderful new album, ''[[Everclear]]'', comes out on the Alias label this month (the group celebrates its release August 15th at SF's Great American Music Hall), members of the group say they were ecstatically received at this summer's New Music Seminar (and this is one outfit that doesn't engage in self-promoting hyperbole), and a growing cult is championing this disarmingly involving and self-involved singer/songwriter and the sympathetic ensemble that surrounds him. | ||
Picture an American Morrissey with a receding hairline and a rootsier record collection. And while Eitzel's insistently naked emotionalism can make life difficult for those around him, it can be incredibly moving when everything falls into place. As droll bassist [[Danny Pearson|Dan Pearson]] observes in what's intended to be a glowing compliment: "Sometimes Mark can be amazingly, you know, non-erratic." | Picture an American Morrissey with a receding hairline and a rootsier record collection. And while Eitzel's insistently naked emotionalism can make life difficult for those around him, it can be incredibly moving when everything falls into place. As droll bassist [[Danny Pearson|Dan Pearson]] observes in what's intended to be a glowing compliment: "Sometimes Mark can be amazingly, you know, non-erratic." | ||
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Since ''[[California]]'', however, there have been big changes for AMC. Negotiations with Frontier fell apart midway through the recording of ''[[Everclear]]'', leaving an opening for Alias to pick up the group. Mallon, a forceful multi-instrumentalist/producer who'd helmed all the previous albums, was sent away as the result of a personality clash. Mallon's wife, Leslie Rule, was out as manager several months after her husband left. Pedal Steel player [[Bruce Kaphan]] came aboard as a full member and, with his experience as an engineer and producer at the Bay Area's Music Annex, took over many of Mallon's former studio tasks. And, of course, the AMC's singer songwriter discovered the joys of sobriety. | Since ''[[California]]'', however, there have been big changes for AMC. Negotiations with Frontier fell apart midway through the recording of ''[[Everclear]]'', leaving an opening for Alias to pick up the group. Mallon, a forceful multi-instrumentalist/producer who'd helmed all the previous albums, was sent away as the result of a personality clash. Mallon's wife, Leslie Rule, was out as manager several months after her husband left. Pedal Steel player [[Bruce Kaphan]] came aboard as a full member and, with his experience as an engineer and producer at the Bay Area's Music Annex, took over many of Mallon's former studio tasks. And, of course, the AMC's singer songwriter discovered the joys of sobriety. | ||
The latter subject seems to be the one Eitzel most enjoys discussing. Drink and romantic devastation are his favorite subjects, and alcohol has inspired many of his musings.On ''[[Everclear]]'' alone, there's "[[Miracle On 8th | The latter subject seems to be the one Eitzel most enjoys discussing. Drink and romantic devastation are his favorite subjects, and alcohol has inspired many of his musings.On ''[[Everclear]]'' alone, there's "[[Miracle On 8th Street]]" ("We'll turn the brandy into beer/Later they'll say,'What a miracle'"),"[[Sick Of Food]]" ("I just called to ask you what you did last night"),"[[Royal Cafe]]" ("I can see 'em all standing 'round the bar/With crowns of gold on their heads"),"[[Jesus' Hands]]" ("I got a thirst that would make the ocean proud"), and the woozy rocker "[[Crabwalk]]" ("Nobody has any pity for the life of the party"). He may be on the wagon, but Eitzel still waxes poetic on the subject of bar culture. | ||
"I've been in bars since I was 14", he recalls. "This month and a half is the longest I've ever been without drinking. I went to see the Mekons last night. I couldn't stay there. There were so many people and the Mekons are such a great band, and such a drinking band. I can't imagine going to a Mekons show without a beer in my hand. So I left." | "I've been in bars since I was 14", he recalls. "This month and a half is the longest I've ever been without drinking. I went to see the Mekons last night. I couldn't stay there. There were so many people and the Mekons are such a great band, and such a drinking band. I can't imagine going to a Mekons show without a beer in my hand. So I left." | ||
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"Our judgement for the criteria for every show is not really what people think or what people say to us. It's another thing.I t's like, how honest was it? If I go through the motions, it's like zero time or negative to me. [Then] I've lied. I've been whoring up there. Obviously, I have been anyway. Every rocker like myself is a whore, basically. But I haven't been a good whore. [laughs] An honest whore. I've just been this self-aggrandizing asshole. That's how I feel. And then I'm embarrassed, and then I'm upset." | "Our judgement for the criteria for every show is not really what people think or what people say to us. It's another thing.I t's like, how honest was it? If I go through the motions, it's like zero time or negative to me. [Then] I've lied. I've been whoring up there. Obviously, I have been anyway. Every rocker like myself is a whore, basically. But I haven't been a good whore. [laughs] An honest whore. I've just been this self-aggrandizing asshole. That's how I feel. And then I'm embarrassed, and then I'm upset." | ||
Eitzel's writing style is as bare all as his onstage antics. He speaks of backing off from writing about drink and "this person", then he refuses to elaborate on just who "this person" is. But he does admit to having lost friends because of his brutal frankness. "Like that song '[[Ex-Girlfriend]]', he says of a track on ''[[Everclear'' | Eitzel's writing style is as bare all as his onstage antics. He speaks of backing off from writing about drink and "this person", then he refuses to elaborate on just who "this person" is. But he does admit to having lost friends because of his brutal frankness. "Like that song '[[Ex-Girlfriend]]', he says of a track on ''[[Everclear]]''. "That guy didn't like that I wrote about him." | ||
"He didn't like it at all. At all! It was like I used him or something - I used him to make this song so I could play it in front of other people, which is how he feels. And it's true. [laughs] Yeah, I guess that's what I did." | "He didn't like it at all. At all! It was like I used him or something - I used him to make this song so I could play it in front of other people, which is how he feels. And it's true. [laughs] Yeah, I guess that's what I did." | ||