American Music Club: Classic or Dud?

Songs of Love Live is perhaps a bit patchy, as referenced above. But it's also one of my favourite live albums ever. An amazing performance on a guitar borrowed from Sean O'Hagan, IIRC. I remember reading the Melody Maker review which is printed on the sleeve. It's worth noting how much love the UK "indie" press gave to AMC and Eitzel. I remember the rave reviews. AMC attracted their biggest crowds in British cities. But just fell short of mainstream success.

"What's the latest on Mark's new solo album? He scrapped it after recording and that's it gone?"

as I understand it he had one mostly recorded but didn't like it and started over. from what I was told by someone who heard it this was the right decision.

live: Ive seen Mark a trillion times and it can be great, transcendent, a shit show, a titanic disaster, or the best thing ever. You never know. Sometimes it starts one way and then heads in another direction.

so would you call him......mercurial

Shoutout over here to Dan Pearson, Vudi and Bruce Kaphan for their often superb contributions.

yes they are the best. I do think LSFP would have been better if Bruce had been involved. NOt sure that Golden Age would have happened with Danny though (that album was written as a solo thing, mostly, then it was planned to be a different band; the name MacArthur Park Music Club was being used but Merge said wtf).

I just found a RYM list Tom Mallon made of all the records he worked on: https://rateyourmusic.com/list/tkmallon/tom_mallon_recording__1978_present_/

That's a hell of a list. Is the Toiling Midgets' album 'Son' unique in that it was issued with different cover artwork for the Matador and Hut versions and both are bloody awful?

Haha. I own that Midgets album, cos Eitzel. It is pretty poor

I love that album!

Bit about Jodie Foster is so odd to hear somehow

I assumed that the song was from the perspective of John Hinkley Jr, hence the Jodie Foster reference and "if my aim had been straighter".

sounds like it.
I thought it was great. Sounds like the mental machinations of an obsessive.
I liked the lp Have meant to pick up other things by them since and not chanced on them when i had the spare cash.
Did pick up a Sleepers compilation since Ricky who had been in Crime was also a singer with them for a while I think.

If you're looking for Toiling Midgets spin offs, I recommend the self titled album by Wade from 1993(?). It's an amazing album featuring members of Toiling Midgets and Red House Painters. I'm not sure if they recorded anything else?

Aforementioned Wade:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KfXzgi2u0vk

wow, nice to see someone else push that album. I really liked Wade, and saw them a handful of times. I'd long since lost the CD, but was happy to run across the LP a couple of years ago at Amoeba. Tom Mallon recorded this as well (Anthony, who was the drummer in RHP, was the drummer here). Karl Joe Goldring was associated with the Midgets and played with them from time to time, as well as lots of other bands later, probably most notably the Enablers; he and Eve were married, I believe. Eev is still around SF and plays in a band with Tom's widow who I still have not gone and seen (Macerator). No idea what happened to Mary Redfield.

Announcement on the AMC facebook page saying that "most everything on the AMC pages will be taken down in a few months." Why would they deliberately make stuff unavailable after it's been remastered and all?

^ sorry, I should have made clear... I mean they will be taken down from the AMC Bandcamp

Yes. Baffling.

...hopefully a prelude to some sort of other good news? maybe?

I'd assume that a new contract/agreement will come into play, and it may be for physical reissues only.

but that's guesswork on my part

Bandcamp Friday incentive

fuck if I know, i can ask about that. reissues are coming and there will be more stuff, but I still don't know what, exactly. anyway, there are a few things going up tomorrow, I recommend people grab what they can while they can.

Anyway, some new stuff is now up on both the AMC and Eitzel bandcamps.

People who know me, which AMC album should I start with

I don't know you, but I would say start with Everclear, then California.

(although Everclear is not currently available on bandcamp, unfortunately)

I'd recommend Everclear as the starting point to anyone. Not on bandcamp, no, but might be on streaming services; if not, it's def on youtube. Everclear is, AFAIK, the only one of the albums that is problematic because Alias (the label that released it) apparently still exists, somehow, and asserts ownership of it, but has never paid anyone in the band a dime.

... tim.... start with the golden age

no one here is steering you wrong by recommending everclear first tho

at this point it might be the best overall starting point...the early records can be a bit forbidding at times to a newcomer

Also Eitzel's Songs of Love Live is essential imho

The Golden Age is good but it doesn't really sound like AMC because Danny wasn't involved, the drummer plays things very differently than anyone else AMC ever had on drums, and Vudi's contributions are only minimally audible. But it is a good album.

Huh, you guys are crazy.
For Tim F its Mercury , or more probably the UK/California twofer

mercury would also be a good intro

how about any record except sf and restless stranger

Engine was my intro to AMC back in the day, and I will admit that it took a few spins but once I was in there was no getting out.

Big Night (the first song on that one) is one of my favorite AMC songs overall

Which is a maybe a weird favorite but I love the atmosphere

Yeah, the atmosphere on most of that album was initially impenetrable but once I got it, like esp. on Night Watchman, I was hooked.

Engine was my starting point, hated it for about 10 plays and then realised its brilliance. Still one of my favourites (they all are to be honest, I even think San Francisco is a work of genius).

Engine seems to be the forgotten AMC album. To the extent you read about this band, it's about how great California and Everclear are, how forgettable Restless Stranger is, how enigmatic United Kingdom is, how overblown Mercury and San Francisco are, but nothing about Engine.

I first encountered AMC with "I'm in Heaven Now' on the Homestead Human Music compilation (1988). In fact I discovered so many of my all time favourite bands through that one album.

Engine is phenomenal, it's probably my #2 after California.

Engine got them enough attention in the UK music press to pave the way for the accolades that were showered onto California when it came out. At least that's the way I recall it.

Just relistened to The Golden Age. It's great. It's maybe a bit too long. 2 or 3 of its 13 songs could maybe be cut.

i know
i know

that's not really you

that recent vinyl reissue of The Ugly American is really really great. that is all.

I hope to nab that at some point.

Re-listening to Engine. I still don't quite get it. I've been listening to AMC since buying United Kingdom in 1989. For me the "canon" begins with California. But I'm probably influenced by the UK press at the time,

It was Allan Jones waxing lyrical about Engine in Melody Maker that first turned me onto AMC.