American Music Club: Classic or Dud?

The vinyl version of SF was so messed up in that it didn't include either Cape Canaveral or The Shadow Of The Valley, which I still think are the two strongest songs on the album. And yeah, the CD should've closed with Two Sleeping Pills (with California Dreaming remaining as the encore.)

Weird, can't imagine leaving off those tracks

I'm making my annual attempt to get into San Francisco today.

I've never been able to divorce it from it's context where it was obviously a last gasp.
I like 'Hello Amsterdam', but then I like the 'Crabwalk'/'Gary's Song'/'The Horsehoe Wreath In Bloom' songs.

Who doesn't like "Crabwalk"?

The sad sack version on his solo acoustic CD is pretty good too

It's the upbeat songs (esp "Wish the World Away") that make San Francisco a bummer for me

Yeah. Fearless is a brilliant opener but the album gets derailed fairly quickly with It's Your Birthday. That and Six Packs are the big duds for me. Hello Amsterdam gets a pass for purely nostalgic purposes.

Engine. Patchy? You're having a giggle...California has Bad Liquor, Jenny and Now You're Defeated - far patchier, even though the rest of the album is wonderful.

I like San Francisco because even its less good songs are intriguing. It's probably the weakest of the discography from Engine up to it though.

Everclear > Engine> Mercury> California> United Kingdom>San Francisco....possibly.

I need to give Engine another try.

Front to back, the "reunion" records are more consistently great than everything that came before besides Everclear, though there are fewer hallelujah peaks.

California is their best. Because I heard it first.

Agreed the reunion albums are great.

I found the Eitzel "demos of shame" on slsk and it's very cool. (What on earth is going on with "Royal Cafe"?) This version of "Kathleen" sounds like Benoit Pioulard or something.

For me it's Mercury>California>Everclear>Engine>LSFP.

That's the most love I can score for a reunion album, the rest are unranked, as is SF. (Though 60 Watt would probably go ahead of California).

Mercury, Everclear and United Kingdom are my top3

Hey Mr Ferryman.

My favorites are "An Answer", "Mr Humphries" (which I think is similar to "Johnny Mathis' Feet") and "An Angel's Wing Brushed The Penny Slots".

"Nothing And Everything" is one of the bleakest things I've ever heard by anyone.

It's a great album.

Tis the season.

Yeah that album rules

I enjoyed Songs Of Love. That version of "Western Sky" is amazing. "Crabwalk" works surprisingly well without a band, still amuses me when he goes "ooh-oohhhh"

I have that one on LP. the number of times he apologizes never fails to crack me up.

Forgot to mention "Nothing Can Bring me Down" (an early version of "What Godzilla Said...") is quite special too, I cant quite describe the difference, perhaps a little more mysterious?

Mark is playing a living room show in Detroit in mid-April for 25 ppl btw. I really wish I could go

https://undertowshows.com/collections/mark-eitzel/products/detroit-mi-april-17

His solo performances are very emotionally intense

I'm still bummed about him saying he won't tour canada due to (perceived?) lack of demand :( :( :(

I've never been to an AMC or Eitzel show that was particularly well-attended.

He'll play in Canada if he's invited, the issue lies with local promoters. xp

all london shows have been small but packed. and yes, always intense. which is good!

His current live shows are pretty amazing, he really throws himself into his songs with an emotional intensity that I didn't detect when I used to see him with AMC back in the day.

I am going to see a living room Eitzel show next week and goddamn I am excited...been listening to AMC and his last solo album a lot, I kinda forgot how big of a thing they were for me at a certain point in time

this really holds up well

extremely jealous. I actually pondered making a road trip to one of those gigs but I just couldn't make it work w my schedule+budget.

I've got two coming up in the bay area; maybe a third as well. feeling spoiled again as I used to when he still lived here and actually played out.

Any news on those AMC reissues, akm?

Where is Eitzel based these days?

Went last night, so amazing

Was sitting about 10 feet from him

Opened with Western Sky, did pretty much everything I wanted to hear

Mark lives in LA with his soon-to-be husband.

I'll follow up on the reissues. I know they got all the tapes transferred.

extremely jealous, ums

He plays Seattle tonight at Boeing's Museum of Flight. Cool switch for a 'living room' tour. Bummed that I'm elsewhere, as the location doesn't get much more convenient for me.

without going into too much detail on the reissues, I can say: tapes have all been transfered but there are further bumps with contracts and ownership and some disagreements and lawyers giving poor advice.

This is probably what will happen:

https://futureofmusic.org/article/fact-sheet/right-terminate-musicians%E2%80%99-guide-copyright-reversion

So the re-releases will be 35 years after the first release? Or am I being stupid? California in 2023?

Would fully welcome this if the band finally seems some reward for their work.

THast's what I was hoping not to be true from what was being said. Hoping things would be coming a bit faster, BUt at least that would be a finite time.
JUst hope to get it in decent sound on a medium I can play. & not 4 years from now.

Or taht is to say, the heavy delay.

I've all the early releases on both LP and CD. I'm also not unhappy about how they sound. So I can wait. But I'm still excited by the prospect of reissues. Such an important band to me.

the albums will either come out 35 years after their first release or Mark will bit the bullet and just put them out and then deal with whatever blowback occurs.

"if the band finally seems some reward for their work"

"the band" at this point is just Mallon's estate, Danny, and Vudi. Mark is giving up his share of whatever these make from sales the them. But there are still some feelings somewhere that this isn't good enough and some thought that these albums are worth more than we know they are on the marketplace. Anyone who has released an album on this board knows the reality of the marketplace is that there is shit little money in physical releases now and streaming revenue doesn't bring in very much either. Mark will always own any royalties for the actual licensing of the songs should that ever happen (which he says it never will; in his words, "when I die it's not going to be Pink Moon in a VW commercial, it just isn't") because he was the songwriter. So in a rational world this is easily solved but there are some irrational feelings at play. My recommendation has always been to self-release this and don't take it to a label because what good is a label at this point for something like this? We can put some money toward PR when they come out to help sales. But a label is just going to siphon off money frankly.

Well shit, I guess I have to give up on my dream of hearing "Patriot's Heart" used as the theme song for my favorite NFL team.

revision on all of this though: I think things are moving along better than how Mark portrayed it to me the other night. So fingers crossed this stuff will be happening soon(ish)

Chanel No 5, hello?

Headed to the UK in a week to do another recording with @Bernard_Butler Looking forward to it!

— Sir Arthur Palgrove (@MarkEitzel) June 6, 2019

hell yeah

Nice piece, don't think it's been posted here before:

https://www.toppermost.co.uk/american-music-club/

Fantastic!