American Music Club: Classic or Dud?

i always feel like i heard everclear first but my actual first amc record was love song for patriots? the library next to my high school had it so i checked it out bc i suspected i would like them long before i ever heard them. of course i was sold immediately by "another morning" even though the other albums remained a little inaccessible to me for a while

san francisco's real failure to me is one of sequencing, not sure how that track order makes any sense. idk, maybe too many clashing styles to begin with

Everclear sounds amazing yeah I wouldn't change a thing about it. "sick of food" and "the dead part of you" are two of the most hollowed-out sounding rock songs ever

I really hope this run of reissues will actually result in more new people hearing these albums

yo "job to do" is a fucking amazing song

I know God is on my side
He’s a prisoner that stares
That stares out of my eyes

"best song on LSFP" is really tough....mine might be "mantovani the mind reader"

"only love can set you free" is like... only this guy can write a song like this

"I've been so lucky!" is such a poignant exclamation in the context of his body of work, and yeah no one else could even get away with that title

think "home" is my favorite on love songs for patriots, though. no wonder i became a blue nile fan

It was kind of shocking how strong this album was after pretty much assuming they were done following San Francisco.

Many xp but it was “Another Morning” that hooked me in...prior to that I’d heard of AMC but never heard them.

"Another Morning" was the hook for me as well. Clearly, Merge should have done more to get that in people's ears.

Yeah I got "Another Morning" on a CD in Uncut magazine, my entry

I've only heard San Francisco, and didn't find the lyrics and music gelled except on "In the Shadow of the Valley". If that album isn't well loved, where should I go next?

Everclear and Mercury are my favorites

Any suggestions for a resequenced San Francisco?

nope

tho i'll listen to the hello amsterdam ep and maybe report back

I haven't ever heard The Restless Stranger or The Golden Age. Of the others I would rank them in this order:

Everclear>Engine>San Francisco>California>LSFP>Mercury>United Kingdom

...but really, they're all amazing! Probably my favourite ever band, Eitzel is definitely my favourite ever lyricist. San Francisco on vinyl is better than on CD although I wish it had Cape Canaveral on it. I have recently really warmed to it. Engine is often overlooked but it is incredible (and was my entry point to AMC).

I only own four Eitzel solo albums, I never got on with 60 Watt Silver Lining, have found Hey Mr Ferryman to be a bit too wrought and heavy but absolutely love Don't Be A Stranger. That one is up there with his very best work, I'd say. The other is Songs of Love which is raw, patchy, full of jarring moments but also has moments of transcendence and beauty and Channel No 5 has probably my favourite Eitzel lyric (although there are a lot of contenders):

'All the sweet mouth really wanted just fell from her grip
The worst hell you can drag your soul through is trying to make all the lies stick'

California was the first AMC album I heard and remains their best

yugi you gotta hear golden age, can't imagine hearing the "all my love" on don't be a stranger without being familiar with the other version lol

@yugi ex you gotta hear The Golden Age!! xp lol

Great seeing all the comments and the new love for the band here. With Mark, learning about lyric origins only adds to my appreciation of the songs: the Kathleen songs, Nightwatchman, Why Won't You Stay, and so on. The Decibels and the Little Pills, for taking a girl dancing on stage topless at one of their European shows, and writing with empathy: "And he pulled off your blouse, went girls gone wild / for a crowd that just didn't want to know / … / oh and the crowd is proud to look away / like they've never been desperate or lonely / ... No one here is going to save you". One of my favorite AMC tracks, though that'd be a VERY hard POX list. Lyrics would be even harder, though #1 would be "I'm as priceless as a brass ring / That's losing the heat from your hand".

I do wish he'd release another with the 60 Watt Silver Lining vibe.

If I were to retool San Francisco, I'd dump Six Packs and add Sleeping Pills, and that's pretty much it; I'd also move Hello Amsterdam to before Cape Canaveral so the whole album ends on a pretty, reverb heavy slide.

I'll ask about remastering today. Im partly avoiding talking to people because I was meant to retrieve and get a digital copy of a rehearsal cassette from Engine from a drummer who only played a few rehearsals and I have not yet done this. Oops.

I have very little concept of any of the inspirations behind any AMC/Eitzel song except for the ones that explicitly name Kathleen and "Blue and Grey Shirt".

You could write a book (or at least a very long essay) comparing/contrasting Koz and Eitzel and their respective relationships to their muses, were you so inclined. xps

I do wonder what makes his/their music consistently a tough sell. I bought Hey Mr Ferryman from a clearance bin - there were multiple sealed copies.

pretty much all of eitzel's muses were Kathleen. Rise was about a friend who had AIDS. Nightwatchman, Blue and Grey Shirt, Hula Maiden, Xmas LIghts Spin are about his mother's death.

Thought I read an interview way back where he described Hula Maiden as being about his father's death, as in the two of them had planned a trip to Hawaii to patch things up between them. The old man passed just prior but Eitzel decided to take the trip anyway?

oh that's right. It was one or the other.

Just checked! It was an old Uncut piece - and the stuff about the dad was described by the interviewer as "legend has it", not words directly from Mark himself. So who knows? In any event, it did allow me to appreciate another level of pathos in that song.

Right. I'm putting on United Kingdom. The second AMC album I heard / owned.

uk is very underrated imo

not sure where it falls in my ranking

not even sure i can put together a ranking lol

basically every song on UK is perfect, it just feels a bit short/slight and the hopping btwn studio and live recordings is a little odd. "here they roll down" one of the coolest openers of any album and "heaven of your hands" is unbelievable

the hopping btwn studio and live recordings is a little odd

my feeling about this is essentially: if it works for neil young,

Engine is still and forever my AMC #1 but it's not like they ever made a bad record (SF being the closest I guess, time to revisit maybe).

"here they roll down" one of the coolest openers of any album

― intern at pepe le pew research (Simon H.), Thursday, April 15, 2021 6:39 PM

Agree with this a lot. UK is maybe my third favorite after Mercury and Everlclear.

Is there plans for the non-album tracks? I never got any b-sides or EPs.

yes the plan is to get all of those out (plus outtakes and other things) somehow, either as bonus tracks on cd reissues or just on bandcamp. you can hit me up through here if you want a slew of b-sides and stuff and I can send you a .zip file.

Cool, fingers crossed for CDs

The rocking/country hick dual recordings of "Art of Love" on Engine is also very Neil Young.

California is my favorite of theirs, but UK is right up there, and the CD that combines the two should be on everybody's desert island list. "Laughingstock" is the subtlest song that can (and always does) stop me dead in my tracks.

"it's not like they ever made a bad record (SF being the closest I guess)"

as much as it pains me, I'd rate Love Songs for Patriots below SF, mainly because I am not fond of the production on LSFP; it's recorded the way lots of things are recorded, digitally, with songs evolving from demo to finished, and the end result sounds mushy and weird to me, and Tim's drumming is way too mechanical. In other words, it sounds labored over, and it was; but SF was labored over more, but doesn't sound that way. Dunno. I still like it obviously. There is a pre-final mix version that bounces around that has earlier vocal tracks; it's not better, on the whole, but it does have two songs that were cut out of the final running order, Good For YOu and two versions of Team USA, one of which is amazing and the other sucks. It also has 1000 Miles on it, which was only on the vinyl release, which as a song dated back to the Invisible Man days.

oh, and Good for You was one of my favorite songs from those sessions so it's annoying that they didnt 'finish' it for the album. They played it live a few times around then as well; well, at least once.

I hadn't heard their contribution to No Alternative, which is weird and serpentine even by their standards

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_q3ccndtevc

Weird that I'm In Heaven Now, one of their best songs imo, never even made it onto an album. In fact I only ever knew it in demo form on a Homestead Records compilation.

they recorded that twice, theres a more raw version of it on the Restless Stranger WB release CD from the late 90's (it was not recorded for that album though, that recording is from later). Another song that got multiple recordings and never got released officially was Love Connection NYC

huh i really love mooney's drumming on lsfp

never had a problem with mooney's (co-)production on LSFP...I guess it might sound a bit fussy here and there but it sounds dynamic and spacious to me

i think the sound is really right for the material. of course, it was my first amc record

"I used to think I was bi" might be the only outright laugh line in the Eitzel discography

This thread is making my day. Really great to see this amount of discussion.

Re. San Francisco, I've always felt the flow to be weakened by a hetereogenous mix of songs. Even just the opening of Fearless > Birthday seems jarring. I'm really not that taken by the more upbeat tracks. I picked up the vinyl when it was first released and I recall feeling quite underwhelmed, esp after the awesome Mercury. A friend taped me the tracks that weren't included on the vinyl, which prompted me to trade it for the CD version. When I saw Mark play live on the 60 Watt tour, I actually questioned him about the SF track selection for the vinyl release and he just shrugged, seemingly unaffected by the choice. (I probably sounded like a dick but I'll blame that on my youth.)

For my alternate track listing, I've settled on Fearless > Sleeping Pills > Love Doesn't Belong > Cape Canaveral > The Revolving Door > Shadow of the Valley > What Holds The World Together > Broke My Promise > I'll Be Gone > Fearless (Reprise) > California Dreamin'. The result is more concise and consistent although the vibe might be a bit too downbeat for some.