AMERICAN MUSIC CLUB - San Francisco CD @190 VBR - Reprise, 1994, USA

This is a pretty mainstream album (when you consider all the drone/experimental, free jazz I usually post), but this is one of my favorite CDs of the 90s. Maybe you will enjoy it too?

Here's some background info:

American Music Club is a San Francisco-based band led by singer-songwriter Mark Eitzel. Although commonly lumped with other bands from the "slowcore" and "sadcore" movements, AMC is better known for mastering the disparate strands of American music into a wholly unique synthesis all their own.

Although born in California, Eitzel spent his formative years in Great Britain and Ohio before returning to the Bay Area in 1981. After a brief stint with the band The Naked Skinnies he founded American Music Club in San Francisco in 1982 with guitarist Scott Alexander, drummer Greg Bonnell, bass player Brad Johnson. The band went through many personnel changes before arriving at a stable line up of guitarist Vudi, bassist Dan Pearson, keyboardist Brad Johnson, and drummer Matt Norelli. This lineup would change over the next several years but Eitzel always remained the core of the band in terms of its vocals, lyrics and thematic focus with Vudi and Dan Pearson accompanying him on guitar and bass.

Their 1985 debut, The Restless Stranger, offers a rough outline of their increasingly eclectic sound and firmly established Eitzel's worldview, a harrowing vision of life as seen through the bottom of a shot glass. 1987's Engine honed the formula: the addition of producer Tom Mallon as a full-time member expanded the group's sonic palette.

American Music Club earned a solid cult following on the strength of 1988's California. Their next LP, 1989's United Kingdom, appeared only in the nation which lent the record its name and consisted of leftover material and live tracks.

In 1991 American Music Club emerged with the record that is widely considered their masterpiece, Everclear. Critical acclaim attracted the attention of several major labels. Eventually AMC -- now consisting of Eitzel, Vudi, Pearson, multi-instrumentalist Bruce Kaphan, and drummer Tim Mooney -- signed with Reprise in the U.S. and Virgin throughout the rest of the world.

Mercury followed in 1993 and, despite positive reviews, Mercury fared poorly on the charts and earned virtually no recognition from radio or MTV. In 1994, AMC issued San Francisco, an erratic collection which balanced confessional tunes like "Fearless" and "The Thorn in My Side Is Gone" alongside slick pop constructs. Like Mercury, the record floundered commercially and American Music Club disbanded as result.

In 2003, American Music Club reunited to record a new album, Love Songs for Patriots, which is described by reviewer Mark Deming as "a stronger and more coherent effort than the group's last set, 1994's San Francisco, and while it's too early to tell if this is a new start or a last hurrah for AMC, it at least shows that their formula still yields potent results. Here's hoping Eitzel and Vudi have more where this came from."

- Wikipedia

TRACKS:

1. Fearless
2. It's Your Birthday
3. Can You Help Me
4. Love Doesn't Belong
5. Wish the World Away
6. How Many Six Packs Does it Take to Screw in a Light
7. Cape Canaveral
8. Hello Amsterdam
9. The Revolving Door
10. In the Shadow of the Valley
11. What Holds the World Together
12. I Broke My Promise
13. The Thorn in My Side is Gone
14. I'll Be Gone
15. California Dreamin' (unlisted on CD)

Link removed due to complaint.

This is the only time I'm going to remove a link based on an Anonymous comment. From now on, you're going to have to sign up in order to make a comment on this blog. It's just too easy for anyone to fly in and complain about this, that and the other thing, all the while making unsubstantiated threats.

Don't get me wrong, if someone wants to complain and make low-level threats, that's perfectly okay, but at least do so with a User ID, instead of Anonymously.

For example, if you have a dispute with your neighbor over the legalities of the zoning of his property and your property, at least you both know who the other person is.