Everclear

Everclear is the fifth album by San Francisco band American Music Club. Overall, the album received unanimous praise, but was criticized for being overproduced, despite the fact that it was released on an independent label.

"Sick of Food" is one of the most turbulent and well-known songs in the AMC canon, sung from the perspective of an AIDS patient whose medications have left him unable to eat. Though it starts catatonically, it concludes with Eitzel screaming "Now I wake up and I don't have any gravity/ Feel the whole world drawing away from me/ Now I wake up, so now I wake up/ What good is it?/ Another bright nothing/ Another... day."

"Rise" was released as a single via the Rise CD maxi-EP (Alias Records, 1991), which contained the non-album tracks "Chanel #5," "The Right Thing" and an alternate version of "Crabwalk." The music video for "Rise" received minor play on MTV's 120 Minutes late-night program.

On the strength of this album, Mark Eitzel was named Rolling Stone magazine's Songwriter Of The Year in 1991. R.S. also placed Everclear in their list of top 5 albums of the year.

From an article in the Dec. 1994/ Jan. 1995 issue of Addicted To Noise:

"I remember we were somewhere in Germany and we found out about the Rolling Stone poll," says Eitzel. "It made me feel really good. But for the next show there were about 20 people in the audience. And they were army guys and they thought American Music Club were some righteous American freedom-fighting, cool ass Springsteen-influenced Guns N' Roses kind of guys. And we did not rock." "They didn't know we'd made 'one of the best records of the year' and he was the 'best songwriter,'" adds bassist Dan Pearson. "They couldn't give a fuck about that shit," says Eitzel. "And they certainly didn't agree."

All lyrics by Mark Eitzel; all music by Eitzel/ American Music Club.

Track listing

1. "Why Won't You Stay" - 2:59
2. "Rise" - 3:11
3. "Miracle on 8th Street" - 4:07
4. "Ex-Girlfriend" - 2:49
5. "Crabwalk" - 3:33
6. "The Confidential Agent" - 4:10
7. "Sick of Food" - 4:02
8. "The Dead Part of You" - 2:42
9. "Royal Café" - 3:23
10. "What the Pillar of Salt Held Up" - 2:38
11. "Jesus' Hands" - 3:02

Personnel

• Vudi - guitar, accordion, bass
• Mark Eitzel - vocals, guitar, keyboards, songwriting
• Dan Pearson - bass, guitar, dulcimer, mandolin, banjo, vocals
• Mike Simms - drums
• Bruce Kaphan - pedal steel, keyboards, bass, percussion, lap steel, dobro, guitar, dulcimer
• All songs produced by Bruce Kaphan/AMC except "Rise" & "The Dead Part Of You" produced by Norman Kerner/AMC
• All songs mixed by Joe Chicarelli except "The Confidential Agent" & "What the Pillar of Salt Held Up", mixed by Bruce Kaphan
• All songs recorded by Bruce Kaphan/Tom Carr at Music Annex Studio A (Menio Park, CA) and at Soma Sync Studios (San Francisco), except "Rise" & "The Dead Part of You" recorded by Norman Kerner at Brilliant Studios (SSan Francisco), and Bruce Kaphan/Tom Carr at Soma Sync Studios
• Second engineer at Soma Sync Studios: Kyle Johnson
• Mastered by Bob Ludwig at Masterdisk in New York
• Design by Frank Weidemann, Portfolio at: http://www.frankwdesign.com
• Cover painting by Jean Lowe
• Photos by Beth Herzhaft
• All songs written by Mark Eitzel © 1991 I Failed In Life Music BMI, adm. by BUG Music

External links

• 1994 Addicted To Noise article on AMC
• AMG analysis of song "Sick of Food"