A Short History of American Music Club

San Francisco 1983. Beginning like most other bands of the late seventies, as a punk band, American Music Club, were amongst the first post-punk bands to embrace more traditional styles while Eitzel's lyrics became increasingly personal and sophisticated.

Mark Eitzel is the main songwriter, vocalist and, for the most part, the guitarist with American Music Club. The band never really made a breakthrough in terms of sales or indeed critical recognition in terms of 'cool'. This may be because their music is not weird rock, or in any way sensational. They have always come over as neo-MOR on the surface, yet there is more to Eitzel's songs and music than this.

Eitzel was born in San Francisco but spent his early childhood in Taiwan, his teenage years in Southampton in the UK and his drinking years in Columbus, Ohio. It was in Columbus in 1978 that he formed his first punk band, the Naked Skinnies, and then three years later, in San Francisco, American Music Club with Danny Pearson, Tim Mooney and guitarist Vudi. Eitzel's vocal ability to make his words resonate truth can make American Music Club a heavy listening experience at times. The words are usually deeply personal and are set to a variety of musical styles ranging from country and folk to rock and punk, chosen carefully to convey and offset Eitzel's narrative. Critics seem to love it, and on more than one occasion he's attempted to live up to the label 'songwriter of his generation'. The problem is just that he and his band have consistently failed to connect with the generation in question.

The first album, 'The Restless Stranger', was released in 1986 just as the independent guitar scene was making the transition to the big leagues. Husker Du and REM were poised to go worldwide with their powerful and literate amalgamation of post-punk attitude and traditional songcraft, and even independent labels like SST, Dischord, Alternative Tentacles and Wax Trax were becoming established as a successful craft industry. American Music Club didn't have a deal with a major or a fashionable minor, and the situation wasn't helped by Eitzel's sporadic quitting and partying. In fact, alcohol is a recurring, perhaps cathartic motif in Eitzel's lyrics, and this first-person honesty is a feature of most of his writing even if the context is sometimes pretty surreal.

On the band's 1993 major label debut. 'Mercury', Eitzel reflects on his own role and qualities as a songwriter and singer through the medium of a conversation with Johnny Mathis who asks 'Why do you say everything as if you were a thief, like what you've stolen has no value, what you preach is far from belief?' Heavy stuff, and deeply personal, an eloquent, self-critique of the like rarely found in popular music. The very reason why Mark Eitzel is required listening, both as a solo artist and especially with American Music Club.