American Music Club – Love Songs For Patriots
By admin on November 04, 2011 — Leave a comment“Absolutely fucking brilliant!” – Uncut, Album of The Month *****
“Politically and emotionally unflinching, America’s Greatest Living Lyricist is back on scarifying form.” – The Guardian ****
“Every song’s pretty close to perfect: Mark Eitzel’s bittersweet lyrics blend beautifully with some gentle tunes. A must-have record” – Daily Express *****
“Bleakly beautiful” – The Independent
“Funny, heartbreaking and at glorious odds with the world” – NME 8/10
“This is vital, compelling music of the present, full of confrontational dark scenarios, love songs of painful vulnerability and mocking sardonic humour … a powerful work.” – Q
Featuring original membersMarkEitzel (vocals/guitar), Danny Pearson (bass), Tim Mooney (drums) and Vudi (guitar), along with new addition Marc Capelle (piano/trumpet), the 13-song album blends American Music Club’s unique mix of rock, folk, country and jazz with Eitzel’s ever-present acerbic, brutally honest lyrics. From the first few bars of “Ladies And Gentlemen” it’s obvious that the band is back in full force.
Formed in 1983, American Music Club produced music that reflectedAmerica… a blend of free-form jazz tendencies and Eitzel’s down beat poetics. His talent landed him Best Songwriter accolades in Rolling Stone’s Critics Poll, which also deemed the group a “Hot Band” pick. After releasing five, much lauded, full-length records on a handful of indie labels, American Music Club signed to a major in 1993 and released “Mercury”, considered a masterpiece of modern rock music and the band’s most focused album to date. After non-stop touring in ’94, the group put out their seventh release titled “San Francisco”, which laid claim to their birthplace and featured an introspective collection of songs that twisted and turned like the ambivalent emotions that created them. That ambivalence was fortuitous as American Music Club called it quits, amicably, in 1995.
Separately, the band continued musically. Eitzel released a trove of much-loved solo efforts, Pearson went on to play with Clodhopper and release quality solo records, Mooney took on life as a producer and Vudi fronted an L.A. Band called Clovis de Foret.
In the summer of 2003, Mooney phoned his American Music Club band mates to ask about recording a new album. The songs Eitzel had written laid the seed for what would become their new record, “Love Songs For Patriots”.
