Writing a music blog is a little like masturbation, it generally something one does on one’s own and if it is shared it with very few and certainly very like-minded people.
That seems an apposite introduction to trying to assess one of the most singularly neglected and undervalued songwriters of the post R.E.M. american indie scene. Indeed it would not be wrong to put him in the top four major talents in that genre including Elliot Smith, Vic Chesnutt and Mark Linkous. To say he still here is a blessing as the rest all sadly gone. Writing as a fellow 64 year-old (we born two days apart) when you get to our age a lot of water and blood has flowed under the bridge. Just being here is a triumph.
As I write this I am back-tracking exactly 31 years to the night I witnessed (and remains my only witnessing ) the live show when he fronted the then burning bright American Music Club at the Clapham Grand. It was as any cliched reviewer would tell you a consumate show where Eitzel’s intense and emotional lyrics were communicated with full force. Something about that band matched the west-coast harmonic vibe of a band who grew up facing east as much as west ( Eitzel was actually brought up as a child in Japan.)
Mellifluous atmospherics aside there was always a sharp pen at work too showing a formidable awareness of the classic American Songbook many years before Dylan made it OK to like ( pace later song ‘Johnny Mathis’s Feet’). It has also been suggested that AMC’s The Restless Stranger marked the invention of slowcore years before Lullaby for the Working Class, Low and Willard Grant made it trendy. Listening to it I hear more R.E.M. than slowcore and shades of the L.A. and S.F. new psychedelia of Cavacas and Green on Red or even Dream Syndicate. There also more than a passing reference to a fellow Scott Walker fan Julian Cope. I can imagine AMC being familiar with all the Liverpool bands.
( Editor’s note: I since listened to this interview and Mark namechecks fellow Cohen and Brel fan Ian McCulloch so nailed that one 😉
First track sets up the Eitzel trick of the piercing detail in a jolly melody…
as he sings..
I’m the only one who saw you pissing in your wishing well.
You cry yourself to sleep every night…
Eitzel sings about emotions a lot not quite a bucketfull of tears but certainly a trail that continues to the present day.
1987 and a ZIPPO deal with UK label DEMON ( home of Costello/Lowe) and alongside Giant Sand and other USA imports and articles in magazines like Bucketfull of Brains the slow build of reputation begins that leads to a major deal with Virgin. I don’t catch on until 1992 and that London gig and promptly purchase the 1988 release California as live I loved the version of ‘Firefly’. To date this seems to me the pinnacle of pre major label AMC along with perhaps the most perfect of Eitzel’s tear-stained love torch songs ‘Western Sky’.
Since 1987’s Engine the band had benefitted from the participation of record producer Tom Mallon in the band’s sound and Eitzel himself gives credit to his soundscapes to frame his increasingly well crafted and personal lyrics. Following California the band released a UK only ‘United Kingdom’ LP and their star rose with the well-received Everclear which then prompted Virgin and Reprise USA to float their boat. Ironic that Sinatra’s label became home to the Mathis loving Eitzel.
Along the way the definable soundscapes slipped and while brilliant songs like ‘Keep Me Around’ and ‘Johnny Mathis’s Feet’ are still there it’s all a bit direct and radio-friendly lacking that smog-filled LA and SF air. If only they had ignored the big buck producer directions and recorded lo-fi or a new LP called ‘Los Angeles’ in the Capitol Building we may looking at rivals to Mercury Rev and Flaming lips who started to take their soundscapes in more profound directions.
Big bucks usually mean big directives as friends of mine found out..sometimes a big producer like Mitchell Froom doesn’t work after all he fucked up Richard Thompson too around this time so don’t take it personally Mark. It’s the economy stupid…
As if aware of the potential mis-fire next recording ‘San Francisco’ starts with Eitzel proclaiming …..‘ Am I lost again…..I closed my eyes and kept on going’
and the title itself gets the home location in..things are back on track for a while….it’s a far more measured LP in parts but again things don’t quite add up.
Wish the World Away on the LP is a tad too straight ahead but look behind the curtain and multi-single extras of ‘Wish the World Away’ show an awareness of the changing post Nirvana music-scape. ‘The Revolving Door’ Demo shows what could have been a much more interesting LP with its easy listening drum and bass vibe. contrasts markedly with the over-produced sub U2 phonics on the finished LP. The cracks were appearing and by 1995 the band was over.
A year later and Eitzel’s second solo offering ( Words of Love Live at Borderline had appeared through Demon in UK in 1991) called ’60 Watt Silver Lining’ appeared. A quick blast on spotify reveals this to be a very nice easy listening influenced almost jazz type of LP. Here the band requirements fall away to reveal a quite traditional jazz influenced crooner. The singing is good. The songwriting a little too traditional but still there is a sharp pen on tracks like ‘When my plane finally goes down’ which is reminiscent of Joe Henry. The track ‘Southend on Sea’ takes the geographical tack apparent before. Psycho-geography from a ‘Ugly American’. Eitzel is having fun here, hell there’s even a brass section..the Miserabalist Soul Man…a depressive Solomon Burke. Good stuff. Maybe the USA version of Kevin Rowlands.
From 1996 to the present day discogs lists 18 full length releases. Some on labels like Cooking Vinyl some self-released. They are all interesting. Some like the covers LP Music for Courage and Confidence seem like treading water then a left-field LP of covers of old AMC material with a greek band ( The Ugly American) are superb giving a whole different take on the AMC story.
Here Western Sky with mandolin!
I am catching up with the more recent solo work so not attempting to cover here now. As you can see from above bedroom photograph most of my collection is from first half of career. Candy Ass I like and shows the potential for experiment lacking from the later AMC recordings as for the revived AMC I not heard but a quick listen on the AMC Bandcamp page suggests lessons learnt first time around much more in Mercury Rev territory.
https://americanmusicclub1.bandcamp.com/
The trail of tears continues..
On a first listen the lead track of Hey Mr Ferryman (2017) suggests that the fortuitous hook up with Butler as producer is one of the most productive events and suggests that Mr Eitzel benefits from a musical foil/producer to bring the best out of his voice and pen. I also looking forward to reeling in the stage work he been doing – all new to me.
The title too covers ‘The Last Ten Years’ better than I could and remember after a heart attack in 2010 we fortunate he still here to send his heart-break ballads out into the wild blue yonder of those Western Skies.
Mark Eitzel is about to tour the UK . Only a few gigs and if I wasn’t holed up in Nottingham I’d get to one. Here the itinerary and most recent offering on website.
https://www.markeitzel.com/
Mark’s UK Label DECOR
https://decorrecords.com/mark-eitzel/