Америкалық Инди Рок Тобы: American Music Club Тарихы

American indie rock band

American Music Club was an American, San Francisco based indie rock band, led by singer songwriter Mark Eitzel. Formed in 1982, the band released seven albums before splitting up in 1995. They reformed in 2003 and released two further albums.

Although born in California, Eitzel spent his formative years in Okinawa (Japan), Taiwan, Southampton (the United Kingdom) and Ohio (United States) before returning to the Bay Area in 1981. After a brief stint with the bands The Cowboys (one single: "Supermarket"/"Teenage Life") and The Naked Skinnies (one single) he founded American Music Club in San Francisco in 1983 with guitarist Scott Alexander, drummer Greg Bonnell and bass player Brad Johnson. Initially an art punk band with a strong performance art element, American Music Club eventually ditched those initial stylings and began to incorporate roots music elements including folk rock and country music. The band went through many personnel changes before arriving at a consistent line up of Eitzel on vocals, guitar and songwriting, guitarist Vudi (Mark Pankler), bassist/mandolinist Danny Pearson and drummer Matt Norelli, with founder member Johnson moving to keyboards. With Johnson and Norelli departing (although the latter continued to help out on recording sessions), the band followed up The Restless Stranger with 1987's Engine, a more diverse and exploratory release which saw the band experiment further with roots rock, melodic hardcore and all points in between. The Engine sessions saw Tom Mallon, the band's record producer and engineer, gradually join as a full time member. Following the release of United Kingdom, American Music Club fell out terminally with Tom Mallon during a band rehearsal. Mallon then kicked them out of the studio, quit the band and cut ties with them. Disheartened at the loss of a steady line up, plus their recording and production arrangements, the band temporarily dispersed. Eitzel joined art punks Toiling Midgets, writing and recording the Son album with them. About a year later, American Music Club reconvened, enticing Eitzel back, returning Pearson to bass and adding multi instrumentalist Bruce Kaphan (who'd previously guested on pedal steel guitar on California, and who now added the instrument full time to the band in addition to keyboards, dulcimer and extra guitars).

In 1991 American Music Club released the self produced Everclear. Like Engine, it was an eclectic record which juggled alt. rock, rockabilly, noise rock and grunge in addition to the country and folk of the California and United Kingdom period. Retrospectively, it has sometimes been described as "more polished and radio friendly" compared to the previous albums; with Deborah Sprague (writing for Trouser Press) stating that the "slickened production works against the band", while AllMusic writer Jason Ankeny has judged it to be the band's masterpiece. and also contributed to Swans. Pearson formed Americana band Clodhopper, and played double bass on Eitzel's tour for his third solo album West in 1997.

Despite the splits and tensions, the various members of American Music Club had always stayed in touch and maintained affection (Lisa Davis described their sometimes combative relationships with each other as being like "brothers"). The band reunited in 2003 with Eitzel initially joined by Pearson and Mooney, and later by Vudi and new keyboard player Marc Capelle, to record a new album, Love Songs for Patriots (released in 2004). This was described by AllMusic 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." A performance in Pittsburgh on November 10, 2004, was released as a live CD, A Toast To You, on January 1, 2005. The band then consisted of Eitzel, Vudi, Pearson, Mooney, and Capelle's replacement Jason Borger on keyboards. On June 20, 2007, AMC announced a new line up connected to the band's base of operations moving to Los Angeles. A later line up replaced Hoffman with a returning Dana Schecter on bass, and added Jonathan Heine as second guitarist. The band split up for the final time in 2010.

Following the final split of American Music Club, Eitzel resumed his solo career, while Vudi would play with Jenifer McKitrick and Pocket Life. The band's final bassist, Dana Schecter, continued her work with her two group Bee & Flower and Insect Ark, as well as working with Swans. Former AMC drummer Tim Mooney died of a blood clot in June 2012; he was 53. The band's former drummer, bassist, producer and engineer Tom Mallon died after a long battle with brain cancer on January 9, 2014; he was 57.