Quietly making brilliantly intense and dark music since 1983, American Music Club are one of those underrated but always excellent bands that always seem to just hover beneath the mainstream surface.  Mark Eitzel's band are like a more consistent version of R.E.M, minus the billion dollar sales of course but with a track record that all in all, is far more revered and consistently superb.

Taken from new record, THE GOLDEN AGE, DECIBELS AND THE LITTLE PILLS is every bit as emotionally charged, dark and gently brilliant as you'd expect from American Music Club.  Eitzel croons in that world weary drawl that he's by now perfected, a gentle acoustic guitar is fingerpicked in the background, the whole thing buoyed by insistent drum beats and jazz riffs as the song reaches its pretty chorus.

As bruised and delicate as anything they've done before, DECIBEL AND THE LITTLE PILLS finds American Music Club on suitably steady footing, a song that suggests them as a band at the top of their game.

That American Music Club aren't more universally revered is perplexing. Between 1983 and 1994, the group released seven influential albums, eclectic melanges that integrated rock, folk, blues, jazz, and country into a document of raw Americana, yet never attained a level of recognition befitting such prolific and consistently powerful musicians.

Of course, it's easy to understand why they've never been a "buzz band"-- buzz is the currency of the young, and AMC catered to a slightly older set. They conveyed complex sentiments more likely to resonate with those who'd lived long enough to get knocked down a few times, shedding layers of self-esteem and solipsism along the way. The unbruised adolescent ego likes its angst to be clear-cut and attributable to the denigrations of an insouciant universe. Emotional complexity engenders too much unpleasant introspection and not enough pat catharsis. But this very trammel to superstardom has made AMC's longevity and continuing dynamism possible, and their first new album in 10 years, Love Songs for Patriots, is not only just as hearty as their earliest work, but it profits from another decade of experience grimed into its leathery creases.

Love Songs for Patriots is a uniformly strong collection of sharp-eyed, sardonic allegories. Its first three tracks-- "Ladies and Gentleman", "Another Morning", and "Patriot's Heart"-- demonstrate what AMC does better than almost anyone else: an elusive blend of gruff, shimmering music, understated drama, intuitive dynamics, and effortlessly poignant lyrics that burrow into the profane idealism at the heart of the American dream. Frontman Mark Eitzel's words are timeless and complicated, and sad without celebrating sadness: They acknowledge its inevitability while screaming defiantly into its sullen face.

On "Ladies and Gentlemen", Eitzel is the archetypal barroom prophet, a pale figure kicking up sawdust in a dark, smoky room and summoning spirits into the leaden air. A brewing storm of heavily distorted chords, sculpted feedback, and detuned piano rumble beneath him. The consummate showman, Eitzel moans and shouts as the music lurches through segments of stark lounge and roiling disarray, issuing a plainspoken demand for redemption through honesty: "Ladies and gentlemen, it's time/ The bartender is looking you right in the eye/ Says I'm going to replace all your weak blood with my wine/ If you can't live with the truth with the truth/ Go ahead, try to live with a lie."

"Another Morning" is more subdued, a well-sequenced mote of gossamer pop after the breathless claustrophobia of "Ladies and Gentlemen". Over a lovely bed of iridescent reverb, wafting acoustic guitar, and pliable percussion, Eitzel gently goads an unnamed "you" for her addiction to depression: "Someone does you wrong, you give away your whole life to prove it/ You wear your pain with pride, you refuse to remove it/ You become the evil that plays with you like a doll/ Big rooms only make our lives small." Delivered with less grace, the lines would seem mean-spirited and petty, but Eitzel breathes them out with such sympathy and tenderness that they become less an indictment than a prayer for deliverance.

Rounding out the trio is the commanding "Patriot's Heart". Another character sketch, it's a scathing... I almost said "indictment" again, but that's not quite right: There's no sense of accusation or self-righteousness embedded in the song. Instead, it's weary, defeated but still standing, and profoundly empathetic toward its subject, a male stripper whose transformation from person to icon embodies the downfall of a culture that's lost its heart to materialism. Over plodding crests and sloughs of bone-tired, ragged bar-rock, Eitzel gradually transfigures his protagonist from a debased yet essentially human soul into a symbolic reservoir for the sum total of untenable desire ("After a few tequilas, I become something holy"), culminating in the dissolution of maligned dignity. "I'm the past you wasted/ I'm the future you're obliterating/ Come on grandpa, remind me what we're celebrating."

The rest of the record continues to chart the shadowy regions of the spirit. Eitzel displays good-natured, satiric humor on the lulling, quiet ballad "Myopic Books", simple wisdom on the twinkling night-song "Love Is" ("We're so small compared to our hearts"), and undiluted, romantic hope on the breezy "Only Love Can Set You Free". Reviews of long-running bands often close by recommending that you check out their more salient back-catalog first, but I'm happy to say that the wonderfully humane and genuine Love Songs for Patriots is as fine a point of entry into their massive oeuvre as any.

After a 10-year hiatus, American Music Club is back together! They've recently completed work on a new album, Love Songs For Patriots, which was released on Merge Records in October 2004. The band tracked the new songs in San Francisco at Closer Recording Studios and mixed the record at The Echo Lab in Denton, TX with Matt Pence (Centro-matic, South San Gabriel). 

Mark Eitzel (vocals and guitar) reports that things turned out "much better than I could have ever expected." "It's very inspiring to be working with these great musicians once again," Eitzel recently told RollingStone.com. "We're pretty different now. I think we've changed a lot. You'd have to in ten years, right?" 

Forming in San Francisco back in 1983, Mark Eitzel, Vudi and Dan Pearson began by synthesizing their love for rock, country, blues, folk, pop and punk, into an incredibly unique and engaging musical melting pot, featuring Eitzel's enigmatic presence, heartfelt vocals and brilliant songwriting. Songs often became an unpredictable wedding between their free-form jazz tendencies and Eitzel's downbeat poetics, eventually landing him "Best Songwriter" accolades in Rolling Stone Critics Poll, not to mention a "Hot Band" pick from the same publication. The band went on to release five, much applauded, full length records on a handful of indie labels before recording their major label debut in 1993. Mercury is considered by many to be a masterpiece of modern popular music and their most focused record. Then, after incessant touring, the band settled down in the spring of 1994 to produce a set of songs that emphasized the line-up's steadiness and a wealth of new perspective. They called it San Francisco, their seventh album, which laid claim to their critical birthright in an album full of introspective songs that twisted and turned like the ambivalent emotions that created them. Soon after, American Music Club split up, albeit amicably, in 1995. Eitzel went on to create of reservoir of much loved solo efforts, including 60 Watt Silver Lining and The Invisible Man. Danny went on to play with Clodhopper, and release his solo recordings. Tim is a busy producer at his own Closer Recording Studios in San Francisco, and Vudi fronts LA band Clovis de Foret. 

Now, after a decade apart, the band is back together and better than ever. 

In the summer of 2003, Tim phoned up his AMC bandmates to see if the time might be right to think about playing and recording together again. Eitzel had been working on a batch of songs and the band decided that these would be the seeds for what would become a new record. Things went so well, that the band even decided to hit the road again between recording sessions. AMC played a string of sold out tour dates across Europe and the U.S. in February and March of 2004 including the prestigious Queen Elizabeth Hall in London and the SXSW Music Festival in Austin, TX. 

The brand new album, Love Songs For Patriots, finds American Music Club exploring shimmering sonic textures and harder sounds coupled with Eitzel's distinctive voice and signature stinging lyrics about love, life, & politics. 

AMC are original members Mark Eitzel (vocals, guitar), Dan Pearson (bass), Tim Mooney (drums), Vudi (guitar) and they are joined by new member Jason Borger (keyboards).

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