Mark Eitzel is, in my opinion, one of (if not the finest) songwriters in America today. And so, of course, he is as underappreciated as can be. Check out "60 Watt Silver Lining" for about an hour's worth of melancholy, jazzy beauty. Also, check out his other releases, "Caught in a Trap and I Can't Back Out Cause I Love You Too Much Baby", "West" (his collaboration with REM's Peter Buck), "Invisible Man," "Songs of Courage and Confidence." The last one is all covers, and he puts his indelible stamp on every one of them. From 'Snowbird' to 'More More More' to 'Do You Really Want to Hurt Me' to 'Help Me Make it Through the Night'...quite a collection. Funny coincidence...the first track, Anne Murray's 'Snowbird', is from the first album I ever bought...I must have been 14 or less, and had a huge crush on her. Also check out "Ugly American," which has him covering some of his own songs (and a few new ones) with a group of Italian (I think) string players with beautiful results. The newest one, "Candy Ass," is Mark colliding with modern technology, producing moody little masterpieces.
With his old band, American Music Club, look for "Mercury (Incredible)," "California (Very incredible)," or "United Kingdom (just as incredible)," "Engine (pretty darn good)," "San Francisco (well, incredible)," "Songs of Love Live" (actually, Mark alone during that time, a really stellar live set), and "Everclear" (really good). And thier newest, "Love Songs for Patriots," carries on thier great tradition.
There is also a great book out on Mark and the band - it's informative, almost revelatory for an eitzel freak like me-if you're the same, click here to go get the mighty tome at Amazon.com. Those are just a few of my favorites, it's all darn good.
Please, make this guy the millionaire he deserves to be!
the Matador site:
http://www.matadorrecords.com/mark_eitzel/
a new Eitzel site...(New West Records, his new label)
and another...
