Thursday, February 28, 2008

Wednesday, February 27, 2008

Radio Interview

There is a link on this page that leads to an Interview with the American Music Club. It is a program called The World Cafe and it appears to be hosted by Sir Richard Attenborough.

Monday, February 25, 2008

The Review Of All Reviews

The lines are closed and the judges have come to their decision. The folks over at MetaCritic have averaged out all the reviews for The Golden Age and its final score is 80/100. Not a bad average, that is more then the new Kylie one but less then the Drive By Truckers.

Sunday, February 24, 2008

Two More Reviews ...

while one is in the medium of words, the other is in the medium of pictures, courtesy of our friends at StripWax.

Monday, February 18, 2008

Apology For An Accident

From Chris at the bands management.

"Dingwalls was the first time the band has played London without their own sound man which was a big mistake. It was probably the worst sound I have ever heard at an AMC show in 18 years. Mark and Steve also had very evil stomach bugs that kept them busy before, during and after the show with the bog...not a pretty site. So apologies all around.

Ask people who went to Brussels last night and they can tell you a different story, the venue had great sound and was broadcast on Radio1 there, I can't seem to find the link to it on their site but should have some more information next week here.

The Hamburg concert will be broadcast on NDR and Berlin will bebroadcast on Radio Eines."

Links to the concerts when they come on line.

Friday, February 15, 2008

Brighton Gig Review

I went along to the show the American Music Club were playing in Brighton the other night. Mark has always liked Brighton so I was hoping for a good one. Upon arrival the C2 seemed to be 1/3 full. Vudi was sat on the merchandising table drawing pictures on the plain covers of the tour CD. Mine has got a picture of a pig getting its head chopped off. Nice.

First band on was Butterfly McQueen. These were a Brighton band and I think they were on the bill as Mark was writing his musical with one of the singers. I missed the first part of their set but thought they were quite good for a band that doesn't even have a MySpace page. Two or three singer/guitarists taking it in turns along with keyboards, bass , drums and girl on tambourine. Their final song was dedicated to Mark as the singer said he had written it for him.

The second band was Bee And Flower. They sounded a bit like Madder Rose as the guitarist played a lot of slide and the singer had a similar voice to Mary Lorsen.

Vudi was the first to come out and taking his place stage left started singing (what I guess was) their Abba cover. Then the band came out and went straight into "Hello Amsterdam". I seem to remember that mentions Abba covers. Then it was "Revolving Door" and a couple more of the old songs. Mark seemed a bit nervous as he cracked jokes between songs and introduced the band as "Wish the World Away", an American Music Club tribute act. What can you say, it wasn't the original band so it wasn't going to sound much like them. They got through the old songs in double quick time. Then about 1/2 way through the set we got "The Stars", "Sleeping Beauty" and "Decibels" and with that the band seemd to relax and play them like the record.

The encore part of the show was interesting. The new lads left the stage leaving Vudi and Mark to play "Johnny Mathis' Feet" together. Then there was a band verson of "Western Sky" and a duo version of "Jesus' Hands". And they were gone.

Were you there? What did you think?

Thursday, February 14, 2008

Another Interview

Here is another interview with Mark. It is by a San Francisco newspaper and examines Marks obsession with the town. Strangely he says he prefers performing in London "... because I get paid better there". He is also quite frank about the new line up of the band.

Monday, February 11, 2008

London Show Update

A message from the bands management regarding the upcoming London show.

"As many of you have heard Camden market burned down over the weekend so Dingwalls is closed until later in the week. We are looking to move the show to somewhere close by like the Electric Ballroom or Underworld. As soon as I have any information I will report it here. Please check back in by this time tomorrow and we should have all the new details."

I will pass on any further details as soon as I hear them. Shame about Camden Market though. It was the place to go if you were after vaguely ethnic clothing or head massagers. Rumour has it you could smell the burning incense for several miles.

Manchester Reviews

Here is a review of the Manchester gig and here is another.

Wednesday, February 06, 2008

Miscellaneous Media Mentions

The media machine seems to be in full swing for this tour and album.

To begin with we have a bit from the Independent about how Mark and Sean Hughes first met as well as a short but favourable review. He contributes to a discussion on the art of writing love songs. There is a mention in the Guardian.

There are also some other reviews of the album out there and some reviews of the Bristol, Bristol and Dublin gigs.

Monday, February 04, 2008

The Musical

A year after I first reported it, Mark Eitzels musical gets a mention on Teletext today.

Exclusive: Eitzel musical
American Music Club singer Mark Eitzel is writing a musical, PS can reveal."Most musicals are s***, so I wanted to see if it was possible to write one that isn't," Eitzel told PS.Eitzel has co-written the musical, Marine Parade, with his playwright friend Simon Stephens. It will open "on a stage somewhere" in 2009. Eitzel said: "It's set in Brighton. I love Simon's writing, he's a genius."


It also got a brief mention at the end of this interview with Simon and here.

Sunday, February 03, 2008

Galway Set List

The European tour is now under way and the first repors are coming in. The set list for the Galway show was ...

Johnny Mathis' Feet (Mark Acoustic/Vudi Electric)
Blue and Grey Shirt
Home
Who You Are
Sleeping Beauty
Windows of the world
The Revolving Door
Western Sky
I know that's not really you
Another Morning
Decibels and The Little Pills
Hello Amsterdam
Wish the world away
Jesus Hands (Mark + Vudi)

So that's a bunch of new songs, a couple from the last album and some old faves. No Patriots Heart or Firefly? More from San Fran than Mercury?

Friday, February 01, 2008

American Music Club Play Spanish Festival

Get your sun tan lotion out. As reported here in Uncut, the American Music Club will be playing the Benicassim festival in Spain this summer. It takes place 17th, 18th, 19st and 20nd of July and features amongst others My Bloody Valentine, Babyshamble, the National, the New Pornographers and Spiritualized.