American Music Club Interview From 1994

Here is a link to a scan of an old interview with the American Music Club way back in 1994.

Thursdays in May With Loquat!

Meant to blog this one earlier, but this Thursday Mark Eitzel will be putting in a guest appearance at the "Thursdays in May With Loquat!" night at the Cafe Du Nord. Dunno what it will actually involve but Mark seems to be getting back in practice, possibly for a tour somewhen.

Another Record With Pete Buck?

Over on Pitchfork they ask Pete Buck from REM what he has been up to recently. He mentions Mark Eitzel and says they have some tracks that need finishing. It is not quite clear if this is new stuff or something left over from West, their album together. How do you read it?

Animal Nights - Review

I think most people were there as it was a Brighton Fringe Festival show and it had a bloke from "East Enders" in. I was strange hearing the first couple of chords to Johnny Mathis without the polite ripple of applause that normally accompanies them. It is pretty much a big chunk of the play with a few local acts thrown in for variety. The Brunswick is a small place with a small bar at the back and a low stage at the front. Most of the action took place amongst the (seated at tables) crowd. Mark sang "Johnny Mathis" and "I left my heart in San Francisco" and a couple of numbers during the show. He was hamming it up a bit. They probably did half a dozen other tunes from the show. The band gave it a slightly "60 watt" sound with mute trumpet and the songs were a bit broader than his usual stuff but with a few recognisable elements (drinking, loneliness, etc). The play seems to be about a hotel on Brighton sea front and the relationship between the owner and his cleaner, who he loves but is off to college. A few guests and tourists make an appearance and it was funnier than I was expecting. It would be good to see Mark do them solo.

Still one more show to go, so get down there if you can.

Marine Parade UK Shows

According to Mark Eitzels Facebook he will be visiting the UK for a bit this week. It is all to do with Animal Nights, an attempt to drum up some publicity for his upcoming musical, Marine Parade. Says the Facebook post ...

"I am part of an event called Animal Nights as part of the Brighton Festival.
This is an unpaid atempt to get our musical off the ground. I may sing a couple
of songs but the focus is on the play. We are talking with Channel 4 to make a
film of it."

The Brunswick is a nice venue with a good reputation for Jazz, but isn't that big. Best get in quick.

American Music Club PLay XX Merge Festival

On Sunday, July 26 the American Music Club will play the Memorial Hall in Chapel Hill, North Carolina , US of A. This is part of XX Merge, the music festival to celebrate the 20th anniversary of Merge Records, a label with ties to the Club. Also on the bill that night are She & Him and Wye Oak.

New Song

It looks like Mark Eitzel has posted a video of himself singing a new song on his blog this morning. He is also sporting a spectacular black eye as well.

Live @ Noise Pop 2009 Video

Here is a nice video of Mark Eitzel performing "Decibels ..." at Noise Pop 2009.



There is also some footage of the American Music Club live in the KCRW studio

LA Gig 18th April

It seems Mark Eitzel is playing a gig at the Largo at the Coronet in LA on Saturday the 18th April. Looks like it is Mark singing and Marc Capelle playing the piano again. It costs $20 and is with Miranda Lee Richards.

There is also this curious little webpage.

(Update)
The show has been cancelled.

AMC To Play California Album - April Fools!!!

And they said it could never happen! It has been confirmed that Mark and the original lineup of the American Music Club will be getting back together and performing their California album right the way through as part of this years All Tomorrows Parties season. it seems it is a one off to take place at the New York branch of the festival where the Dirty Three, Suicide and the Feelies will also be performing their albums. Book your tickets now!

Review of Bob Mould Show

Here is a review of Marks recent support slot. Sounds like it was jolly good.

Birthday Vids

It seems there is some footage from Marks birthday bash on YouTube. It is of the local band the Enablers doing their thing.




There is also a bizarre one of Vudi cycling down the street one night.

Happy Birthday Me !!!

Would you believe it, it has now been TWO years since my first post on the "Invisible Blog"! That is a couple of albums and a couple of tours worth of news and reviews. This year looks just as busy, so lets see what happens.

Happy Birthday Mark !!!

It is the mans big 50 this year. To celebrate here is a nice interview for you to peruse.

Sleeping Beauty Played On Banjo

Here is an interesting YouTube video.

Mark To Support Bob Mould

It is only for one show but Mark Will be opening for Bob Mould at the Swedish American Hall, San Francisco on the 28 February 2009. According to Marks Facebook page "Marc Capelle will play piano and I will sing". Not the sort of line up we have seen before.

Mark Eitzel On-Line

It seems that Mark has gone and got himself a blog. It looks a lot like ramblings about life, the universe and everyting as you would expect from his blog. The first entry is interesting though.

I guess I could talk about my career in music - though that is something I usually prefer to forget. People are much more interested than i am, actually. In 2008 AMC toured for about 6 months. I was in London for 2 months working on the play I am doing called Marine Parade. I also spent a couple of months in LA thanks to the generosity of my friend Chris Buck who lets me stay in his place. I wasn’t home a lot and I am very happy now to be in San Francisco which I love no matter how much i complain about it. I guess AMC wont do anything until late next year. I am writing a solo record tentatively called “The Old Queer On The Hill” and after that I am going to finish writing the AMC record. The solo record is going to be quiet acoustic songs and the AMC record will be songs that it is fun to play live. At least that is my plan.

So it looks like one new solo record this year and probably a new AMC one next year. Hopefully he will be touring the solo album.

As well as the Band Myspace, Band Web Site and Solo Web Site Mark is also on Facebook. He added me as a friend before xmas and seems to have embraced the whole interactivity of it all. Still, there is only one place to come for all the latest information. ;)

Merry Christmas

Merry Christmas
and a
Happy New Year

Toiling Midgets Gigs

The Toiling Midgets, a band that Mark Eitzel once did a great album with, are playinga couple of shows this Christmas. These are ...

December 30 - The Uptown, Oakland, CA.

January 4 - Annie's Social Club, San Francisco, CA.

It seems that Danny Pearsons band Clodhopper is on the bill for the San Francisco show. Should be worth checking out.

Picture Credit

You might have noticed a month or two ago that I got this nice new banner on the blog. Well the original pic comes from Charlie Craveros Flickr collection. I had been after a nice pic of Mark for a while and this one just seemed to do the job. Check out his This Is Hardcore set of pics for some really moody/arty shots of musicians.