Too Busy For The Laws Of The World

Following up yesterday's post with a recreation of American Music Club's gig at the University of Bristol on 21st October 1994.

I was a relative newcomer to the words and music of Mark Eitzel and American Music Club at this point, my entry point being the single Johnny Mathis' Feet and the parent album Mercury.

A couple of singles were released to promote seventh album San Francisco and a tour announced, and I was there like a shot. 

Memories of the gig itself are vague, even down to who I went there with. I think it must have been my college girlfriend, though the timing of the gig suggests that it was very close to the time that we broke up and I moved away from Bristol for a while. Either that, or I bought the tickets pre-split and had to find a last-minute gig buddy.

I'm pretty sure it was the former though, as my college ex was a fan of Strangelove, especially Patrick Duff, so for her this would have been the appeal of the gig over the headliners.

Sadly, not my first time seeing Strangelove - I would have seen them at least once at the Bristol Community Festival at Ashton Court - but I can't remember much, other than they were 'good'.

Likewise, memories of the AMC set are hazy, to say the least. There was a pre-gig moment where I spotted Mark with guitarist and long-time foil Vudi (aka Mark Pankler) in the foyer, but didn't dare speak to them.

On stage, I remember a tight and enjoyable set, with no sign of the growing tension within the band that would ultimately bring American Music Club to an end the following year. Nearly half the set was given over to San Francisco, opening with The Thorn In My Side Is Gone and including the two singles Can You Help Me and Wish The World Away.

The setlist for the Bristol show isn't available online, so I've plundered the one for the following night at The Forum in London for info. Fourteen songs, and surprisingly no sign of 'hit' single Johnny Mathis' Feet, although Mercury did get a couple of showings with If I Had A Hammer, the sublime I've Been A Mess and Apology For An Accident to close. 

At that time, I hadn't delved further back into the AMC back catalogue so the other familiar song was Western Sky, which I recall reading in Melody Maker was Mark's nod to Nick Drake and Northern Sky. The other songs from California and Everclear were first-time listens for me, though the recollection of the impact (immediate or prescient) of a song like Ex-Girlfriend is sadly lost in the mists of time. Oh, to have kept a diary at the time!

What I do recall though is that my love for the band and their frontperson grew on the back of this night, and remains strong to this day. I missed the opportunity to see American Music Club again when they reformed in the 21st Century, and last week's chance to see Mark perform solo only reinforced what an incredible songwriter he is. Screwed up and screwed down, capable of moments of visceral agony and heartbreak, and intense, technicolour beauty.

On paper, the recreated setlist looks fine at 14 songs though comes in at a smidge over 50 minutes, which is short for a headline show, so I'm guessing that either a song or two may be missing, the live versions of some songs were considerably extended and/or Mark entertained us with a lot of between song banter. If only I could remember!

As with yesterday's selection, what is apparent from hearing all of these songs in this particular sequence is that this is a cohesive collection of music. Three songs here reappeared in Mark's acoustic set thirty years later - Why Won't You Stay, Western Sky and I've Been A Mess - and I couldn't find contemporary alternative versions of any of these, so I have repeated the studio versions used yesterday.

1) The Thorn In My Side Is Gone (Alternative Version) (1994)

2) Ex-Girlfriend (1991)

3) Firefly (1988)

4) Hello Amsterdam (Album Version) (1994)

5) I Broke My Promise (1994)

6) Why Won't You Stay (Album Version) (1991)

7) The Revolving Door (Original Band Demo) (1994)

8) If I Had A Hammer (Album Version) (1993)

9) Western Sky (1988)

10) I've Been A Mess (1993)

11) Can You Help Me (1994)

12) Wish The World Away (Original Band Demo) (1994)

13) The Dead Part Of You (1991)

14) Apology For An Accident (Home Demo) (1993)

1988: California: 3, 9

1991: Everclear: 2, 6, 13

1993: Johnny Mathis' Feet EP: 14

1993: Mercury: 8, 10

1994: Can You Help Me EP: 1

1994: San Francisco: 4, 5, 11

1994: Wish The World Away EP: 7, 12

Too Busy For The Laws Of The World (50:43) (KF) (Mega)

In doing some of the background research for the last two posts, I visited the excellent music blog Nothing's Going To Happen, a real kindred spirit albeit active a long longer than this here blog. 

In January 2021, American Music Club were in the spotlight with a bespoke 20-track selection titled Shades Of Weariness 1985-2008. If you enjoyed the above, then you will love this and, good news, FLAC and MP3 links are still active.

A word of warning though, take a packed lunch and drink with you. Once you start exploring the other posts on Nothing's Going To Happen, you'll be there for hours!

Party With Ghosts

On Tuesday 22nd April, I saw Mark Eitzel "Performing American Music Club & Solo Songs - Acoustic".

It was a trip back in time for a couple of reasons. I've been fortunate enough to see American Music Club live before, though just once and it was way back in October 1994, touring the San Francisco album. The band split following year, although they reformed for a successful (critically, at least) second act between 2003 and 2010.

I'm a huge American Music Club fan and have all of the studio albums, but my engagement with Mark's solo material has been much more sporadic, with just a handful of the 15 or so albums that he's released to date. So, part of the appeal was knowing that much of this acoustic set was likely to be unfamiliar to me.

The other nostalgia trip was the venue, the Hen & Chicken pub in Bristol, just south of the city centre and river. For many years, I lived a few minutes' walk away, and it was my local. Mrs. K and I spent many nights at the Comedy Box upstairs, seeing the likes of Dara Ó Briain, Mark Thomas, Lee Mack, Dylan Moran, Tommy Tiernan, Ed Byrne, Richard Herring, Marcus Brigstocke and an up-and-coming comedian called Alan Carr (whatever happened to him?) There was a lovely working club vibe, and it was a great showcase for pre-tour works in progress or Edinburgh Festival warm ups.

Back then, the Hen & Chicken was a real spit-and-sawdust pub, but the gentrification that was creeping in to the high street and surrounding area had fully taken hold by the time we moved away. These days, the Hen & Chicken is a much slicker affair, catering more for the younger, more bohemian locals than being just another stop on the pub crawl to/from the Bristol City football ground up the road.

Bristol was the 17th show of a 25-date tour of Europe and the UK. The venue was an unusual choice, given it's somewhat out-of-town location. I'd never seen live music at the Hen & Chicken and it was well over a decade and a half since I'd been there, full stop.

I needn't have worried. Whilst the downstairs pub has evolved to reflect it's surrounding environment, the upstairs studio seemed to have resisted the passage of time, looking pretty much as it did when I last crossed the threshold with Mrs. K in the 2000s.

Whereas the comedy nights were set up 'cabaret style' with tables and chairs, the layout for Mark Eitzel's show was 'theatre style' and I grabbed a second row seat. The seats in front were unoccupied but someone had already placed coats across them for their yet-to-arrive mates. Even at full capacity, the crowd would be less than two hundred deep.

Mark came on stage just before 8.30pm and played music for approx. 75 minutes. Fifteen songs, two of them encores, with some beautifully dry between song banter and occasional anecdotes. There was a good spread of songs, covering three decades from American Music Club's second album Engine to Mark's 2017 album, Hey Mr. Ferryman. And, as predicted, I was familiar with about a third of them.

Mark also played four as-yet unreleased songs and apologised for playing so much new stuff, though I wasn't complaining, though the beauty was how coherent the whole sequence of songs was. Going from 1996's solo Misson Rock Resort to new song Fall From The Sky to Why Won't You Stay from American Music Club's 1991 album Everclear was seamless, Mark's unfussy acoustic arrangements making each song sound like they had been written yesterday.

He was in good voice, too. One of the things that always attracted me to Mark and American Music Club was his voice, sounding brittle yet soft, emotive yet always with a threat of a bum note. There were real shiver down the spine moments, not least with Will You Find Me, one of my favourite songs on 1993's almost-breakthrough album Mercury.

And then, after a shuffle off stage and return for an encore performance of Outside This Bar and Last Harbor, that was it. As I was making way out,  I saw Mark re-emerge and stop to talk with a couple of the appreciative crowd. Although it wasn't even 10pm at that point, being a weekday I had to get home, it was a fair drive back and I had an early start the following day, so I continued on my way out. 

Besides, I have form in clamming up or worse, saying really dumb things, in the presence of musicians. I bottled it in 1994 too, when I spotted and Mark and Vudi chatting in the foyer ahead of the American Music Club concert, so the slight pang thirty years later was a familiar but fleeting feeling.

Outside, the pre-show cheery sunset had been replaced by a night-time downpour. And me with no coat! I'd parked the car opposite the former Casa K, and I was soaked by the time I got back to it. Driving home on the motorway, rain hammering the windscreen, roadworks up ahead, clothes still damp, Mark Eitzel's music playing loud on the stereo, everything that was wrong seemed so, so right.

A wonderful night.

1) Sleep: Mark Eitzel (2001)

2) Enomie (Live @ Dorado, Torino, Italy): Mark Eitzel (2025)

3) God's Lonely Dog (Live @ Dorado, Torino, Italy): Mark Eitzel (2025)

4) Rode All That Way (Live @ Copenhagen Hotel Cecil, Denmark): Mark Eitzel (2025)

5) Nothing And Everything: Mark Eitzel (2017)

6) Will You Find Me (Ahuja Mix): American Music Club (1993)

7) An Answer (Alternative Mix): Mark Eitzel (2017)

8) Misson Rock Resort: Mark Eitzel (1996)

9) Fall From The Sky (Live @ Dorado, Torino, Italy): Mark Eitzel (2025)

10) Why Won't You Stay (Album Version): American Music Club (1991)

11) I've Been A Mess: American Music Club (1993)

12) I Love You But You're Dead: Mark Eitzel (2012)

13) Western Sky: American Music Club (1988)

14) Outside This Bar (Album Version): American Music Club (1987)

15) Last Harbor: Mark Eitzel (2003)

1987: Engine: 14

1988: California: 13

1991: Everclear: 10

1993: Johnny Mathis' Feet EP: 6

1993: Mercury: 11

1996: 60 Watt Silver Lining: 8

2001: The Invisible Man: 1

2003: The Ugly American: 14

2012: Don't Be A Stranger: 12

2017: Hey Mr Ferryman: 5

2017: Hey Mr Ferryman (limited edition vinyl + bonus CD): 7

2025: Live @ Copenhagen Hotel Cecil, Denmark, 2025 (bootleg MP3): 4

2025: Live @ Dorado, Torino 2025 (bootleg MP3): 2, 3, 9

Party With Ghosts (1:02:07) (KF) (Mega)

A note on today's Dubhed selection: 

Given that the set included several songs that haven't yet appeared on studio albums, some online research was required to obtain song titles and live recordings that I could potentially use.

Three of the songs are lifted from Mark's show at Dorado in Torino, Italy on 7th April 2025. This was the only version of the second song, Enomie, that I could find full stop. It includes Mark having to pause and leave the stage temporarily following a coughing fit, which personally I think adds not detracts from the performance. 

No such incidents at the Hen & Chicken, although Mark did have to ask his manager to bring him a bottle of water. I bet this never happens to Ed Sheeran.

Rode All That Way was taken from Mark's set at the Copenhagen Hotel Cecil in (you guessed it) Copenhagen, Denmark on 13th April 2025. There were other versions online, including the Torino gig, but this was the best version overall. 

One Evening And Another Morning

I think of many of the albums on today's selection as recent, but they're all from 2004. Hard to believe that they - and the ears listening to them - are twenty years older.

One of the things I love about posting a daily blog is that it inspires me to seek out new music as well as diving back into my collection, dusting off and (re)discovering albums, EPs and songs that I haven't heard in a long while. All of the selections today have been languishing too long and their parent albums and singles will be added to the Casa K playlist where I can enjoy them all over again.

 

1) This Is That New Song: Badly Drawn Boy (One Plus One Is One)

2) Hummingbird: Wilco (A Ghost Is Born)

3) Another Morning: American Music Club (Love Songs For Patriots)

4) Knees: Pony Club (Family Business)

5) Nimrod's Son (Cover of Pixies): Frank Black ft. Two Pale Boys (Frank Black Francis)

6) You Do (Cover of McAlmont & Butler): Claudia Brücken & Andrew Poppy (Another Language)

7) One Evening: Feist (Let It Die)

8) Stay Out Of Trouble: Kings Of Convenience (Riot On An Empty Street)

9) Cherry Blossom Girl (Cover of Air): Hope Sandoval (Cherry Blossom Girl EP)

10) Stop, Look & Listen: Belle & Sebastian (I'm A Cuckoo EP)

11) Sleepy California (Super Furry Animals Remix): Her Space Holiday (The Young Machines Remixed)

12) He Gave Us The Wine To Taste: Jonathan Richman (Not So Much To Be Loved As To Love)

One Evening And Another Morning (44:56) (KF) (Mega)

Karaoke Kings

Side 2 of a mixtape, which I think was compiled around late 1996, possibly early 1997.

 

Time to usher the weekend with a few bottles of cheap Becks, salt & vinegar crisps, ripped seats, sticky carpets and the landlord's obsessive collection of novelty bottle openers glued to the upper skirt of the bar. Yes, it's Friday and it's karaoke time at your local spit 'n' sawdust bar.

1) Downtown (Album Version): The Justified Ancients Of Mu Mu vs. Petula Clark (1988)

2) You Keep Me Hanging On (12" Version): Colourbox vs. The Supremes (1985)

3) She (Disco Mix): Vegas vs. Charles Aznavour (1992)

4) Brass In Pocket: Suede vs. The Pretenders (1992)

5) Lost In Music (Single Version): The Fall vs. Sister Sledge (1993)

6) The Slider: Gavin Friday vs. T. Rex (1995)

7) That's The Way (I Like It) (Extended Version By Zeus B. Held): Dead Or Alive vs. KC & The Sunshine Band (1984)

8) Black Betty: Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds vs. Leadbelly (1986)

9) Zoom: The Boo Radleys vs. Fat Larry's Band (1994)

10) Emma: The Sisters Of Mercy vs. Hot Chocolate (1988)

11) California Dreamin': American Music Club vs. The Mamas & The Papas (1994)

 

1984: That's The Way (I Like It) EP: 7

1985: The Moon Is Blue EP: 2 

1986: The Singer EP: 8

1988: Dominion EP: 10

1988: Shag Times: 1 

1992: Ruby Trax: The NME's Roaring Forty: 4

1992: She EP: 3

1993: Why Are People Grudgeful? EP: 5

1994: Barney (...And Me) EP: 9 

1994: Can You Help Me EP: 11

1995: Shag Tobacco: 6

Side Two (46:01) (Box) (Mega)

Always Asking Questions?

Why are the weekends so short? This and other pressing questions below, with absolutely no answers whatsoever.

 

1) How Does It Feel? (Cover of Spacemen 3): Piano Magic (1998)

2) Is That You Mo-Dean? (Interdimension Mix By Moby) (New Edit 2002): The B-52's (2002)

3) Why Theory? (Re-Recorded Version): Gang Of Four (2005)

4) What Was Her Name? (Original): Dave Clarke ft. Chicks On Speed (2004)

5) How Many Six Packs Does It Take To Screw In A Light?: American Music Club (1994)

6) Whatever Happened To?: Buzzcocks (1977)

7) Why Can't I Be You? (Album Version): The Cure (1987)

8) Are You Ready To Be Heartbroken? (Demo): Lloyd Cole & The Commotions (1983)

9) Where Do You Go? (Album Version By William Orbit): Beth Orton (1993)

10) Where Is My Mind? (Live @ Les Eurockéennes Festival, Belfort, France, 03 July 2004): Pixies (2004)

11) “Is it art or anti-art?”: The Times (1991)

Always Asking Questions? (36:41)