American Music Club was an American, San Francisco-based indie rock band, led by singer-songwriter Mark Eitzel. Formed in 1983, the band released seven albums before splitting up in 1995. They reformed in 2003 and released two further albums.
Although born in California, Eitzel spent his formative years in Okinawa (Japan), Taiwan, Southampton (the United Kingdom) and Ohio (United States) before returning to the Bay Area in 1981. After a brief stint with the bands The Cowboys (one single: "Supermarket"/"Teenage Life") and The Naked Skinnies (one single) he founded American Music Club in San Francisco in 1983 with guitarist Scott Alexander, drummer Greg Bonnell and bass player Brad Johnson.
The band went through many personnel changes before arriving at a stable line up of guitarist Vudi (Mark Pankler), bassist Danny Pearson, keyboardist Brad Johnson and drummer Matt Norelli. This lineup would change over the next several years, but Eitzel always remained the core of the band in terms of its vocals, lyrics and thematic focus, with Vudi and Pearson accompanying him on guitar and bass.
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Links to Peel[]
Peel didn't seem to play much of the band's material, according to available tracklistings on this site, with the only exceptions of 'Somewhere' and 'I'm In Heaven Now' in 1988 and 1989 respectively. However, he did invite singer, Mark Eitzel with Peter Buck of R.E.M. to do a joint acoustic session in 1997, where he also interviewed both members on the radio programme.
Sessions[]
Recorded live: 1997-06-19. Broadcast: 19 June 1997
- Fresh Screwdriver / Old Photographs / Frozen / Helium / Free Of Harm
Other Shows Played[]
- 12 December 1988: Somewhere (LP - California) Frontier
- 1989
- 24 January 1989: I'm In Heaven Now (v/a LP - Human Music) Homestead