American Music Club produced perhaps the most emotionally intense indie rock of the late ’80s and early ’90s. Singer Mark Eitzel can silence a room with his beautiful-loser conviction, but his brain is too abuzz with ambivalence to ever settle for simple angst or lovelorn gloom. After their ten-year reunion in 2004, AMC now features Eitzel and guitarist Vudi with a new rhythm section, and The Golden Age is their most placid disc since 1989’s United Kingdom. Not even Eitzel’s political anger jolts him out of his even-tempered groove, with acoustic fingerpicking fading into discordant electric guitar (“The Stars”) and then back into beats that sashay like ballroom waltzes.
Now Hear This: American Music Club, “All The Lost Souls Welcome You To San Francisco” DOWNLOAD MP3