"Jesus' Hands"- American Music Club

[enigmatic]

American Music Club is one of the great undiscovered bands in the past 20 years, and frontman/songwriter Mark Eitzel is one of the greatest, most emotionally involving singer/songwriters I've ever heard.

"Jesus' Hands" is the closing song off their classic album "Everclear"; it's a typically melancholy and self-deprieciating sly look in the mirror for Eitzel, and is one of his greatest songs..

Well I'd like to hang out
But I can tell that you're not a drinking crowd
I got places to go, people to see
I got a thirst that would make the ocean proud

Hey brother, hey sister
Don't you see a crack form in the dam
For a loser, no one can touch him
He's out slipping through Jesus' hands

I'm walking in circles in a waiting room
For a welcome I don't feel in my soul
I watch the time pass, it pours in my glass
I drink it down, blood from a stone

Hey brother, hey sister
Don't you see a crack form in the dam
For a loser, no one can touch him
He's out slipping through Jesus' hands

Looking for love in all the wrong places
The sidewalks and the sky
Looking for something that no one can give me
And no one can help me buy

Oh brother, oh sister
Don't you see a crack form in the dam
For a loser, no one can touch him
He's out slipping through Jesus' hands

Well I'd like to hang out
But I can tell that you're not a drinking crowd
I got nowhere to go, no one to see
I got a thirst that would make the ocean proud....

[aquaman]

1. Hey man,

I agree, I love American Music Club

[RandomKoolzip]

2. Their latest got some good reviews, but it's nowhere NEAR as good

as "Everclear." It's good, don't get me wrong, but Eitzel's voice is just not the instrument it was back in 1991...back then it was a marvel to behold.

AMC mean so much to me...in 1992, I was going through some bad stuff, and hearing "Why Won't You Stay?" for the first time was a great comfort. Same thing when I heard 'Aplogy for an Accident" for the first time: "Well I've been praaaaaaaayiing a lot/lately/it's because I/NOOOOO LOOOONGER have a TV...."

I saw Eitzel play a free show on a bright summer day in Central Park, which went over like a lead balloon; the surroundings were just WRONG for a solo performance of "Johnny Mathis' Feet."

They'll always bee one of my faves, though...I have a bootleg of theirs from 1993 with a version of "Western Sky" where Eitzel just starts breaking down crying.


And also...I only found out this year, from an interview in The Big Takeover, that Eitzel is GAY! I had no idea! His songs about failled love seem so perfect for the dejected hetero male....

[enigmatic]

3. AMC was my absolute favorite band

for a long, long time until Uncle Tupelo overtook them; I got to see them 6 times in Columbus, OH (where Eitzel lived for a spell and came back often to) and Phoenix, and they were the most electric shows I've ever seen, bar none.

And like you, Eitzel's voice and songs comforted me when I was going thru a bad stretch in the late 80's/early 90's; songs like "What the Pillar Of Salt Held Up", "Mom's TV", "The Hula Maiden" (which has my favorite Eitzel lines, "this is my big aloha/coming to you from the volcano state/where they serve up your soul/for 3.99 a plate.."), "Western Sky", and "Nothing Can Bring Me Down" (from "Songs Of Love/Live", still my favorite live album by far)connected w/ me emotionally like very few songs ever had before or since.

I knew about Eitzel being gay; the songs on "Everclear" especially talked about what he was seeing in San Francisco w/ the AIDS epidemic, and especially w/ a song like "Sick Of Food", put his own perspective of the horror around him.

The guy is one of the greatest songwriters alive; I'll go far as saying that (still) he's arguably the greatest, and AMC is still the most criminally unappreciated band in the past 20 years, and it isn't even close.

I have had very, very few artists who I have emotionally connected to w/ their work; Bukowski, Harry Crews, lately, Willy Vlautin. But Eitzel is there, too, and despite his being a self-proclaimed Beautiful Loser, he's a hero of mine.

[enigmatic]

4. And one more thing

Although I've been called good-looking/attractive in my life, I still think Eitzel is the COOLEST looking guy I've ever seen...

[Monkey see Monkey Do]

5. ooh - never heard of them

and have been looking to check out some new stuff.

Is "Everclear" the album to get then? (only Amazon have "Mercury" for £5 ;) )