| - Vera
Clouzot -
 If I remember well, I discovered AMC rather late, with the
"Johnny Mathis' Feet" single and then the "Mercury" album. Then I bought
"Songs of Love" and from then onwards, it's always been obvious to me that Mark Eitzel was one of the greatest contemporary singers/songwriters (along with his "frère ennemi" Mark Kozelek).
I love "60 Watt Silver Lining" and "Caught In A Trap…" as well as old AMC stuff even if some of their records weren't very well produced or arranged - to my mind, that is. But Mark's gut-wrenching voice and lyrics make all those LPs worthwhile despite their flaws.
I actually met Mark Eitzel twice in Bruges, Belgium, and then in Lille, France. He took time to talk about a number of things with me and I thought he was a nice and intense fellow. After the release of
"Caught In A Trap…", though, I had the opportunity to interview him on the phone for French magazine Presto! and I must say the whole thing was a f***ing disaster ! Actually, interviewing people on the phone is a pretty bad idea (but it was that or nothing) and Mark sounded tired to the bone of these, er, "promotional duties" - which I can understand.
But never mind, Mark Eitzel is one of the few contemporary musicians I'd consider having a drink with !
Well, I believe that's enough praise for now, I like the guy, full stop.
Now, when we were asked to contribute to this otherwise all-American tribute album, the first question that crossed our minds was : aren't we going to sound dull, amateur or whatever, compared to the likes of Lambchop, Calexico, Chris & Carla… ?
Moreover, I must admit, with some sense of embarrassment and shame, that we're not particularly fond of tribute albums in general.
But then we thought, damn it, let's put some soul and a little bit of thinking into the whole thing and maybe that'll sound ok.
And now, knowing that those are good songs played by good musicians, and that Paul will do his best to make the whole record sound "together", I'm pretty confident that this will be the first tribute album I'll be able to listen to from start to end.
We finally chose to cover "Pale Skinny Girl" (off the
"California" album) 'cos it's basically a song we've always liked and also because we thought there was room for "re-interpretation" in there. So, for best or worst, we changed the structure and the basic chords, and added new themes. In fact the only things that remain are the lyrics and, hopefully, the "spirit" of the song.
Well, I hope we didn't fail miserably; and please, folks, forgive my slight French accent on the song !
Pierre Laplace / photo
: Laurent Orseau
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