Eitzel, Mark

Eitzel, Mark

Hey Mr Ferryman

Merge

***Hey Mr Ferryman is MARK EITZEL's first full studio album recorded entirely in London. It was made at 355 Studios with Mercury Prize winner BERNARD BUTLER (ex-Suede, McAlmont & Butler), who has produced and/or recorded albums with Tricky, Ben Watt, Bert Jansch, Edwyn Collins, and more. Butler produced Hey Mr Ferryman and played all of the electric guitar, bass, and keyboard parts on the album. Hey Mr Ferryman features the vivid melodies long associated with Eitzel’s former band AMERICAN MUSIC CLUB—which remains a cult favorite to this day—as well as Butler’s distinctive guitar that serves to complement Eitzel’s expressive vocals.   Of that voice, Pitchfork once wrote: “If Leonard Cohen’s voice is a story about the passage of time and Levon Helm’s is a story about losing what is most precious to you, Eitzel’s is about the circuitous roads we take in search of ourselves.” “The songs on this record are about celebrating musicians and music, about misogyny, the long shadow of history, getting one’s head out of one’s ass,” quips Eitzel on the themes of Ferryman. “Also oceans, blood, skies, hearts, gay pioneers, carpenters, weeping women, and how death waits for you even in the happiest place on earth: Las Vegas.”

Eitzel, Mark

Don’t Be A Stranger

Merge

***After a string of bad luck that included a heart attack that set him back several months and the implosion of his band AMERICAN MUSIC CLUB, MARK EITZEL fortuitously found himself in the studio with celebrated producer SHELDON GOMBERG (Rickie Lee Jones, Ron Sexsmith, Ben Harper), thanks to the generosity of an old friend. The result is Eitzel’s finest solo album in over a decade. Inspired by his experience writing a musical, Mark’s songwriting is simpler on this record and lyrically reflects a more straight-ahead approach. There is a haunted quality to tracks like “I Love You But You’re Dead” (a song based on seeing the punk band Destroy All Monsters) and “The Bill Is Due,” which are about broken promises, leftover people, the desperation one feels when time and cash are running out, and ultimately, the feeling of not knowing what comes next. “Break the Champagne” and “Nowhere to Run” were written in a fit of creativity just days before the album was completed. Mark plans to tour the US in late 2012 with his band MARK EITZEL’S WARM GENTLE RAIN, whose members include KRISTIN SOBDITCH (LITTLE FUZZY), MARC CAPELLE (American Music Club), JON LANGMEAD (LOQUAT), and PETE STRAUS (DWARVES). No Export. (STREET DATE - 10/02/2012)