Defend the indefensible: EVERCLEAR

Everclear songs that I like: "Here We Go Again" "Santa Monica" "Electra Made Me Blind" "Local God" "My Sexual Life" "Summerland" "Twistinside" "Your Genius Hands" "You Make Me Feel Like A Whore" "Malevolent" "Everything To Everyone"

The Everclear dude may be a total douche, but he knew how to make a pop song. Or he did, anyway. The records only got worse as they went along.

On the other hand, this is indeed somewhat true, I admit it:

>the band only ever wrote one song, "Santa Monica," and then just re-recorded it countless times with different lyrics and titles.

http://www.villagevoice.com/issues/0032/kogan.php

about parenthood, I meant obviously, not "being" it

I like those albums in the order I listed them, but I'm 24, independent and single.

something I wrote on my site about Sparkle & Fade

matthew perpetua: always a broken record!

xpost

1. blazers are not the blazers are not the blazers. change in ownership changed the team for the worse. plus allen is a bastard -- just look at the oregon arena deal with him declaring bankruptcy to escape his deal. hell, just like at the team since he took control and lack of love portland now has for the team.

2. why should care what decision making process art went through in what jersey he wanted to wear? the decision must have really hurt art's wee girlfriend abusing head.

3. as for "indie cred" (something i dont care about), art never had it in the first place -- he has always been a mediocre hack.

4. besides, the best jersey would be maurice lucas -- a great player and a sweet guy.

as for chuck eddy's comments on everclear, each one encapsulate why everclear is so terrible.

But the best-of's title cites the period 1994-2004 and celebrates "Ten Years of Everclear." I'm no mathematician, but isn't that eleven years?

Anyway, the "You Make Me Feel Like A Whore" video makes up for a lot of sins, of which there are plenty, notably "Father Of Mine" and "Wonderful".

Just a clarification on the Oregon Arena deal (and not to be a smartass), Allen himself did not declare bankruptcy, the company that owns the Rose Garden did. Allen does not have to bail the company out with his own money because he did not tie it in as collateral or anything like that. But you're right otherwise: He is a bastard.

Oh, and I like Clyde Drexler. And while Art is a bit of a dope and not a very good songwriter, he's actually done a lot of work for progressive causes in Oregon.

But still, J.C., lighten up on our homies. How 'bout them Cougs, huh?

Well, they were.

"Santa Monica" is still quite good, some of the other songs off of the first album as well. It's the stuff of the second album and forwards that doesn't hold up--"I Will Buy You a New Life"? "Wonderful"? "AM Radio"? Fucking ugh.

However, they are assured immortality for their godlike performance in the movie Loser--a true event meeting of the wussiest band on the planet playing in the wussiest movie in history.

(1) i care about paul allen becauses he's been bad for the community i live in (see Oregon Arena deal, the Trailblazers, etc for his questionable and damaging behavior). you don't live here.

(2) i think one of my favorite things is when someone tells me to "lighten up" as if i should only express my "opinion" in a prescribed "community approved" way (in this case, not be so harsh on Everclear and Art). Fuck that. My opinions on everclear stand. "except for fever, you are all obviously deaf" was obviously an intentional overstatement/joke -- i like to pretend that i dont have to use emoticons because people are able to read. i like to work up a little rant here and there -- rants are good. milque toast, dishwater statements are worthless. life is too short to be a sponge.

Actually, *Sparkle and Fade* IS the second album, isn't it? There was an indie album before that. Pretty tuneless and generic, as I recall, but I remember somebody telling me it had a good guitar sound once.

you're right, jack, I don't live in oregon anymore, and therefore I guess I have given up any right to have any opinions about anything, no matter how ill-formed or misbegotten they may be. my 20th reunion is next week, and I was almost sad to miss it. now, I understand, it's not such a big deal, as I've apparently renounced my oregonness and would just end up seeming like a stupid idiot if I ever fucking said anything ever again.

and I'm sorry that my "lighten up" comment was misinterpreted as an actual command to lighten up, rather than the (almost kind of) joke it was meant to be. I would never ask you to lighten up, nor would I expect it of you.

hey you're right about this ranting stuff. I feel better.

xpost

What I like about Everclear: Heroin Girl (love that song to this day!), Santa Monica, most of the first album.

What I don't like about Everclear: When Art Alexakis sings "Yeah-ah!" You all know what I'm talking about.

Art's stature is irrelevant to me (Though I've stood near the guy. He doesn't seem that small to me! Maybe I'm midget too!)

There have always been rumblings in Portland about Everclear when they were local. But it's Portland. Musicians from Portland will know what I mean.

"One Hit Wonder" is stuck in my head again and I can't find the CD I burned it onto back in 2000. Shit.

"I Will Buy You A New Life," "Santa Monica," "Father of Mine," and "So Much For the Afterglow" all really good songs, which means he probably wrote more good songs than any Pacific Northwest grunge dude not named Kurt Cobain.

I think the only full album I ever really spent much time with was Songs From An American Move (or whatever), which I liked at the time but haven't listened to in a while, so I dunno.

My So Much For The Afterglow review in Spin:

http://books.google.com/books?id=Ogux2DAvNU0C&pg=PA141&dq='chuck+eddy'+everclear&rview=1&cd=1#v=onepage&q='chuck%20eddy'%20everclear&f=false

when i was cooking at a bar in college and after, this guy i worked with (he had a pearl jam tattoo) pretty much listened exclusively to sparkle and fade on the kitchen cd boombox...so it's kinda nostalgic for me. they are goony for sure, but good hooks and a certain charm for me.

― M@tt He1ges0n, Friday, April 13, 2007 12:27 PM (2 years ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

epiphany: autogoon + altbro = altgoon

If I'd never heard Everclear, Chuck's review would have sold me by mentioning both my all-time favorite band and one of my college roommates. But at the time I was already convinced that Everclear were the best rock band working (my review of So Much for the Afterglow is here, and it was my #1 for the year). I think Alexakis ran out of new song ideas after that album, and tried to cover it up by varying the arrangements, instead. For me it didn't work, and I won't try to defend anything they did after the 90s.

Everclear=meh.

If I'd never heard Everclear, Chuck's review would have sold me by mentioning both my all-time favorite band and one of my college roommates.

Never knew Garth Brooks was your roommate.

My only defense is that Everclear is the title of a really great album by American Music Club.

Garth has to play down his Harvard degree to avoid alienating his core audience.

"ohhhhh, i've got friends in the Kennedy School of Government...."

I haven't listened to Everclear in years and years and years, but once upon a time I was very fond of Sparkle and Fade because it was something none of my Green Day/Foo Fighters-listening friends had heard of. The beginnings of the descent into music nerddom?

I'm going to dig it up on Spotify now, I expect to be disappointed.

milkmandan77 (1 week ago) +2

YEEEUH!

im a young dude that spent 5 years of my damn life married to a total careerhead bitchbag in a shithole landlocked texas dump, got fed up and divorced and bailed out to hawaii and i surf everyday and things are great now - this song is my fucking athem.

"Santa Monica" exterior shots were filmed actually in nearby Malibu at Leo Carillo State Beach, one of my fave surf spots in college.

The angle from the cave out toward the beach has been featured in many films, Kathryn Bigelow's POINT BREAK as well as The Usual Suspects (it's were Benicio Del Toro is found buried in the sand).

lol "Return to Santa Monica" currently sitting at 1.19 on RYM

kudos to these guys for sticking around though

pulled out "So Much For the Afterglow" for the first time in sheesh, like 17 years. Held up better than I thought, though I'm pretty sure half the songs are the same damn chords

fucckK!!! I'm pulling out my Fastball CD now

They're still going? Alexakis must be pushing 60 now.

i mean it's just alexakis + whoever at this point. last two albums were both pretty ok though

it is strange that Art Alexakis, Mark McGrath, and Mr. Smash Mouth continue to have the same hairdos they were already too old for in the 90's

though Mark McGrath really is something else, it's like he had his entire head frozen in time

I loved "Father Of Mine". That whole album is really good. I haven't heard any of the other ones.

― scott seward (scott seward), Wednesday, September 29, 2004 6:03 AM (twenty-one years ago) bookmarkflaglink

not a scott seward post i was expecting!

i just came to basically post that exact same sentiment. "so much for the afterglow" sounds like something that was on the paramore members CD players or cheapo 64 mb mp3 players. i did a S&F through SFaAMv1&2 listen today and i was struck by how genuinely great SMftA was. those SFaAM albums were unbelievably worse than i thought. there's maybe a passable album that could be compiled from those two (PAGING IVY). since i'd never caught the strong beach boys influence on the album, the best comparison i'll give is as if everclear just made "Surf's Up" and followed it up with "L.A."

i sorta believe in the idea behind the songs for an american movie records but the execution is too corny and obnoxious to bear. still, some good songs, a little hard to parse what i’d keep from volume 2 bc i find it a little hard to differentiate between tracks, where on volume 1 it’s very obvious what the good songs are and the bad songs are

echoing you on so much for the afterglow being so so great, just the shiniest and most effective power pop record about depression and disenchantment one could write

In honor of this thread I blasted "Amphetamine" an hour ago on the way to buy wine for Easter brunch.

Father Of Mine is still my fave, so good

One of ya needs to pitch this as a P4k Sunday Review.

the sampledelic stuff on vol. 1 of songs from american movie aged soooo poorly lmao

omg the producer/engineer of so much for the afterglow is neal avron (prob best known for his records with fall out boy), that explains why it sounds so good

also this band has been on my mind recently because i saw the "fire maple song" music video in an old 120 minutes episode i found on youtube. great song. if they'd broken up before 2000 they'd be a perfect band to me

The chords remind me of early Smashing Pumpkins.

Y'all got me to put on SMftA now. I remember having mixed feelings when it came out, it sort of growing on me eventually and "Father of Mine" being the obvious stand-out, but not much else. Probably as good a record as any to listen to on a day like today.

ok, divided it into "good" and "bad" (meaning evil) sides to account for the difference in sounds between the two volumes:

songs for an american movie: the version that is one disc and is pretty good imo

good:
1. song from an american movie pt. 1
2. learning how to smile
3. the honeymoon song
4. now that it's over
5. otis redding
6. thrift store chair
7. wonderful

bad:
8. when it all goes wrong again
9. short blonde hair
10. out of my depth
11. the good witch of the north
12. halloween americana
13. overwhelming
14. song from an american movie pt. 2

kind of amazing that the first sides of both volumes as released are mostly abysmal, cf. "am radio"/"brown eyed girl," "slide/babytalk/rock star" (yeesh). feel like most people probably wouldn't include "honeymoon song" in an edit of these records but imo it distinguishes itself by being the only non-cover everclear song not written by art alexakis, and sets up the whole divorce narrative that follows

I remember struggling pretty hard to get my Dad to enjoy *any* of the music I was into back then - thought for sure he'd like "You Get What You Give" but instead he called it "annoying"..."Father of Mine" though he did like, it was maybe the one thing on modern radio he enjoyed. took me a while to figure out it was because that was basically his story too.

I last listened to the album about a year ago and it def held up...one because it just rocks, it's loud and forceful and there are enough interesting things going on to cover for the fact that a lot of these songs use essentially the same chord progression. secondly the lyrics are great. really reminds me of what it was like to grow up in a small poor town, I'd go on to meet a *lot* of people like that, who'd wind up getting medicated one way or the other

One of ya needs to pitch this as a P4k Sunday Review.

― cryptosicko, Sunday, April 5, 2026 11:13 AM (nine hours ago) bookmarkflaglink

my pitch is that Art Alekakis was the Mike Love of the 90s alternative rock and was absolutely dialed in on SMftA and just completely went off the cornball rails with the SFaAM albums.

anyway, here's my best attempt at combining SFaAM into one - funny Ivy and I agree on the exact Vol1 tracks to include. think shuffling around some of the beginning and backend tracks on each helps with the divorce theme and gives a little breathing room between the orchestral/acoustic and heavier tunes.

Side1
The Honeymoon Song
Songs From an American Movie, Pt. 1
When It All Goes Wrong Again
Wonderfull
Thrift Store Chair
Misery Whip
Now That It's Over

Side2
Learning How to Smile
Out of My Depth
Halloween Americana
All Fucked Up
Otis Redding
Songs From an American Movie

https://open.spotify.com/playlist/2ycbpAsRYhrUyHqR0xqWFT?si=2c9f655557534049