Mark Eitzel

Mark Eitzel has spent decades turning personal history into song, first as lead singer and chief songwriter of San Francisco's American Music Club, and later under his own name. Born in 1959 into a military family, he grew up across Okinawa, Taiwan, Ohio and the United Kingdom, and he began making music as a teenager in Southampton before settling in San Francisco in 1979. That city became the base for American Music Club, and his songs have since ranged from punk-rooted beginnings to the electronic textures of his later solo work.

Eitzel's first group, the punk band the Cowboys, put out a single in 1980, and American Music Club, which he formed in 1982, kept going for twelve years before disbanding in 1994. Solo records followed, including West in 1997, co-written with R.E.M. guitarist Peter Buck, with whom he also toured. The Invisible Man, on Matador Records in 2001, turned towards electronics. American Music Club reunited in 2003 for a sold-out show at London's South Bank Centre, and Klamath followed on Decor Records in 2009. His eleventh solo studio album, Don't Be a Stranger, came out on Merge Records in October 2012.