Although chosen for its deliberately nondescript qualities, in retrospect, the name American Music Club was the perfect moniker for the lauded San Francisco-based band led by singer/songwriter Mark Eitzel: over the course of nine acclaimed albums, the group tied together the disparate strands of the American musical fabric -- rock, folk, country, punk, even lounge schmaltz -- into a remarkably distinct, introspective, occasionally haunting and riveting whole, creating a brilliant and cohesive body of work dappled by moments of quiet beauty and impenetrable darkness. ~ Jason Ankeny