HUNGRY & HOLLOW SESSIONS GUIDE: EVERCLEAR: SO MUCH FOR THE AFTERGLOW

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Recording: 09/XX/96
(Skip Saylors Studios – Los Angeles, CA)
Recorded by: Jim Rondinelli

Band Members: Arthur Alexakis (guitar, vocals), Craig Montoya (bass), Greg Eklund (drums)

Recorded:
[O] Local God
[O] Santa Baby
[O] Southern Girls
[O] Speed Racer

Sources:

Source	Quality	Complete	Runtime	Lowest Gen	Tracks Featured	Notes
SBD #1a	10.0	No	0:03:55	Official CD (So Much For The Afterglow AUS)	• Local God	Originally featured on ‘Romeo & Juliet’ Soundtrack
SBD #1b	10.0	No	0:05:16	Official CD (So Much For The Afterglow JAP)	• Southern Girls • Speed Racer
SBD #1c	10.0	No	0:03:58	Official CD (Sounds Of The Season Compilation), Several Others	• Santa Baby

Notes: "We were in Australia after this song [Local God] had come out on the Romeo & Juliet soundtrack. I was at a sound check in Sydney when an Aussie label guy asked me why this song wasn't on the set list. I told him we didn't feel like playing it and he told me it had been a big hit down there and it would disappoint people if we didn't play it... so we ended up playing the song every night that we were there.” (33) “Yeah, it's weird I was writing songs for our new record when I wrote that and just happened to be writing a song with the name Romeo. I like the groove on it and it's like the missing link between Sparkle and Fade and So Much For the Afterglow.” (60)

"ESPN came to us many years ago, and said "Would you record a song for us to use doing their Nascar races?" We did a cover of the theme from the old TV show "Speed Racer." We did a really cool, punk rock, down and dirty version of it. It's really cool." (48)

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Recording: 11/XX/96
(A&M Studios - Los Angeles, CA)
Recorded by: Jim Rondinelli
Additional Recording by: Neal Avron

Band Members: Arthur Alexakis (guitar, vocals), Craig Montoya (bass), Greg Eklund (drums), others.

Recorded:
[O] Everything To Everyone
[O] Normal Like You
[O] Father Of Mine
[O] Amphetamine
[O] White Men In Black Suits
[O] Sunflowers
[O] Like A California King
[O] Hating You For Christmas
[O] The Swing
[X] Song from an American Movie
[X] Otis Redding
[X] Instant Karma (John Lennon Cover)
[X] Annabella’s Song
[X] Lame
[?] Rocket Tattoo Swing
[?] Static
[X] Overwhelming

Sources:

Source	Quality	Complete	Runtime	Lowest Gen	Tracks Featured	Notes
SBD #1a	10.0	No	?	Official DVD-A (So Much For The Afterglow)	• Everything To Everyone • Normal Like You • Father Of Mine • Amphetamine • White Men In Black Suits • Sunflowers • Like A California King • Hating You For Christmas	DVD Audio is encoded at 24 Bit / 48Khz.  Special 5.1 Speaker Mix of songs included too.
SBD #1b	10.0	No	0:02:59	Official CD (Scream 2 Soundtrack)	• The Swing

Notes: Art and the band started recording their follow up album to ‘Sparkle & Fade’ in the fall of 1996 which originally was titled, ‘Pure White Evil.’ (2)

“Being on tour for a year before we recorded, I listened to a lot of music. And I listened to what was hot and new, but it didn't really stick with me. So I found myself turning to a lot of Elvis Costello, Beach Boys, Beatles, Public Enemy, the early Pixies records - all the stuff I'd grown up with. I had lots of Sixties and Seventies stuff, these 10-CD collections of pop hits. I think all that had a big influence on this record. Production-wise, it's a very lush record.” (4)

“I [Greg] was able to contribute more from my background on this record, so a lot of the songs are more groove oriented," he says. "It was a lot more collaborative. I didn't necessarily feel I was left out of the last record at the time, but after three years of playing and 600 shows, I think we played better as a band. More important was the fact that over those three years on the road, we bought a lot of CD's. We were constantly listening to and turning each other on to different stuff." From this digging on roots like Ray Charles, Los Lobos, Otis Redding, and Little Richard, elements of funk joined the punk energy, while still being channeled into a pop format.” (5)

On the official Everclear website, ‘Nehalem’, Art gave Brent Fusco a few hints on what ‘Pure White Evil’ might have contained. “Everclear will be heading to the studio in November to record their next album, tentatively titled "Pure White Evil." Currently, the idea is to include as many as 22-25 songs. However, the number of songs may vary depending on the format in which you buy it. Art wants it to be a single CD ("I think double-CDs are kind of pretentious," said Art), so it will include as many songs as fit. However, there will be bonus tracks on the vinyl version and on a special version of the CD that will be sent only to college radio stations. Some of the songs that we can expect to see on the album include new versions of such previously released rare tracks as "Lame" and "Annabella's Song." (34)

‘So Much For The Afterglow’ was less of a personal album compared to ‘Sparkle & Fade’ but still contained several songs relating to issues from his past.

"It's wrong to make the assumption that all of my songs are autobiographical," he points out. "On this record there are only three. I do like writing from the first person, but if I didn't think there were universal themes in there, then I'd leave the stories in my diary. Maybe it's a little like I'm going through therapy in my songs. But I think there are also universal themes in songs like `Father of Mine.' I think people can relate to that song from different perspectives, whether it's as a father or as a mother or as a child. I think a lot of people have some sort of experience where they can relate to abandonment." (53)

“I did the song [Father Of Mine], then I got away from the record for about three weeks after I mastered it. Then I listened to it again, like a new album, you know? And listening to "Father of Mine" and "Why I Don't Believe In God," I started to cry. It's autobiographical, but I wouldn't have put it on the record if I didn't think other people could relate to it. All these themes are universal, even though it might be a small universe. A lot of people have issues with fathers, because a lot of men are dogs. I was a lot cooler with my dad until I had a child and I saw what it really takes to be a father, emotionally, to be a role model and to learn to walk that line. And he just wasn't it. He didn't do it. Now he wants to be my buddy, and I could give a shit. I do want to make peace with my dad, and I will, but he's not gonna like this song. I don't think a lot of fathers will.” (4)

"Ten or 11 years ago my girlfriend left me the day before Christmas,'' Alexakis explains. "She moved in with my best friend, so I lost two best friends in a day. I was on drugs and just miserable, but I wasn't able to articulate it then.'' (16)

"I have to tell them Amy is a created person. She's me, me and other people I've know who've kicked drugs, who've gone through that whole thing ...” (22) "The song [Amphetamine] is really about someone trying to rise above their past. It's like the line 'She's been clean for six months and no one's given her credit for it.'" (49)

"[Like A California King] is me looking through someone else's eyes at me -- through a critic's eyes. I've heard people say the only reason Everclear are famous is that Art always talks about his past. He's always so confessional. Why does he always have to talk about his drug past? Well, it's because you motherfuckers keep asking me about it. So now, when someone asks me to talk about my past, I just refer them to the phonebook worth of press that's already been written on that." (53)

“But there's another song that people think is extremely personal as well, ‘Sunflowers.’ It's just a made-up story, but it's dealing with a lot of my fears, and it's dealing with a lot of my guilt. It must have been really hard for my mom to watch her oldest boy die of an overdose at the age of 21.” “Growing from a little boy and going through a lot of the same hell emotionally and maybe mentally that you did. That's why I wrote that song, 'cause it's kind of cathartic to me. 'Cause I hope I never have to see my daughter do that, but I might have to. So that's a song that I think people can relate to."(58)

"[Everything To Everyone] It's just basically looking at the character in just about every person I’ve ever met, myself included, of the two extremes of, one: the guy who's trying to be everything to everyone and manipulative. And then the person who just wants to be loved by everybody and will do anything to reach that end. And, I see that in some people in extremes. And i think I see it in everybody to a certain extent. So that's pretty much what its about." (40)

A major difference in this album previous to ‘Sparkle & Fade’ is how layered and elaborate it is.

“Oh, yeah. It's kind of sick how many guitar tracks are on some songs. I'm a little embarrassed - there are probably 20 guitars on "California King." My group calls my guitar collection the "guitar-senal." I used Mesa amps and seven or eight different guitars, but I primarily use three: a Les Paul gold top, which I used a lot on Sparkle and Fade; a Gibson EDS-1275 double neck, the Jimmy Page model, on which I played the 12-string a lot; and an Eighties Gibson Explorer, for the high and mid-range bite. Then I added stuff like banjo, mandolin, and steel guitar.” (4)

Another surprise is the anti-heroin-chic punk tune "Amphetamine," which puts to music a speedy high that crashes with a plaintive violin and cello outro from cellist Gerri Sutyak and The Wild Colonials' Paul Cantelon. (36)

‘So Much For The Afterglow’ also didn’t contain any fancy guitar work that were present in some of Art’s earlier bands and early Everclear.

“The guitar is what I write on, and anything I do is gonna be guitar rock. I'm learning the keyboards now, and I would like to incorporate more acoustic keyboards and electronic keyboards. I'll never stray very far from guitar, though. But if you're gonna play a solo, it's gotta fit the song. I try to keep them either very melodic or dissonant. On this record, I played more bluesy, soulful type stuff in the middle of "Father of Mine" and some country licks on "I Will Buy You a New Life." To me the song is God. You use whatever textures and whatever confidence you have as a musician to make the song realize itself. If that means you don't use guitar solos, don't use guitar solos. For the most part, they are pretty gratuitous and masturbatory.” (4)

The band really enjoyed the results of the sounds they were getting from A&M Studios.

“We recorded the early tracks for Afterglow, a lot which we scrapped, in A&M Studio A, a famous big room. Later we went into a small basement 24-track demo studio, and man, the sounds were just awesome. I wouldn't hesitate to take a band into that demo studio to record an album." (59)

“"When we went in there we had two drum kits set up. One was a jazz combo kit with the 18" kick, 12" tom, and 14" tom. The other was the kit that Dave Grohl used on [Nirvana's] Nevermind, because we really liked that drum sound, too." On faster songs, like "Normal Like You" and "Amphetamine", the bigger kit was employed, and wouldn't you know it - you can hear that same deep bass drum and manhole snare from "In Bloom", supplying nothing but foundation. On groovier tunes like "Everything to Everyone", the smaller kit with a tight 12" Premier snare drum was engaged, enabling Eklund to apply a snappy hip-hop feel. But the musicians had other texture tricks up their sleeves. "On a couple of songs, we overlapped the two kits," Eklund explains. "'Father of Mine' is the small kit on the verse, and then the big kit and small kit played together on the chorus. The two were mixed just a little bit out of phase - just a millisecond off from each other - so it ends up sounding really massive." Another rhythmic twist for the band was drum loops, adding shake in "Father of Mine" and the royal "California King". "Another thing we did was that a lot of drum fills and snare rolls were doubled, like on 'Everything to Everyone'. I'll start a roll on the 12" snare later than the big drum roll starts. I felt pretty silly sometimes standing in a big studio with nothing but big cymbals around me and just hitting one, or doing a snare roll over and over again." (5)

"When we went into rehearsals for this record, Craig was in the hospital with pneumonia so Greg and I worked my new songs for a week by ourselves, which is easy to hear when you realize how rhythm driven [Everything To Everyone] is ." (33)

The method for miking the drums was another source of inconvenience for Eklund.

The drums were miked in a way that I actually believe in, but we ended up having a problem with it later," says Eklund. "We miked the drum kit as one instrument, not just isolating each drum and every little thing. We had cymbal mikes way in the back of the room, which provided a massive sound. But what we didn't do was mike the high-hat." As a result, the hats were often swallowed up almost completely, forcing Eklund to go back and rerecord them for parts of certain songs.” (5)

Some notes about unreleased songs from the session.

"I had this song 'Overwhelming' that I had written for So Much for the Afterglow that I hadn't really fleshed out musically and lyrically," said Alexakis, 36. "I watched the movie and I went right back to my hotel and finished the lyrics that night." (46)

The singer, who also produced the album, even penned a homage to one of his heroes, "Otis Redding," that didn't make the album, but which he said captures what he was trying to accomplish vocally this time. "I really worked on my vocals and I'm happy with how they came out," he said. "I wish I could sing like Otis Redding and I think I pushed myself to put more of what is in my soul into my voice this time. I pushed the limits and I did more than I ever thought I could." (47)

Lastly, the song ‘Instant Karma’ was recorded by the band to be included in a John Lennon Tribute Album that was to be released in 1998, but never happened. “Yoko Ono has been compiling a tribute album to her late husband John Lennon. The album has been a long time in the making (so far nearly four years) and finding the right artists to sing the right songs has been the biggest stumbling block. So far, confirmed for the release are Everclear ("Instant Karma"), Paula Cole ("Working Class Hero"), Sinead O'Connor ("Mind Games") and David Bowie ("Mother").” (44)

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Recording: 01/XX/97
(White Horse Studios - Portland, OR)
Recorded by: Neal Avron

Band Members: Arthur Alexakis (guitar, vocals), Craig Montoya (bass), Greg Eklund (drums). Rami Jaffee (organ)

Recorded:
[O] I Will Buy You A New Life
[O] Why I Don't Believe In God

Sources:

Source	Quality	Complete	Runtime	Lowest Gen	Tracks Featured	Notes
SBD #1	10.0	Yes	?	Official DVD-A (So Much For The Afterglow)	• I Will Buy You A New Life • Why I Don’t Believe In God	DVD Audio is encoded at 24 Bit / 48Khz.  Special 5.1 Speaker Mix of songs included too.

Notes: Eventually after the 11/96 session was completed and mixed, many of the songs were scrapped, and Everclear went back to the session later on to finish the album.

“This record started in November and I mixed it in February. Then I scrapped half the songs. I played it for the record company, and we thought it was pretty good, but not great. My A&R guy said, "You're right, you can push yourself a lot harder." I asked for more money to go back and record more, because I had new songs that I thought were better, and I knew I could go back and make a great album. And they said, "Do it." (4)

"I took a couple of weeks off in Hawaii with my wife and wrote down ideas," he said. "I came back with 40 pages of ideas and implemented most of them. I wanted big guitars, more acoustic guitar, banjo, strings, horns. But a couple of the songs had to be balls-out. I love that shit. That's what I grew up with." (47)

“I charted strings for the first time, charted horns. I mean, these are things I've wanted to do for a long time and I wanted this record to be texturally more like that. And also, we all played some keyboards on the record and none of us can play keyboards really. And I played banjo and I can't really play banjo, and mandolin. But it was just about using our personality and getting our feel through the texture of these different instruments. And I thought it added a large amount of dimension to the record. And this record, compared to those early mixes, it's just phenomenal. And some day we'll release a lot of those early songs, like a b-sides record, and people can just see. It's almost skeletal in some ways, some of the early mixes.” (58)
“I [Greg] think a misconception is that we recorded a whole record, then dumped the whole record and started another one. In reality, we only dropped a couple of songs and the majority of the record is the basic tracks from that session. We just put more tonal effects and overlays and stuff.” (58)

"This really isn't a song about money [I Will Buy You A New Life], it's about love and helplessness and all the things we think money will fix, when we finally get some. When Anna was a toddler, her mom and I used to drive up to the West Hills of Portland and look at all the big beautiful houses and fantasize that we would have one someday and a big shiny new life to go along with it. I learned that having one of those houses wasn't what I thought it was going to be, and that you get a much different view when you're inside looking out, than when you are on the outside looking in." (33)

"I wrote a song called "Culver Palms", "Why I Don't Believe In God", it's a song about my mom, or my perspective of my mom." (48)

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Recording: 03/XX/97
(Rondor Studios - Los Angeles, CA)
Recorded by: Neal Avron

Band Members: Arthur Alexakis (guitar, vocals), Craig Montoya (bass), Greg Eklund (drums).

Recorded:
[O] So Much For The Afterglow
[O] One Hit Wonder
[O] Why I Don't Believe In God

Sources:

Source	Quality	Complete	Runtime	Lowest Gen	Tracks Featured	Notes
SBD #1	10.0	Yes	?	Official DVD-A (So Much For The Afterglow)	• So Much For The Afterglow • One Hit Wonder • Why I Don’t Believe In God	DVD Audio is encoded at 24 Bit / 48Khz.  Special 5.1 Speaker Mix of songs included too.

Notes: This is another session of new songs that were to be incorporated into 'So Much For The Afterglow.’

The opening vocal harmonies to ‘So Much For The Afterglow’ are a homage to the Beach Boys. “Totally. I had in my head this Pet Sounds thing. This is a pop record. I always wanted to do a pop record, because I'm an old fucker. I grew up with AM radio and I wanted to make a more diverse record that would sound to the listener like one of those Top-40 stations - some soulful stuff, some country indulgence, some instrumentals.” (4)

“[So Much For The Afterglow is] basically just a study of the disillusion of relationships and just kinda hitting ground after the good times. You know, its like when you first meet somebody, you fall in love, and the sex is great, and everything's wonderful, and six months down the line, its like they've got bad breath and you know, you can't wait for them to leave." (40)

“’One Hit Wonder’ comes from a lot of Seventies bands who came out with one song and weren't heard from again. I think the Nineties have given rise to this Seventies phenomenon. It's also a commentary on the entertainment industry and the idea that you can't get hurt unless you let them hurt you.” (4)

"So, when you listen to "One Hit Wonder" you begin to realize that the song is not just about "Eye of the Tiger" or some other hit song from a faded band. "One Hit Wonder" is more about certain kinds of personalities, like people who are really good at starting relationships but cannot follow through." (49)

“In "One Hit Wonder", however, the percussion loop Eklund recorded with a set of wooden spoons, bass, and snare turned out to be the song's primary ingredient. "We decided we were going to use that loop for the drum beat," Eklund says. "To get the natural feel, we had all the band members in the room. We brought in this P.A. system, and piped the drum loop in, then played along to it.” (5)

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Recording: 03/XX/97
(Ocean Studios - Burbank, CA)
Recorded by: Neal Avron

Band Members: Arthur Alexakis (guitar, vocals), Craig Montoya (bass), Greg Eklund (drums).

Recorded:
[O] El Distorto De Melodica

Sources:

Source	Quality	Complete	Runtime	Lowest Gen	Tracks Featured	Notes
SBD #1	10.0	Yes	?	Official DVD-A (So Much For The Afterglow)	• El Distorto De Melodica	DVD Audio is encoded at 24 Bit / 48Khz.  Special 5.1 Speaker Mix of songs included too.

Notes: Alexakis said "[El Distorto De Melodica] just happened" while the band was fooling around in the studio experimenting and jamming. The group chose the best parts from that and created loops of their own percussion to add to it, Alexakis said. "It basically turned into this huge, moving mass with me behind a distorted mike caterwauling." Alexakis is so proud of the results, which are much funkier than any previous Everclear songs that he said he'd even consider doing a dance remix of the track if there were any takers. "I grew up with all kinds of funky stuff, but I've always been contentious of white funk bands." (47)

'El Distorto De Melodica' was nominated for ‘Best Instrumental Song’ by Billboard in 1998.

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Recording: 06/XX/97 - 07/XX/97
(Rondor Studios - Los Angeles, CA)
Recorded by: Neal Avron

Band Members: Arthur Alexakis (guitar, vocals), Craig Montoya (vocals, bass), Greg Eklund (vocals, drums).

Recorded:
[O] Our Lips Are Sealed
[O] What Do I Get?
[O] Walk Don't Run [Instrumental]
[O] Search and Destroy
[O] Bad Connection
[O] Pocahontas

Sources:

Source	Quality	Complete	Runtime	Lowest Gen	Tracks Featured	Notes
SBD #1	10.0	Yes	0:18:53	Official CD (For College Radio Only EP)	• Our Lips Our Sealed • What Do I Get? • Walk Don’t Run • Search and Destroy • Bad Connection • Pocahontas

Notes: Craig Montoya sings lead vocals on ‘Search and Destroy’. Greg Eklund sings lead vocals on ‘What Do I Get.’

All of the songs recorded during this session were covers.  ‘Our Lips Are Sealed’ was originally recorded by the Go-Gos,  ‘Search and Destroy’ by Iggy Pop and the Stooges, ‘Pocahontas’ by Neil Young, ‘Bad Connection’ by Yaz, ‘Walk Don’t Run’ by the Buzzcocks, and ‘What Do I Get?’ by “The Ventures.’