HUNGRY & HOLLOW SESSIONS GUIDE: EVERCLEAR: SONGS FROM AN AMERICAN MOVIE VOLUME TWO: GOOD TIME FOR A BAD ATTITUDE

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Recording: 07/11/00 – 09/XX/00
(Sunset Sound - Hollywood, CA)
Recorded by: Neal Avron

Band Members: Arthur Alexakis (guitar, vocals), Craig Montoya (bass), Greg Eklund (drums), James Beaton (keyboards), Lars Fox (percussion).

Recorded:
[O] When It All Goes Wrong Again
[O] Slide
[O] Babytalk
[O] Rock Star
[O] Short Blonde Hair
[O] Misery Whip
[O] Out Of My Depth
[O] The Good Witch Of The North
[O] Halloween Americana
[O] All Fucked Up
[O] Overwhelming
[O] Song From An American Movie Pt. 2

Sources:

Source	Quality	Complete	Runtime	Lowest Gen	Tracks Featured	Notes
SBD #1	10.0	Yes	0:44:43	Official CD (Songs From An American Movie Volume 2: Good Time For A Bad Attitude)	• When It All Goes Wrong Again • Slide • Babytalk • Rock Star • Short Blonde Hair • Misery Whip • Out Of My Depth • The Good Witch Of The North • Halloween Americana • All Fucked Up • Overwhelming • Song From An American Movie Pt. 2

Notes: The band went right after work on the next volume of ‘Songs From An American Movie.’ In fact, they started recording the day Volume 1, came out.
“On this record, we started recording the day Volume 1 came out, and we were in the studio for about two and a half months. In the midst of it I got married, had a honeymoon, and all that good stuff, too. I've been pretty happy, all the way around.” (24)

“For example, what we're doing right now is so simple. We gave ourselves two months to complete this record from start to finish. And you know what? It's coming out awesome. We're all really proud of where this is going, and I think that's the beauty of being successful.” (12)

While Volume 1, was more melodic and less bombastic, Volume 2 was more rock oriented.

“I think the new stuff sounds a lot like Everclear meets Zeppelin. There's some loops and stuff, but there are a whole lot of guitars. It runs the gamut. There's some stuff that's more atmospheric and then there are balls-out rock songs. I think there's a lot of old Aerosmith in there too, and a lot of old punk. I've gone back to using guitar for all the voices in the songs. But we've approached this record from a slightly different point of view. We used to have two sounds guitar-wise: loud and louder. And now there's a lot more textures. But they're loud textures as opposed to the ones on Part One. The new one is just huge. It's all about kicking ass.” (14)

“On this record, we primarily used the Flextone HD. I love that thing. I just love the different amp sounds. I like to do a lot of double guitar sounds, you know, and I rarely double the same guitar sound, same amp sound, same effects, same compression. That just doesn't sound good to my ear. I'd rather have a different texture in there. I planned on using both a Marshall and a Mesa Boogie like I have on previous records, but on this record I'd say I used the Flextone head a lot of the time, for either lead guitar sounds or effected guitar sounds.” (24)

Many of the new songs written for this album were worked on tour while promoting Volume 1.

“We had been working on these songs at sound checks during out last tour. We had come up with a lot of the riffs, but we didn't really flush them out until earlier this year.” (14)

"I came up with the original riff [Out Of My Depth] but Craig put this cool "Paul McCartney"-esque bass line on it. This song just goes a bunch of different places on it. There's a little Zeppelin in there, a little Beatles, and a whole lot of Everclear." (41)
According to Greg, "[Baby Talk] is kind of a weird song for us as it doesn't sound like anything we've ever done," Eklund says. "It's almost like -- in a weird way -- straight-up heavy distorted funk or something. Everclear as a unit isn't a good funk band. As a matter of fact, I remember when Art started playing that guitar riff, I'd never ever heard him play guitar like that before, with the weird funk chords. I was like, 'either you've been practicing, or you got some funk chords off of someone on the street, because this sounded pretty cool.'" (64)

Rock Star was one of the highlights of the album and was featured on the movie and soundtrack of the movie with the same name.

"I had met so many dorks who thought this was the way I lived, so being the smart ass that I am, I tried to write a song [Rock Star] from that perspective. Little did I know that people were going to think I was being autobiographical (and little did I want to admit that some of it was.)" (33) "Rock Star has always been a title that I use with a lot of contempt. That was someone who took themselves way too seriously or thought too much of themselves, or acted a little too cool. Low and behold, after having some success, people started calling me rock star. Not in a bad way, but people come up "What does it feel to be a rock star?"  I started meeting rock stars and you know I've met guys who sold millions and millions of records who are totally down to earth and I've met guys who sold 10-15 records they are the biggest rock stars I've ever met. This song is kind of looking at every kid's dream, just a poor white kid who just wants to get away from his life, doesn't know how he's going to do it, but knows the life he wants to live, doesn't realize how much work it is going to take to get there, and how when you actually can do that stuff, being a rock star is the last thing you thinking about. You're just thinking about making rock and roll. It's one of my favorite songs that we've ever done." (42)

"It's [Short Blonde Hair] what you call self depreciating humor basically. When you have success, people notice you more, so if you want to go down to the store and you want to buy some tampons for your wife, or something like that, it's like "Oh you use that brand of tampons!" It's like everybody's watching everything you do. It's just like, "God, why can't people just relax?" It's me trying to look at myself from the outside view and just trying to have a little fun with it." (41)

The album in retrospect was not as successful as Art would had hoped.
“We’ve made one record that we wish we had took more time on, and that was Volume 2. We were tired. There were about six songs on there that I thought were awesome. I think Volume 1 and Volume 2 should have been one record, and that’s what I told Capitol. They wanted to make it two records and they fucked it up.” (55) "I wish we would have done a double album," Alexakis says. "Creatively, it worked out. I think both are full of good songs. But the label didn't push it. They didn't know how to do it at all. I still get emails from people asking me if [Vol. Two] is our secret album. People didn't even know it came out. It's not our secret album, but it sure seems that way." (56)