EVERCLEAR TO TAKE UNCONVENTIONAL ROUTE BY RELEASING TWO ALBUMS IN 2000

DATE: DECEMBER 22, 1999
FROM: MITCH SCHNEIDER/TODD BRODGINSKI/MARCEE RONDAN

EVERCLEAR
TO TAKE UNCONVENTIONAL ROUTE BY
RELEASING TWO ALBUMS IN 2000:
'SONGS FROM AN AMERICAN MOVIE, VOL. I/LEARNING HOW TO SMILE'
AND 'SONGS FROM AN AMERICAN MOVIE, VOL. II/
GOOD TIME FOR A BAD ATTITUDE'

"Maybe it doesn't make sense, but you've got to go by your gut, and in my gut we feel this is the right thing to do."

ART ALEXAKIS–singer, songwriter, guitarist and producer–is talking about EVERCLEAR's unorthodox decision to release two different albums in 2000 on Capitol.

April will bring SONGS FROM AN AMERICAN MOVIE, VOL. I/LEARNING HOW TO SMILE, to be followed six or so months later by SONGS FROM AN AMERICAN MOVIE, VOL. II/ GOOD TIME FOR A BAD ATTITUDE. These albums mark the follow-up to EVERCLEAR's 1997 critically acclaimed double platinum SO MUCH FOR THE AFTERGLOW, which earned the band–ALEXAKIS, bassist CRAIG MONTOYA and drummer GREG EKLUND–the distinction of being named Billboard magazine's 1998 Modern Rock Artist of the Year Award.

LEARNING HOW TO SMILE has a melodic, layered sound, while GOOD TIME FOR A BAD ATTITUDE is a "rock record more like our older stuff but at the same time it's different because the songs are better," reveals ALEXAKIS. Both albums "show two sides of the same coin," he continues. "What we do is very pop-y at times, and then there's a part of us that's very noisy."

ALEXAKIS describes the just-completed LEARNING HOW TO SMILE as "pretty different for us. You'll hear a lot of keyboards, a lot of harmonies, strings on four or five songs and horns on a couple of tunes. There's really not a whole lot of big guitar on the album, but there's a little bit on two or three songs."

ALEXAKIS reveals that LEARNING HOW TO SMILE was originally intended to be his solo album, but he changed his mind after recording commenced. "I knew I wanted to do something different from EVERCLEAR. The songs I wrote were very melodic, but when I started writing the lyrics, they sounded like EVERCLEAR. And I wasn't really happy with the way the music was turning out. I knew some friends of mine that were really great musicians, but it just didn't have the soul of an EVERCLEAR record. When the band started working on it, it was obvious it should be an EVERCLEAR album. So we scrapped a couple of songs and wrote some new ones."

EVERCLEAR will head into the studio again in February to record GOOD TIME FOR A BAD ATTITUDE. "We had planned all along to make a real hard rock record. When we were on tour and jamming at soundchecks, I was writing all these really big rock riffs, and it felt really good to play them."

What inspired the lyrical theme of the albums? "It stems from a song I wrote, 'Song From An American Movie,' on GOOD TIME FOR A BAD ATTITUDE and there's an acoustic reprise of it on LEARNING HOW TO SMILE. It's kind of the glue that holds both records together. It's looking at life as just growing up in America–you know, it's like a bad television movie just waiting to happen."

In other news, ALEXAKIS will have a role in the upcoming Miramax film Committed starring Heather Graham. "It's a comedy but has dark themes running through it," says ALEXAKIS, who plays a drug-addicted car thief. ALEXAKIS says he had creative input in the character, which resulted in his role being expanded. The film was directed by Lisa Krueger.

Some EVERCLEAR career highlights:

* 1997's SO MUCH FOR THE AFTERGLOW sold over two million copies in the U.S. alone and received widespread critical acclaim. Richard Cromelin of the Los Angeles Times said, "…Alexakis makes it all vivid through accumulation of detail, and he spits it out with a Lennon-like candor and an unruly, unstoppable energy," while Jim Farber of the New York Daily News noted, "…he keeps his guitar-rock hard but, lyrically, sets his seasoned eye on success and the vagaries of the pop business. He does so with a vinegar'd wit worthy of early Ray Davies." Chuck Eddy in an 8-out-of-10 review in Spin observed, "…they're still obsessed with the hungry, hollow place where good things die and lovers lose the power to make each other laugh." The San Francisco Chronicle's James Sullivan chimed in, "Beyond the group's arrangements, though, what really makes the album work is the sincerity in Alexakis' maturing songwriting–a novelty at a time when modern rock is dominated by pranksters."

* On the charts–and on the road–for over two years during a time when rock was stalling, the AFTERGLOW CD included three tracks which hit the Top Five on Billboard magazine's Modern Rock Tracks chart: "Everything To Everyone" (#1), "I Will Buy You A New Life" and "Father of Mine." The album's fourth radio track "One Hit Wonder" reached #12.

* SO MUCH FOR THE AFTERGLOW went double platinum in Canada and platinum in New Zealand and Australia.

* The band was the "Alternative Artist of the Year" in '98 based upon Billboard's Rock Airplay Monitor (which uses data electronically monitored by BDS).

* EVERCLEAR was nominated for a Grammy in 1999 (Rock Instrumental Performance category for the song "El Distorto de Melodica") and won the 1998 Billboard Modern Rock Artist of the Year Award.

* EVERCLEAR's remake of Thin Lizzy's "The Boys Are Back In Town" was featured in the film and on the soundtrack for Detroit Rock City in 1999.

* EVERCLEAR's Capitol debut album (and second overall) SPARKLE & FADE (1995) and its hit single "Santa Monica" kick-started the group's career and the CD eventually sold over a million copies. The CD went platinum in Canada, Australia and New Zealand.

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