Everclear Album: “So Much For the Afterglow”

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Everclear: Art Alexakis (vocals, guitar, steel guitar, keyboards, banjo, mandolin, toy piano); Craig Montoya (vocals, mandolin, keyboards, bass); Greg Eklund (vocals, slide whistle, keyboards, drums, percussion). <p>Additional personnel: Paul Cantelon (violin); Gerri Stutyak (cello); Derron Nuhfer (saxophone); Neal Avron (trumpet); Buddy Schnaub (trombone); Rami Jaffee (organ). <p>Recorded at A&M Studios, Rondor Studios, Los Angeles, California; Ocean Studios, Burbank, California; Whitehorse Studios, Portland, Oregon, in November 1996, January and March 1997. <p>"El Distorto De Melodica" was nominated for the 1999 Grammy Award for Best Rock Instrumental Performance. <p>On their follow up to their hit album SPARKLE AND FADE, Everclear continue to ride the wave of Pacific Northwest grunge that brought them their original success. Mixing three-chord rock and straightforward lyrics about the seamier side of Generation X, Everclear achieve an earthiness that the Foo Fighters and other grunge survivors aim for but never quite seem to attain. <p>Leader Art Alexakis sings about people besieged by unfortunate circumstances. When he sings "They have never been poor/They have never had the joy of a welfare christmas" In "I Will Buy You A New Life", he makes his characters' plight real with the understanding and insight of someone who's been there himself. Some of the most effective moments come when he draws on his own experiences; his absentee father and his mother's nervous breakdown are each the subject of powerful songs, and when he sings "You wouldn't even know me since you went away" in "Normal Like You" it is unclear whether he is talking about his father, an old friend, or himself.