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Recent Articles By Michael D. Ayers

National Features

  • Phoenix New Times
    Canine Crusaders

    That drug-sniffing dog up ahead? He may not be your best friend.

    By Ray Stern
  • Broward-Palm Beach New Times
    The Muscle Men

    Thanks to a string of Florida "anti-aging clinics," baseball's steroid scandal isn't limited to superstars.

    By Michael J. Mooney
  • Miami New Times
    Picked On

    Farm workers earn nada in America's green-bean capital.

    By Janine Zeitlin
  • Village Voice
    "Why I'm No Longer a Brain-Dead Liberal"

    An election-season essay from one of America's greatest playwrights.

    By David Mamet

When Mark Eitzel re-formed American Music Club a few years ago, it sounded pretty much like the same San Francisco group that pioneered sadcore back in the early '90s. Since then, Eitzel restructured the band, moved to LA and mixed up the music a bit. But The Golden Age still sounds awfully familiar. Eitzel's wispy delivery remains an instant buzzkill, even when he's singing some of his best-ever lyrics. But it's not all wrist-slitting gloom here. "All the Lost Souls Welcome You to San Francisco" finds AMC bouncing through an actual pop song, as an uncharacteristically optimistic Eitzel reflects fondly on his former hometown. And the accordion-based "I Know That's Not Really You" plays out in relatively spiffy waltz time. Yet much of The Golden Age is reserved for mopey ballads like "The Windows on the World" where, once again, Eitzel proves that there's no such thing as too much melancholy.

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