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Multi-platinum rockers EVERCLEAR have long been known for saluting the band’s roots by recording and performing a dynamic and eclectic array of covers. Now the best of these recordings have been gathered together for the 2008 collection The Vegas Years (Capitol/EMI), marking Everclear’s 15th year as recording artists. Produced by Everclear singer, guitarist and songwriter ART ALEXAKIS, the disc features 14 covers the band recorded between 1994 and this year, including versions of the Go-Go’s’ “Our Lips Are Sealed,” Hall & Oates’ “Rich Girl” and Paul Revere & The Raiders’ “Kicks.”
The Vegas Years follows 2006’s Welcome To The Drama Club. With the singles “Hater” and “Glorious,” it was, in true EVERCLEAR fashion, an honest portrait of where Alexakis was in his life. Art had parted ways with his longtime bandmates, found new players, been through his third divorce and filed for bankruptcy. But he found peace through writing music and the band then hit the road to emerge as a cohesive unit again.
Everclear’s canon of original material--seven studio albums of bracing songs with Alexakis’ unique, singular vision--is marked by multi-million sales, critical praise, a Grammy nomination and awards including the 1998 Billboard “Modern Rock Artist of the Year” honor. EVERCLEAR hits include “Santa Monica,” “Everything To Everyone,” “I Will Buy You A New Life,” “Father Of Mine” and “Wonderful.” Writing in the Los Angeles Times about 1997’s So Much For The Afterglow--double platinum both the U.S. and Canada and platinum in New Zealand and Australia--Richard Cromelin noted that "...Alexakis makes it all vivid through accumulation of detail, and he spits it out with a Lennon-like candor and an unruly, unstoppable energy.”
ALEXAKIS has built a solid career and devoted fanbase on heartfelt songs culled from real-life experiences that he’s always been open about. His father abandoned the family when Art was a child, leaving his mom to raise five kids in a tough Los Angeles neighborhood. His older brother died from an overdose, and ALEXAKIS had his own early battles with drugs before cleaning up. He would later chronicle his experiences in his songs, including “Heroin Girl” on their 1995 breakthrough album Sparkle & Fade (platinum in the U.S., Canada, New Zealand and Australia) and “Father of Mine” (about his absentee father) on 1997’s So Much For The Afterglow. ART has directed some of the band’s classic videos and appeared in films. He’s also been politically active: testifying before Congress in 2000 to speak on behalf of a “Deadbeat Dad” bill; and serving as a delegate from the city of Portland in his adopted home state of Oregon at the 2004 Democratic National Convention. His political views were also expressed on his own “Blackjack Radio” show in Portland and via his many appearances on Bill Maher’s “Politically Incorrect” show. ALEXAKIS has a 15-year-old daughter, Annabella, and in 2007 celebrated the birth of a second daughter, Arizona Star with fiancée Vanessa.
