Okay -- now on to Everclear. Earlier this week we mentioned
that this Portland trio had the endorsement of tour mate Dave
Grohl of Foo Fighters, who said that Everclear really sounded
like his old band, Nirvana. This wasn't quite right. What Grohl
actually said was that, while critics keep insisting that Everclear
sounds like Nirvana, Grohl doesn't think so. We've kicked an intern
for this infraction and can now in good conscience bring you the
band that sounds nothing like Nirvana although it sounds pretty
good anyway. Everclear.

	ART ALEXAKIS, Everclear: Everclear's this pure.... It's like
	180 proof alcohol. It's another name for moonshine, basically.
	And it looks so innocuous and innocent. It looks like water.
	But it's pure evil. It's a lot like us. I think we look pretty
	white bread... not white bread, but pretty innocent, you know.
	We don't come off with a whole lot of rock and roll attitude.
	Until we get money, and then we'll be able to afford it.



     MTV: Born three and a half years ago in Portland, Oregon,
     Everclear's major label debut -- "Sparkle and Fade" -- a hard edged
     mix of pop, roots rock and punk, packaged in family photo style
     artwork.

     GREG EKLUND, Everclear: (pointing at CD cover) This is my one
     year old birthday party, and this is...

     ALEXAKIS: It's cake...

     EKLUND: Chocolate cake, OK? Not what people tend to think it is.
     It's cake. They set down this chocolate cake in front of me and this
     other one-year old girl and I was slightly sick that day so I just kind
     of sat there and she just threw it at me.

     ALEXAKIS: You look pretty happy
     though...

     EKLUND: Nah. Actually if you look my
     eyes are all teary and puffy and...

     ALEXAKIS: Are you crying?

     EKLUND: I'd been crying, yeah.

     ALEXAKIS: (To Craig Montoya) How old are you here? Six?

     CRAIG MONTOYA, Everclear: That's my first grade picture. Six
     years old.

     ALEXAKIS: (Pointing at his picture) And this is back before they
     called it day care or preschool. This was called nursery school.
     And I was 4. And I had my new suit on and this little girl goes up to
     my mom and says "Arthur's so handsome; he looks like he's
     married!"

     MTV: But things weren't always so picturesque, especially for front
     man Art Alexakis, whose brother died of a drug overdose when the
                  singer was twelve. Alexakis himself, now sober, spent
                  years using drugs. His world was rocked again in
                  1991 when he lost the record label he'd been running
                  in California after his distributor went under.

     ALEXAKIS: That happened, my girlfriend got pregnant, my band
     broke up, all in the period of the same month. It was a really hard
     time for me. So when I moved to Portland, it wasn't the happiest
     time in my life. But it's sure become a good home... for all of us I
     think.

     MTV: Everclear shared its current good fortune with fans by
     playing several free shows this year. One on the beach in Santa
     Monica, and two at Alexakis's daughter's day care center. Which
     turned out to be the most intimidating gig to date.

     ALEXAKIS: First it was the
     preschoolers, four and five year olds,
     and they're playing... and they're, like,
     sitting there, and we play a song. Then
     the next one, they bring in the toddlers.
     OK, that's the next thing down. Right?
     Toddlers. Two and three-year olds.
     And then they bring in the wobblers on
     the last song. And then we look up at the last song and they've got
     kids in their cribs, the infants. And the preschoolers went crazy... 

     EKLUND: There was a pit. It was pandemonium. Barricades were
     broken. Stage diving.

     MONTOYA: It changed the feel of our lyrics. 

     ALEXAKIS: We couldn't do "You Make Me Feel Like a Whore."
     It wasn't appropriate. So we wanted to write something that, you
     know, a three-year old in preschool could relate to. So we changed
     it to 'You Make Me Feel Like I'm Four."

           Everclear will be back on the road again next month.