Note: For an index of all articles in all three Favorite Songs series, click here, then scroll down.

Who He Is: Max Eider (born Peter Millson) is a deeply-talented English singer, songwriter and guitarist, whose musical career began at Oxford University in the late ’70s with a variety of groups, Sonic Tonix being the only one (to the best of my knowledge) that left any recorded evidence of its existence. Some members of that university band (Eider and Pat Fish among them) morphed their creative endeavors into what became The Jazz Butcher Conspiracy, while others went on to form The Woodentops. After a loose debut album (1983’s In Bath of Bacon) with a variety of contributors, The JBC tightened into a solid quartet featuring Fish (who having already dropped his birth surname, Huntrods, then became The Jazz Butcher for confusing record credit purposes), Eider, ex-Bauhaus bassist David J (later replaced by Felix Ray), and Owen Jones (also a Sonic Tonix alumnus). That incarnation of the group recorded a brilliant series of albums, EPs, and singles through late 1986, when Eider departed the fold; he later returned on an on-and-off basis for some additional recording and touring, appearing for the last time with Fish on the posthumous 2022 release The Highest in the Land, released after Pat’s death in late 2021. While Fish was the primary songwriter throughout their shared time together in the JBC, Eider typically scored a cut or two on each of their albums, plus a variety of B-sides and co-writes. Eider’s first solo album, The Best Kisser in the World, was released in 1987, and he’s issued four additional albums since then, plus some EPs and singles, as well as playing with David J on several touring and recording projects. His latest release, the EP All Shall Be Well, was issued earlier this year, featuring a new single and remixes of two earlier cuts. It’s delightful.

When I First Heard Him: Some time in late 1984 or early 1985, when one of the DJ’s on Washington, DC’s formidable and much-lamented WHFS spun “Caroline Wheeler’s Birthday Present” from the JBC’s album A Scandal in Bohemia, the first to feature the Butch and Max and Dave and Jones line-up. I utterly adored that song, and quickly scored the record, the rest of which sounded not much like “Caroline” at all, but that was okay, because what it did sound like was just as grand, in different ways. A trio of songs on that album featured co-songwriting credits to Eider, one of which, “Just Like Betty Page,” featured my first exposure to what I came think of as Max’s sound: a brilliant cabaret pop confection with an exquisite guitar part, not jazz, exactly, but played with the precision and unique melodic and chordal traits associated with that genre, in macro. I hoovered up all of the JBC-related issues over the next few years, and around 1986, I scored a compilation called 50,000 Glass Fans Can’t Be Wrong, which featured the first solo Eider cut I heard, the utterly exquisite “It Has to Be You.” Max’s solo debut album came out the next year, featuring that Glass cut, and after Eider had left the JBC, though in those pre-Internet days, I’m not sure I realized he was gone until the next Jazz Butcher album, Fishcoteque, came out, and nobody except for Pat Fish remained from the group I had loved. While he’s not terribly prolific, I’ve snagged all of Max Eider’s releases over the years, always happy to have them, always awed by the quality of their contents.

Why I Love Him: Well, I suppose we must talk about the guitar first, because Max Eider is one of the finest practitioners of that instrument to be found in my vast collection. His signature axe has long been the Gretsch Double Anniversary semi-acoustic, and boy oh boy, can he make that thing sing, one of a small number of string-benders capable of elegantly communicating emotion and drama and pathos strictly through his instrumental prowess and extremely tasteful touch. As noted above, while Eider’s music is never quite jazz, it is quite jazzy in its structure and in the ways that Max’s rhythms and solos swing like nobody’s business, and feature chord and note progressions that are beautiful and intuitive, but rarely hew to any sort of stock cock rock or blues-based I-IV-V type progressions. During COVID times, Max released a series of videos of his home solo performances of various songs from his catalog, and as a (poor) guitarist, it made me goggle as I watched the shapes and forms he crafted on his fret board, well beyond anything I could ever conceive of, much less mimic. Technically incredible, and just as accessible, and that’s a rare combo platter in my experience.

Beyond his maestro status on his chosen instrument, Eider is also a terrific songwriter and a fine singer, with a poignancy to his voice that perfectly suits the distinctive blend of melancholy and hopefulness that courses throughout his catalog. (He has long sung with the wonderful June Kingston Smith, and their voice blend is sublime). While he was undoubtedly a great foil for Pat Fish in the Jazz Butcher days, Eider is so much more than a side-man, and he’s one of those artists who I have admired for decades, wondering why he’s never broken bigger than Jesus, given his divine-caliber talents. Oh well, that doesn’t diminish my own enthusiasms for the musical gifts he shares with us, if we know where to look for them, and I am always happy to point new listeners his way. In my Top Ten Max Trax below, I’ve included a couple from the JBC days, but only when he was the sole songwriter and lead singer, as I do consider those to be a part of his creative canon, even if he didn’t get full front cover credit for them. Also note, a couple of these songs aren’t available on Youtube, where I normally source my samples, so I’ve linked to their Bandcamp pages. Even if you listen to the Youtube links, you should go buy at Bandcamp, as I do.

#10. “D.R.I.N.K.,” from “Roadrunner” 12″ Single (1984), credited to The Jazz Butcher Conspiracy.

#9. “INTP,” from Duckdance (2014)

#8. “The Meek,” from “The Meek” single (2016); re-mixed/re-released on All Shall Be Well EP (2024)

#7. “Sweet Nothing,” from Max Eider III: Back in the Bedroom (2007)

“Sweet Nothing” at Bandcamp

#6. “Analgesia,” from Disaffection (2010)

#5. “Who Loves You Now?,” from Distressed Gentlefolk (1986), credited to The Jazz Butcher Conspiracy. 

#4. “My Other Life,” from The Best Kisser in the World (1987)

#3. “Secret Life,” from Max Eider III: Back in the Bedroom (2007)

“Secret Life” at Bandcamp

#2. “Hotel Figueroa,” from Hotel Figueroa (2001)

#1. “It Has to Be You,” from The Best Kisser in the World (1987)