Everclear's Art Alexakis Starts From Scratch With A Little Help From Jesus

There's a new side of Jesus that we haven't seen before, the one that smokes, drinks, gambles, knocks over baby strollers and dances with strippers. These antics, and more, are featured in the video for Everclear's new "Hater" single that introduces their forthcoming Welcome To The Drama Club album.

"A lot of people get it, some don't and some just don't like it," Everclear leader Art Alexakis told MTV News of the clip, which is already stirring some controversy after being featured on the band's MySpace page. "It's not trying to debase Christianity or Christ.

"The 'Hater' Jesus is the farthest you can go from what someone who is spiritual might think Christ would be. It's about showing hate in any form whatsoever — and the fact is, it's totally a break-up song."

Alexakis has become quite familiar with break-ups in the past few years. He's split with former bandmates Craig Montoya and Greg Eklund, Capitol Records and his third wife. To top things off, he also declared bankruptcy.

Alexakis is starting fresh with a new band and a new label, Eleven Seven Music, which gave new life to Buckcherry by releasing their 15 album earlier this year and has a licensing deal with Universal Music Canada. The singer/guitarist is joined by guitarist Davey French, keyboard player Josh Crawley, bassist Sam Hudson and former Everclear drum tech Brett Snyder on Welcome To The Drama Club, which comes out on Sept. 12.

"It's more R&B-influenced, but it definitely has that Everclear sound," Alexakis said of songs like "A Taste Of Hell" and "Shine." "No one is going to mistake me for Bob Dylan. We write decent songs and we're a decent band."

Despite releasing such hits as "Santa Monica," "Wonderfull," "Everything To Everyone," "I Will Buy You A New Life" and "Volvo Driving Soccer Mom," through the '90s and the early part of this decade, Alexakis concedes that at this point he doesn't own a car, a house or much of anything. But he seems to have come to grips with the situation.

"After working on the MySpace page and seeing the response, I think we have a viable career, and I don't know if it will bigger than before, and don't care. I just know I'll definitely enjoy it more this time."

Here are the songs on Welcome To The Drama Club:

"Under The Western Stars"
"Now"
"Shine"
"Hater"
"The Drama King"
"Glorious"
"Taste Of Hell"
"Portland Rain"
"A Shameless Use Of Charm"
"Clean"
"Broken"
"...Your Arizona Room"