Sitting across a conference room table at Matador Records' New York headquarters, Mark Eitzel apologizes for being out of it. "You'll have to excuse me if I seem a little out of whack," he says, holding up a bag filled with multi-colored antihistamine and analgesic pills, "but this medicine I'm taking makes me feel a little groggy."

\\Considering the rather unusual gestation of Eitzel's new album, "Caught in a Trap and I Can't Back Out Because I Love You Too Much, Baby," one can easily understand why the former American Music Club frontman might be confused. Originally recorded in November 1996 at Sonic Youth's New Jersey recording studio with a band that included Youth drummer Steve Shelley, Yo La Tengo bassist James McNew and Cramps guitarist Kid Congo Powers, "Trap" was delayed for over a year when a weekend meeting with Peter Buck ended up spawning another record, 1997's "West." Eitzel then spent the better part of the next year on the road with the alt-supergroup Tuatara while the tapes for "Trap" sat on Matador's shelf. (Eitzel's label, Warner Bros., gave him permission to release a one-off recording elsewhere.)

\\Eitzel remembers planning an album unlike the collection of moody, introspective rockers that eventually emerged. "'Trap' was intended to be all rock songs with just two acoustic. So I recorded eight rock songs with the band, threw four of them away and then wrote seven more in a brainstorm. Unfortunately, I didn't have enough money or studio time to record any more with an ensemble, so it ended up being this acoustic thing."

\\Most of the music for "Trap" was written just days or hours before being put on tape, a spontaneity that bassist McNew believes brought an element of levity to otherwise brooding material. "Everything was done pretty much on the spot," McNew says. "But despite the dark nature of some of the songs, I actually came to appreciate Eitzel's wicked sense of humor, which struck me as jovial in a somber sort of way."

\\Nevertheless, Eitzel doesn't think "Trap" is for everyone. "I don't think anybody's going to buy this record," he says. "It's too dark and all the reviews are going to say the same thing -- that it's 'very bitter,' or 'a nightmare of melancholy,' and even if they are very poetic about it, people are going to go, 'Well I don't want that in my fuckin' house.' "

\\Either way, Eitzel is already working on his next project, a musical he's collaborating on with a Los Angeles playwright. "The musical's called 'Left-Handed Woman' and it's really different from anything I've ever written before," Eitzel says. "It uses songs to describe what's in the people's hearts as opposed to songs that just move the plot around, and the songs I've written are pretty surreal. Sort of an anti-Lloyd Webber."

\\In the meantime, Eitzel will hit the road once again to support "Trap," playing stripped-down shows necessitated by his lack of money to spend on such road amenities as, say, other band members. "Every time I talk to musicians they ask 'How much are you going to pay us?'" Eitzel laments. And I'll say, 'God, I don't have the money to pay what you're asking.' Which is nothing new. I was talking to Graham Parker the other day, and he said that when he goes out on to