"Santa Monica" by Everclear (more so a question for guitarists, unless you know what I'm talking about)?

First off, this song is by far one of the most underrated songs I know. Now, my question relates to the equipment used while playing the song. The first part sounds like I should put my amp on the clean channel and set up my guitar so the pickups nearest the bridge are the only 2 working (5 pickup switches on my guitar). I can't tell about the 2nd part. It's not distortion, because that's later in the song. Plus I can't exactly play guitar and change the amp from the clean to overdrive channel at the same time (I never got how people did that). Any help would be much appreciated.