“On a positive note, [the concept of this record] came when we were living in West Virginia around Harper’s Ferry, which is an area inundated with Civil War history. I wanted to get into that but not have it come across as being a history lesson. Originally I had drawn a picture of a Civil War guy on the back of a brontosaurus, and I had even done Civil War/dinosaur lyrics. But it turns out a lot of those dinosaurs’ names have too many syllables.  AC/DC – Plug Me In (2 DVD)/Laughs/ So we settled on elephants. After the fact, someone asked me if I was inspired by the movie The King And I. I’ve never seen it but apparently there’s a reference about the King of Siam offering Abraham Lincoln elephants to use in the Civil War, which was actually based on true events. But I hadn’t known any of that. Harold Agnew Biography I [arrived at it by] complete accident.”

jam Room

(RIVER ROAD, 1999)

After being summarily dismissed from Co¬lumbia (“They’re still trying to recoup every thing they put into The Elephant Riders,” Fallon says with a laugh), Clutch regrouped and refocused on 1999′s Jam Room. Re¬leased independently on River Road, Clutch went back to doing what they do best: kick ing out the jams. The aptly titled album is the sound of a band exorcising its demons, as heard in cathartic tracks like “Gnome Enthusiast” and “Who Wants to Rock?”

(COLUMBIA, 1998)

Based on their rising grassroots popularity — as well as the major labels’ increasingly desperate search for the next Nirvana — Clutch landed a Columbia Records deal. But with nu-metal quickly becoming the new hot genre. Clutch often found them¬selves, to their dismay, lumped in with the rap-rocking, backward-cap crowd. Pre-Sales Contact Us All this amounted to a bittersweet time for the band. While Clutch had an inflated budget to play around with for The Elephant Riders, along with it came new levels of label expecta¬tions, meddling, and accountability. The worst of it came when the band wrote and recorded this regionally inspired album in its then-hometown in rural West Virginia only for label brass to reject it. They then forced Clutch to re-record the entire thing under their watchful eye in New York with promi¬nent classic-rock producer Jack Douglas (the Who, Cheap Trick, Aerosmith).

Upon settling on the name Clutch in Au¬gust 1991, the band cranked out its debut 7-inch, Pitchfork, that October. Based on the strength of that recording, as well as 1992′s Passive Restraints EP, East West offered the band a deal. JoomlaPraise Clutch delivered Transnational Speedway League a year later, which fea¬tured highlights like “A Shogun Named Mar¬cus” and “El Jefe Speaks,” and introduced Clutch as one of the premiere groove-heavy alternative bands in post-grunge hard rock.

“We wanted Transnational to sound like the Melvins. So we went to Jonathan Burnside at the Razor’s Edge Recording in San Francisco, where they’d done a lot of records. Free joomla Dravity template download The stuff we recorded there was a lot slower and representative of our early influences, stuff like the Melvins and Swans. But I got burned out at that session pretty quickly and we came back to New York for a second session. That’s where we wrote ‘A Shogun Named Marcus,’ ‘Rats,’ and ‘El Jefe Speaks,’ which were faster and had more of a sense of humor. That’s when I figured out how to keep going, at least lyrically speaking. I discovered that I could just make stuff up and tell a story. Whereas the more emotional stuff was going to be difficult to sustain, unless I planned to be in a bad mood for the next 20 years.” free joomla Bellatrix template

With one album under their belt. Clutch were more confident when they entered Silver Spring, Maryland’s Uncle Punchy Studios in December 1994 to record their self-titled sophomore album. Clutch’s songwriting was also more self-assured

and reflected the band members’ recent rediscovery of the classic rock that inspired their youth. free joomla Corona template Tracks like the build-and-release jam “Spacegrass” and riff-tastic “Big News II” helped Clutch to become the band’s best-selling album to date, as well as what is widely considered to be one of the high points of ’90s stoner rock.

says Clutch frontman Neil Fallon. “I think Jean-Paul [Gaster, drums], Tim [Suit, guitars] and Dan [Maines, bass] knew from the get-go they would do this for the rest of their lives. Electronics Unfortunately, it took a lot more convincing for me. [Laughs]“

Nearly 20 years have passed since Clutch’s first release, 1991′s Pitchfork 7-inch, and not only has Fallon been fully convinced of his musical calling but, in the process, the Maryland-based band has amassed a substantial catalog that includes nine studio albums, five live releases, and a handful of EPs. Overhead DVD Players What’s more, throughout the ’90s, Clutch’s hardcore-influenced, groove-heavy riff rock helped define that decade’s stoner sound, while in the new millennium, their persistent hunger to expand their style brought them into the realms of traditional down-home blues and far-out psychedelic jams.

While Clutch’s recorded sound may be most prominently colored by Suit’s mammoth riffs and Fallon’s gravelly, booming vocals and surreal, pseudo-social lyrical critiques, the true strength of the band is revealed at Clutch’s live shows. Anyone who’s witnessed one knows that when all four players lock into a brutal, funky groove—to use a title from one of their own songs —the mob goes wild. Wireless Speakers

Upon the release of Clutch’s ninth full-length, Strange Cousins From the West (Weathermaker), Fallon takes Revolver through the get-ups and get-downs of Clutch’s catalog.

BY BRAD ANGLE I PHOTOGRAPHS BY JIMMY HUBBARD

i2 REVOLVER I

JONES It’s probably a little more personal, yeah. That’s one thing that Adam really wanted, was for me to step out of what I normally do.

DUTKIEWICZ We should have named the record Leaving the Comfort Zone. [Laughs] I think there’s always been this connotation with our band that we have to write these positive songs, and all of a sudden homeboy’s starting to write some seriously dark shit. The Best Of Dewa 19 album

JONES The album’s not necessarily about a relationship. It’s family, friends. Everybody goes through the ringer, man. And when it happened to me, I went, OK, I’m gonna put it

on paper. I can think of one thing in particular that’s kind of haunted me for a long time, so I took the time to write about it. L Ham de Foc lyrics at the BestSong

Can you say what that was?

JONES Yeah, like that’s gonna happen. DUTKIEWICZ C’mon, you know it’s about all those nice, long bong rips you do. JONES [Laughs] Could you imagine? DUTKIEWICZ Jones just sits in the back lounge with his shirt off all the time and he’s got precious oils on his chest, looking in the mirror flexing and sucking on a big bong.

Was it cathartic or therapeutic to address personal stuff in the lyrics?

JONES I haven’t thought about it that deeply. I just wrote whatever came to me. A lot of it is very stream-of-consciousness. I’ve actually written choruses in my sleep.  Ku Tak Ingin lyrics Wake up, write it down, and there it is.

It seems like you’re in a good place now. Was there something that put you more at ease?

JONES Nope, I’m still there. But being in this band definitely does help. It’s cool being around these guys because a lot of times I can just escape my problems because I’m surrounded by a bunch of good dudes who make me laugh. ®