“…the music shares some of the ache and inscrutability of Fairport Convention and Incredible String Band. Everything—from the swirling cello of ‘Criminals’ to the pulsing motorik throbs of ‘Footsteps’ and ‘Seance’—is held together by Cooper’s quiet voice and his sweet yearning for a different plane.” – Pitchfork
Modern Nature presents the video for “Nature” taken from their debut album, How To Live, out now on Bella Union and announces their first-ever North America tour in early 2020.
“‘Nature’ plays a part in the album and has a point of view that isn’t necessarily what I believe (not all the time), but is generally a sort of fatalistic version of what I think about modern nature (behavior),” says Jack Cooper. “The outlook is really to provide some shade to the light and optimism of the last song ‘Devotee’. It’s hard watching the news or navigating life in a city not to get awfully despondent but often when your despair is at its peak, people can amaze you… I think it’s a sort of romantic nihilism.”
“I’d been out filming Brighton Day of Dance earlier in the year, where Morris Teams from all over the country come and spend the day dancing and drinking outside various pubs in Brighton,” says the director Conan Roberts. “It was more out of curiosity of this slightly bizzare British tradition than anything else. Jack saw some of the footage and thought it could be a great accompaniment to one of the tracks from the album. I cut the Morris footage and then independently cut the landscape footage before compositing the two. It was more an experiment in how the two images may or may not work together, exploring the synergy of the dancers movements alongside the shapes of nature.”
Watch “Nature” Video – https://youtu.be/h7Hc5hakErY
Modern Nature tour dates: Fri. Sept. 13 – Leeds, UK @ Brudenell Social Club Sat. Sept. 14 – Flintshire, UK @ Good Life Experience Sun. Sept. 15 – Glasgow, UK @ Freakender Festival Tue. Sept. 17 – Manchester, UK @ YES Wed. Sept. 18 – Liverpool, UK @ The Shipping Forecast Thu. Sept. 19 – London, UK @ The Courtyard Theatre Fri. Sept. 20 – Margate, UK @ Elsewhere Sat. Sept. 21 – Bristol, UK @ Louisiana Thu. Jan. 9 – Washington, DC @ Comet Ping Pong Fri. Jan. 10 – Philadelphia, PA @ Boot & Saddle Sat. Jan. 11 – Brooklyn, NY @ Rough Trade Sun. Jan. 12 – Boston, MA @ The Lilypad Mon. Jan. 13 – Burlington, VT @ The Monkey House Tue. Jan. 14 – Montreal, QC @ Bar Le ‘Ritz’ P.D.B. Wed. Jan. 15 – Toronto, ON @ The Monarch Thu. Jan. 16 – Detroit, MI @ Deluxx Fluxx Sat. Jan. 18 – Minneapolis, MN @ 7th St. Entry Mon. Jan. 20 – Columbus, OH @ Ace of Cups
Canadian rock duo Partner have announced a huge tour for this autumn spanning the globe from their home country to Czechoslovakia. The U.S. tour even teams them with Titus Andronicus. All the shows are sure to be a good time. Partner alone are killer live.
As if a new tour isn’t enough, Partner released their cover of Rush‘s “Limelight.” It’s great.
“We watched a documentary about RUSH and we fell in love with the band. They seem like such nice guys. It caused us to hear the music in a new way, with a much deeper appreciation. By doing the cover, we hoped to pay tribute to our newfound appreciation and to expand our horizons as musicians by learning these unique and complex arrangements.” – Partner
Partner’s cover of “Limelight” is available to watch on YouTube and stream on SoundCloud.
LISTEN TO “FERRY SONG” – https://youtu.be/BNxYFZTg2EA
Chicago-based band Twin Peaks release “Ferry Song,” a new single from their forthcoming album, Lookout Low, due September 13th via Grand Jury. Following its “swaggering lead single” (Stereogum) “Dance Through It,” “Ferry Song” is a huge leap forward for band member Colin Croom. Croom wrote the track in Spring of 2018 in New Orleans. He stayed at Algiers Point, taking the ferry to the city each day. Throughout, the track waltzes with guitar and ramshackle brass. As it hits its boiling point, Croom accesses a part of his vocal range he’s only hinted at before.
Lookout Low feels like a total revolution. Their most deliberate and seamless record yet, the album is a collaborative triumph, propelled forward by Twin Peak’s near-decade-long bond. The five of them – guitarists Cadien Lake James and Clay Frankel, bassist Jack Dolan, multi-instrumentalist Colin Croom, and drummer Connor Brodner – committed to work countless hours in their studio and practice space. Already a well-oiled live unit, the band’s mission was to capture the exhilarating vibe of their shows. Lookout Low was recorded with legendary producer Ethan Johns at Monnow Valley, where they often thrived on the thrill of live recording, going with the magic of the original first take. The album features auxiliary percussion from drummer Kyle Davis and spectral harmonies from OHMME’s Macie Stewart and Sima Cunningham.
Each individual member of the band upped their songwriting for the LP. These tracks are their most impressive offering yet – confident, experimentative, and bursting with energy.
In support of Lookout Low, the band will tour across North America. They will play Chicago’s Riviera Theatre (their biggest hometown headline show to date), Los Angeles’ Teragram Ballroom, and New York’s Webster Hall, in addition to dual shows at Nashville’s Basement East, Boston’s The Sinclair, and more. Tickets are on sale now. All dates are below.
WATCH THE VIDEO FOR “DANCE THROUGH IT” – https://youtu.be/U12MYd1DtOs
Originally released in 2003, Clutch‘s Slow Hole to China was a collection of obscure singles, unreleased material, and cover tunes. They re-released it in 2009 as Slow Hole to China: Rare and Re-released and included three more previously unreleased tracks.
One of those tracks is the first one on this album – “King of Arizona.” It’s a solid blues rocker with harmonica by guest Eric Oblander and vocalist Neil Fallon making allusions to either an Arizona gold mine, a cemetery in Arizona, James Reavis (a con man who was nearly given ownership of most of Arizona and a good chunk of New Mexico), or, quite likely, all three.
The title track has some of Dan Maines’ heaviest bass lines. “Nickel Dime” almost has a fiery gospel feel to it. “Sea of Destruction” hits as hard, if not harder, than a lot of current metal tracks thanks to Jean-Paul Gaster‘s furious drumming and Tim Sult’s fuzzed-to-the-max guitar. Blues swagger comes in heavy on “Oregon,” “Easy Breeze,” “Hale Bopp Blues” (which is sung from the perspective of dinosaurs fearing the arrival of the Hale Bopp comet and the end of their lives on Earth), and “Four Lords.”
“Rising Son” scorches and has one of my favorite lyrics on the album – “Gravity is such a drag, and we will not obey.” I can’t help but wonder if “Guild of Muted Assassins” was inspired by one of Fallon’s old Dungeons and Dragons campaigns, because that title needs to be the name of a D&D game module. “Willie Nelson” is about Fallon’s home being raided by jackbooted figures searching for drugs, secrets, or both. It might be the former when you consider the chorus is, “I don’t know if I’m coming or going, if it’s them or me. But the one thing’s for certain, Willie Nelson only smokes killer weed.”
“Equinox” is an instrumental that has wild Santana-like percussion. “Hoodoo Operator” is a floor-stomper with Maines’ bass taking on angry bee-like quality. “Day of the Jackalope” has Fallon’s vocals distorted as if through a fault megaphone, making him sound like a madman yelling on a street corner. “Ship of Gold (West Virginia)” is an alternate version of the song of the same name that would end up on Clutch’s Elephant Riders album. It’s a bit darker and heavier than that one, and has more extended jams as well.
This is a solid collection and can stand alone as its own album instead of a collection of singles and miscellaneous tracks. It’s worth seeking out if you’re a fan of Clutch, or even if you’re not.
Keep your mind open.
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Jon Spencer has announced a brief summer tour with his newest band, the HITmakers, of the Midwest United States to promote his solo album Spencer Sings the Hits!
Reviews of his earlier shows mention him playing not only new solo cuts, but also stuff from his massive catalog of other material from the Jon Spencer Blues Explosion, Boss Hog, and Pussy Galore.
Tour dates are as follows:
Wed 8/28 – Pyramid Scheme – Grand Rapids MI Thu 8/29 – HI-FI – Indianapolis IN Fri 8/30 – Schubas – Chicago IL Sat 8/31 – H.O.G. National Rally, Harley-Davidson Museum – Milwaukee WI Sun 9/1 – Turf Club – St. Paul MN Mon 9/2 – Vaudeville Mews – Des Moines IA Tues 9/3 – Ignition Music Garage – Goshen IN
“‘At the Party,’ finds a slice of solace in navigating the human experience with similarly marginalized friends by her side. Here, ‘the party’ is the crooked world Paul journeys in solidarity with her fellow POC; together, they make the best of life’s wayward turns.” – Pitchfork
“Katherine Paul delivers hums and oooh’s that melt into the mellow drums, creating a foggy, subdued mesh of pretty sounds.” – FADER on “At the Party”
“[‘At the Party’] is an astounding reverb-soaked number with sprawling guitars that track up and down the length of the neck as Paul easily transitions between near-whispered verses and heady falsetto choruses.” – UPROXX
Black Belt Eagle Scout – the recording project of multi-instrumentalist Katherine Paul – presents a new single / video, “My Heart Dreams,” from her forthcoming album, At the Party With My Brown Friends, due August 30th via Saddle Creek. In conjunction, she announces a headline North American tour. “My Heart Dreams” follows lead single “At the Party.” Written in Ohlone land during a transitional part of Paul’s life, “My Heart Dreams” expresses a consuming desire to find new love in the midst of heartbreak. The accompanying video, filmed by Angel Two Bulls and co-directed by Angel and Paul, depicts Paul wandering amongst the Portland Pride parade, the scene eventually turning into a live performance.
“The idea behind this video was to do something fun while showing the resilience of the Indigenous people, particularly women and girls, which is why I chose to have the Black Belt Eagle Scout band be portrayed by young Indigenous girls.” describes Paul. “In an age where Missing and Murdered Indigenous women (MMIW) are finally getting the attention they deserve, it’s important to make their strength visible. The justice around MMIW is something we should all be paying closer attention to and I hope my platform serves to heighten awareness. The girls and extras in the video are members of the Portland Two Spirit Society, a special group of LGBTQ Indigenous and Native American/Alaska Natives and the Portland All Nations Canoe Family.”
Where her 2018 debut, Mother of My Children, was a snapshot of loss and landscape and of Paul’s standing as a radical indigenous queer feminist, this new chapter finds its power in love, desire and friendship. At the Party With My Brown Friends is a profound and understated forward step. The squalling guitar anthems that shaped its predecessor are replaced by delicate vocals and soft keys, sentiments spoken and unspoken, presenting something shadowy and unsettling; a stirring of the waters. The end result presents a captivating about-face that redefines Paul’s beautifully singular artistic vision.
Black Belt Eagle Scout was named a favorite new artist of 2018 by NPR Music, Stereogum, Paste and Under The Radar. She will continue to tour extensively, playing Sled Island, Newport Folk Festival, and Pickathon this summer before embarking on a headlining North American tour. Then, she will support Devendra Banhart on tour later this fall. Tickets are on sale now. One dollar from every ticket sold through presale will be donated to the National Indigenous Women’s Resource Center. All dates can be found below.
Watch Black Belt Eagle Scout’s “My Heart Dreams” Video https://youtu.be/cmGP7WZO4Pw
Listen to “At the Party” https://bbes.ffm.to/atpwmbf
Pre-orderAt the Party With My Brown Friends https://bbes.ffm.to/atpwmbf
Black Belt Eagle Scout tour dates: Thu. Aug. 1 – Seattle, WA @ ARTS at King Street Station Fri. Aug. 2 & Sun. Aug. 4 – Happy Valley, OR @ Pickathon Wed. Aug. 21 – Victoria, BC @ Bastion Square Parkade Thu. Aug. 22 – Seattle, WA @ Olympic Sculpture Hall Sun. Aug. 25 – Port Townsend, WA @ Thing Mon. Oct. 21 – Portland, OR @ Mississippi Studios Thu. Oct. 24 – Seattle, WA @ Tractor Tavern Wed. Oct. 30 – Boulder, CO @ Boulder Theater * Fri. Nov. 1 – Omaha, NE @ Slowdown * Sat. Nov. 2 – Minneapolis, MN @ Varsity Theater * Sun. Nov. 3 – Chicago, IL @ Thalia Hall * Tue. Nov. 5 – Memphis, TN @ The Hi-Tone * Wed. Nov. 6 – St. Louis, MO @ Foam Thu. Nov. 7 – Lawrence, KS @ White Schoolhouse Fri. Nov. 8 – Fort Collins, CO @ Surfside 7 Sat. Nov. 9 – Salt Lake City, UT @ Diabolical Records Sun. Nov. 10 – Boise, ID @ Neurolux Thu. Nov. 12 – Reno, NV @ Holland Project Wed. Nov. 13 – San Francisco, CA @ Cafe Du Nord Thu. Nov. 14 – Los Angeles, CA @ Bootleg Bar Fri. Nov. 15 – San Diego, CA @ Ché Café Sat. Nov. 16 – Tucson, AZ @ Club Congress Sun. Nov. 17 – Las Vegas, NV @ The Bunkhouse Saloon Tue. Nov. 19 – Mesa, AZ @ The Nile Wed. Nov. 20 – Albuquerque, NM @ Sister Fri. Nov. 22 – Austin, TX @ Barracuda Sat. Nov. 23 – Dallas, TX @ The Foundry Sun. Nov. 24 – Houston, TX @ Satellite Tue. Nov. 26 – Fayetteville, AR @ George’s Majestic Lounge Wed. Nov. 27 – Nashville, TN @ DRKMTTR Sat. Nov. 30 – Detroit, MI @ Museum of Contemporary Art Detroit * Sun. Dec. 1 – Toronto, ON @ Danforth Music Hall * Tue. Dec. 3 – Montreal, QC @ L’Olympia * Wed. Dec. 4 – Boston, MA @ Wilbur Theatre * Thu. Dec. 5 – Brooklyn, NY @ Brooklyn Steel * Sat. Dec. 7 – Washington, DC @ 9:30 Club * Sun. Dec. 8 – Philadelphia, PA @ Union Transfer * *= w/ Devendra Banhart
Twin Peaks are elated to announce their new album, Lookout Low, due September 13th via Grand Jury. Where their last LP, 2016’s Down In Heaven, and 2017’s Sweet ‘17 Singles compilation were adventurous and compelling updates on their youthfully raucous formula, their fourth album, Lookout Low feels like a total revolution. Their most deliberate and seamless record yet, the album is a collaborative triumph, propelled forward by Twin Peak’s near-decade-long bond.
For Lookout Low, the five of them – guitarists Cadien Lake James and Clay Frankel, bassist Jack Dolan, multi-instrumentalist Colin Croom, and drummer Connor Brodner – committed to work countless hours in their studio and practice space. Meeting daily, they demoed 27 songs and relentlessly rehearsed them, eventually whittling down to a select ten tracks. The album was recorded at Monnow Valley with legendary producer Ethan Johns (Paul McCartney, U2, Kings of Leon), who lauds Twin Peaks as “the best Rock and Roll band I’ve heard for a very long time.” Already a well-oiled live unit, the band’s mission was to capture the exhilarating vibe of their shows. Often, they thrived on the thrill of live recording, going with the magic of the original first take. This life-affirming burst of adrenaline seeps into every facet of the LP.
Each individual member of the band upped their songwriting for the LP. These tracks are their most impressive offering yet – confident, experimentative, and bursting with energy. Throughout, Croom wrote horn arrangements that at times evoke the soulfulness of Allen Toussaint and the burly Americana of the E Street Band. The auxiliary percussion from drummer Kyle Davis expands the already breezy and expansive compositions. OHMME’s Macie Stewart and Sima Cunningham contribute their spectral harmonies on seven of the 10 tracks.
Lead single / video “Dance Through It,” a horn-infused, soul-inflected swing, champions the energy found across the album. The video was directed by Ariel Fisher and Léo Schrepel in Berlin. “Writing and arranging ‘Dance Through It’ felt like a dive into and embrace of experimenting with a new palette for us,” says James. “After having been directly involved in the creation and direction of all of our videos, it felt fitting to allow this song the breath of collaboration in having Ariel Fisher take the helm and run with it.”
“Working with Twin Peaks on this visual concept felt synergetic,” says Fisher. “We shared a mutual love for the film Fallen Angels and wanted to tell a story where the camera angles and lenses gradually shift as the narrative progresses. We wanted the viewer to become the participant, as we step into the actress’s shoes and begin to see the world as she sees it.”
Twin Peaks will bring their live shows across the states, including to Chicago’s Riviera Theatre (the band’s biggest hometown headline show to date), Los Angeles’ Teragram Ballroom, and New York’s Webster Hall, in addition to dual shows at Nashville’s Basement East, Boston’s The Sinclair, and more. Tickets are on sale now.
WATCH THE VIDEO FOR “DANCE THROUGH IT” – https://youtu.be/U12MYd1DtOs
Fans can pre-order Lookout Low at indie retail stores on two different exclusive color pressings immediately. When US fans pre-order at participating stores they’ll get a “Dance Through It” 7″, which features an unreleased song on the B-side, and will be able to return to the point of purchase to pick up Lookout Low on September 13th. The album is available on Orange Swirl LP or on a Chicago-area exclusive Electric Blue LP. A list of participating stores is available here.
LOOKOUT LOWTRACKLIST: 1. Casey’s Groove 2. Laid in Gold 3. Better Than Stoned 4. Unfamiliar Sun 5. Dance Through It 6. Lookout Low 7. Ferry Song 8. Under A Smile 9. Oh Mama 10. Sunken II
TWIN PEAKS TOUR DATES: Thu. Sept. 12 – Detroit, MI @ Majestic Theatre * Fri. Sept. 13 – Cleveland, OH @ Beachland Ballroom * Sat. Sept. 14 – Columbus, OH @ Newport Music Hall * Thu. Sept. 19 – Milwaukee, WI @ Turner Hall Ballroom * Fri. Sept. 20 – Minneapolis, MN @ Fine Line Music Cafe * Sat. Sept. 21 – East Moline, IL @ The Rust Belt * Tue. Oct. 8 – Berlin, DE @ Musik und Frieden & Wed. Oct. 9 – Hamburg, DE @ Molotow Musikclub & Fri. Oct. 11 – Rotterdam, NL @ Rotown & Sat. Oct. 12 – Amsterdam, NL @ Paradiso Mon. Oct. 14 – Cologne, DE @ MTC & Tue. Oct. 15 – Paris, FR @ La Boule Noire & Wed. Oct. 16 – London, UK @ Dome Tufnell Park & Fri. Oct. 18 – Leeds, UK @ Brudenell Social Club & Sat. Oct. 19 – Oxford, UK @ Ritual Union Sun. Oct. 20 – Cardiff, UK @ SWN Festival Wed. Oct. 30 – Louisville, KY @ Headliners Music Hall # Thu. Oct. 31 – St. Louis, MO @ The Ready Room # Fri. Nov. 1 – Omaha, NE @ The Waiting Room # Sat. Nov. 2 – Denver, CO @ Gothic Theatre # Tue. Nov. 5 – Salt Lake City, UT @ Metro Music Hall # Thu. Nov. 7 – Seattle, WA @ Neumos # Fri. Nov. 8 – Portland, OR @ Wonder Ballroom # Sat. Nov. 9 – Vancouver, BC @ VENUE # Wed. Nov. 13 – San Francisco, CA @ Great American Music Hall # Fri. Nov. 15 – Los Angeles, CA @ Teragram Ballroom @ Sat. Nov. 16 – Solana Beach, CA @ Belly Up Tavern # Mon. Nov. 18 – Phoenix, AZ @ The Crescent Ballroom # Thu. Nov. 21 – Dallas, TX @ Deep Ellum Art Co. # Fri. Nov. 22 – Houston, TX @ Satellite Bar # Sat. Nov. 23 – Austin, TX @ The Mohawk # Fri. Nov. 29 – Chicago, IL @ Riviera Theatre Wed. Dec. 4 – Burlington, VT @ Higher Ground Ballroom ^ Thu. Dec. 5 – Boston, MA @ The Sinclair (early) @ Thu. Dec. 5 – Boston, MA @ The Sinclair (late) ! Fri. Dec. 6 – New York, NY @ Webster Hall ^ Tue. Dec. 10 – Philadelphia, PA @ Union Transfer ^ Wed. Dec. 11 – Washington, DC @ Black Cat ^ Thu. Dec. 12 – Carrboro, NC @ Cat’s Cradle ^ Fri. Dec. 13 – Atlanta, GA @ Variety Playhouse ^ Sat. Dec. 14 – Nashville, TN @ The Basement East ^ Sun. Dec. 15 – Nashville, TN @ The Basement East ^ ~ = w/ PUP * = w/ Slow Pulp and Dehd & = w/ Dehd # = w/ Post Animal & OHMME ^ = w/ Lala Lala & OHMME ! = w/ Lala Lala @ = w/ OHMME
Keep your mind open.
[Dance your way over to the subscription box while you’re here.]
With his highly anticipated new album, Twelve Nudes, due August 30th via Bella Union, Erza Furman has shared two new tracks from the LP. For Furman, new single “I Wanna Be Your Girlfriend” “Is a romantic song of transgender longing. It’s another entry in my series of ‘I Wanna’ songs (in the tradition of the Ramones). I thought it was time we had an ‘Earth Angel’ for the queers. Of course because it’s an Ezra Furman tune, there’s a little bit of desperation, religion and body-talk.”. It comes with a brilliant video directed by Alix Spence, who shared that; “Listening to the song and speaking with Ezra, I saw our two dancers, Brandon Mathis and and Jobel Medina, as physical manifestations of internal suffering. I wanted to literally have us wrestle with ourselves and the complexities of our personal struggles.
Of the additional single “Evening Prayer”, Furman states: “It’s our rallying cry. We music fans go to shows for transcendence; it’s like being called to prayer. But as Abraham Heschel said, ‘Prayer is meaningless unless it is subversive, unless it seeks to overthrow and to ruin the pyramids of callousness, hatred, opportunism and falsehood.’ I want all our fans to become activists. We punk fans have so much energy to give to the fight against injustice, i.e. the abuse of the poor by the rich, i.e. climate change. So this is one to get you in the mood.”
Last year was a championing year for Furman – since the release of the “layered, baroque pop melodrama” (Billboard) Transangelic Exodus, Furman has garnered immense praise, both for Transangelic Exodus and the soundtrack he created for Netflix’s Sex Education (he and his band also appeared in an episode). Twelve Nudes, his new and “spiritually queer” punk record, continues this same wavelength, and is an incendiary and inspiring follow-up. Across the album, Furman channels pent-up energy, distinguished by sharp, lacerating observations, confessions and proclamations.
Twelve Nudes was recorded quickly in Oakland in Fall 2018 and was mixed by venerated producer John Congleton (Sharon Van Etten, St. Vincent). The result is an album that is less stereotypical punk than raw, raucous rock’n’roll. The album has two spiritual heroes – the late great punk Jay Reatard and Canadian writer and philosopher Anne Carson. The title stems directly from Carson, who used the term “nudes” to describe the meditations she used to deal with intense pain in her life.
“This is our punk record,” says Ezra Furman. “We made it in Oakland, quickly. We drank and smoked. Then we made the loud parts louder. I hurt my voice screaming. This was back in 2018, when things were bad in the world. The songs are naked with nothing to hide.”
One of my goals in making music is to make the world seem bigger, and life seem larger,” Furman concludes. “I want to be a force that tries to revive the human spirit rather than crush it, to open possibilities rather than close them down. Sometimes a passionate negativity is the best way to do that.”
The last show I saw at Fort Wayne, Indiana’s Clyde Theatre was the Flaming Lips with Le Bucherettes, which was a communal psychedelic experience and not the type of place in which a mosh pit breaks out while someone screams at you with rage and fury. Now, however, I was seeing three bands who brought plenty of rage and fury – Clutch, Killswitch Engage, and Cro-Mags “JM“.
My friend and I walked in as Cro-Mags “JM” were unleashing their rage with a furious hardcore punk rock set. The “JM,” by the way, stands for “John Mackie” – as in vocalist John Joseph and drummer Mackie Jayson. Joseph and Jayson are two of the longest-serving members in the legendary Cro-Mags band (which has gone through multiple lineup changes). Joseph talked about songs written in 1989, such as “Street Justice,” when there was no such thing as being an online troll (“You said what you needed to say face to face. You didn’t hide behind a keyboard. And if you had to put your fists up, you threw down.”). It was a fast, hard set, yet no mosh pits broke out, which I found baffling.
Cro-Mags “JM”
I’d heard of Cro-Mags from my high school punk rock days, but I’d never heard anything by Killswitch Engage despite the fact they’ve been together for two decades. My metal music collections leans toward stoner and doom, so metalcore is a mostly unexplored genre for me. They put on a heck of a show, bringing relentless energy and a packed house. A lot of people showed up for their set, and a few small mosh pits broke out during it. Crowd surfing was even more popular. A particular highlight was the live debut of their newest single, “I Am Broken, Too.” Lead singer Jessie Leach‘s vocal stylings reminded me of Ronnie James Dio, so I was delighted to hear them close their set with a cover of Dio’s “Holy Diver.”
Killswitch Engage
Clutch came out gunning with the always-invigorating “X-Ray Visions” and “Firebirds!” Bassist Dan Maines had some technical issues in the first two tracks that kept him from putting out as much sound as he wanted, but a couple swapped cables and batteries fixed the issue by the time they got to “Gimme the Keys.”
Psychic warfare is real, and Dan Maines’ bass apparently shoots lasers.
The crowd had thinned a bit, which is a shame, because a lot of the metalcore fans who left missed a great groove-rock show by Clutch that included a lot of tunes I’d never heard live before such as their version of the blues classic “Evil,” the rare cut “Willie Nelson,” “Smoke Banshee,” “Hot Bottom Feeder” (which my friend loved for both the groove and the fact that the entire song is a crab cake recipe), and “Rats.”
Clutch lets us know that Willie Nelson only smokes killer weed.
They ended the night with an encore of “H.B. Is in Control” and “How to Shake Hands,” two more songs I hadn’t heard live until now. I’ve always loved how Clutch changes up their setlist every night. They keep a core of a few tunes for each show but mix in whatever else they want to play. I wish more bands did this, but not every band is as confident as them. So, go see them. It will be a unique experience.
Keep your mind open.
Thanks to Doug Weber of New Ocean Media for getting me a press pass to the show.
Clutch announce the release of “Precious And Grace”. The single is the second in a series of new studio recordings that comprise the newly launched Weathermaker Vault Series and the first new official music Clutch is making available since the release of their critically acclaimed album, Book Of Bad Decisions. Future tracks will follow as part of the new series throughout the 2nd half of 2019. These songs are bound to become another classic milestone in the band’s stellar career.
“Precious And Grace” was mixed by 6X Grammy Award winner and Clutch collaborator, Vance Powell (Wolfmother, The Raconteurs,Arctic Monkeys). A video for the song can be viewed at this location: https://youtu.be/9RvJt7MGziM
“It should be fairly obvious by now that Clutch are huge fans of ZZ Top,” states vocalist Neil Fallon. “They’re a band that we grew up listening to – and we still listen to them to this day. ‘Precious & Grace’, from their classic Tres Hombres LP, is easily one of our favorite ZZ Top songs and that’s really the only story behind the choice.” Clutch has curated their own Spotify playlist “Clutch’s Heavy Rotation” at this location: https://open.spotify.com/playlist/3NlZsjNNOoCvwjCv58mcNR
On Friday, Clutch will embark on a co-headlining tour of the US with Killswitch Engage that also includes Clutch’s curated Earth Rocker Festival in Inwood WV.
Clutch & Killswitch Engage Co-Headline US Dates: Tickets available here. Fri/Jul 12th Syracuse, NY at SI Hall Sat/Jul 13th Inwood, WV at Earth Rocker Festival @ Shiley Acres Sun/Jul 14th Myrtle Beach, SC at House Of Blues Tue/Jul 16th Fort Wayne, IN at The Clyde Thu/Jul 18th Sioux City, IA at Hard Rock Casino Fri/Jul 19th Cadott, WI at Rock USA Festival Sat/Jul 20th Peoria, Il at Tailgate N’ Tallboys Festival Mon/Jul 22nd Tulsa, OK at The Brady Theater Tue/Jul 23rd St. Louis, MO at The Pageant Thu/Jul 25th Bethlehem, PA at Sands Bethlehem Event Center Fri/Jul 26th Asbury Park, NJ at Stone Pony (Outdoors) Sat/Jul 27th Bangor, ME at Impact Music Festival Sun/Jul 28th Montreal, QC at Heavy Montreal Festival Tue/Jul 30th Huntington, NY at The Paramount Thu/Aug 1st Columbus, OH at Express Live (Outdoors) Fri/Aug 2nd Pittsburgh, PA at Stage AE (Outdoors) Sat/Aug 3rd Port Chester, NY at The Capitol Theater Sun/Aug 4th Worcester, MA at Palladium (Outdoors)
