Clutch Appreciation Thread

[[Syl]]

The most under-appreciated rock band of all time, IMO.

Just do me a favor (anyone); check out this video. If you don't like this song... Granted, it's half John Lee Hooker (literally).

Then compare it to A Samurai Named Marcus. Each of their albums have been a steady progression from that to the one I linked above.

Now, if there was ever a rock band a bunch of fantasy fans would like... There's the Lovecraftian Soapmakers, Elric-themed Immortal, and the strangely Covenant-esque Basket of Eggs. Then you have the fairytale/folklore steeped "Drink to the Dead", tongue-in-cheek SciFi "Escape From The Prison Planet," humorous "The Yeti" and songs with fantastical elements that defy description like "Red Horse Rainbow," "The Dragonfly," and "Eulogy for a Ghost." (all lyrics can be found here, the offical Clutch site).

I've been to a pretty good number of concerts, and I've never seen the level of energy you get at a Clutch concert. Now, it may partly be because of the Gearheads (Clutch fans), but... There are bigger shows, more impressive shows, and certainly more acoustically tight/accurate ones, but for some serious rocking, there's nothing like a Clutch concert.

They rock, and that's all I have to say... except for one more link (ignore the video; I have no idea what that's all about).

[The Laughing Man]

somehow I can hear every influence on this band very distinctly, and yet they are extremely fresh, original, innovative and intelligent. TIGHT.

Esmer now shows his appreciation for Syl, and his appreciation for Clutch:

[CovenantJr]

Though I can't claim to be a huge fan of Clutch (I only have two albums) I'm very fond of the stuff I know. I have do disagree on the live performance, though it could just be that I caught them at a bad time. I enjoyed the gig I saw, but it was mainly carried by the quality of the material; the band themselves seemed very apathetic.

[[Syl]]

Clutch had the music for the song "Red Horse Rainbow" for a long time, says Fallon. "One day we were practicing and I was just kind of singing gibberish into the microphone. And none of them were words. But the guys, after we finished practicing, they asked me what I was singing about, why I had said, "I believe in black horse rainbows.' Which I didn't think I'd said, but for some reason, they thought I had. So I kind of thought that was a cool image, and just switched it around a little bit. Having got that image, it kind of brought out, for lack of a better phrase, this fantasy metal thing. ... I grew up on that stuff, so this is sort of, you know, maybe my version of that."

So where else does Fallon's lyrical inspiration come from? He cites science-fiction writers like Gene Wolf, Ray Bradbury and Stanislaw Lem, as well as Nick Cave, Tom Waits, Captain Beefheart and "a lot of old blues guys." But mainly, he says, "I just try to be a good listener. A lot of stuff I may hear in a conversation or on TV and just try to take it out of context. ... I try to just work with them on a sheet of paper so that they could stand on their own, instead of just having a bunch of "oh babys' and kind of fillers, you know, try to put some concrete nouns in there with good adjectives."

[CovenantJr]

He's a Gene Wolfe fan, eh? Impressive.

...try to put some concrete nouns in there with good adjectives."

I like this bit.

[Cord Hurn]

They sound all right to me. The different voices are good, and I certainly enjoy the harmonica.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s4ABpbxIPFI

[Clutch: Electric Worry]