Seeing Clutch in Flint was something special because of the much-enjoyed Live in Flint, Michigan live CD, but also because the timing of the trip had meant I didn’t get to catch either their stop in Brooklyn or the two boat shows they did on a cruise liner around Manhattan (though they did have the exclusive t-shirts from the latter for sale with their merch). These things happen. I also got married on a night they were playing Starland Ballroom. Sometimes schedules conflict, but the chance to see them in a place they deemed supportive enough to record a live album there wasn’t one I was going to pass up, so to the Machine Shop we went.

The venue was basically a cement box, and on the walk inside, I saw several bumper stickers that said, “The driver of this vehicle owns a gun” in varying clever ways. One was just the word “Flint” in all capital letters with a handgun replacing the ‘L.’ At times like that, I always have to remember to keep my wiseassery in check. In any case, the bikers outside seemed to have security in check. Inside, it was crowded and hot and though the reformed trio incarnation of C.O.C. had been slated to support Clutch on the tour, there was on stage some reggae-influenced Sublime-sounding band who were very much not the Animosity lineup.

C.O.C. had, as Clutch vocalist Neil Fallon later explained, pulled out of the tour for “medical reasons.” Pretty vague, and no appendectomies were mentioned, so I don’t know what the deal was. They didn’t play. The douche rock band, whose name I never caught, ran through their set and seemed to appreciate the crowd, but it just wasn’t my thing. Several drunk dudes standing immediately to my right ate it up, so I guess there’s that.

Clutch came out in good time and kicked into a set half-full with surprises. They opened with “Sea of Destruction” from Slow Hole to China, and “Promoter (of Earthbound Causes)” from Blast Tyrant was especially cool to hear, and drummer Jean-Paul Gaster led “Mercury” jamming right into “Child of the City” from From Beale Street to Oblivion. The single, “50,000 Unstoppable Watts,” from their latest album, Strange Cousins From the West, was right on the money, “Immortal” thrilled the crowd and a plugged-in blend of the acoustic and electric arrangements of “Tight Like That” from the self-titled was ultra-grooving — bassist Dan Maines in the pocket while Fallon and Tim Sult doubled up on guitars — but “Animal Farm” sounded slow coming out of “Struck Down” and overall, the band looked kind of tired.

And if they were, it’s certainly understandable. The aforementioned boat shows were basically comprised of two full gigs in one night, with a show the night before and one the night after in Pittsburgh. I don’t think Clutch have taken significant time off from touring since Strange Cousins From the West was released in 2009, but no matter how used to it you might be, five shows in four days — with another one still to come the day after before finally getting a night off — is a lot. Still, part of me can’t help but think it’s time Clutch got off the road, took a month or two away from it, and came back to write another album.

If the “The party’s over/You all got to go/The wolfman is coming out” (or thereabouts) chorus to the unnamed new song they played is any indication of the level of morale — which, admittedly, it could just as easily not be — then yeah, maybe it’s time to step back on the gigging and focus on the creative side of the band for a while. That said, Clutch never fails to satisfy as a live act, and the Machine Shop show was no exception. That new song sat well alongside “50,000 Unstoppable Watts” in the band’s latter-day bluesy style, and the biggest surprise of the evening came as they began to round out the set and threw in “Subtle Hustle,” one of Blast Tyrant‘s catchiest and least-celebrated songs. It’s a personal favorite, anyway.

They ended the pre-encore set with “Electric Worry”/”One Eyed Dollar” from From Beale Street to Oblivion and came back after long enough to let the room cool down a little to do a few acoustic cuts. Fallon once more joined Sult for the ensuing three songs, which felt more like a miniaturized second set than an encore. The first cut they played, I didn’t recognize, but featured heavy lyrical mention of Abraham — could be new, could be a cover, could be old and reinterpreted, but so far as I could tell it wasn’t “Abraham Lincoln” or anything else from the back catalog. They followed that with “Basket of Eggs,” originally from Jam Room and more recently the title-track of the bonus acoustic EP from the Weathermaker Music reissue of Blast Tyrant, and finally closed out with “The Regulator.”

Kind of a morose note to end on, especially when I’ve seen other Clutch shows that cap more like a party than a concert — the time they were joined on stage in Atlantic City by then-touring partner Scott “Wino” Weinrich for “Red Horse Rainbow” comes to mind — but I like to think it was more the band’s knowing how in their element they were and how much the crowd was willing to go with them that let them make a few unexpected turns for the night. I mean, it’s one thing to get on stage, blast out “Burning Beard,” “Big News I & II,” “Elephant Riders” and “Careful with That Mic” — and nothing against that; I’ve seen and enjoyed that many times from Clutch — but though exhausted, they also seemed completely at ease. Why not relax and do something different when you’re among friends?

I was out of the Machine Shop on the quick and back to Detroit, from which I’d launch the long ride back to New Jersey that was then looming overhead. No regrets, though. If anything, I lost more sleep being excited about the show afterwards than I lost by going, and The Patient Mrs. was kind enough to start the drive in the morning anyway. Definitely it was the right choice to make.

More pics after the jump.

Clutch at the Machine Shop

Of the to-date nine albums in the discography of Maryland groove rockers Clutch, the three full-lengths they released on DRT Records represents in many ways their most interesting and expansive stretch of material. From 2004-2007, Clutch released three highly-varied albums and began the process of maturing from their rougher-hewn, heavier early days into the blues rock powerhouse they’ve since become. This period of the four-piece’s development is captured on three distinct CD reissues from their own Weathermaker Music label, boasting double-disc, expanded-digipak artwork editions of Blast Tyrant (2004), Robot Hive/Exodus (2005) and From Beale Street to Oblivion (2007), along with a companion disc of bonus material from each. The band’s legal disagreements with DRT – the label headed by Gentle Giant multi-instrumentalist Derek Schulman – resulting in their reclamation of the rights to the albums here find their resolution. One recalls that From Beale Street to Oblivion originally came in a jewel case with the artwork so misplaced that Clutch elected to sell the Canadian version on tour. Well, with the Weathermaker versions of these records, that won’t be an issue. From the art (gorgeous for each) to the releases themselves to the fan-gem bonus discs, these are about as complete documents as longtime followers of the band could ever hope for.

It’s worth noting as well in terms of artwork that Clutch’s most recent offering, 2009’s Strange Cousins From the West, was also given special treatment as an LP with some of the most appealing art I’ve ever seen this side of one of those glass-case $250 Boris limited edition boxes, and that cut-slipcase ethic extends to the digipaks here, continuity of aesthetic being an obvious focus for both the band – Neil Fallon (vocals), Tim Sult (guitar), Dan Maines (bass) and Jean-Paul Gaster (drums) – and the team behind Weathermaker Music, most notably label manager and longtime devotee Jon Nardachone. Blast Tyrant comes with a silver embossed ink depiction of the cover’s curious figure and is perhaps given the most reverence of the three reissues, if only for its including the Basket of Eggs bonus disc, which boasts the January 2011 acoustic sessions in which Clutch reworked older material – “Tight Like That,” an unplugged live version of “Drink to the Dead” from 2001’s Pure Rock Fury and Blast Tyrant’s own “The Regulator” – and set it alongside new cuts “Box Car Shorty’s Confession” and “Basket of Eggs” and a host of pre-Blast Tyrant demos that includes different lyrics for “Cypress Grove” and the unreleased songs “Walpole Man” (from which the back half of “Army of Bono” comes) and “Steve Doocy,” as well as rawer working versions of “Promoter” and “La Curandera” from the album proper. This alone is a boon for aficionados and worshipers, but the Chon Hernandez illustrations in the 20-page lyric booklet (dubbed “Blast Tyrant’s Atlas of the Invisible World Including Illustrations of Strange Beasts and Phantoms”) are no less a selling point. With  Blast Tyrant alone, Clutch prove that if you want something done right, you’ve got to do it yourself.

As to the record itself, Blast Tyrant was in many ways a culmination and a new beginning for Clutch. In 2004, it was their first album since leaving Atlantic Records, the first album they recorded digitally – Neil Fallon is said to have laid down his vocal tracks in Jean-Paul Gaster’s living room, and the liner notes confirm it – and in many ways, the first time the balance between heft and clarity was perfected in terms of their production. Where 2001’s Pure Rock Fury was rougher-sounding and 1998’s Elephant Riders overly smoothed out, Blast Tyrant (produced by Machine) was the proverbial third bowl of porridge that was just right. Aside from some of their most memorable songs and live-set staples like “The Mob Goes Wild,” “Cypress Grove,” “Promoter (of Earthbound Causes)” and “Profits of Doom,” Blast Tyrant showed Clutch’s burgeoning sonic breadth with the quiet, contemplatively morose “The Regulator” and “Ghost” and their prowess for raw boogie on “Subtle Hustle,” which even as basically a filler track still came across powerful and irresistibly fun. Their propensity for jamming, since much developed on tours and in their The Bakerton Group instrumental offshoot project, showed itself in the form of the short “Weathermaker” interlude and the album-closing afterthought “WYSIWYG,” and the rush of opener “Mercury” and the gang-chanted chorus of “Spleen Merchant” almost go without saying among Clutch fans.

Obviously the band themselves think highly of Blast Tyrant as well, otherwise the acoustic cuts on Basket of Eggs would probably have just been included on one of the other three albums and the demos paired with live tracks or something else. As the most recent output on any of these albums – Robot Hive/Exodus includes a DVD of the “Burning Beard” video as well as Clutch’s complete set from the Starland Ballroom date of the 2005 Sounds of the Underground tour in Sayreville, New Jersey and From Beale Street to Oblivion culls live tracks from a BBC session and some material that previously showed up on the limited Live at the Hi-Fi Bar release and the video for the hit single “Electric Worry” – Basket of Eggs could have easily been a separate EP release, and it’s the most definitive showing here of where Clutch are today, creatively speaking. “Box Car Shorty’s Confession” is a Cousin Joe blues cover, and “Basket of Eggs” from 1999′s Jam Room follows stylistic suit, and it’s in the reinterpretations of older material that Clutch really shows their blues-laden drive. “Tight Like That” alone is worth the cost of the entire release for its slide-guitar and rearranged vocals (the track was initially released on 1995 landmark self-titled LP), but “Drink to the Dead,” which was recorded in 2001 – a full decade earlier – is somewhat more awkward and “The Regulator” seems like it’s trying to insert blues lines where they don’t fit. Sult’s guitar, Gaster’s drumming and Maines’ bass are masterful as ever (the latter standing out particularly with the added room left by the absence of guitar distortion), but Fallon’s vocals are unsure in their placement in the midsection, and I’m left wondering if Clutch wouldn’t have been better off maintaining the atmosphere of the original song and simply stripping down the arrangement – though I’m also willing to allow I’m hardly impartial in this case, being a tremendous admirer of the regular album version. Sandwiched between the upbeat 12-bar “Box Car Shorty’s Confession” and the start-stop “Basket of Eggs” stands out some, but is no less awkward than the “Cattle Car” demo version of “Cypress Grove” in that it’s just not what someone familiar with Blast Tyrant would be used to hearing.

As much as Blast Tyrant signaled the beginning of a new era for Clutch, it was 2005’s stellar Robot Hive/Exodus release that confirmed it. Returning to Larry “Uncle Punchy” Packer to record as they had Pure Rock Fury, Clutch triumphed in the songwriting of “The Incomparable Mr. Flannery,” “Burning Beard,” “Mice and Gods,” the Jersey ode “Pulaski Skyway,” “10001110101” and the album’s blues-based later movement of “Gravel Road,” an interpretation of lyrics by Mississippi Fred MacDowell with original music by Clutch, and the Howlin’ Wolf cover, “Who’s Been Talking?” Listening back to the album now, it’s easy to see and hear how much of a complement it was to Blast Tyrant stylistically, while also developing its ideas further. The most notable difference between the two albums was the advent of organist Mick Schauer, whose added classic rock flavor was essential to the success of much of Robot Hive/Exodus’ sci-fi-meets-the-preacherman atmosphere. His otherworldly Hammond stood “10001110101” out among Clutch’s back catalog, and the flourishes added to “Never be Moved” helped make that song as pivotal to the album as it became, filling out Sult’s start-stop riffing while also adding to and underscoring the melody in Fallon’s characteristic lyrical ranting. Though Schauer was listed as a full-fledged band member at the time and did numerous tours with Clutch, he’s separated from the main lineup of Fallon, Sult, Maines and Gaster here, which could just as easily be a legal thing in terms of royalties as an indication of some personal falling out between him and the band that led to his departure following From Beale Street to Oblivion. I don’t know and won’t speculate, since what’s most important of all are the performances on this album and its follow-up, both of which were excellent and – perhaps most impressive of all — seamlessly integrated with Clutch’s already long-established songwriting, as shown on the mostly-instrumental “Small Upsetters,” which could just as easily be taken as a jammy companion piece to “Weathermaker” from Blast Tyrant if it wasn’t for Schauer. Likewise, “Tripping the Alarm” – so named perhaps for Sult’s opening guitar line – and the airy, expansive verses of “Land of Pleasant Living” felt lush where they might have otherwise been lacking.

Since in many ways these reissues tell the story of Clutch’s love affair with the blues, “Gravel Road” and “Who’s Been Talking?” feel especially important in light of the work the band has done to incorporate that influence since – on cuts like “Electric Worry” from From Beale Street to Oblivion, right on through “Struck Down” and “Let a Poor Man Be” from Strange Cousins From the West. These two songs represent the first time Clutch unabashedly embraced the genre, and as such might be the two most pivotal cuts on any of these three records (new material on Basket of Eggs notwithstanding), and seeing the band close with “Gravel Road” on the included Sounds of the Underground DVD, it’s easy to remember how potent and different they were at the time, now more than half a decade ago. Having been present at that particular show, it’s something special for me to watch, but for someone else, it’s probably not much different than a lot of pro-shot multi-camera filmed concerts. Some of the material was included on a festival compilation DVD, but to have the whole set is a welcome inclusion for longtime followers or anyone buying the disc on, say, the recommendation of a review, who’s never seen the band live and wants to know what they might have missed during the Schauer era, which found its apex in From Beale Street to Oblivion.

The third and final of the DRT albums, 2007’s From Beale Street to Oblivion had the near-impossible task of following Blast Tyrant and Robot Hive/Exodus. Clutch set a higher standard for their output than I think even they knew, and maybe in an effort to step back from some of the pressure or at least push their progress to where they wanted it to be at the time, they recorded in California with “Evil” Joe Barresi (Kyuss, Tool, the Melvins, etc.). The result was that Beale Street cast off a lot of the tonal heft of Robot Hive/Exodus and Blast Tyrant in favor of a more compressed sound with Fallon deeper in the mix. Early cuts like “You Can’t Stop Progress” and “Power Player” still became live favorites, as did “Child of the City,” but on the record itself, Sult’s guitar on “The Devil and Me” sounded thin in the chorus where it should have stood out with Fallon delivering the album’s titular line, and the interplay between Schauer and Maines and Gaster in the rhythm section was muddled where on Robot Hive/Exodus it had been so crisp and vibrant. It’s a somewhat darker album visually in terms of the artwork and thematically – the semi-political lyrical stance of “The Mob Goes Wild” from Blast Tyrant finding more fervent execution in album closer “Mr. Shiny Cadillacness” – and as the album was released in 2007, it would have been a document of America’s pre-Obama campaign hopelessness whether it wanted to be or not. Nonetheless, the vigorous “Bang, bang, bang, bang/Vamanos, vamanos!” chorus of “Electric Worry” – which also featured Eric Oblander of Five Horse Johnson on harmonica – would be restrained by nothing, up to and including flat production, and still earned Clutch some of their best commercial exposure to date and established their songwriting prowess in the minds of a whole new generation of followers. Quality cuts like “Black Umbrella” (shades of “Cypress Grove” lyrically), “Rapture of Riddley Walker” and “One Eye Dollar,” the last of which previously appeared on 1999’s Jam Room, showed the band’s songwriting was as effective as ever, but surface cracks were beginning to show, and Schauer, who by then was accepted as a given by the band’s expanding fanbase, was much less present in “When Vegans Attack” than even “White’s Ferry,” earlier in the album. Part of that could again be chalked up to the mix, but there’s no question Schauer was more following Sult’s riffs than playing off them, where on Robot Hive/Exodus, the situation had been reversed.

Given that, it’s something of a two-sided relationship with From Beale Street to Oblivion, which is all the more reason to be glad Clutch went with live tracks for the bonus material, as both the BBC session and the Hi-Fi Bar recordings showcase the chemistry of the band’s lineup in that era. Their take on Cream’s “Politician” proves every bit as appropriate a classic rock cover as when they did Jethro Tull’s “Cross-Eyed Mary” for Small Stone Records’ first Sucking the ‘70s compilation, and “Mr. Shiny Cadillacness,” “Electric Worry” and “One Eye Dollar” shirk off some of the restrained feel of the studio versions for a looser, jammy groove, “Mr. Shiny Cadillacness” especially propelled by Maines’ bass runs. Rounding out that set with “Cypress Grove,” they remind what Schauer brought to the tracks predating his inclusion in the band and lead well into the more proper (i.e., not radio/studio) live recordings of “The Devil and Me,” “Child of the City” “You Gonna Wreck My Life” and “White’s Ferry” from Australia, which themselves close out the bonus disc and the reissue series in energetic fashion. Both Schauer and Oblander were with Clutch for that tour, and the latter even takes lead vocal duties on Howlin’ Wolf’s “You Gonna Wreck My Life,” highlighting how far Clutch had moved in 2007 from the original blueprint of the band (Fallon, meanwhile was on guitar with Sult as he often is in live situations). Live at the Hi-Fi Bar was a short-run release and limited as well in terms of distribution, so there’s not really much redundant about getting these songs out, and “White’s Ferry” makes a fitting finale to From Beale Street to Oblivion’s much-justified second look. Listening to it, you can almost see the closing credits for this era of the band scrolling by.

Those who know Clutch and love their music will revel in the bonus inclusions here, and naysayers will continue to say nay independent of this or any other review. More importantly, Clutch will move on. Strange Cousins From the West saw them return to the “core four” lineup and refocus their attentions on rocking material, but there’s no turning back stylistically, and the maturity that came to fruition on these three albums couldn’t be undone even if the band wanted to – and I don’t think they do. With the probably three years that will have passed since Strange Cousins by the time they get their next record out, it will be fascinating as always to hear what sonic shifts Clutch will have undergone. Each of their albums reads like a document charting the band’s growth, like a height chart marked in permanent marker on your mother’s kitchen wall, and looking back on Blast Tyrant, Robot Hive/Exodus and From Beale Street to Oblivion is an excellent way to follow that progression. Whether you’re a longtime follower of the band who eagerly snatched these albums up when they first came out or someone who missed them and now find them out of print or harder to find, this is Clutch at their most essential yet, and the foundation of any worthy collection.

Clutch’s website

Weathermaker Music

While I wish I could say the occasion serving as impetus for ringing up Fallon was the impending new Clutch album — which is about due but still won’t be ready to go for some time from the sound of things — instead it’s a tour. Now, Clutch touring is no more “news” than are the crabcakes in the band’s native Maryland except in the particulars of where and when the crowd needs to show up, but when you hit the road alongside gen-you-wine legends Motörhead for a massive US run that you’ve in fact delayed writing your next record to undertake, well, I think that’s worth chatting about. I know if I was touring with Motörhead, I’d want to talk about it.

I found the same to somewhat be the case with Fallon, who is notoriously terse in interviews. He’s not impolite, not a dick by any stretch, but hardly one to sit and pontificate on the band’s history and future. It stands to reason that with the massive work ethic Clutch have displayed over their years on the road, writing and recording, and launching their own Weathermaker Music label on which their former DRT Records catalog — Blast Tyrant, Robot Hive/Exodus and From Beale Street to Oblivion — is in the process of being reissued and which put out their last offering (2009′s Strange Cousins from the West), Fallon would be more about the doing than the talking.

Nonetheless, from the road in Minneapolis, the singer took some time out to talk about reinterpreting older tracks acoustically for inclusion as bonus material on the impending Blast Tyrant reissue, progress writing new songs, playing with Motörhead and tour openers Valient Thorr, his growth as a vocalist, and more. It’s not a long conversation by the standard of some of what gets posted around here, but it’s always great to check in and find out what Clutch are up to next.

Unabridged Q&A is after the jump. Please enjoy.

Is it strange to be looking back at your career, in terms of the reissues? You guys are usually more focused on what’s next.

Yeah, you’re right. It’s usually much more exciting making something new than revisiting something that’s already done. But I think this is different for us. We reissued these [albums] because DRT, who had initially put these records out, lost a court case with us, and as a result, we were awarded these masters back. These records haven’t been in stores for quite some time, so it’s good to get them back out there, and I won’t lie, there’s a bit of spite and vindication in getting these back and putting our Weathermaker label logo on them and putting them out there.

I remember when Beale Street came out there was something about the artwork…

That was one of a long list of screw-ups on their part. I think sometimes are under the impression that you’re better off with an independent label than you are a major label. There’s something to be said about both, but at least with a major label, they’ll just turn around and drop your ass. Sometimes independent labels have more reasons to strangle you to death. But, you know, that’s water under the bridge at this point, and we were able to do the artwork right. If something goes wrong from this point forward with that kind of stuff, we know who to blame and it’s that much easier to fix it.

Having put out an album on your own on Weathermaker and worked and toured to support a new studio release, is the extra work worth the tradeoff?

Oh, it’s worth the tradeoff a thousandfold. Like anything else in life, with more work there’s more reward. By the end of our relationship with DRT, it was as if we didn’t have a label anyway. We were just waiting for them to pay for the studio time, which was something we would have to reimburse them for anyway. Now we’re responsible for that, and it wasn’t that difficult of a transition, because we were already touring and selling our records ourselves. It’s more responsibility, but these days, it’s hard to sell CDs. If you can cut out as many people in the process as you can and sell them directly to the fan, I think you’d be a fool not to.

You guys have the advantage of being long since established too. I think the Clutch fanbase is pretty loyal, and that’s got to help.

It sure does, but that wasn’t a happy accident. That was a lot of blood and sweat and tears. I think that kind of fanbase – there’s other bands that are like that, but it takes a lot longer to build up that base via word of mouth and live shows, but I always liken it to, “You can build a house out of sticks very quickly, but it takes a lot longer to build a house out of rock, but you know which one’s going to last longer.”

Do you get much time to reflect on the growth of the band? Is that something you like to think about? You’re on the road so much and it seems like two weeks later, Clutch is doing something else.

I don’t think any of us spend too much time looking back. For me, not to get too philosophical, but the creative process – whether you’re making music or art – is always about what’s new. To either rest on your laurels or to think that there’s more days behind you than there are in front of you is not creative. That’s not to say there’s no self-examination going on. We’re always trying to improve.

How was it for you — thinking of the Blast Tyrant reissue bonus material and the acoustic tracks — going back and reinterpreting older songs?

It was fun. At first, I approached it with a lot of trepidation, but then I realized listening to the tracks, “Wow, we’ve become much better musicians in the 15 years that were between those songs’ initial recordings and today,” which is good to know (laughs), that we’ve somehow managed to stay dedicated to learning and practicing. Whether it be getting better at rudiments or learning about other people’s music, you have a much broader palette to draw from when you’re trying to make something.

Was there something in particular you were able to draw from for those tracks, either adding to your approach vocally or redoing patterns?

Speaking for myself, I think I sing now whereas, on the first couple records, there’s just a lot of bellowing. I’ve gotten better at actually conceiving of a melody (laughs), and playing guitar as well. But also, collectively as a whole, the band, I think we understand compositions better. Sometimes I listen to our first records and I think I would love to go back and rerecord those, just because there’s so many things I would love to change. But I wonder if that’s like an artist breaking into a gallery and touching up his paintings. I don’t know if that’s cool or not, but it’s something I do think about.

So something like bonus tracks for a reissue seems like a really good avenue to do that.

Initially, we were going to put out an EP of acoustic stuff. It all started, Bonnaroo invited us to do an additional set of all acoustic stuff. We tried doing literal interpretations of the acoustic stuff and it wasn’t working out, so we just said, “Let’s start from scratch.” Putting it in that context of a bonus track, that it’s not perhaps “the next official Clutch release” makes it easier to wrap one’s head around, maybe. Some people are very puritanical about bands’ releases, or episodic, like some kind of story, but we’re very… open-minded about music. There’s never any kind of program that we need to stick to, if that makes any sense.

Along those lines, how is progress for the next Clutch album?

We have a bucketload of riffs that we’re starting to comb through, that we’ve been recording over the past two years. I would imagine just a fraction of those will end up on the record, but we just played a new idea last night on stage, just instrumentally, but that was the first time we’d done anything like that since Strange Cousins. Once this tour is over, in four weeks, three weeks, however long it is, we’re really buckling down and gonna start focusing on the next record, which should be out within a year, I would hope.

Is that your plan for the summer? You’re going to come off the road and write and record?

Yeah. That was our plan for right now, but then Motörhead asked us out on tour.

Yeah, you can’t say no to Motörhead.

Right (laughs). We’re gonna do some shows in Europe. Not too much – a couple weeks here and there – but we’re going to set up shop on the US front and then probably do some dates towards the early fall. What we’d ideally do is play some of these songs live on stage and work them out there, because that’s a much better litmus test than in the studio.

Do you have a plan for someone you want to work with recording-wise?

J. Robbins. He’s local and he’s great. What else could you ask for?

I guess it’s worth changing your plans for Motörhead, although I seem to recall you’ve played with them before. Am I right about that?

That’s correct. We did a UK tour with them about four years ago. Or five.

Is there anything in particular other than being on the road with them that you’re looking forward to about the tour?

They’re a great group of people. Their crew is awesome to work with. Sometimes going out on a tour can be made hellish by the headlining act’s crew, but they’re great people. Of course Motörhead’s awesome to watch every night. It’s pretty inspirational, because we’ve been a band for 20 years, and you can sometimes start thinking about stuff like your age or the age of the band or whatever, but then you see Motörhead go, and it’s like a motivational speaker. And Valient Thorr, the first band of the three, is a great band. Tours are so much easier when you enjoy the music that you listen to every day, day in and day out.

Clutch’s website

Weathermaker Music

Once again, the headline says “Rampant Speculation” and that’s what this is. Maybe in reading it, you’ll agree with something, maybe you’ll disagree. Either way, any comments are appreciated as always.

Let’s have some fun:

YOB: Sad as it is that Oregon doom forerunners YOB had to cancel their appearance at Roadburn and European tour, one can only hope their follow-up to 2009′s blistering The Great Cessation comes out that much sooner as a result. It will be interested to hear where the band goes stylistically. Guitarist/vocalist Mike Scheidt had plenty to be pissed about going into the YOB reunion, following all that Middian/Midian legal nonsense, but now that that’s through with, will he bring the same kind of vitriol to bare in the songwriting? Hopefully it’s not too long before we find out.

Colour Haze: They’re one of the classiest bands on the planet, and their last album, All, was hands-down my favorite record of 2008. They’ve released the Burg Herzberg two-disc live recording since then, but it’s time for new album, and according to the last Elektrohasch Schallplatten, it’s not far off. All had a more live, more organic feel than anything Colour Haze ever did before — the snare drum’s reacting to the bass and guitar rumble like a nod to everyone listening that it was done with everyone in the same room — and I’m looking forward to hearing how they try to top it.

Clutch: 2010 saw numerous reissues and the usual insane amount of touring, but in 2011, it’s time to see where the next stage in Clutch‘s ongoing development is leading. Maybe they’ll continue the blues-laden path they’ve taken on their last couple records, or maybe they’ll decide it’s time to confuse the hell out of everyone and do something completely different. Aside from being an astounding live act, Clutch are a fantastic group of songwriters, and it’ll be exciting to get to know a new batch of tunes both live and on disc.

Elder: Their self-titled was some seriously riffy business, and I haven’t heard the follow-up yet, but all accounts from those who have say it’s a more ethereal, more open and stonery sound these young Massachusetts rockers have taken on, and that’s just fine by me. MeteorCity is supposed to have the release out later this year, and I have the feeling that when ti finally hits, it’s going to catch a lot of people off guard, in a good way. Hard not to expect big things for a band like Elder, who have so much potential.

Dixie Witch: When it’ll be out, I have no idea, but Dixie Witch‘s fourth full-length will be the band’s first without guitarist Clayton Mills. His tone and natural bluesy shred was a huge part of what made Dixie Witch‘s prior offerings so killer, and by the time the album gets out, it’s likely to have been five full years since they released the excellent Smoke and Mirrors. This one’s long overdue.

Argus: True, I said I’d only list five bands, and these Pennsylvanian metallers make it six, but I’m genuinely curious to hear what they come up with for their Cruz Del Sur label debut. I dug heavily on the trad doom of their Shadow Kingdom Records self-titled debut, and vocalist Butch Ballch (formerly of Penance) never fails to deliver, so it’s definitely worth keeping an eye out.

There’s other stuff too: Olde Growth, Hour of 13, Wo Fat, Graveyard and a slew of albums that may or may not happen in time for December to roll around. Again, this is just the stuff I want to hear, so if you’ve got anything on your mind or something I should look out for, leave a comment. There’s nothing better than being exposed to new music.

New podcast alert!! New podcast alert!!

So help me Robot Jesus, I will have the second part of the Best of 2010 podcast up this weekend. If you missed it, the first part is here. I don’t know if it’s going to be tomorrow or Sunday, but one of these days…

Lots to come next week. Monday we’ll close out December and I’ll give the astounding final numbers for the month. Rest assured, my mind is blown by the success of the forums, and even if you’ve been paying attention to the tallies I’ve dropped here and on Facebook, I think yours will be as well.

We’ll kick off 2011 with a look ahead at some of the highlight releases allegedly on deck for the next few months, and I still have those “Best Of” posts I want to do, so I’ll see if I can’t get a few of those out the door as well. I’m supposed to be interviewing Laura Pleasants of Kylesa on Monday too, so keep an eye out for that, and there’s always reviews, Buried Treasures, On the Radars and the rest.

Until then, I wish you the happiest and safest of New Year’s Eves, and all the best wherever you are as 2010 bleeds into 2011 with all the smoothness of a Colour Haze track. We close out the week (and the year) with Clutch, because sometimes you just gotta have that groove, and because fishin’ ain’t what it used to be.

Neil Fallon, Tim Sult, Dan Maines, and Jean-Paul Gaster will say goodbye to 2010 the same way they began it 365 days prior, kickin’ out the jams on the big stage. Asheville, North Carolina‘s The Orange Peel will be the site of veteran rock band Clutch‘s traditional American New Year’s Eve performance.

In recent years the four piece Maryland hard rock act has LOUDLY rang in the New Year with epic performances in such great American cities as Detroit, Washington DC, Baltimore, Flint, and Grand Rapids, MI. Tickets are available exclusively to fanclub members beginning today, and will be open to the public this Friday. Next week, Clutch will announce a short December tour which will lead up to this special NYE date, as well as the support package which will accompany the band on the road.

2010 has seen Clutch release a plethora of well received international audio, video and digital product via their new label Weathermaker Music, including notable double disc reissues of From Beale Street to Oblivion and Robot Hive/Exodus. The expanded double disc edition of Blast Tyrant will be released in January 2011, with further details to be announced next week at weathermakermusic.com. Weathermaker will also be issuing forth special vinyl editions of all three reissues, to be ready for turntables in the Spring.

Unsurprisingly massive update about an unsurprisingly massive reissue, plus tour dates after the jump. Check it:

Clutch have announced the track listing for the expanded-dual disc edition reissue of Robot Hive/Exodus which will be released worldwide on September 28 through Weathermaker Music. Currently out of print, Robot Hive/Exodus was at one point the band’s largest selling title of the decade due to the strength of its three extremely powerful yet diverse singles, “Burning Beard,” “10001110101″ and “Mice & Gods.” In addition to upgraded artwork and new “digi” packaging, this expanded edition will feature a bonus DVD which includes a classic 33-minute outdoor performance recorded on location at the Sounds of the Underground festival in July of 2005 in Sayreville, NJ. Also included is the Jeremy Hunt-directed “Burning Beard” video clip, which was the first ever Clutch single to reach the “year end” Top 10 most played on MTV‘s Headbanger’s Ball.

In total, the Robot Hive/Exodus reissue contains 23 songs and over 90 minutes of music. This is the second of three planned extended double disc reissues, as Weathermaker has already released From Beale Street to Oblivion in July, and plans to issue forth the Blast Tyrant package in November. For the über-Clutch fan and/or retro rocker, Weathermaker will see to it that all three releases will make their way onto limited edition vinyl.

On September 22nd, Clutch will embark on a nine-week tour with Black Label Society and Children of Bodom. In addition to 40+ dates with Zakk Wylde‘s widely popular hard rock act, the veteran rock band from Maryland have just announced six headline concerts that will be placed within the Fall tour, giving their North American fanbase close to 50 opportunities to see the band perform a combination of classic Clutch material as well as current fan favorites like “50,000 Unstoppable Watts,” “Let a Poor Man Be” and “Abraham Lincoln” from the band’s latest, Top 40 soundscan charting, “Strange Cousins From the West” full-length album.

Robot Hive/Exodus Reissue Tracklist:
Disc 1 (CD)
The Incomparable Mr. Flannery
Burning Beard
Gullah
Mice & Gods
Pulaski Skyway
Never be Moved
10001110101
Small Upsetters
Circus Maximus
Tripping the Alarm
10,000 Witnesses
Land of Pleasant Living
Gravel Road
Who’s Been Talking
Disc 2 (DVD)
Mercury –Live Sounds of the Underground
Profits of Doom –Live Sounds of the Underground
Mice & Gods –Live Sounds of the Underground
Gullah –Live Sounds of the Underground
Burning –Beard Live Sounds of the Underground
Impetus –Live Sounds of the Underground
The Mob Goes Wild –Live Sounds of the Underground
Gravel Road –Live Sounds of the Underground
Burning Beard video clip

Clutch Live
w/ Black Label Society, Children of Bodom and 2 Cents
9/22 Vancouver, BC PNE Forum
9/24 Edmonton, AB Edmonton Expo Centre
9/25 Regina, SK Agribition Hall
9/26 Calgary, AB Big 4
9/28 Winnipeg, MB Winnipeg Convention Centre
9/29 Fargo, ND The Venue *
9/30 Omaha, NE Anchor Inn
10/1 Clive, IA 7 Flags
10/2 Milwaukee, WI Eagles Ballroom
10/3 St. Paul, MN Roy Wilkins Auditorium
10/4 Rock Island, IL Rock Island Brewing Company *
10/5 Louisville, KY Expo Five
10/8 Asbury Park, NJ Convention Hall
10/9 Lewiston, ME The Colisee
10/10 Providence, RI Lupo’s Heartbreak Hotel
10/12 Halifax, NS Cunard Centre
10/14 Montreal, QC Metropolis
10/15 Toronto, ON Sound Academy
10/20 New York City, NY Hammerstein Ballroom
10/22 Myrtle Beach, SC House of Blues
10/23 Atlanta, GA Masquerade
10/24 Charlotte, NC The Fillmore
10/25 Augusta, GA Sky City *
10/26 Orlando, FL Hard Rock
10/28 Houston, TX Verizon Wireless Theater
10/29 Corpus Christi, TX Concrete St. Amphitheater
10/30 Grand Prairie, TX Verizon Theatre – Grand Prairie
10/31 Lubbock, TX Lonestar Pavilion
11/2 Austin, TX Stubbs Waller Creek Amphitheater
11/3 Tulsa, OK Brady Center
11/4 Sauget, IL Pop’s *
11/5 Grand Rapids, MI DeltaPlex
11/7 Detroit, MI The Fillmore
11/9 Rochester, NY Main Street Armory
11/10 Columbus, OH The LC Pavilion
11/11 Jonesboro, AR Brickhouse Grill *
11/12 Wichita, KS Cotilion
11/13 Kansas City, KS Uptown Theater
11/14 Denver, CO The Fillmore Auditorium
11/15 Grand Junction, CO Mesa Theater *
11/16 Salt Lake City, UT The Complex
11/18 Phoenix, AZ Dodge Theatre
11/20 San Francisco, CA Warfield
* = Clutch headlining performance

According to Metal Insider, Maryland rockers Clutch will enter Magpie Cage Studios in Baltimore with J. Robbins around July 4 to record approximately half a dozen songs for an acoustic EP, to be released before the end of the year. Some of the titles being considered for the effort include a song called “Fixin’ to Die” as well as stripped-down takes of “Abraham Lincoln,” “Electric Worry,” “Regulator” and “Tight Like That.”

Clutch

On Live at the 9:30, which was filmed at the club of the same name in Washington D.C. as part of Clutch‘s New Years string of shows this past December, the venerable four-piece play their entire 1995 Clutch album, making it a treat for the fans beyond the normal gig. Encompassing that set, which also includes a few tracks from their latest, Strange Cousins from the West, and a couple closers, the DVD set also contains a second disc titled Fortune Tellers Make a Killing Nowadays that documents Clutch on the road in Fall 2009.

Especially after watching the scene in that documentary wherein he describes the ins and outs of his kit and how using different drums can affect the outcome of an entire song, I wanted to chat with drummer Jean-Paul Gaster (also of Scott “Wino” Weinrich‘s Wino solo band) about the shows and the opposition between looking back on everything Clutch has accomplished and looking forward to what’s still to come.

Incidentally, what’s to come includes an unsurprisingly hefty load of touring throughout the summer and autumn, followed by the recording of a new album. In June, Clutch perform an acoustic set at the Bonnaroo festival in Tennessee, and they’ve got reissues planned for the three albums released via DRT Records this past decade — Blast Tyrant, Robot Hive/Exodus and From Beale Street to Oblivion. So yeah, lots to look forward to.

Q&A with J.P. Gaster is after the jump. Please enjoy.

Was playing the whole self-titled album live something more for the fans than you guys? You play a lot of those songs live anyway.

I think so. I think a lot of it had to do with just the fact that we knew we were going to be filming those shows, and we wanted to do something special for that event, rather than just play a set of mostly new songs off the new album. It was definitely a challenge for us. We like that. We like to take ourselves out of our comfort zone, so listening back to a record that we did 12 years ago was challenging in a lot of ways. I played a lot differently back then, and it was an exercise. But it was a lot of fun too. Some of those songs I’d forgotten how much fun they are to play.

Will any of that stuff be added back into the mix for regular sets?

Actually, “Tight Like That” was a song we hadn’t really put in the set very much in the last five or eight years, and that has made a resurgence. We readdressed that song yet again. We’re gonna do Bonnarroo this year, and one of the events that we’re doing there is gonna be an acoustic set. We took a look at some of the older songs, the ones that were more blues-inflected, and we rearranged that, put some new parts in it. It’s still “Tight Like That” – you’ll recognize some of the parts and the lyrics – but there’s a few new things in it too. That was fun, too, just to take another look at that song.

So all the shows on that mini-tour were filmed?

On the documentary, that was the tour that we did on Strange Cousins, and that happened in September and October. That was not all the self-titled stuff. Those were regular sets. We usually switch sets every night. One of us will make the set list. For instance, on the first night, Dan makes the first setlist, I make the second one, Neil [Fallon, vocals/guitar] does the third and Tim [Sult, guitar] does the fourth, then we start over again. That was one of those tours where it was a different set every night.

I meant for the New Year’s shows. Were all those filmed, or was it just the 9:30?

All those shows were filmed.

Does that take some of the pressure off then?

Um… I guess in some ways it does. We really wanted to nail the 9:30. We hoped that would be the best show that we filmed, and it just worked out. Everything just fell in the right place. The energy was real good that night and, you know, it’s the 9:30 Club. It really is our hometown club. We have all our families that come out there. I feel like we captured that record and that night really well on the DVD.

Do you have material you’re especially sentimental about?

I don’t think so. We have a pretty large catalog of stuff to pull from these days, and each song represents a different thing. For me, as a drummer, every song’s got some kind of a concept to it, some kind of an idea I’m trying to get across. Some of those things are more relevant to what I’m playing now, and some of those things were just concepts or feels that I was once more comfortable with, say 12 or 15 years ago. They each have some kind of a sentimental quality to them, but more than anything, I identify it with a particular feel that I was trying to get after in each song.

How would you characterize the change in your playing over the years?

I think I’ve loosened up considerably. I listened back to that self-titled record, and it was eighth notes, all night long (laughs). And I know what that was too, that was me listening to a lot of Buddy Miles. I really liked the Band of Gypsies record and the stuff that he did with Electric Flag, and I was just really into that real funky eighth-note kind of feel where he’s not playing like James Brown grooves, these are real hard rock grooves, but he had a really nice way of just hammering those eighth notes, and he did it in a way that just barely swung, and I was attracted to that.

What do you put into your playing now that’s different?

I try to think a little more deeply about the rhythm. I like to listen to a lot of jazz and blues, and even reggae stuff, and so much of that, the idea of a clave is pretty central to all those musics. By that I mean either a 2/3 clave or a 3/2 clave, or a New Orleans 3 clave, and so more and more I find myself at least thinking about those things subconsciously. And hopefully it makes the drums a little more syncopated, it makes them a little bit more funky. There’s a little bit more give and take in the playing. I think we all play that way. I think we’re just better playing our instruments. We’ve been on the road for so long, been playing so many shows, I hope we’ve improved a little bit (laughs).

Did it feel strange for you during the documentary filming to be asked to look back instead of looking forward?

Yeah, definitely. We’re not really very good at doing the remember whens. Nothing’s worse than going to a party and seeing a guy that you haven’t seen or some friend you haven’t seen and all they want to talk about is 10 years ago and how drunk everybody got and what kind of party it was. For us, that’s not really a fun thing to do. We were really lucky that we had Agent Ogden putting this thing together, because he asked the right questions at the right time, and sometimes it’s kind of hard for us to really give answers to some of these questions, because we’ve been doing this thing for 20 years now. You’re right in the middle of it and it’s hard to be objective about, you know, what made you play 10 years ago or why did you make the setlist the way you did yesterday. It’s just what we do. It’s kind of difficult sometimes for us to talk about it.

The striking thing about the documentary – other than how every fan is like, “Clutch grooves. It’s great!”

(Laughs).

Yeah, there was a lot of that. But the crew respect and peer respect you got was pretty incredible. I mean, Wino called you his “guiding light.”

That’s pretty heavy (laughs). It was a blessing to play with him. He’s one of the folks who inspires me the most, and he’s definitely one of the finest musicians I’ve ever played with. Ever. Really a great combination. And a killer guy too. He’s a great guy. Just sit down and you can talk to him about anything and it’s always fun hanging out with Wino.

Looking ahead, I know you guys are touring, and Bonnaroo like you said. You’re doing some European festivals too, right?

Yeah. We’re doing some European stuff in July, and I suspect we’ll be playing in the Fall as well. We’ll be doing some kind of touring in the States, I’m not sure what it’ll be exactly. At the same time, we’re making new music now. This opportunity that we had to go play at Bonnaroo and do this short acoustic set has been a lot of fun for us, because in the last few weeks, like I said before, we’ve been experimenting with some of these songs. Some of them are old things and some are new ones. That’s kind of inspiring. We don’t like to do the same thing over and over, so anything we can do to get us out of our comfort zones usually ends up in something that’s kind of cool. I hope, anyway (laughs).

As far as playing acoustic, have you changed how you’re drumming in the songs?

I just keep the dynamics really, really low. I made a record with a friend of mine, Kelly Carmichael, and he’s sort of a country rag/blues-style acoustic player. I was able to play a lot of these same kind of grooves I’m doing now with Clutch. It’s more about the dynamics. Trying to keep everything nice and quiet. I have not resorted to brushes. There’s nothing worse than seeing a rock drummer get a pair of brushes and pretending to play brushes and all he’s doing is just beating the drums, except with brushes. Brushes. That’s an art form, man. You need to spend several years to get an idea across with any authority. I stuck with the sticks and I’m just trying to keep everything real quiet. Again, I’m thinking about the clave too in those songs.

Has any of that approach bled into the new Clutch material?

I think it probably will. It’s still new for us right now. This is something we just started tackling in the last two weeks, but inevitably I think it will probably rear its head somewhere in one way or another on the new stuff.

So if you’re touring in the Fall, when would you be recording?

I would bet over the winter. We’ve been making songs in batches. In between tours we get together over here at my place and just jam. I’ve got the mics up running all the time. Everything’s ready to go, the computer’s on, so if there’s a riff that happens, we record it immediately before it disappears into outer space. Because that can happen. That’s pretty great, being able to record everything that you do. So we’ve got a good batch of ideas happening there, and over the next few months, hopefully they’ll start to turn into songs, and they won’t be just jams.

So do you guys ever take a break? You’re on tour all the time, and you’re saying when you’re off tour, you’re rehearsing, recording, writing new stuff. You ever just sit down and hang out?

(Laughs) You know, we usually finish up a tour and we’ll take a week or two off, and then we’re back again, maybe three days a week over here jamming. We’re in a very good situation here. We’re at the point in our careers now where we own our own label. We have a very solid and loyal fanbase, and we don’t take that lightly. This is a blessing, and there’s a lot of people out there who would give their left arm to do what we do. I’m blessed to be able to play drums for a living. I try to practice every day. I think about drums all the time, I think about this band all the time. This is what we do, so it’s not a part-time gig for us. We are not the kind of band who wanted to get together just so we could make a bunch of money or have a stupid stage show or something like that. We wanted to make music, and to this day, we still enjoy doing that. We still enjoy getting together and coming up with some riffs, having a beer and being in a rock band. You can’t complain. This is the greatest job in the world.

That’s the main thing you take away from the documentary, that you guys are happy to be doing it.

Oh yeah, definitely. That’s what it is.

I thought one of the most interesting parts of the documentary was early on where you’re talking about your kit and using different drums for different songs, the sounds of old drums versus new drums. Not being a drummer, it’s not something I’d think of every day, how much thought there really is behind it.

There’s a lot of thought that goes into it, man (laughs). I appreciate those words. The sound of a snare drum can completely color or change the sound of a record. I’ve got a lot of cool drums that I love to record, so you find that the perfect voice hopefully for the perfect song, and that’s always gonna be a great complement. But it doesn’t always happen. Already I’ve gone back and I’ve listened to Strange Cousins and wished I had not used that snare drum on “Minotaur” (laughs). But you live and learn. I think it sounds real thin. I used a metal drum on that song, and I don’t think it was the right choice. I think I should have used a wood drum.

That’s it. Break it out. Do the redux.

(Laughs) We’ll do that when we re-release that one. I’ll go back in and redo the drums (laughs).

Is this going to be the new cycle for you guys – album, live album, album, live album – now that you have your own label and can do what you want with it?

I don’t think so. We’re planning to re-release all the albums we got back from DRT. That’s gonna happen this year. That’s gonna be great. A lot of those records have been out of print for a long time. So we’ll put those out. We’ll probably do a studio Clutch record after that, and after that, I don’t know. We also do The Bakerton Group. Inevitably a lot of these jams that we come up with, they’re not gonna really work in a standard song form, so you’re always left with that decision, is it something you abandon all together, or can you take another look at this and see if it’ll work in an instrumental setting? So maybe we’ll do a Bakerton Group record after the Clutch record.

And the Wino band is pretty much done, correct?

Well, Wino’s doing Saint Vitus stuff now, I’m really busy with Clutch stuff now, but I’ve known Wino for 15 years and I’m very confident we will play again and record again. He’s not one who likes to sit around too much either. He likes to stay busy, that guy. I wouldn’t be surprised if he calls me any day and says, “Hey man, I’d like to get together for a jam.” In which case, I will say, “Certainly, what day is good for you?” (laughs). Absolutely man. There is nothing better than that.

Clutch on MySpace

Weathermaker Music

Any Clutch devotees, I’ll pause here to allow time for squealing with delight…

Now that that’s out of the way, Live at the 9:30 — filmed at the club of the same name in Washington D.C. on December 28, 2009 — catches the band supporting their July 2009 offering, Strange Cousins from the West (their first self-released studio album), but perhaps more notably, the set that night included the entire 1995 Clutch album. You remember Clutch, Clutch, right? Boasting such classics as “Big News I,” “Big News II,” “Rock ‘n’ Roll Outlaw,” “Texan Book of the Dead,” “Escape from the Prison Planet,” “Spacegrass,” “I Have the Body of John Wilkes Booth,” “Tight Like That,” “Animal Farm,” “Droid,” “The House that Peterbilt,” “7 Jam” and “Tim Sult vs. the Greys” – which is, by the way, every song on the record – it’s one of the most formative releases to come out of the ‘90s as regards underground groove-based heavy rock, and it sounds no less vital today than it did at the time of its original issue. Yeah, that one.

In addition to this jammed-out landmark of landmarks, Neil Fallon, Tim Sult, J.P. Gaster and Dan Maines also include “50,000 Unstoppable Watts,” “Struck Down,” “Minotaur” and “Let a Poor Man Be” from Strange Cousins from the West as openers and “The Regulator” from 2004’s Blast Tyrant and “Gravel Road” from 2005’s Robot Hive/Exodus as closers. The whole affair is mixed by Andrew Alekel (Fu Manchu, Fireball Ministry, The Company Band, etc.) and filmed courtesy of Agent Ogden, captured on multiple cameras and suitably well-edited without, like the band itself, going over the top or lacking class in that “music video” kind of way. Of course, the test of any concert DVD is how long you can stand to sit and watch it without wanting to get up to get another drink, go to the bathroom, pick the laundry up off the floor or whatever else to secondarily occupy your time, and I’ll admit my bias here as a Clutch fan, but Live at the 9:30 fared better than most. Just putting it in the player is a big step as far as I’m concerned.

As you would expect of them, they kill the set, and when it’s over, there’s the second disc, titled Fortune Tellers Make a Killing Nowadays from the line in “Big News I,” that turns out to be a tour documentary following the band on the road, interviewing the members one at a time and talking to fans, crew members, dudes from other bands, and so forth, all of whom pretty much agree that Clutch kicks ass. Finally, filmed proof!

I’m kidding. The documentary goes much further than that, exploring the origins of the band and even standing with Gaster as he nerds out over using specific drums for specific songs and so forth (I’m not a drummer, but his excitement was infectious and it actually wound up being one of the most interesting parts). There were a lot of clips of band members walking around empty venues in fast motion, but on the whole it was well-enough edited to keep me watching with minimal skippage (mostly over the fans), and seemed to skirt the usual flat presentation that “bonus discs” usually boast. And in the “But wait – there’s more!” file, there are also a couple clips from 1991 and 1992 that show the Clutch guys as youngins rocking with not quite the finesse they have now, but certainly the raw energy of their earliest work. If you weren’t there, and I wasn’t, they’re an interesting curio.

So let’s tally up: You get a special live set, a documentary with band interviews and a look inside the still-forming Clutch legacy, old videos, and though I haven’t mentioned it before, an impeccably well laid out double-digipak (also courtesy of Agent Ogden), totaling over 210 minutes of Clutchly viewing. I’ll be honest, I don’t even know why I’m still writing. Live at the 9:30 speaks for itself, and like most everything this band touches, it speaks of awesomeness. Recommended more for established fans than newbies, but you really can’t lose either way.

Clutch’s Website

Weathermaker Music