ninehertz

1. • mike
   • Add your comments here!
   • [06:42 on 31/08/12]
2. • Podge
   • I'd have put Pure Rock Fury and Jam Room as better albums than Elephant but I suppose that's just personal choice
   • [07:23 on 31/08/12]
3. • Eggy
   • Pure Rock Fury was the first Clutch album I heard and got me hooked. Blast Tyrant is my all time favourite, but I'm having an Elephant Riders phase most recently, helped along by those drunken antics on sunday night.
     
     I can happily listen to Clutch for hours, days and weeks at a time, they're my most listened to band, I've recently gone a fair few weeks, or probably months without listening to them at all. Never get tired of listening to them, and their music is pretty uplifting too. I personally can't understand what there is not to like about the band, I just wish I'd have got into them a good few years sooner.
     
     Agree about the Chili's who have done the California thing to death, but generally that sort of thing doesn't bother me.
   • [07:56 on 31/08/12]
4. • bosskeloid
   • www.youtube.com/watch?v=UQLM0e6l5pM
   • [09:25 on 31/08/12]
5. • Ollie
   • I think I first heard Clutch in around '91 or '92 on Earache's Naive sampler and was blown away by them and Sleep...then I kind of lost touch until about 1999 when I was introduced to Elephant Riders and the self titled album. Since then I've been hooked.
     
     I think they go way beyond the usual blues rock cliche's, "Elephant Riders" is full of little musical twists and turn especially. They're always catchy as hell and Neil Fallon pretty much avoids every musical cliche going and when he does use them it's either with due reverence in a knowing way or tongue in cheek.
     
     The self titled 2nd album is my clear favourite...it has a killer groove throughout, the sound is cleaner and less metal yet the vocals have a real aggression to them.
   • [10:06 on 31/08/12]
6. • Pete
   • Funny there is no clear favourite. Mine are s/t and Robot Hive, but I love ER and BT more than the best albums of most other bands also.
     
     Funny the review centres around the blues theme - I never think of them that way (except the disappointing last 2 albums, and the purposefully-blues likes of Gravel Road), even though technically it's a correct analogy. (Probably because I got into them from s/t onwards.)
     
     What I have always loved about them is their individuality in sound, even when being compared to blues, stoner or hardcore - the way sentences wrap over the end of the lines rather than fitting the music, and especially the lyrics - the only band I have ever really listened to lyrics, before and since.
     
     And finally, I cannot reply to an ER thread without saying... I love Dragonfly.
   • [11:13 on 31/08/12]
7. • mamba
   • I didn't get into Clutch until Blast Tyrant, and then Robot Hive, when I got a bit obsessed.
     
     I don't listen to them that often these days, but Elephant Riders is usually the album I reach for first.
   • [13:29 on 31/08/12]
8. • Gareth
   • Ollie says:

     I think they go way beyond the usual blues rock cliche's, "Elephant Riders" is full of little musical twists and turn especially. They're always catchy as hell and Neil Fallon pretty much avoids every musical cliche going and when he does use them it's either with due reverence in a knowing way or tongue in cheek.
     
     
     This pretty much sums up how I felt about the album, plus having recently played Driver: San Fransisco I enjoyed the funk influences as well. I agree that they're not really blues rock as such but there's a strong blues influence there.
     
     If anyone wants to make me an 8-10 song Clutch 'best of' on Spotify I'd like to give it a listen but I'm not inclined to plough through 9 albums to find stuff I'd like.
   • [14:51 on 31/08/12]
9. • sabbathfan
   • Not that big a Clutch fan but if you're going to hear one other song by them Gareth then it's got to be Spacegrass.
   • [17:12 on 31/08/12]
10. • mike
    • I'd recommend a listen to Jam Room Gareth, really unusual and throws a curveball at everything you've written.
      
      That said, Transnational Speedway League sounds like a gorilla fronting a chuggy hardcore band at times.
      
      Elephant Riders and Pure Rock Fury are the best lyrically by a mile, PRF in particular.
      
      Fave tracks of mine include: Dragonfly (Pete's fave I think), Prison Planet, Bertha's Big Back Yard and Big Fat Pig, The Yeti, Red Horse Rainbows, Careful With The Mic, PRF, actually, there's loads.
    • [18:04 on 31/08/12]
11. • Gareth
    • Sounds like I've got a few albums to get my head round before I decide I'm done with this band. Can I start with 'Elephant Riders' and finish with 'Robot Hive/Exodus' or will I be missing something amazing?
    • [18:18 on 31/08/12]
12. • mike
    • Self titled is ace too, sorry!
      
      I don't care for Beal Street onwards I'm afraid.
    • [20:14 on 31/08/12]
13. • Hopkins
    • all about BT and RH/E for me
    • [22:05 on 31/08/12]
14. • Eggy
    • how the hell does anyone pick 8-10 songs for a playlist. I'd find it really hard to just pick one per album, I might attempt to give it a shot though. In fact if we all get our heads together we could each send G a playlist with no songs the same on, then he'll get a fair mix to enjoy!
      
      1. Gnome Enthusiast is one of my favourites on Jam Room.
      2. Careful with the Mic (Pure Rock Fury) is totally different to anything else and if someone to hear that as an introduction to Clutch it'd certainly smockraffle them.
      3. Ghost - Blast Tyrant - my favourite track but not typical of the album
      4. I'd probably go for 10001110101 from Robot Hive, but change my mind in a few seconds and then confuse myself further.
      5. the live version of Spacegrass is one of the best songs ever - it leads into Escape from the prison planet, the original(s) are on the s/t album, but the live version is on the end of Pure Rock Fury.
      6. Big Fat Pig - Jam Room
      7. Open Up the Border from Pure Rock Fury.
      8. Promoter (of Earthbound Causes) - Blast Tyrant again, more typical of the album I'd say.
      9 I Have the Body of John Wilkes Booth - on the Clutch album
      10. Milk of Human Kindness - Transnational Speedway League - love that album, so raw and heavier than the rest.
    • [08:15 on 01/09/12]
15. • Ollie
    • Live at Flint Michigan is a good one as they're an awesome live band and it has a great cross section of stuff from the very early days up to Blast Tyrant
    • [08:31 on 03/09/12]
16. • Pete
    • Go back one album Gareth - from s/t to Robot Hive.
      
      A couple of songs from each I'd recommend...
      
      Clutch - probably my fave, has an other worldly feel
      Songs - Big News I and Escape From the Prison Planet
      
      Elephant Riders - you know
      
      Jam Room - Not essential but cool and interesting
      Songs: Who Wants To Rock and Basket of Eggs
      
      Pure Rock Fury - Considered the most commerically sounding album (mainly due to the first 4 tracks), but has a real great mix of stunning, interesting stuff towards the back end.
      Songs: Sinkemlow and Brazenhead
      
      Blast Tyrant - It took me a while to get into it, but it again has a hidden depth.
      Songs: Cypress Grove and (In the Wake of) The Swollen Goat
      
      Robot Hive/Exodus - Brilliant mix of all that came before with added regular organ
      Songs: Burning Beard and Circus Maximus
      
      
      If you're still interested after that, check out Slow Hole to China (odds and sods album that is still amazing - seek out the song 'Rising Son' especially) and for historical purposes the early EPs (Impetus and Pitchfork are pretty good) and TSL (mainly for A Shogun Named Marcus). There's two post-RH/E albums as well - Beale St is okay, has a couple of obvious-Clutch songs that are good, but I've barely listend to Strange Cousins... and both reinforce the blues thing without the Clutch invention, in my opinion.
      
      There's some live albums as well, but I'm no fan of live albums even for my fave bands (they make me want to put the originals on).
      [Edited by Pete at 11:54 on 03/09/12]
    • [11:46 on 03/09/12]
17. • Pete
    • PS nearly all Clutch fans recommend Spacegrass as their best song ever - but I think it's terrible and have never got it...
    • [11:48 on 03/09/12]
18. • sabbathfan
    • I probably liked Spacegrass initially because it doesn't sound like a typical Clutch song; it's got more of a straight-ahead heavy riff type feel to it.
      
      I've actually got into Clutch a little more since then - Blast Tyrant is a good album with some really good stuff, RH/E has Mice and Gods which is an amazing song. I think when I was younger Clutch weren't the type of music I was looking for, but I can see now why people love them.
      
      Though I haven't heard them, I can't quite understand why nearly all the Clutch enthusiasts who post here aren't at all enthusiastic about the last two records - did they have some kind of huge stylistic shift or something?
    • [15:13 on 03/09/12]
19. • mike
    • Not massive but they kind of went 'normal' and seemed to lose that lyrical and unusual edge a bit for me.
      
      Oh and just to say, Clutch are one of the only bands I know with a song about recycling in the form of 'Green Buckets.'
    • [17:07 on 03/09/12]
20. • Eggy
    • That song is great, I have a habit of singing this part:
      
      "There's a woman down at 314
      who can't keep the stains on her kitchen floor clean.
      And there's a man who's been knockin' on his door
      for three years, or has it been four?"
      
      Then the chorus.
    • [18:12 on 03/09/12]

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