CLUTCH - Robot Hive/Exodus (review)


Tim Sult, Jean Paul Gaster, Dan Maines, Neil Fallon. Four names that sure, sound like a mish mash of porn names, but more importantly have led the pack as far as bluesy rock & roll goes for the past ten or fifteen years. A fifth name can now be added to that list: Mick Schauer. Together these five now comprise Clutch.

I was skeptical when I heard the fifth player was a keyboard player. However, February 5, 2005 at the Commodore my troubles with this thought were laid to ease. When the new album, Robot Hive/Exodus, dropped last week my concerns were laid to rest altogether.

The old school of Clutch fans will say the new album is Clutch light. But, these are people that can't appreciate music for what it is, and that is sound. Clutch have broadened their musical horizons. They've always been fans of old blues and jazz artists, and if you really listened to the music you could hear that love. The new album sounds like these guys would be just as at ease playing The Yale or The Fairmont as they would The Brickyard.

The keyboard plays like a groove synthesizer (which is what I guess it actually is). I dare all of you to keep still as the beat and delivery of "10,000 Witnesses" threatens to take you all to another level of bliss.

In amongst all the blues is the straight up rock and roll that Clutch has kept alive since their first full length. When Neil Fallon tells us to "Good St. Charles Darwin wrote his gospel down... Get your evolution on" [Never Be Moved] you want to be a better person. When he sings, "No doubt Vishnu missed you, and Kali [he pronounces it right even] kissed you. Better get ready..." [Gullah] you feel like you have to be scared even if you don't understand why.

One of my favourite tracks is Tripping The Alarm, an instrumental piece. This basically means it's the Bakerton Group playing; the Bakerton Group is Clutch without lead singer Neil Fallon. Tripping The Alarm is one of two instrumentals on the album.

For those who still don't want to believe in the power of the most intelligent hard rock band the world has ever had they prove they know their musical roots and embrace the soul of making a cover tune their own. The album ends with two covers from classic blues artists.

First is Gravel Road, a cover of Mississippi Fred McDowell. If this song was a woman it is so amazingly hot it would be Jennifer Connelly (of course I haven't met her but am assuming she's really nice). The second is Who's Been Talking? written by the legend himself, Howlin' Wolf. If The Wolf was alive today I'd bet your life that he would love the way Neil Fallon growls, "Goodbye baby, hate to see you go. You know I love you. I'm the causing of it all." Clutch makes it sound like a pleasure to have the blues.

The first two or three times I listened to this album I wondered how well any of these songs would do at one of their shows. I only had to recall that amazing night in February, three days before I saw the ladies of Sleater Kinney prove jamming isn't only for guys, and I remembered it made for the best concert in years.

Clutch keeps doing things that all the (shit) bands on the radio [other than Queens of The Stone Age; I don't know how they started finally getting radion respect] can't do. And that is make music from their hearts with absolutely no care of album sales and making glitzy videos. Clutch does it for the fans as is evident with their constant tour schedule and the release of albums via traditional stores, or their website, nearly every year.

I urge you all to take some time out of your likely boring and unhelpful lives to better your own souls and minds. This can easily be done by getting yourself in to the habit of listening to Clutch at least once a week for 60 minutes straight, or an entire album. I recommend the new album, Robot Hive/Exodus, for total newcomers. If you're already in to the heavy but don't yet know Clutch I'd recommend Blast Tyrant (2004) or Elephant Riders (1998) or Pure Rock Fury (2001). Whatever you do, please introduce yourself to Clutch. LET THE TAKEOVER OF THE WORLD BEGIN FROM THE ROCK!!!

"Gonna find my executioners and show them exactly what it means to live." 10,000 Witnesses, by Clutch.

PS - I peed on Charles Darwin's walking path in 1998. I had to go. Survival of the fittest, indeed.

Oh, yeah!!! 

There will be a delay in the review of "Robot Hive/Exodus" by Clutch.

weekend from heaven

> How do you make a great weekend?
>
> You start your first day off with a White Spot burger and a beer
> before going to see Batman Begins on an IMAX screen. You then bring
> things down a notch by spending that evening nursing an slight
> hangover after some more beers after the movie. During that evening
> you watch the first hour of The Life Aquatic after giving up and
> passing out at midnight.
>
> The next day you read a bit about how you turned the channel when
> Rwandans were literally killing their neighbours because humans are
> just that fucked up and how no one outside of Rwanda wanted to help
> anyone within because humans are just that fucked up. Then you take
> out your nephew to a book store, indie record store, comic store, pet
> store and finally Zellers to spend a half hour before getting the go
> ahead from the six-year old to buy the Obi Wan Kenobi seeing as they
> don't have any Anakins. You then go home, get stoned and play some
> Grand Theft Auto on the Xbox until you get frustrated enough to turn
> it off before throwing the remote through the window. Then you head to
> Toby's and do what was described in yesterday's e-mail(s).
>
> The next day you go to work before going home and calling a great
> friend in Ottawa. You then take your dad, and entire family out for a
> Father's Day dinner. After the dinner you take the nephew and niece to
> the park with your parents. Following this you go home and get stoned
> before heading downtown. Once downtown you get a little more stoned
> and go to a Stephen Malkmus & the Jicks concert at Richard's. On the
> way out of the unbelievably good concert that makes you hope you can
> have a similar sense of humour, attitude and talent as that of Stephen
> Malkmus when you're nearing 40 years old, you say thanks to the rythm
> guitarist/keyboard player who also can't wait for the new Built To
> Spill album to drop.
>
> That's all it takes. If you can copy this you will have one of the
> best weekends you will remember in a while. The only thing that could
> have made this any better is having someone to go the concert's with,
> especially a girlfriend; preferrably a really hot girlfriend.
>
> Actually, you know what. Fuck all that. No offence, but I'm glad this
> turned out to be a solo weekend (outside of Geo and the movie and G
> Money at Toby's) because if I hung out with anyone at the shows I
> probably would not have been as tuned in to the music.
>
> Oh, the real capper is listening to the following song on the way home
> from the Jicks' concert:
>
> *Jumpers Lyrics*
> *Album :* *The Woods*
> *Artist :* *Sleater-Kinney*
>
>
>
> I spend the afternoon in cars
> I sit in traffic jams for hours
> Don't push me
> I am not OK
>
> The sky is blue most every day
> The lemons grow like tumors they
> Are tiny suns infused with sour
>
> Lonely as a cloud
> In the Golden State
> "The coldest winter that I ever saw
> Was the summer that I spent..."
>
> The only substance is the fog
> And it hides all that has gone wrong
> Can't see a thing
> Inside the maze
>
> There is a bridge adored and famed
> The Golden spine of engineering
> Who's back is heavy
> With my weight
>
> Be still this old heart
> Be still this old skin
> Drink your last drink
> Sin your last sin
> Sing your last song
> About the beginning
> Sing your song loud
> So the people can hear
> Let's Go
> Be still this sad day
> Be still this sad year
> Hope your last hope
> Fear you last fear
> Your not the only one
> Let's Go
>
> My falling shape will draw a line
> Between the blue of sea and sky
> I'm not a bird
> I'm not a plane
>
> I took the taxi to the gate
> I will not go to school again
> Four seconds was
> The longest wait
>
>
>
> When I got home I realised I must have been grinning all the way home
> before doing a jig up to my apartment.
>
> Of course, that could have been the bit of Jack Daniels or Kokanee I
> had to drink. Or the marijuana. Did I say that yet? These three
> substances are key to this beautiful weekend if you're hoping to
> recreate it.
>
> Ron
>

built to spill, indeed

> A few songs in to the set I was thinking that an audio copy of this
> show should be made so that all bands worldwide could listen to the
> entire Built To Spill catalogue and then the concert to understand
> what to do with your music live.
>
> Then a few songs later I was like, "Fuck that."
>
> This show should be transcribed and all bands should now only be able
> to play this show [chord for chord, note for note, and beat for beat],
> with whatever instruments they normally use, from now on.
>
> Doug Martsch must be the most under rated (not rated?)
> songwriter/guitarist of all time.
>
> All hail Built To Spill as the rulers of guitar rock.
>
> At least till Tuesday when the new Clutch album "Hive/Exodus" comes out.
>
> Ron
>

Re: priceless

> A bottle of Kokanee: $4.25
> 2 bottles of Kokanee: $8.50
> 2 bottles of Kokanee, and a side dish of Sechzuan style tofu and green
> beans: $14.50
> 2 bottles of Kokanee, a side dish of Sechzuan style tofu and green
> beans, and a shot of Jack Daniels on ice: $14.50 (compliments of G Money)
> 2 bottles of Kokanee, a side dish of Sechzuan style tofu and green
> beans, a shot of Jack Daniels on ice, and smoking a joint with G
> Money: great
> 2 bottles of Kokanee, a side dish of Sechzuan style tofu and green
> beans, a shot of Jack Daniels on ice, smoking a joint with G Money,
> then listening to the following song, waiting to go see Built To Spill
> at The Commodore a few weeks before the band releases a new album:
> *ABSOLUTELY, FUCKING AMAZING.*
>
> *Beck, /Girl/*
>
>
> I saw her, yea I saw her
> With a black tongue tied round the roses
> A fist pounding on a vending machine
> Toy diamond ring stuck on her finger
> With a noose she could hang from the sun
> And point it out with the dark sunglasses
> Walking crooked down the beach
> She spits in the sand
> Where their bones are bleaching
>
> And I know I'm gonna steal her eye
> She doesn't even know it's wrong
> And you know I'm gonna make it die
> Take her where her soul belongs
> Know I'm gonna steal her eye
> Nothing that I wouldn't try
> My sun eyed girl
> Hey my sun eyed girl
> My sun eyed girl
> Hey my sun eyed girl
>
> I saw her, yea I saw her
> With her hands tied back
> Her rags are burnin'
> Calling out from a landfilled life
> Scrawling her name up on the ceiling
> Throw a coin in the fountain of dust
> White noise, her ears are ringing
> Got a ticket for my midnight hanging
> Throw a bullet from a freight train leaving
>
> And I know I'm gonna steal her eye
> She doesn't even know it's wrong
> And you know I'm gonna make it die
> Take her where her soul belongs
> Know I'm gonna steal her eye
> Nothing that I wouldn't try
>
> **** G Money is a outdoor/sports writer for The Province who goes here
> by a fake name
>