Clutch: Clutch

Clutch: Clutch

1995

Eastwest Records

Format I Own it on: Compact Disc

Track Listing: 1. Big News I  2.Big News II  3. Rock n' Roll Outlaw  4. Texan Book of the Dead  5. Escape from the Prison Planet  6. Spacegrass  7. I Have the Body of John Wilkes Booth  8. Tight Like That  9. Animal Farm  10. Droid  11. The House That Peterbilt  12. 7 Jam  13. Tim Sult vs. The Greys



I can remember going to the record store and looking though the new releases and being surprised to find this tape...Y'know, That's a weird feeling I don't get anymore...Looking through the new releases and saying, Oh my God! I didn't know they were putting out a new album!"

 I'm sure I could easily regain this excitement again, by not going online every week and looking at the upcoming releases, but I like doing that, too, so I guess I can't bitch too much...

Anyway,  this was a big one...After falling in love with "Transnational Speedway League," me and my friends worked our way back to the "Passive Restraints" ep and our obsession with Clutch only grew more and more...



Needless to say, I bought the cassette, no questions asked, from one of those Tape Stores in the Mall...Probably Camelot Music or Tape World or something...

...I probably paid $16.99 for it...and I probably didn't even get the sampler with America and .38 Special on it...

I took the tape home and with great anticipation I popped it in the tape deck...

That spacy, grooving bassline and jazzy drumming on "Big News I" was not what I was expecting...But it was undeniably funky, and despite the lack of blaring guitars, I was inexplicably drawn in...

"The fog is rolling in, the tide is high
Diane's as fat can be, aye Captain aye..."

Hmmm, a hard rock sea shanty? And just who was Diane? It didn't take me long to recognize I was listening to an intriguing puzzle that I was aching to solve...

The  big rock comes soon enough on "Big News II," still this wasn't the hardcore raging of "Transnational Speedway League," this had more of a classic rock feel...Think Mountain at their sweatiest...

...and that's saying something!  Tim Sult's riffs are more monolithic...Immovably heavy...He also adds plenty of wah-wah to his arsenal, and in the process discovers his own distinct style...Although, what ultimately won me over was Neil Fallon's shout-out to Greedo...

...I had to call my friends and tell them, "Dude! You've gotta check out this new Clutch tape! They namedrop GREEDO!"

Greedo was just the tip of the iceberg...This was a thematically dense album...Countless allusions to astronomy, astrology, mythology and pop culture abound...We get everything from Pharisees...

...to the Planet of the Apes...

Lyrically speaking, one of my favorite albums...

Usually, whenever I'm trying to pinpoint my favorite Clutch song, most of the top contenders originate here...

It's pretty hard not to  single out "Spacegrass" as their crowning achievement...Vast, unknowable, and funny as hell...The lyrics take your standard hot-rod travelogue and push it into interstellar overdrive...For example...

...is he going to the M83 galaxy...

...or is he on his way to Bronner's Christmas Wonderland?

The answer is probably both...

The holy-rolling funk of "Tight Like That" is another favorite of mine...It's so odd and quacking...Something they've never even attempted again, which is odd because they pull it off so well...

"Don't try to sell me your New Age guru troubles.
'Cause I'm already reeling doing that good time gospel shuffle.
And all your thumpings about some Armageddon,
Ain't no big deal, 'cause I already hang with Him..."

 Is this white metal?  Or merely white funk?  White funk-metal?  Nahh, it's just playing with archetypes...The gonzo imagery works its way into your mind because it's always been there...

I could really go on all day...Every song has so much going for it... To me this is still one of the most overlooked albums of the 90's...

My list of overlooked 90's albums gets smaller and smaller as time goes on, as music lovers keep digging for the decade's lost treasure, but I still don't see this one getting the the accolades it deserves, outside of Clutch's usual cult-like fanbase...To me, it's up there the "Nevermind," "Loveless," "Slanted and Enchanted" and all the other flannel-era classics...Although, its lack of canonization makes it still feel fresh...People haven't ground its influence into the ground by means of overexposure and weak mimicry...

Either way, it's time to spark up some spacegrass and listen to Clutch...Enjoy...