CLUTCH "There were a lot of shenanigans with our record label during the making of From Beale Street to Oblivion. Weird, huh? If anything, it just served to reinforce our belief that the things that matter most in rock and roll are the band, the music, and the listener. Everything else is peripheral" Their metal and hardcore roots now deep in the ground, Clutch continue their skyward evolution to becoming a pure rock and roll band. With the release of "From Beale Street To Oblivion," the band has assured themselves a place in the rock pantheon. The new album is awash in retro warmth, but wrapped in a contemporary blaze and rife with thick riffs, melodies, vitality and most noticeably, grooves. As always, they remain down to earth and focused on the music. "Our style is riff oriented, with a swing," says singer Neil Fallon. "It's never been a calculated move; we just followed our instinct, and that is leading us closer to those bands to whom we listened in our childhood. Bands which are now termed as classic rock." "From Beale Street To Oblivion" is the band's third album for DRT Entertainment, following "Blast Tyrant" and "Robot Hive/Exodus." Fallon explains, "we've never previously done more than two records in a row for any other label, so this is a new territory for us!" Clutch is currently gearing up for a US tour in March, and a European one in April. Clutch will play the sold out Roadburn Festival on April 20th. Words | Neil Before we went into the studio to record From Beale Street to Oblivion we decided to take all the material out on the road. That way, we could just go in and bang out the basic tracks with a quickness straight to tape. We chose Joe Barresi to produce it because he makes kick ass records. It's always a bit unnerving agreeing to work with someone you've never met before. But it quickly became apparent that Joe and the band were going to get along fine. He likes ZZ Top, Selma Hayek, and ribs. He was a natural. Oh, it's also worth mentioning he's exceptionally talented at capturing true sound to tape. In fact, by the end of the process we were so confident in Joe that when we left for the Motorhead tour, we entrusted the entire mix to him. There were a lot of shenanigans with our record label during the making of this record. Weird, huh? If anything, it just served to reinforce our belief that the things that matter most in rock and roll are the band, the music, and the listener. Everything else is peripheral. Having said that, here are the tracks that make up From Beale Street to Oblivion. You Can't Stop Progress Though it's the opening track, You Can't Stop Progress is one of the last songs we wrote for Beale Street. It is sort of a preface to the next track, Power Player. We happened to perform it one night before Power Player, and it became apparent that the two were joined at the hip. We first heard the Bad Brains 20 years ago and in this tune it's obvious that they're still influencing us.br> Power Player This is the first song we wrote for the record. The idea for these lyrics came about while we were doing a lot of international flying. We even had the rare luxury of flying first class once [once being the operative word]. It's a whole different scene up there, hot towels and cheese trays. The rock band definitely came across as a booze soaked horde of barbarians. That, coupled with some late night notes taken in the lobby of the Hotel Ukraine in Moscow brought about this tune. The Devil & Me These lyrics are imagined from two viewpoints. The first is God as he sits on his front porch giving his old buddy Lucifer a hard time for double-crossing him. The other is from the dark lord himself. He realizes that he fucked up, and he's got to hit the road. Oscar Hernandez and Lee Brintnall provided clap track. Killer claps... the best. White's Ferry Every once in a while I go out on a drive through some old country roads in Maryland and Virginia. One of these routes goes over the Potomac via White's Ferry. This song is about some of the sights and experiences of one particular drive in September of 2006. Bryan Hinkley from Never Got Caught does the duel lead with Tim on this one, as well as wee tasty bits throughout. Child of the City Some say Johannes Trithemius was a magician. Others believe he disguised his science and steganography inside a magical guise as an example of its practical application. Whatever the case, it's good material for rock and roll lyrics. Electric Worry This song is one part cover song, one part original. Half of each verse is taken from Mississippi Fred McDowell's "Fred's Worried Life Blues." The rest is our own concoction. When we wrote the upbeat part of the song, I couldn't hear the typical blues sentiment. Instead, it kind of became a motivational speaker slapping himself out of a stupor. The chorus "Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang! Vamanos! Vamanos!" has nothing to do with guns. It got its start long ago when Tim, and I can't recall why, said, "Vamanos! Bang! Bang!" Add a bit of John Lee Hooker and there you go. The ripping harp solo is none other that Five Horse Johnson's Eric Oblander. One Eye Dollar When we were touring we got in the habit of jamming Electric Worry straight into One Eye Dollar. We tried to write a new tune that would do the same trick, but nothing was as good. So we said screw it, let's just track it again. I was never happy with the lyrics on the original version, so this was a good opportunity to do some editing. Rapture of Riddley Walker Read Russel Hoban's Riddley Walker. It'll explain everything. When Vegans Attack I got no problems with vegans. Let's be clear on that. But have you ever met someone who has concocted his or her own convenient first-world philosophy? Cherry picked all those bits of radicalism that appealed to them and threw out the ugly bits? Someone who thinks they're enlightened but are really jut a victim of the own peer driven self-congratulatory bullshit? I have. There's lots of those types in Washington D.C. Opossum Minister In the early 1980s' my family lived in a typically terrible pre-planned suburban development called Montgomery Village. Our house bordered a historical town called Prathertown. Prathertown was a freetown and I went to school with some Prathers. In the back end of Prathertown there was a lady who lived in a dilapidated home. She had cut outs of wild boars with bloody tusks on her roof, two impossibly colossal rocking chairs, and a collection of saints in her front yard. It was the house we all walked by a bit quicker. Black Umbrella In Sauget, Illinois there is a club called Pop's. It's on a lawless piece of land with 24 hour strip bars and an O.T.B. I once went into the O.T.B. facility and saw the strangest collection of people one could imagine. It was Mos Eisley spaceport. A woman dressed like she had come straight from a jazz funeral walked in and no one seemed to notice her but myself. I guess anomaly is typical in Sauget. Eric plays on this track as well. Mr. Shiny Master Caddylackness Some people don't like politics in their songs. I don't either. But some characters loom so large in our lives that they are fair game to be used as fodder for creating fictions. Both Bryan and Eric strong-armed themselves onto tape yet again.