In thinking of what kept me from checking out Nitroseed for so long, the only thing I can come up with is the name, which smacks of nü-metal in a way that undercuts the band’s sound. The album art for their only full-length to date, Molt, doesn’t do much either to dispel the impression, so perhaps without knowing the parties involved or the kind of rock Nitroseed actually get down with (the rockin’ kind), I let superficialities get the best of me. What a jerk.

Nonetheless, I finally picked up Nitroseed‘s Molt, at the recent Earthride show in NYC. The band’s name was one I’d been hearing for years — bassist Rob Hampshire also plays in Earthride and Gary Isom, who drums on Molt, has been with Spirit Caravan, Valkyrie, Pentagram and at least a dozen others over the course of his career — and may or may not have seen them in or around Maryland at some point and just not bought the album, but however it came about that I didn’t own the album, it was a situation easily-enough rectified with $10. Money well spent.

On Molt, Nitroseed offer 10 tracks all within the three-to-four-and-a-half-minute range of straightforward instrumental heavy riff rock, with some highlights to be found in the tone of guitarists Shane Balloun and Tucker Orr, who on “Combined Forces” — appropriately enough — emit a groove worthy of Karma to Burn‘s Americana-gone-distortion and find it backed up by the capable hands of Hampshire and Isom, whose strength as a rhythm section lives up to their collective pedigree. The band self-released Molt in 2006, and if it was going to turn into the shape of Heavy to come, it probably would have by now, but Nitroseed still have plenty to offer instrumental buffs or riff-obsessives, as it’s essentially a showcase for the quality of the performances it contains.

Most of the material on the album could have just as easily had vocals, and apparently Nitroseed agrees, since their newer material reportedly features them. Isom has also since left the band and been replaced by Woolly Mammoth‘s Phil Adler, so when their second album materializes it will most likely find them in different shape than does Molt, if the ensuing four/however-many years wouldn’t have already. Still, as a means for getting introduced to the band, I’m glad to have picked up the record and glad I can finally say my catalog boasts an album with a track called “Gut Butt” on it. That’s got to be worth something.

Much as I love the city of Philadelphia — and I do; it’s the Wesley Snipes to NYC‘s Stephen Dorff — it’s a long way away. Nonetheless, for a lineup like Las Cruces and Iron Man, the trip is well worth it. And hey, I didn’t drive as far as Las Cruces, who are from San Antonio, and thus know what salsa should taste like. So it could be worse.

I was in no hurry to get to the Millcreek Tavern, since it was just the two bands on the bill and I knew the show would be running late. Las Cruces went on first, playing tracks off of their latest, Dusk, as well as older material and a new song called “Egypt” that I shouted from the crowd was a keeper. And it was. There wasn’t much of an audience — apparently some fest was happening down the street — but the loyal few enjoyed what the four-piece had to offer, myself included, and when they played “Wizard” and “Cocaine Wizard Woman” back-to-back, I felt like life was doing me a personal favor. Two songs with “wizard” in the title — in a row! Doesn’t get more doomed than that, folks.

In general I consider myself a fan of a singing drummer, and Paul DeLeon of Las Cruces didn’t disappoint. While guitarists George Trevino and Mando Tovar (Pillcrusher) poured out killer riffs and solos and bassist Jimmy Bell windmilled a breeze enough to feel it from in front of the stage, DeLeon held down the rhythm and the melody of material both old and new. Dusk is the band’s first full-length in 12 years, but the band and the songs sounded fresh and they put on a righteous show despite the fact that there weren’t too many people in the crowd to see it.

A chicken cheese steak was enjoyed in between sets — no onions — and I had plenty of time to eat, as Iron Man took their time getting going. Vocalist Joe Donnelly must have been running late, or else waiting outside to make his grand entrance, since he came in just before the set started. Bassist Louis Strachan and new drummer Mike Rix (who has about four more toms in his rack-mounted kit than he needs for doom) make for a killer rhythm section, and Donnelly‘s Ozzy-style antics are well documented and always good for a laugh, but the essential component in Iron Man is Al Morris III, whose sheer presence while he plays guitar makes the whole set. I managed to get video of the opener, “I Have Returned,” which you can see below. Watch his solo and you’ll see what I’m talking about. Amazing.

Iron Man played a new song as well. I didn’t catch the name of it, but it’s good to know they’re working on material for a follow-up to I Have Returned. They were selling the recent Shadow Kingdom reissues of Generation Void, Black Night and The Passage as well, though I don’t know how many people were there who didn’t already have them. They played an 11-song set, which seemed like a bit much, but although it’s three days later and my sleep pattern is still thrown off, I’m not going to say it wasn’t worth the time or effort to get to the show. It was all the more special because of the sparse attendance, and with Las Cruces having come so far, and Iron Man having made the trip from Maryland, it seemed the least I could do to show up. I guarantee whatever else was going on in town that night wasn’t as doomed out as this show was.

Adding to the argument in favor of attendance was not knowing when Las Cruces would be back this way. Iron Man is killer, don’t get me wrong, but I’ve already seen them this year and worse comes to worst, Maryland is only three hours away. San Antonio is a little farther out from Jersey, and since I enjoyed Dusk so much (even the tracks not about wizards of any shape or form), I wanted to be there to support the band. I don’t know if it did them any good in terms of getting gas money to get to the next show, but there you go. Should have been a couple local acts on the bill to round it out and fill up the place, should have been more people there, but it was a killer gig and easily justified the ride down. No complaints out of me.

With Earthride, those who know already know what they’re going to get. Hell, it’s the bands slogan: “Pure Maryland doom for the brotherhood of music,” and if there’s a more accurate for the style in which the four-piece traffics, I’ve yet to hear it. On their third album in eight years, Something Wicked (released through their own Earth Brain Records), Earthride reaffirms their status as one of the most positively toxic stoner doom bands the US has to offer. Led by charismatic frontman Dave Sherman (ex-Spirit Caravan, Wretched), they leave a mark that is unmistakably their own, as though the songs were branding a backpatch onto your forehead.

Groove is central on Something Wicked. In many ways it’s the whole core of Earthride’s sound. Guitarist Kyle Van Steinburg has a tone so Orange you can’t rhyme with it, and the rhythm section of drummer Eric Little and bassist Rob Hampshire (Nitroseed) do an excellent job rounding out the material and evoking an even thicker, more viscous sound on tracks like opener “Something Wicked” and “Hacksaw Eyeball.” This is nothing new, but not everything is business as usual for Earthride, as Something Wicked finds Sherman trying out some new approaches vocally – growling occasionally and seeming to collapse into a melodic kind of yowl not too distant from Wino or Phil Anselmo’s on the last Down album, but frankly, more suited to what Earthride are doing song-wise.

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Yeah, this came in on the PR wire a day or two ago, but give me a break. I’m a working man now. Plus, I think it’s been a whole two weeks since there’s been any Clutch info on the site, so it’s not like you were hurting. Whatever. You’ll live.

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

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Guitarist/vocalist John Brenner of Maryland outfits Against Nature and Revelation has probably the “healthiest” work ethic I’ve ever encountered when it comes to recording, and by “healthy,” I mean obsessive. Since 2005, Against Nature has put out no fewer than 14 records, and it always feels like the next one isn’t far off — because it isn’t. A little while ago, I reviewed Chasing Eagles, only to find out that Cross Street would be arriving shortly, with Stone over Stone due up thereafter.

They’re a lot to keep up with for sure. Releasing albums through their own Bland Hand Records imprint with art by Brenner himself, Against Nature is the vehicle by which Brenner, bassist Bert Hall, Jr. and drummer Steve Branagan explore their more rocking influences, from the early prog of Rush to the swaggering boogie of Humble Pie. When it comes time to doom out, the same lineup performs as Revelation, which has been active in one incarnation or another since 1986, and in the last two years put out albums through labels such as Japan‘s Leaf Hound, Germany‘s The Church Within, and Pittsburgh‘s Shadow Kingdom.

If two constantly expanding discographies wasn’t enough, Brenner is also partially responsible for the Born to be Doomed festival, which this year featured Revelation alongside acts like Apostle of Solitude, Black Pyramid and Blood Farmers on July 2 and 3, with Against Nature headlining a warm-up show the night before. It was on the first day of the festival that I called for the following interview, and found Brenner, unsurprisingly, to be moving quickly from one thing to the next.

In the conversation after the jump, John Brenner discusses the differences between Revelation and Against Nature, how one band grew out of the other, his writing methods and how he is able to maintain such a prolific level of output. I found him to be friendly, engaging and completely unpretentious. I hope you enjoy our conversation as much as I did. Read more »

It was disappointing to roll into Ace of Clubs and find out Valkyrie had pulled out of the show. It was a family emergency, so you couldn’t really hold it against them, and with no shortage of killer bands left on the bill, the night would be more than salvageable. Any evening that gets topped off with an Earthride live set is alright by me.

I was at Alkahest‘s first show, and I’ve seen them three or four times since, and every time I do I get something completely different out of it. This time the guitars were played up in the live mix and the post-metal aspects of their sound were what came through most, but what I think is really fascinating about Alkahest (aside from the complexity of their pedal board arrangements) is how the rhythm section refuses to just do the Isis beat — you know which one I’m talking about — and leave it at that. It brings something new to the sound and makes them less derivative than they’d otherwise be.

Performance-wise, they were more subdued, especially vocalist Chris, who stood still most of the set and seemed to let the music wash over him, allowing for only occasional flareups of turbulent energy. One thing that’s remained consistent about Alkahest these last several months is the drama in their music, so that covers a lot of ground other bands might leave to thrashing around on stage.

Fuckin’ Admiral Browning. I know I’ve seen them before, but this might have been the first time I was lucid enough to actually remember what they were like, and mein gott, they fucking killed. Heavy, technical, grooving, they did it all, and they did it instrumental, and they demolished the unsuspecting Manhattan crowd almost immediately, as though dispatching them with a wave of the hand. It was sick. I reviewed their Magic Elixir EP a while back, but I hereby revise my position: the recording doesn’t do them justice at all. You need to see this band.

Only thing was they went on a little long, but beyond that, they were a highlight of the night. It seems like blasphemy to say any band playing with Earthride might be heavier than they are — because how could such a thing be possible? — but Admiral Browning were the most potent power trio I’ve seen in a long time. Totally righteous, totally unpretentious, just blisteringly heavy and so loud my earplugs seemed to be rendered useless. Yes, yes sir.

It was The Resurrection Sorrow‘s show, and as per usual, they had the biggest crowd of the night. I don’t know where they find these people, or how they get them to come from whatever dance club they were previously at and see at least part of a doom show, but then, their sound borders on a kind of post-Pantera groove metal, so that might have something to do with it. Needless to say, if I knew how to draw people like that, I would be too busy doing so to figure out The Resurrection Sorrow‘s methods.

And what a magical world that would be.

You couldn’t even get close to the stage — hence the faraway picture — and I know I wasn’t about to elbow past the steroid dude with Spartan helmet tattooed all around his head, so I stayed in the back and watched from there as they covered Ozzy‘s “Believer” from Diary of a Madman, bassist Alex Coelho making the most of its stomping lines. They’re obviously not without their commercial aspirations, but The Resurrection Sorrow are good at what they do, and I’m not going to hold that against them just because I prefer bands no one else likes. They played to their crowd and their crowd ate it up.

Earthride vocalist and Maryland doom legend Dave “Sherm” Sherman (Spirit Caravan, Wretched) showed off his new Motörhead tattoo, and the band ran through a monstrously heavy set of tunes from their albums Earthride, Taming of the Demons (the title track was a highlight), Vampire Circus and the latest, Something Wicked. I took some video which you’ll find below. Sherm rode the riffs of Kyle Van Steinburg with his arms up, chopper-style, and indeed, it was the evening’s high point. Yeah, it still was a bummer Valkyrie had to pull out of the last two nights of the tour, but even with some technical problems midway into the set, Earthride more than justified the trip to the city.

How into Earthride was the audience that stuck around? Well, there was moshing, which you almost never see at a doom show (and I would argue rightly so). Chris from Alkahest was headbanging so hard I thought he’d give himself a concussion, and Alex Dementia from The Resurrection Sorrow jumped on stage several times. It was like it was a birthday party for The Riff, and we were all having our cake. Tired from a long day of driving, I didn’t think I’d make it through the whole set, but they kept me there right to the end, and when it over I was glad to have stayed.

Be sure to check in this weekend, as the July podcast is going to go up either tomorrow or Sunday. Should be a good time, I’m looking forward to putting it together.

Meanwhile, I figured it’s only appropriate given yesterday’s Where to Start post to close out this week with some high grade Maryland doom. The clip above is Internal Void performing on a local access cable show in their native state. There’s some killer material in the beginning for fans of Dr. Steve Brule too. I consider it a bonus for the ultra Sabbathy rock that follows.

Next week we’ll close out June and I’ll give the numbers (not great), and we’ll check in for an interview with Gozu‘s Marc Gaffney, whose album, Locust Season, is available now on iTunes from Small Stone. If you’re planning on hitting Floor tomorrow night in Brooklyn, I’ll be there. Come say hi. We’ll hang out like the real people do.

Other than that, be safe and enjoy the weekend. If you didn’t yet download the June podcast, now’s the time.

If you consider the end of the Robot Hive/Exodus record and how obviously into playing the bluesier material Clutch has been over the last couple years, this was kind of a long time coming. Nonetheless, it’s killer news that Clutch are going to be recording an acoustic EP. Here’s the report from Blabbermouth, and a video of the song “Fixin’ to Die,” which is a Bukka White cover and, as Neil Fallon readily admits, the source of some “Ship of Gold” lyrics for sure:

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 have a new and recently reviewed DVD out called Live at the 9:30, which means I have two of my very favorite things in the world: a new Clutch release and an excuse to interview the band. This will be the third Clutch-related feature The Obelisk has done in its 15 months of existence counting the Bakerton Group chat with bassist Dan Maines last February, and though that might seem like a lot (it is), they keep kicking ass, so I feel fully justified.

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.

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You know, some bands, you expect when you haven’t checked in on them for a while they’ve maybe got some news that they’re touring or thinking about starting to put out a new album, maybe have some ideas for songs, all very nebulous, not yet willing to reveal titles, etc. Baltimore, Maryland’s Against Nature, meanwhile, have released two albums and have a third and fourth on the way. In about six months. And that’s not even counting their super-doomed alter ego, Revelation, who also put out a record in that time. They should call the next album Prolific Bloody Prolific.

In January, Against Nature self-released Drawing Arrows through their own Bland Hand Records, and a mere month later (presumably from the same sessions; though I don’t know that for sure) came Chasing Eagles, the band’s 13^th or 14^th release, which continues their seemingly overflowing run of ‘70s-style prog played at three-quarter speed and as unpretentiously as possible. Guitarist/vocalist John Brenner is as much at home with this material as I am on the couch, and whether it’s the bluesy “A Likely Story” or the more Sabbath-fueled “Snowed Under,” bassist Bert Hall, Jr. and drummer Steve Branagan have no trouble laying a solid foundation for the songs to build on.

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One can’t help but wonder if, now that fabled Maryland groovers Clutch have their own label in the form of Weathermaker Music, this won’t just be their new album cycle: a studio release, a butt-load of touring, a live release, some more touring, some more touring, a studio release, a butt-load of touring, and so on. If that’s the way it’s going to go from here on out, I can hardly complain, since as any Clutch fan will tell you, the band kills it live. This was last documented on the Full Fathom Five CD and DVD releases, and the band changes up the approach with the Live at the 9:30 DVD by playing a special set and including a bonus documentary about the band on tour in 2009.

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.

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Live at the 9:30 isn’t the first live Clutch release, but it might be the most comprehensive, what with the full-length documentary about the band on the road and all that. And if there’s one thing Clutch fans enjoy unto perpetuity, without end, it’s watching them play live, so it gives me joy to present the PR wire news that Live at the 9:30 is out today via the band’s own Weathermaker Music imprint (yeah, I’ll get a review going asap). Dig it:

Veteran rock band Clutch have issued the dual DVD set “Live at the 9:30″ through their own music label Weathermaker Music, today, Tuesday May 11th. This fan friendly $19.98 priced DVD set features a 90 minute concert DVD as well as a two hour road movie called Fortune Tellers Make a Killing Nowadays which includes classic Clutch footage from 1991/1992, never before seen band interviews, and unreleased music.

“Our fans have been longing for something like this for over a decade!” exclaims Weathermaker label manager Jon Nardachone. “Our director/producer Agent Ogden captured the band performing a 19-song set which includes a molten-hot version of the entire self-titled release! He then subsequently produced the quintessential Clutch road movie, which we wrapped up in one mega-DVD set!”

Clutch, along with their jazz-rock instrumentalist alter-ego, The Bakerton Group, will take to the road in June and July in support of the internationally released DVD and the Strange Cousins from the West CD. The 22-date tour will take both Clutch and The Bakerton Group through the US, Canada, Norway, Sweden, Greece, Italy, and the UK.

Clutch Live:
USA
6/04 Huntington, WV @ V Club
6/05 Lexington, KY @ Buster’s Billiards & Backroom
6/06 Toledo, OH @ Headliner’s
6/07 Urbana, IL @ Canopy Club
6/09 Oklahoma City, OK @ Diamond Ballroom
6/10 Little Rock, AR @ The Village
6/11 Manchester, TN @ Bonnaroo as The Bakerton Group
6/12 Manchester, TN @ Bonnaroo as Clutch
6/13 Montgomery, AL @ Strange Days
6/14 Houma, LA @ The City Club of Houma
6/15 Beaumont, TX @ Whiskey River
6/17 Greenville, SC @ The Handlebar
6/18 Norfolk, VA @ Norva
6/19 Allentown, PA @ Crocodile Rock
Europe
7/16/10 Tönsberg, Norway Slottsfjell Festival
7/17/10 Tromso, Norway Bukta Festival
7/19/10 Goteborg, Sweden Sticky Fingers, Top Floor
7/21/10 Athens, Greece AN Club
7/22/10 Milan, Italy Magnolia
7/23/10 Pinerella Di Cevia, Italy Rock Planet
7/25/10 London, England High Voltage Festival

I don’t know what this does to the release schedule for the new Place of Skulls album, but it’s been announced that legendary guitarist Victor Griffin (also of Death Row) has rejoined Pentagram for their tour dates later this month leading to their performance at the Maryland Deathfest at the Sonar in Baltimore. Hey, at least he’ll know the songs, which, from what I understand, will put him miles ahead of the replacement the band had for the departed Russ Strahan on their last string of shows.

By a bit of luck, I caught Griffin with Pentagram when he joined them on stage at last year’s Planet Caravan festival in North Carolina, and it fucking ruled, so I would think with a week-long tour’s worth of tightness behind the performance it could only get better. Support for the shows comes courtesy of the oh-so-hot-right-now Black Tusk. The announcement kind of flew under the radar, but here it is, courtesy of The Pentagram Archives‘ MySpace page:

Pentagram in association with Barley & Hops Management, The Pantheon Agency, and The Pentagram Archives announce:

The May 2010 Spring Tour of Pentagram will feature the following musicians performing:

Bobby Liebling: Vocals
Victor Griffin: Guitars
Greg Turley: Bass
Gary Isom: Drums

Clutch‘s Live at the 9:30 double-DVD is due out May 11. As per the PR wire, here’s the trailer and preorder info:

The official presale for Live at the 9:30 kicks off today at Indiemerch.com. The dual disc DVD from Maryland‘s most beloved rock band Clutch features both a 90-minute concert performance, as well as a two-hour road movie with rare footage and plenty of insight to the band’s storied 20 year history. Fans ordering the Agent Ogden produced DVD through Indiemerch.com between today’s date of 4/23 and the retail date of 5/11, will receive a 24″ Clutch logo sticker, autographed by all four Clutch band members: vocalist Neil Fallon, guitarist Tim Sult, bassist Dan Maines and drummer Jean Paul Gaster.

…Seriously, it’s a lot of news. If news was a thing you could number, it would be at least 13.

And what would 2010 be without a slew of Clutch releases, I ask you? It would hardly be a year at all. The hard-touring, hard-recording, hard-hitting Maryland rockers have a bunch of reissues coming, and as previously reported, a nifty double DVD due in May. Says the PR wire:

2010 will prove to be the busiest calendar year in the career of veteran rock band Clutch. Building on the Top 30 Billboard chart success of 2009′s Strange Cousins from the West (Weathermaker Music), the Maryland based quartet will internationally issue a brand new epic DVD set called Live at the 9:30 in mid May. This 200-minute double-disc concert film will be sold at the fan friendly price of $19.98.

Disc one features a 90-minute full-length concert filmed with seven hi-definition cameras last December at Washington DC‘s legendary 9:30 Club. In addition to newer fan favorites like “50,000 Unstoppable Watts” and “Let a Poor Man Be,” the concert film’s first disc includes an electrifying version of the 1995 Clutch self-titled release in its entirety. An audio version of the full 19-song concert will be exclusively available through iTunes on May 11th.

Disc two is the 110-minute feature film Fortune Tellers Make a Killing Nowadays, which takes a behind the scenes look at Clutch “on tour” city by city in 2009. This “bonus disc” is not limited to recent Clutch happenings however, as it includes rare band interviews as well as vintage never before seen footage documenting much of Clutch‘s history from 1991 to the present. Both discs were directed and produced by Agent Ogden, who first worked with the band, on 2007′s Full Fathom Five: Video Field Recordings.

In support of the tour dates and the forthcoming Live at the 9:30 DVD, as well as the current Strange Cousins from the West CD, Weathermaker Music will release the new single “Let a Poor Man Be” on May 3rd, with an accompanying video clip and a rare promo only EP featuring unreleased material.

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