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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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

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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Here’s the cover:

We all knew Clutch had a new DVD coming via their new label Weathermaker Music, but unless I’m mistaken or there’s some malfunction in the PR wire (have to call a mechanic), this is the first time I’m seeing the cover of Live at the 9:30 or hearing of a release date. Good news in any case, since May 11 is sooner than anything after that, and the sooner the better.

Probably a safe bet this video won’t be included on Live at the 9:30:

Earlier today, I thought to myself, “Gee, you know, I haven’t heard anything about a ridiculous amount of Clutch releases in a while.” Then, wouldn’t you know it, I come home this evening and sitting on the floor from the PR wire (because, oh yes, the PR wire is a ticker tape machine and definitely not an email inbox) is notification that the seminal Maryland blues rockers are planning digital and physical reissues of their three DRT Entertainment albums through their Weathermaker Music label, a new live DVD and special edition vinyls of, well, a ton of stuff. All for the best. We wouldn’t want the band to sit still for five minutes, now would we?

Here’s the info:

On December 15th, Clutch will issue a double vinyl package of their latest studio effort Strange Cousins from the West through the band’s self owned label Weathermaker Music. This vinyl edition will feature two tracks that cannot be found on the CD version. The first is the recently recorded ?Metroliner Special? and the second is an extended version of the band’s latest single and video, ?50,000 Unstoppable Watts.? The first 4,000 pieces of Strange Cousins from the West vinyl will include a coupon for a free digital download of all 12 songs through the band’s website, www.pro-rock.com.

Also this Fall, Weathermaker will make available for digital purchase, the former DRT Entertainment catalog which includes Blast Tyrant (2004), Robot Hive/Exodus (2005) and From Beale Street to Oblivion (2007). Weathermaker plans to reissue all three of these in 2010 with a heavy dose of bonus material. Double vinyl packages are in the works for these as well.

For now, look for the digital release of Robot Hive/Exodus on November 30th to be followed by Blast Tyrant on December 18th. Due to the high amount of digital demand for the band’s 2007 single ?Electric Worry,? Weathermaker has already issued From Beale Street to Oblivion on November 7th to coincide with the song’s inclusion in the popular video game Left 4 Dead 2 and its television commercial.

To end 2009, Clutch will headline shows in Washington DC, Sayerville, NJ, Charlotte, NC, Boston, MA and Albany, NY. These concerts will be filmed by producer and director extraordinaire Agent Ogden and featured on the Strange Cousins from the West DVD package to be released in the spring of 2010.