HEAVY MUSIC HISTORY: Earth Rocker – Clutch
Over their thirty-two year career Maryland’s finest, CLUTCH, have become cult heroes that have worked their way into the hearts and minds of many rock fans. The band’s prolific creativity over the last three decades has delivered some of the most amazing and authentic songs ranging from meeting witches in Salem, Massachusetts (Sucker For The Witch from 2015’s Psychic Warfare) to putting a Maryland crab cake recipe into a song (Hot Bottom Feeder from 2018’s Book Of Bad Decisions) and even driving a Dodge Swinger 1973 through a galaxy (Spacegrass from the 1995 eponymous record).
CLUTCH’s distinctive sound comes from the evolution of their bluesy, funky, stoner riffs alongside enigmatic frontman Neil Fallon’s ambiguous, strangely poetic and surprisingly observant lyrics, both of these elements have been fine tuned over time. In 2013 they released Earth Rocker, a faster and punchier album unlike anything that they had released before, which in turn has a transformative effect on the band.
Earth Rocker was the second album that was released on CLUTCH’s own record label Weathermaker Music. Its predecessor Strange Cousins From The West (2009) was full of the excitement of their first release on their own album, while Earth Rocker saw a change in approach and is on the whole more primal in sound and spirit. It became heralded as a return to form for the band because of its quicker pace, punchy songs and sharp riffs. As a result, it earned a comparison to the band’s magnum opus Blast Tyrant (2011), which is famous for its track The Regulator which featured on AMC’s The Walking Dead.
The primary reason why Earth Rocker packed a bigger punch than its predecessor, was down to the fact that the band changed their production and songwriting approach for this album. The band also worked with the producer Machine, his personal preference for the songs to be fully complete before coming into the studio, in some ways dictated the creation of Earth Rocker. Alongside this, the band were dissatisfied when they would write songs together in the studio. These two things combined with a heavy amount of time going into pre-production, helped create on of CLUTCH‘s most iconic albums.
Dan Maines (bass) stated in their behind-the-scenes YouTube series for the album; “The approach was just straight rockers. Not to overthink the songs and just to write hard rocking songs. The tempos are upbeat, overall there is just a driving rhythm to the songs.”. He would then further explain; “A lot of the songs started off with just standard 16th note rhythms, which kept the song cooking and that lent the songs to a faster tempo than some of our previous songs. It kept things simple in a way.”. Tim Sult (guitar) in a separate episode stated that some subconscious influence from touring with the likes of MOTORHEAD and THIN LIZZY worked its way into the riffs for Earth Rocker. Alongside this Jean-Paul Gaster (drums) added more shuffle rhythms as well as brush playing into the mix to create a more dynamic rhythm sections in comparison to a ‘get the riffs out, sort the arrangement’ style.
With those things considered, for some Earth Rocker was their first introduction to CLUTCH, even though they had been an active and vibrant for twenty-three years at this point. It was if the band had a renaissance within themselves due to the creative restraints and a second breakthrough into the mainstream simultaneously. With this turning point in mind, it leads to the debate that still goes on today, why aren’t CLUTCH bigger than they are? The album charted really well in the US hitting Number 1 on Billboard’s Top Hard Rock albums and charting 6th and 15th on Billboard’s Top Rock Albums and Billboard 200 respectively. While this was a momentous album for the band, and you want them to be selling out famous venues like the Royal Albert Hall or Wembley Arena, that’s not what they’re about. What makes CLUTCH magical is their cult classic status, in the US and in Europe especially. The earthy, gritty, hearty and passion for music the band have is designed to be experienced in those smaller venues with Neil Fallon’s bearded face looking straight into your eyes whilst he sings about Mr. Freedom.
This is true for Earth Rocker, the album seems to harken back to the band’s in your face early days but captures it with a refreshing new perspective and maturity. The album doesn’t feel like its aged ten years at all, it’s a classic straight forward rock album. When you look back at CLUTCH’s later albums, you can see that Earth Rocker is a starting point for a punchier, driven and old school rock focused CLUTCH. In January 2014, the deluxe version of the album featured a live version of the album from their show in at the Ogden Theatre, Denver on November 14, 2013. In the live setting you can hear CLUTCH going back to basics was exactly what was needed to propel them forward. From this point on there was no looking back for Maryland’s finest, they had reignited their fire and started to redefine what CLUTCH sounded like. Having worked on and spend more time with the songs, developing them and using the preferences of producer Machine to their advantage, Earth Rocker (while criminally underrated) led the way for the CLUTCH we know and love today. The rest, as they say, is history.
Earth Rocker was originally released on March 15th 2013 via Weathermaker Music.
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