Music
Press
"This music has infectious hooks that grab the listner. The song arrangement sounds excellent, and it's all backed with strong lyrics" - Guitar Lush -Edmonds, Washington
"Awesome vocals, tight performance. Everything is clean and crystal clear, it's addictive!" - The Twitch Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada
"Lucrative, Ballsy old school riffs, genius lyrics and melodies, very cool guitar work!" - Metal Dreads Unionville, Maryland
"An honest creative sound with a different feel to it, the performance is confident." - Yas Music Chapel Hill, North Carolina
"A change of pace, and I enjoyed it! This is good blues based rock of the old school. Playing music like this is harder than it sounds, and this band does an incredible job of it!" - Lee Royboy
Discography
Full-length Albums
2005: Self Titled debut (Out of Print / Limited edition of 2000)
2007: Green Sea Acres
EPs / Singles
2005: US and Canada 2005 Radio Single (Out of Print)
2006: My Crazy Woman EP
2006: ANN EP
*Note: All of Earl Clifton and The Pin-Ups can be found on itunes to include the 2005 limited edition debut
Photos
Bio
Cliff Meekins a.k.a. “Earl Clifton” (vocals / guitar) along with his real life wife, Erika a.k.a. “Betty Lynn” (drums) are the nuts and bolts that make up the rock duo Earl Clifton –And- The Pin-ups from Chesapeake, Virginia.
Their brand of music is a powerhouse blend of everything rock! with hints of 90s alternative rock, punkified blues, a pinch of folk, with a touch of garage, but quite simpler than all those tags, Earl Clifton –And- The Pin-Ups is a straight up, “Plug in and Play” rock band that has a pure, and simple old school rock -n- roll attitude!
Crunchy rhythm guitar with bluesy leads on the verge of out of control feedback, backed by the forward stomp of BIG, LOUD drums. Earl Clifton –And- The Pin-Ups is the way rock use to be, electric, explosive, simple, real and unpolished
-Artist Comparisons / Genres / Moods and Styles-
The White Stripes / The Ramones / The Black Keys / New York Dolls / Stooges / Jet / MC5 / The Beatles / The Kinks / 60s British Invasion / 90s Alternative rock / Garage Rock / Modern Rock / Punk / Blues Rock / Folk / upbeat / loud and raw / College / Indie Rock
“It’s the White Stripes meet Nirvana” –garageband.com
The Story …
Chesapeake, Virginia 2004: A young married couple, Cliff (House painter) and Erika Meekins (Walgreen's manager), Chesapeake natives and proud parents of two children, Joseph (6) and Layna (4) began making musical noises from their humble home just off of Shillelagh Rd. and this all began after Cliff presented a snare drum to his wife of six years as a Mother’s day gift…
In 2003 Re-Inspired by the “Jack and Meg Story” (The White Stripes), Cliff dusted off his old acoustic guitar and began tinkering around for the first time in several years. “I thought rock somehow died in the mid nineties and I was waiting around for the next Nirvana” –Says Cliff
The Detroit garage rock scene had arrived...
“I looked around for a band to join but everybody around here seemed to want to play nothing but covers and if not worse, most of them wanted to play three hour gigs in the local restaurant scene and that’s one of the very things that killed my love for music in the first place, that and commercial radio” he adds.
One day Cliff gets the idea to ask Erika if she would be interested in playing a snare drum. He thought it would be easy enough for her to learn, and it would be fun. Erika thought it would be fun too, and on that following Mothers day Cliff bought Erika her first snare drum, the best he could afford to buy, a Pearl Piccolo.
Both Erika and Cliff come from families that have musical talent however, Erika before now, had never played a drum, and with the little drum “How to” Cliff had learned from his dad and childhood friend Steve Baransy (Drummer in Cliffs first band, The Attack), he was able to show her some simple four-count beats and Erika seemed to pick it up very easily although her timing was rugged, it was enough for the two of them to start jamming out.
Before long, the lone snare would be surrounded by a complete drum kit. The bass drum, a floor tom, one rack tom, two cymbals and a hi-hat, each new piece bought one at a time. Now, Cliff’s acoustic guitar could no longer compete with Erika’s now complete drum set, so he switched off to his old Fender Stratocaster and bought a small tube amp. Their acoustic beginning graduated to electric, raw and loud!
What’s in a name?
Nikki Baskette joined the band playing bass guitar in late 2004 (November) after Cliff met her through her Mom while painting their house in Norfolk, VA.
Like Erika, Nikki was new to playing music (guitar) and Cliff asked her if she would be interested in playing bass guitar with him and Erika, he already had a bass and an old bass amp she could use and he could show her what to do. Nikki agreed and soon enough a rock band was in the works...
They started out playing 60s bubble gum rock. Cliff says they must have played "Wild Thing" by the Troggs a million times, but it was playing tunes over and over again that helped the girls understand the dynamics and structure in songs and how they are built up and written.
While Nikki played with them throughout that winter and spring, the girls came up with name "The Pin-Ups" and then Cliff swapped his first and middle name around hence "Earl Clifton and the Pin-Ups" became The official calling card for the newly formed trio. Erika took on her pet name “Betty” as her stage name and Nikki kept her first name the same with the exception that every body’s last name would be Clifton. So now they have their stage names, a band name and a few tunes…
Why a rock Duo?
As fate would have it, Nikki started getting distracted more and more with school and “Betty” and “Earl” decided it would be best for her to go back to college.
“We didn't want the band thing getting in her way.” remembers Earl, “So we let her go for her own sake.”
With the band now without a bass player, Earl hoo
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