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The best kept secret in music
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The Clutters are one of our favorite bands and their new album, T&C, out tomorrow on Chicken Ranch Records should make them one of yours as well. The easiest reference point for their sound is the recent garage rock revival but they really transcend that tag. Essentially, they’ve got everything a good rock band should: gritty, twangy guitars; merciless drums; a big full bass; vocals that scream and shout but don’t annoy; and a little Farfisa keyboard to sweeten the sound.
T&C really takes the listener on a tour through their rough sound. “Crack Your Heart” opens the record with a nod to their garage rock roots. It’s a slow burner that probably wouldn’t have fit anywhere else in the running order. The next five songs tear your head off with nasty guitar chords and super-fun choruses.
The second half of the record finds the Clutters stretching out a bit. Dance beats and syncopated guitar riffs give them a little more sophistication even when singer Doug Lehmann is screaming like Black Francis. “When Worlds Divide” comes second to last and shows off their comfort with longer arrangements, co-ed vocals and actual gear-shifting dynamics. “Busted Dreams/Broken Heart” ends the record back in the garage where they started. All is right with the world.
-Todd Anderson - Popshot.net
If you’re at all tempted to tell Nashville’s The Clutters that " garage rock " is dying, if not already dead, in the eyes and ears of the hipster cognoscenti, do us both a favor and shut your big yapper.
With the windows to the whims of the trend-sucking world closed, The Clutters cloistered themselves in the old RCA Studio B with current Ben Folds bassist Jared Reynolds and came out crushing on their debut disc, T&C.
One after the other the songs on T&C break like beer bottles over your head until you are perfectly punch drunk, reveling in the unhinged rock ’n’ roll abandon of badass rock chick drummer Stephanie Fillippini and lead singer Doug Lehman’s urgent, primal yelp.
Please forget that these cats are local, because if you heard knockout songs like Clash City Girl, You’ll Never Be Famous or Rock and Roll pumping out of the speakers before a White Stripes show you’d make an immediate beeline to the record store.
The Clutters truly deserve to be one of Nashville’s biggest rock bands because they have without a doubt delivered one of the best rock records of the year.
— Jason Moon Wilkins - All The Rage
Five SXSW Highlights...
...The Clutters -- We were walking up Red River after lunch Thursday when we heard this Nasvhille garage band blowing the doors off Beerland. Women on drums and Farfisa organ, a singer who sounded like PiL-period Johnny Rotten, and a jerky version of Neil Young's "Are You Ready for the Country?"...
-Mark Kemp - Charlotte Observer
This Nashville four-piece follow one of the most important rules of rock 'n' roll: no messing around. On T&C, their new CD on Austin's Chicken Ranch Records, they plow through 13 songs that show they've spent plenty of time bashing it out in the garage, copping the sharpest moves from '60s punk bands like The Standells and The Count Five. But The Clutters peel back just enough of that raw energy to keep their songs tightly wound, even bouncy, thanks to a taut rhythm section. For all the gruff snarl in Doug Lehman's voice and guitar, their songs are always just catchy enough, which is exactly what made the garage bands of the '60s so great.
—Jonathan Marx - The Nashville Scene
(T&C Album Review)
Apparently there aren't enough hard-rocking bands out there these days. Every week someone else has “saved rock music.” So if you're looking to become rock's messiah, forget about it, the position has been filled. Over, and over, and over. But that hasn't stopped anyone from setting out on a fresh crusade. Some are more well-meaning than others, and the latest of this nature comes from Nashville's The Clutters by way their new album, T&C.
Don't come looking for clean guitars or sweet background vocals: everything about this record is harsh. T&C's instrumental diversity is crowned by a Farfisa organ played by one of two female bandmates, Ali Tonn, (the other is Stephanie Filippini, The Clutters pounding-proficient drummer). The organ serves to weave texture into the speedy, angst-ridden atmosphere, still, its presence is often only potent enough to count as an attempt at including a sound other than a distortion pedal or crash cymbal.
Ultimately what's most evident by the end of the record is that, above all, The Clutters love their guitars, and ain't nobody gon' get in the way of that, not even their lyrics (if you can make them out). The words and melodies consist of repetitions subtly altered from song to song, which could be said for the guitar riffs, too, except for one or two tracks that stand out from their monochromatic siblings. “When Worlds Divide” has clearly and intentionally been crafted into engaging parts, breaking the onslaught of distorted guitar for a most-welcome organ solo.
Most impressive is the sense one gets that this band is simply doing what it wants to do, and doing it in a city that plays host to lightly fluffed pop and glossy production. The Clutters successfully remind of the 'good old days' of rock on this album, but do little more than that.
-Cameron Lawrence - Paste Magazine
Discography
T&C - Compact Disc
Oh! - 7"
Photos
Bio
Nashville's The Clutters are one of the few proper rock bands playing in the city. Within seconds of seeing them live or hearing their new record, T&C, you'll know that they are a band unconcerned with the fashion of the moment. They bash out three minute nuggets of verse-chorus-verse pleasure with plenty of crunch. Between the rusty power chords, walking bass lines, and a hell of a lot of cymbals, you'll hear squeaky guitar leads and a Farfisa. It's too messy for polite company, but too fun to keep to yourself. They bash out rock 'n' roll with the glee and rebellion of '70s punk but without the posed angst. You know, it's just like good rock 'n' roll ought to be.
The Clutters started playing in 2002 after the dissolution of an earlier group that introduced Doug Lehmann and Jake Rosswog to drummer Stephanie Fillippini. Jake and Doug had played together in bands since high school and Jake really wanted to play garage rock. Their starting points were songs from bands like the Sonics, The Mummies, and The Gories. Soon, they were writing originals in the same vein of those songs. The more the band played out, the more their songs grew out of the garage. With the addition of Ali Tonn on Farfisa in late 2003, the songs became more melodic. Ali's Farfisa hooks immediately jump into your brain and help ease The Clutters' songs as they careen from riff to riff. Doug's voice, meanwhile, has grown from a mumbled sneer to an impassioned instrument. He yelps and screams like a young Black Francis, but tempers it with a nasal tone that recalls the collision of rock 'n' roll and honky tonk.
With the release of their debut album, T&C, on Chicken Ranch Records this spring, The Clutters are set to start converting rock 'n' roll atheists with their faithful rock 'n' roll.
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