Clamhammer

by Scott Hefflon

Have no fear, there will never be muzak versions of Clamhammer tunes to haunt you as you’re shopping for sale items in your favorite department store. Richard Marx and Michael Bolton, yes (not that they’re far from orchestrated Novocaine to begin with), but not Clamhammer. Their style of feedback, stagger-tempo, ranting versed noise is definitely their own. While they’re undergoing personal changes recently, E.Z. doesn’t “sing” for them anymore – now Buster does vocals, they are still very Clamhammer. I’m told their shows are very loud, energetic and memorable. That sort of thing is good to know when all you have to review from is word of mouth descriptions, a live photo, and a poorly mixed, handwritten tape. What does come through on both the 4 song and 7″ and the latest demo is that Clamhammer has a sense of humor. With various lyric ranting about that macho queen, Conan, Steve Austin (six million dollar man), a mailman, and a bowel pal all spread over instrumental chaos, that is certainly not easy listening – but it is fun listening. They open for some heavy hitters in and around the city and their shows are said to be really wild, so check ’em out. I’m going to.