We’ve been making our way through CLAW HAMMER’s early material here at Detailed Twang, our contention being that this LA-based band were vastly underrated during their early years and even more so now. In previous postings we gave you the keys to their first compilation tracks from 1988, and later their 1989 debut 45, “Poor Robert”. A few months later, this explosive guitar-heavy grease bomb of a band put out what I believe to be their best single, 1989’s “Sick Fish Belly Up / Moonlight On Vermont”, released on a local label called Trigon. This is the record where their MC5/BEEFHEART hybrid was most extant, made flesh in an A-side that absolutely scorches like Side 1 of “Kick Out the Jams”, and a killer B-side cover of one of the great Captain’s finest and most stomping of songs. “Sick Fish Belly Up” was always the one that got the already hyped-up crowd going completely bonkers, and watching Claw Hammer play it is something that still resonates in my nostalgia-heavy noggin. Help me relive the glory by clicking on the links below.Play or Download CLAW HAMMER – “Sick Fish Belly Up” (A-side)
Play or Download CLAW HAMMER – “Moonlight On Vermont” (B-side)
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3 comments:
One of my favorite 45s ever!
Thanks for these tracks. I had a friend of a friend who gave me a tape of claw hammer playing at Raji's around the time the first album came out on sympathy. God I miss that tape. Regardless it's nice to be able to listen to songs I would have never been able to get my hands on otherwise. Cheers!
Rob
Wow! Thanks Jay. One of my fave singles, discovered through the efforts of Robert Griffin's radio show '7 Inches of Love', in Cle, way back in '90. I'd recorded the set off the air, and it was a blistering one, also including what became another unresolved fixation "I Don't Wanna", which may have been Twenty Second Sect, unless their song was yet another greasy hot slab. Anyways, that tape was gone years ago, never forgotten, and I'd been looking for this single ever since. It's the one that MADE me a Clawhammer adherant and I was at every Cle show they played. Thanks again. Tony
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