SOUND BITES

  The pandemic took something from all of us; in the case of Clutch, one of hard rock's most dependable and hard working bands, it took the crucial lifeline that is touring. What this essentially means for their thirteenth album is that its creation wasn't able to be informed by their normal practice of road testing and fine tuning the songs. Written and recorded in the tentative times surrounding lockdowns, mandates and sporadic performances (including a handful of well-received Live from the Doom Saloon livestreams), Sunrise on Slaughter Beach is, in turn, somewhat of a tentative album by the longstanding champions of pure rock fury. In a way, this album is a welcome retraction from previous record Book of Bad Decisions , which is sprawling by comparison at fifteen tracks over 57 minutes. With nine tracks over 33 minutes, Sunrise on Slaughter Beach isn't just a leaner record, it's the shortest of their storied career by far; this implies a focus on quality over qua...

Clutch's twelfth album begins with a song about a bad experience during their formative years; Gimme the Keys tells the tale of a band playing a terrible venue and making a getaway from some very angry people. It's energetic, bombastic and right in the Clutch wheelhouse. Tellingly, it might also be the weakest song on the album. Having built a reputation for the quality of both their albums and their live show, Clutch spent their last two album cycles recommitting to rock; Earth Rocker and Psychic Warfare were no muss, no fuss rock records, a pair of albums that further enhanced their formidable resumé. With Book of Bad Decisions , they're ready to expand their sound while keeping their core aesthetic intact. For this record, they worked with producer Vance Powell, whose award-winning expertise has resulted in some decisions here that are far from bad. One of the album's most thrilling surprises is In Walks Barbarella , a song that could be considered a sta...

As our look back on the year that was catches up to the present (and peeks ever so slightly into the future), it becomes clear that the vast majority of rock artists preferred to avoid the last two months of the year; though it's typically the stronghold time of year for pop superstar stocking stuffers, I still find it just a bit odd to see that two month gap emerge after mid-October with no nominated songs. In fact, that's almost as odd as two established bands deciding to release their albums one week before Christmas. Regardless, our last batch of nominees runs the gamut: here we find new artists to look out for, home grown Maritime talent hitting its stride, and no less than three bands with multiple Album of the Year nominations. Song of the Year nominees #41-50 are:

Sometimes, when reviewing an album, you have to take your time. Usually, I can form a pretty solid opinion on a record given two or three spins, and within a few hours of the music meeting my ears for the first time, you're reading my thoughts on it. Not the case with Clutch, whose formidable discography and consistent quality demand the increased scrutiny that comes along with increased respect. Given a steady diet of Psychic Warfare over the course of a week and a half, I'm happy to be just getting around to this now; had I published a review a week earlier, I may have offered a version of the review that felt incomplete. That review would have also been less favorable; my knee jerk reaction to the album was that it offered a bit too much in the way of repetition in comparison to 2013's Earth Rocker . Not to say it outright cribs from any kind of formula (and really, to accuse Clutch of adhering to a formula is a fool's errand), but a few moments on Psychic Warfa...

Over the course of forty days, I've talked and talked about these songs leading up to the moment when one would be singled out to wear the crown as 2013's Song of the Year. The time for talk is over. If, by chance, you missed the write-ups on any of this year's nominees, they're all here . I've also added hyperlinks below for the ten shortlisted nominees. Other than that, let's get the show on the road! The Shortlist: Arctic Monkeys: Do I Wanna Know? Clutch: Crucial Velocity Foals: Inhaler Headstones: Far Away From Here Kings of Leon: Beautiful War Man Man: Head On Pearl Jam: Sirens Queens of the Stone Age: Kalopsia Vampire Weekend: Diane Young J. Roddy Walston & The Business: Heavy Bells AND THE WINNER OF YEAR IN ROCK 2013'S SONG OF THE YEAR AWARD IS...

CLUTCH Crucial Velocity From: Earth Rocker Released: March 19 After two decades of carving their own path to success, Clutch have finally reached a pretty comfortable place in their careers. One could be forgiven for assuming that they might rest on their laurels a bit, and maybe even phone it in a bit on their tenth album. Instead, they sound hungry as ever; Earth Rocker rocks hard, fast and often, a high-octane thrill ride that unquestionably ranks up there with Blast Tyrant and their self titled album as career highlights.

Plenty of history's great bands have celebrated two decades of rocking with albums that attempt to showcase what all those years have done for them; the hope is to give adoring fans another fine addition to their collection while opening the door to a new generation, which is what twenty years in business can do for a band. However, if history has taught us anything, it's that these attempts have a very low success rate. Twenty years after Kill 'Em All put thrash on the map, Metallica rang in their third decade with the messy, difficult St. Anger , an album nearly universally panned as their worst. The twentieth anniversary of AC/DC's debut LP saw them unleash the underwhelming Ballbreaker on its fans. R.E.M.'s album quality was never the same after drummer Bill Berry left in '96, but even the pessimists were disappointed by Around the Sun , a mind-numbing snoozefest of an album that followed their debut full-length by 21 years in 2004. Even The Rolling Stone...

Stream Dropkick Murphys' eighth effort here, courtesy the good folks at purevolume.com When it comes to a rollicking good time, few bands are as dependable as Dropkick Murphys. While Signed And Sealed In Blood doesn't match some of their past efforts in terms of sheer volume, their punk-infused pub rock spirit is well intact. Check out opener The Boys Are Back , sure to be a frequent set opener on Dropkicks shows henceforth for the proof. Burn ups the tempo while Jimmy Collins' Wake and lead single Rose Tattoo bring a higher than normal level of maturity to the proceedings. End Of The Night is a nice closer, a roaring blast of a ballad that will inspire countless drunken singalongs.

Usually, this is the time of year when the reflections on the twelve months that were are complete and this place becomes a ghost town for at least a couple weeks because there's nothing interesting being released until April. In fact, if you noticed during my chronologically ordered nominees rollout, you'll find that only 7/50 came out in the first quarter of the year (with five of those being in March, and none in January). Maybe the labels are panicking to get their properties out there before no one cares about albums anymore, maybe my music addiction's spiraled too far out of control. Whatever the case, the first three months of 2013 are logjammed with potentially and guaranteed awesome albums alike. So, we took a look back, and will remember 2012 fondly; now let's dive into 2013 and start devouring more tasty riffs! After the jump are my 15 most anticipated releases coming in the early part of 2013:

After being talked about and teased for months, Clutch have finally released their new single.  Pigtown Blues is backed with an excellent acoustic version of Motherless Child .  It was just released digitally and on 7" picture disc with the artwork you see on the left. Pigtown Blues is pretty much what you expect from Clutch at this point in their career; dirty, bluesy and funky goodness.  It may not have the same explosive effect an undisputed champ like Electric Worry has, but it definitely whets the appetite while waiting for Maryland's finest to finally get out a new album.  Three years and counting is a long time since Strange Cousins From The West , and some of us are getting a little impatient. Anyway, the good folks at Soda Shop Records took the new record for a spin and gave us a stream: