Lazarus Clamp

Frisky in the Springtime, 2010

noreply@blogger.com (Michael) — Sat, 27 Feb 2010 18:56:00 +0000

We have three outings coming up in the next few weeks:

On Wed 24th March, we play in Arthur Clamp format [that's Michael, Huw and Tom], opening for Geoff Farina and Chris Brokaw at The Hare and Hounds, Birmingham.

On Fri 26th March, we play in genuine Lazarus Clamp format [that's all of us], again on the bill with Geoff Farina and Chris Brokaw at The Luminaire, Kilburn, London. Details of both here:

http://www.damnably.com/2010/02/04/damnably-presents-geoff-farina-chris-brokaw-18th-26th-march/#more-710

On Thurs 1st April, we play on the same bill as our Little Red Rabbit honchos, Last Harbour, at The Cross Kings. Details here:

http://www.wegottickets.com/event/72649

Yet another lovely review for Against Entitlement.

noreply@blogger.com (Michael) — Mon, 11 Jan 2010 15:48:00 +0000

On the Adequacy site.

It is quite possible that our good reviews now outnumber our actual sales.

If you're persuaded by any of them, please do see below, for buying options ...

The CD that comes with Against Entitlement is a free CD.

noreply@blogger.com (Michael) — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 14:00:00 +0000

Reviews for Against Entitlement.

noreply@blogger.com (Michael) — Mon, 16 Nov 2009 21:21:00 +0000

Everyone has been very positive so far. Just waiting on George to rip a strip off us in the Opposer!

The Sunday Times

Norman Records

Manchester Music

Bearded

Releases for sale

noreply@blogger.com (akinks) — Fri, 13 Nov 2009 11:53:00 +0000

The following Lazarus Clamp releases are available via mail order.

Such as you are and still not seeming to mind. 220g vinyl LP. [2001, Words and works rejected/Cleverlegs]. £5 + £1.50 postage.

The more we are the funnier it is. CD. [2004, Words and works rejected/Cleverlegs]. £5 + £1.50 postage.
Death to technicians. CD, also includes It ain't what you do it's what it does to you.[2008, Bearos/Cleverlegs]. £10 + £1.50 postage.
Against entitlement. 180g vinyl LP; includes CD version. [2009, Little Red Rabbit/Cleverlegs]. £12 + £1.50 postage.

Windmill - 25/10/09 - cancelled

noreply@blogger.com (Michael) — Sat, 24 Oct 2009 16:31:00 +0000

Unfortunately, we've decided we have to pull out of the Windmill gig tomorrow - Huw is unwell, and we don't think we can do this one without him. Sorry!

More dates in March/April 2010, we hope.

Things

noreply@blogger.com (Michael) — Thu, 15 Oct 2009 22:49:00 +0000

1. The Against Entitlement vinyl has arrived. Little Red Rabbit have a re-adjusted release date of 23rd November. But if you want to mail order it anyway, contact us on eclamp[at]hotmail.com and we'll let you have the Paypal details to get it direct from us.

2. There's a good quality podcast of our strange unplanned-drumless London show here. The first set is Former Utopia, the second is Lazarus Clamp.

3. We're at Brixton Windmill on Sunday 25th October.

4. There's a rather odd but positive review of Against Entitlement here.

The Station

noreply@blogger.com (Michael) — Sat, 03 Oct 2009 09:30:00 +0000

'Unsatisfying' is probably the best way to describe this one, even though it was nice to do something in Birmingham, and for the Lunar Society, too. The gig was transferred from the Hare and Hounds to The Station some months ago because of a double-booking with John Cooper Clarke [which gave me a weird sense of deja vu - I'm sure the same thing happened with JCC in Leicester once?]. Naturally, the Hare and Hounds was bursting at the seams, as it is every Friday night. And naturally [this is L Clamp, after all], The Station was in less healthy form. Half the beers were off, and one none of those that were on were actually 'beer,' unfortunately.

The old PA from the Jug of Ale has been deposited in the Station, and it grumbled and crackled its way through the soundcheck, coaxed along by Justin, winner of the Super Helpful Soundman on the Night award. The tone was set though, by a an overpriced and underperforming pre-gig supper on York Rd. Complaints were made. Things were sent back. Optimism was dispersed.

As opener James Summerfield noted, it was an intimidatingly 'select' - i.e. small - and attentive audience. It didn't seem to throw him off though - I really enjoyed his set, especially the untitled new song [despite his advance disclaimer that it wouldn't work]. How about 'Not in a Biblical Sense' for a title, James? [It was a too good joke to only use once].

Chase Mist took the middle slot. They belong to a different universe to us really, and with a bigger audience that wouldn't have mattered much - electic line-ups can work well, when there's a broad shore for the waves to break upon, so to speak. But we were navigating by different stars, and it must have felt like as a difficult a gig for them as it did for us.

I couldn't figure out what to play, or what order to play it in, and during our first few songs I got lost somewhere between trying to second guess the sound [which was ok out front, I think, but very muddy on stage] and anticipate the audience [always an error]. John was almost certainly right to suggest that we should just play whatever we felt like playing - my own inclination was to kick off with Liar or Your Song, and blow some of the jangling nerves away. But we didn't - we started slow and quiet as we had at the other gigs this week, and even though it helped Justin to recover his levels, it was the wrong call, I think.

Night of the steep learning curve
Ricochets
New hat
Hard work
Sniper
Spon
We set out to fail and succeeded
Canon
Stone beats this

I didn't hit any kind of stride until 'Fail,' really, but I did enjoy playing the last three. It can't have been as awkward as it felt; afterwards, Alan Bearos enthusiastically described our performance as like 'an American civil war pre-folk version of Uresei Yatsura,' which neither I nor Helen could make any sense of ... but it sounded encouraging!

Luminaire

noreply@blogger.com (Michael) — Thu, 01 Oct 2009 20:15:00 +0000

Huw emailed in, sick. Nobody believed him, and so he sent us some pictures to prove it.

They didn't look good, as you can see - so we went ahead without him.

After the usual London-related car adventures [overheating in the uncivilised traffic] and the usual subsequent rushed soundcheck, we sat down with coffee and food and tried to work out what we could play without him.

Having ruled out about half the things we had prepared to play, and cast numerous aspersions in poor Huw's direction, we finally settled on a set. And told ourselves that it wouldn't work, but it wouldn't matter, because we'd swapped with Construction & Destruction to go on earlier, and so no one would see us.

John, Andrew and I sat in the back room while George got ready to play, and tried to work out how to cover up all the bits that Huw usually fixes. Tom watched us and grinned, exactly like a man who's technical frailties are not about to be exposed by the absence of a more talented colleague. Which of course they weren't: violin is violin, with or without drums.

George kicked things off and was great. The place filled up as he played. It began to look like it would probably matter a bit after all.

We eventually worked through this:

Steep learning curve
Ricochets
New hat
Hard work
Set out to fail
Spon
Etymologist's lament
Your song

I wasn't convinced that Spon stood up, but the rest seemed to work well - even if the songs we ended up with didn't really have the dynamic range that the lovely sound in the Luminaire merited. It got hotter, and more enjoyable, as we went along. Your Song definitely shouldn't have worked. It sort of did. Fancy that.

After that, Construction and Destruction were finally done justice, with their proper equipment, and a good soundman. Julie, Dan and Fred, were great, again. It was George's birthday, and a very enjoyable night. I drove home, but fell asleep at Oxford Services.

Right. Bring on the folk dimension. Brumdignab next.

Islington Mill

noreply@blogger.com (Michael) — Mon, 28 Sep 2009 10:56:00 +0000

We kicked off our little jaunt quite respectably at Islington Mill, despite the fact that no one could find it. After an afternoon practicing in a boomy and rather desolate ex-warehouse, we turned up to the venue to discover that it was erm ... not that different to where we'd been practicing. It did have some very friendly and helpful people in it, and a very, very tired Former Utopia, and a few fairy lights.

After a couple of hours, a lot of heel kicking [the other bands were lost in traffic] and some foul chips [John really enjoyed these, in a way which was completely disproportionate to their edibility, and which I guess was an indicator of how hungry we were by then], everybody else turned up.

We played:
Night of the steep learning curve
New hat
Hard work of simple things
Etymologist's lament
Black plumes for Hot Peas
Canon
Stone beats this

'New hat' and 'Canon' felt a little sticky, but the others seemed to come out right. Tom played a blinder on 'Hard work' and the song soared off at the end in a way that I don't think it ever really has before. Probably never will again, now!

Julie, Fred and Dan were very, very good. Some things were [very satisfyingly] predictable - quiet and pretty renditions of the quiet and pretty songs from the last few LPs, sweet as you like. Others were more surprising - big blasts of bluesy guitar, tumbling drums. And then some lovely songs with Fred and Dan singing too. The whole thing was also very relaxed and funny [attendance was on the 'light' side].

Anyone toying with idea of picking up a ticket for the Luminaire show is strongly encouraged to do so ...

Autumn gigs, 2009

noreply@blogger.com (Michael) — Mon, 17 Aug 2009 09:50:00 +0000

Sunday 27th September - Islington Mill, Manchester, for Damnably, with Julie Doiron, and Construction and Destruction, and Former Utopia.

Wednesday 30th September - Luminaire, London, for Damnably, with Julie Doiron, and Construction and Destruction, and Former Utopia.

Friday 2nd October - The Station, Kings Heath, Birmingham, for the Moseley Lunar Society.

Sunday 25th October - The Windmill, Brixton, London, for Stubbaboon.

Saturday 31st October - Leeds - tbc.

Against entitlement, 19th October 2009

noreply@blogger.com (Michael) — Mon, 17 Aug 2009 09:38:00 +0000

Against Entitlement will be released on 19th October, on Little Red Rabbit records (LRR014). It will be distributed by Forte. It will come as an LP, on 180g vinyl, and will include a free CD version of the album. Or, if you prefer, it comes as a CD, and will include a free 180g vinyl record, and some extra bits of paper and artwork. Either way, the shop price will be £12.

It will also be available as a download.

A limted number of CD-only copies will be available directly from us, for people who don't want the lovely vinyl, and the extra bits of paper, and the lovely sleeve, not even for free, thank you [what's wrong with you?].

There are 9 songs on the record:

Stone beats this
Etymologist's lament
Spon
Hard work of simple things
Been black-eyed
Canon
Night of the steep learning curve
Puppies
I am the police

We are playing some gigs too - see subsequent postings.

New songs, pts IV & V

noreply@blogger.com (Michael) — Mon, 17 Aug 2009 09:33:00 +0000

A couple of weeks ago, I was in Brighton for the week, and so I drove up to John's one evening and we worked on these for a couple of hours:

The horse you rode in on
Things are sticky

Then yesterday, four of us (everyone except Tom who was pre-booked) met in Birmingham, and spent the afternoon working on:

Things are sticky
Bow down

These last two aren't far off being playable, once we have Tom's parts and a few details sorted out.

Against entitlement

noreply@blogger.com (Michael) — Fri, 24 Jul 2009 12:39:00 +0000

Meanwhile, the preparation for the release of Against Entitlement is almost complete. The 9 songs are currently being mastered at Echolab. Once we have those back, we're ready to roll.

This new record will be released on Little Red Rabbit records (cat. no. LRR014) in October. It will come on 180g vinyl, with a free CD. It should be available in time for the gigs we're going to be playing this autumn.

New songs, pt III

noreply@blogger.com (Michael) — Fri, 24 Jul 2009 12:35:00 +0000

John, Tom and myself met up in Birmingham this weekend just gone, where we ate too many doughnut-muffin hybrids [douffins? muffnuts?], and worked on some new songs:

This is how I cut my own throat
Latch
Simple and easy
Tethered not caged
Apple and pear

Let the marathon CDr burning commence ...

More former than latter

noreply@blogger.com (Michael) — Sun, 24 May 2009 09:25:00 +0000

We mostly got away with that - although we set a rather frisky pace, which was somewhat at odds with the mood of the evening. Picture a post-rock, Shoreditch-close version of Jazz Club. Nice.

Indicative exchange of the evening:
John enters the little in-house record-shop; CDs and records are placed on every available surface - the floor, shelves, electricity meter and consumer unit. John browses them for a while, and then, puzzled:
John [to man in record shop]: I don't recognise any of these records. Not one. I have three thousand records at home. OK, I don't like all of them, but how is this possible? Are all the records in this shop just obscure experimental noise or something?
Man: Yes.

Anyway, to the gig. I was late, and stressed by the lateness, and by the overheating of the vehicle which got me there. I barely coped with a disastrous soundcheck and broken guitar. After a drink and a drop in heartrate, I was able to problem-solve a bit more clearly: we swapped guitars and amps around for the gig, and thanks to a stand-up soundman, it sounded great.

George was on fine form for his Former Utopia set, and he also saved my ass by lending me his guitar after mine decided to be broken. I covered the door for him while he played, much to the consternation of the kid who appeared to be running the place. I was a little laissez faire for his liking I think.

I started off on my own. I played Smoke, and Let's Get Fired, and Tethered Not Caged (two new songs) on my own. Then Andrew and John joined in; we began with Andrew on banjo for Hard Work of Simple Things and New Hat, then on guitar for Ricochets, Steep Learning Curve, Sniper (which didn't really work without drums), Thieves and Curses (which worked better than I expected, but which, unfortunately, I sang with all the grace of a lonely tomcat), and then Spon (which sped up rather hilariously).

Grubbs was in ''Optimist Notes the Dusk' mode, more than, say, Wingdale Community Singers or Gastr Del Sol mode. This seemed to be what most people had come for (he had an incredibly attentive audience). I wasn't in the right frame of mind for that, really, after our set: I daydreamed my way through a lot of the spacier bits. Plus it worries me a bit whenever I discover I am listening to a 'piece' rather than a 'song.' I feel like I've ventured into grown-up, metropolitan territory where I don't belong, a bit like when I find myself in meetings with People Who Wear Suits at work.

But there was a lively version of Two Shades of Green, and a memorable new song [sorry, new piece] about a hermitage in the clouds which [when it finally got going ...] was very pretty indeed. And there was a magical moment of transition from piano to guitar which carried over a rather claustrophobic musical figure and chiming pattern first set up on the piano, and then somehow transformed it into something very beautiful and transcendent.

Pre Grubbs emotions running high

noreply@blogger.com (JP) — Fri, 22 May 2009 09:42:00 +0000

Following on from Michael's thoughts...

I have had to work out at least 3 of the bass lines from scratch, having not played these songs live 'for a while', and in one case, 'before'.

Are we holding true to some kind of misguided DIY ethic, or running along in the ill fitting but fashionable trainers of confidence? Either way, there is a high chance that either the tools will not be sharp enough or that our shoe laces may not be tied tightly enough.

I am intrigued to see what happens. jp

Arthur Clamp

noreply@blogger.com (Michael) — Wed, 20 May 2009 11:51:00 +0000

This week's L.Clamp gig for Damnably with David Grubbs and Former Utopia is now Michael, John and Andrew, rather than just Michael on his ownsome.

There will be banjo.

And some mistakes (rehearsals have consisted of one early morning telephone conversayion about equipment, and a couple of emails about the songs we can't play without drums). What can possibly go wrong?

On 22nd May, at Cafe OTO, Dalston, London.

Details here: www.damnably.com

DTT on LFM

noreply@blogger.com (Michael) — Thu, 30 Apr 2009 15:16:00 +0000

You can now listen to Death to Technicians on Last.fm

Ex voto jukebox

noreply@blogger.com (Michael) — Thu, 23 Apr 2009 10:13:00 +0000

This is a new project that Michael is involved in. Each month you get the chance to have a song written about your experiences.

Take a look, and please contribute if you like the idea:

http://exvotojukebox.blogspot.com/

Its not too late to save him from having to write a song about Huw's slightly sore knee. Please.

Silver Rocket

noreply@blogger.com (Michael) — Sun, 19 Apr 2009 21:35:00 +0000

We played at Silver Rocket this week. Apart from Tom, we all arrived on time (unusually), from our various corners of the country. Time enough to hang around listening to Big Joan's basstasmic soundcheck, grumble about the weather, and eat pies. The soundman was good. As a result, the sound was also good. Our hosts played nice records. We drank free coca colas and token lagers.

Huw warmed up by providing some improvised drumming for friend and former Clamper, Former Utopia. About 90% of this worked extremely well. We nodded our heads, sang along to Double Negative, and smiled at Mr Utopia's big ole grin.

Rob from Airport Girl turned up, unexpectedly, and happily drunked, and so I missed Herzoga, who were up next, while I chatted to him. We reminisced about the Go-Betweens. Imagine that!

We played. It seemed ok to me. Gigs quickly acquire a familiar momentum or identity. Sometimes this doesn't become apparent until you're underway, sometimes its evident even while you tune up and poke at stray leads with your toes. This was quickly one of those easygoing affairs where maybe we undersold ourselves a little, but enjoyed the process of doing it. I changed guitars too often and mumbled off-mic a lot. It didn't really matter. Stagecraft. Pff.

We played three or four quiet ones to start (I remember Thieves & Curses, Sniper, and Night of the Steep Learning Curve). This was probably not a very Silver Rocket decision, but I enjoyed those ones the best. The sound was clear and crisp, and the room felt attentive. We played Liar then, which broke the shush, and although it perked things up, I wished we'd skipped it for once - but we then gave a very good account of Black Plumes, and a few other songs on the baritone. I remember a slightly clunky Canon (at least, I personally clunked - everyone else seemed fine), and an odd conversation with a rather polite heckler, which I probably asked for, having complained about my sausagemeat fingers. She came up to apologise, at the end - quite unnecessarily. Seriously, I get worse than that at home. Very considerate of her, though. We finished on Stone Beats This, which felt very good to me, despite the sausagemeat fingers.

We broked camp. In the DJ booth, Ms Smith admired the baritone. I was too flaked out to do justice to the conversation. We drank more coke and stared into space, thinking about our beds, while Big Joan got up and did it again. We ummed and ahhed about staying or going. The beds were calling, and we went, feeling a bit rude and trying not to make a big noise about it. Andy ran after us to pay us. Now THAT's a promoter.

There's a clip of the gig here (with some subtle subliminal messaging added by Mr Utopia) -

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p39XBduJwRI

New songs, pt II

noreply@blogger.com (JP) — Fri, 03 Apr 2009 11:18:00 +0000

Clumsily abutted onto the end of a gig preparation event, two new songs took their first breaths as children of the entire band. These were 'Bow Down' and 'Simple & Easy'. Huw bashed manfully along to Michaels latest interpretation of these future classics. Andrew and Tom noodled away happily. I tried to make my bassline fit in. It fitted when I wrote it, it should damn well fit now.

Everyone was reminded just how much fun it is playing new songs.

Pt. 1. Of the Excruciatingly Slow [TM] Lazarus Clamp creative process

noreply@blogger.com (Michael) — Thu, 05 Mar 2009 16:30:00 +0000

A while ago I posted a note on the myspace page about the amusingly inefficient means that we use to develop and learn new songs [I've pasted it below, if you're interested].

It occurred to me that it might be interesting to chart that process in real time, with a thread on the blog. It'll be like 'The Wire,' only with less drugs, less sex, and a more complicated plot.

So here's where we are so far:

1. In the spring, Tom, Huw and I met a couple of times after work, at some horrible electrical danger area of a rehearsal space, situated in a cowshed somewhere in the nexus of Too Many Roads between the West Midlands and Lichfield. We played around with a few ideas, and made a couple of two track stereo recordings on my laptop. Two of these ideas (This is how I cut my own throat; Piss and vinegar) have survived or developed since.

2. In the autumn, John came to see me in Birmingham, and one evening while Mrs L Clamp tried to put Little L Clamp to bed, John and I sat up in my loft and I played him about a dozen ideas for new songs, on a lightly amplified guitar. I sang them (fairly unconvincingly), where I had words, and he recorded them on a hand-held recorder.

2. John sent me a CD of those songs shortly afterwards (minus one which has gone missing somewhere). I made changes to a couple of them, wrote some more words, dropped a couple of bits. I recorded the changed ones, and a couple more new ones, and sent these to him, via FTP. He started working out bass parts.

3. Just before Christmas, I played a couple of these songs(Kick over the traces; Not sleeping; Membrane)to George and Huw, for possible use in the Philanthropists.

4. Today I burned the whole lot to CDs for Tom, Huw and Andrew. I also sent the possible Philanthropists' ones to George. I guess the status of those might change if George doesn't like them, or if L Clamp do, but its a start.

5. At this stage, I think these songs will turn into a recording called 'How I quit being a service provider and became a service user.' But that's almost certain to change.

Now all we need is McNulty, and a subplot about the money.

----

Here's the original myspace bit:

> typically ...
>
> i write new song[s].
> at some point i play new song with huw.
> time passes: huw forgets new song.
> i do a bit more work on the song.
> on another occasion i play same new song to everyone.
> huw claims never to have heard it before.
> everyone works out some new parts for the new song.
> it sounds promising.
> time passes: everyone forgets new song.
> on a later occasion, john records me playing the song [you can start here in the process i think, if you are in a rush].
> john burns everyone a cd of the new song[s].
> everyone claims never to have heard it/them before.
> john works out a part for the song [s].
> i do a bit more work on the song [s].
> on another occasion, we play the song, and this time john has all his parts written down, though tom has completely forgotten his part, and huw and andrew claim never to have heard it before.
> i piss john off, because what i am now playing is not the same as what i played on the recording. everyone else says, 'what recording?' and john, who burns about 2000 lclamp cds a year in this process, weeps a little bit.
> we persist. john makes andrew write his part down, and then we make a recording of the whole band playing the song so that tom and huw can remember their bits. usually we find that we do not have a decent recording device between us at this point, and resort to tom's dictaphone.
> time passes: everyone except john forgets the song.
> we plan a gig or some recording. we meet to play the song. 'what song?' everyone says to me and john. we play the recording on tom's dictaphone. its not a bit muffled, its a lot muffled. no one can tell how it goes or what they are playing. i weep a little bit.
> we reconstruct our parts from what we have written down and remembered, and make a better recording. andrew looks confused and sort of half-mimes through the song as we record it.
> john burns it to cd again, sends to everyone. huw listens to it in the car, and from here on in largely remembers it, though he does tend to combust a bit, if subsequently asked to do anything very different to what he has now done on this recording. john calls andrew every night for a week to make him listen to the cd and work out what he is doing. we all hear tom's bit for the first time, and tell him it is too wishy-washy.
> at the next rehearsal andrew and tom are both poked with sticks until they come up with bits that actually work. we record it again, john burns another cd, writes 'this one you idiots' on the box, and sends it to us.
> we have learned the song.
> it has taken 12 months.
> i do a bit more work on the song ...

May gig for Damnably

noreply@blogger.com (Michael) — Tue, 03 Mar 2009 20:24:00 +0000

On 22nd May, Michael is playing, part-lonesome-ownsome, part-duo with Former Utopia, opening for David Grubbs.

Its at Cafe OTO, Dalston, London.

Details here: www.damnably.com

April gig at Silver Rocket

noreply@blogger.com (Michael) — Tue, 03 Mar 2009 20:20:00 +0000

On 17th April we are happy guests at Silver Rocket, along with Big Joan & Herzoga.

Its at Buffalo Bar, Islington, London.

Details here: www.silverrocket.org