CLAW HAMMER - Deep In The Heart Of Nowhere

2009 release. This live album is a mighty sonic document of one of the most unclassifiable American bands of the 1990s. In the middle of a 1995 tour where their noise rock was often met by the indifference and incomprehension of audiences not ready for such full-on assault, Claw Hammer registered a show in Dallas that reveals the unique, wild and physical style only they possessed. Playing a 750-capacity club in Dallas to an audience of two people was actually not the most undignifying show on Claw Hammers spring 1995 US tour. That memorable event had come about two weeks earlier in Toledo, Ohio, where we were paid 1,000 dollars, the largest guarantee of our entire trip, to play for 90 minutes in what amounted to the entrance room of a teen dance club. So for an hour and a half, I watched about 500 in succession people walk from the door to this one particular spot on the floor, stand there and watch us for less than 10 seconds, then turn around and make a beeline for the stairs that led to the basement, where a sound system more powerful than ours was pumping Gin and Juice for the assembled throngs. Wed had enough of this shit after 75 minutes but the club wanted their contract fulfilled, so on we plowed, into an epic version of Sick Fish Belly Up that deteriorated into one of the most spastic, ear-splitting, fist-up-the-yang noise jams I have ever been part of. We just decided to drown out the disco beats for a change, and just pulverize everything in sight into white noise and hand a colossal fuck-you to the bizarre and unfortunate circumstances that seemed to be surrounding us at every turn. One thing I remember about the cave gigs on that tour is, we made the most of every one as a musical happening. You cant get depressed about no one coming to the show, thats something beyond your control. But to walk off the stage knowing you just laid a big one, thats fucking depressing. We were determined to play what we wanted to be heard, come hell or high water. -Bob Lee.