Peter Williams Musik

We (Clamshake) again had the privilege of playing at Huset in Copenhagen last night. We always seem to go down well in that venue, and thanks to our friends, and the fans of the bands we were supporting everyone had a wonderful time. Particularly as there is now a no smoking rule in the entire venue. Fantastic to play a gig and not come home smelling and feeling like an ashtray.

Clamshake

What can I say, despite not having met up for two months prior to the sound check we were brilliant. A fairly small but perfectly formed audience was even more brilliant than we were. They possessed the admirable quality of hearing the music and not the mistakes. But then that is what clamshake’s sound is about.

We gave the usual set; a mixture of surf, rock & roll, country and spaghetti western, mariachi and, and, … well, isn’t that enough in a 40 minute set?

Please forgive the recording quality, it came straight from the desk. Which reminds me, I must thank Kristian Berg (sound engineer) for what I am sure is the best sound we have had so far, both on stage and out front.

• Tollof Miadegul: Guitar
• Craig Wood: Drums
• Peter Williams: Doghouse
• Dr Oyster: Trumpet, clamshells, xylophone and monkey noises

Wherewolf

They’re musicianship was faultless, they had energy and presence. I have to say they were much more heavy rock than surf, although I could hear the surf crashing in there when I listened for it.

Read more about wherewolf’s hardcore sound at http://www.myspace.com/wherewolfband.

The Palermo Surf Experience

What can I say..

Surf, surf, surf. A polished, musical, entertaining and stylish end to the evening. They had more pedals than most music shops, sunglasses and a theremin and all were used to good effect. Kristian (sound engineer) was on drums. That explains why he knows how to get the right sound, sometimes it takes a musician to know what a musician needs.

Read about Palermo Surf Experience’s gigs and recordings on their rather slick looking website.

My friend Johnny asked me a couple of days ago.. ‘When are you playing next?‘ ‘The 28th April, Huset’ I replied. ‘What kind of music?‘ He inquired. ‘Mariachi meets spaghetti western‘.

I was not trying to be glib. Classification is always a difficult thing. A pianist recently shared a quote with me which covers the problem… ‘Talking about music is like dancing about architecture‘. Still, this attitude does not help me enlighten my friends about the sounds that Clamshake produce. Mariachi is a music originally from Mexico Usually involving violins, trumpets, Spanish guitar, vihuela and guitarrón (a small-scaled acoustic bass). That does not describe Clamshake at all, but mariachi was originally a street music, and it’s there that parallel is strongest.. there is a loose, honest, under-rehearsed feel to our music which in truth could be described without reference to Latin America. We do have a trumpet player though.

Spaghetti western is closer to the mark, but it could also be described as punk-ish, Country, Surf, Rockabilly, strepitoso, barocco, Tarentino – soundtrack-esque, instrumental. The guitarist, Tollef Mjadigal, (I’m sure that’s spelled wrong), is into Ump ah, and plays the banjo. The horns and percussion are covered by music journalist and Balkan music enthusiast Mikkel Hornes. Drummer and motivational force Craig Wood is keen on Surf and Skifflel, among other things, and is a talented artist (paint). Finally me (Double Bass), and I’m a jazzer, with a Circus and Indie music history. So it should be no surprise that our music is beyond classification.

If you dare to find out what it is, come down to Huset on the 28th of this month. (Don’t know the time yet.)

Here’s a dusty old rehearsal recording I found. It’s from last summer, and it hasn’t dated at all!

We are proud to announce that Clamshake has won funding from through the DMF (Danish Musicians Union) to go on holiday, er um, tour to New York!

We still need to find half the money so it’s not certain yet, but if we can think of a way of raising the money without selling our instruments we will be off. Off to say hi to the the kind folks over there who have shown interest and support through our myspace.com site.