Shop our Big Takeover store for back issues, t-shirts & CDs
Follow The Big Takeover
Now here’s a real interesting band from the Connecticut cities of Hartford and New Haven. Two of the members – guitarist/vocalist Keith Shiv and drummer Mike Mayo – recorded and toured as Shiv in the early/mid-‘90s. Now, with guitarist Greg Sirianni and Ryan Welcome on bass, they’ve created a band that is simultaneously art rock and arena rock, two styles of music shouldn’t work well together, but somehow do.
The opening “Storm” is both power pop and post-punk, employing anthemic melody and jagged guitar to full effect for a different kind of rock song. The following “Challenger” is a strong, heavy tune with a gritty Destroyer-era Kinks vibe. On the flip side, “Monoliths, Raise Your Heads Up!” uses a Fugazi-esque post-hardcore tone to build to Karp-like chanting. The closing “Ribbons Ribbon Ribbons” is pure Syd Barrett-ish dreamy pop, complete with a french horn and calliope intro/outro.
When placed next to the empty void that passes for hard rock today, i.e., Staind, Nickelback and Three Doors Down, it’s amazing that The Clearer are relative unknowns. Their songs are heavy, but catchy, far superior and closer in spirit to the Pearl Jam wanna-bes that pollute the airwaves today. Here’s to The Clearer and their highly original rock!
