Michael L Clamp profile picture

Michael L Clamp

About Me

I am from the North East of England. I taught myself to play drums (badly) and then a bit later, guitar (slightly less badly, I hope). I write a lot of songs (too many) and play guitar (upside down) and make noises with my throat (ouch) for Lazarus Clamp, and sometimes I play on my own, too, as 'Michael L. Clamp' (you see what I did there?). Lazarus Clamp have a myspace page too, which is self-explanatory.Once I opened for Cat Power at the International Arts Centre in Leicester, which was a very nice experience, and other times I have played the advance party for Thee More Shallows and The Mekons. Usually my solo outings are a bit more low-key. Sometimes I play at Ben Calvert's 'Bohemian Jukebox'; night, which runs in my current town-of-residence, Birmingham. Sometimes I allow myself to play some covers (not a typical Lazarus Clamp habit). I like to play Jackson (Lucinda Williams), Echo (Mekons), Blues in Dallas (Mountain Goats), Don't Fence Me In (Cole Porter), Ring of Fire (Johnny Cash), May It Always Be (Bonnie Prince Billy), Artists (Giant Sand) - you get the idea. And I sometimes like to play a bit of folk music with our violin player, Tom (Wake Up Jacob, Red-haired Boy, that sort of thing) when we stumble across a suitable occasion. And Tom, Huw and I sometimes play as three-piece (Arthur Clamp aka Flying Ant Day) which works slightly better than you'd think - but not as well as we'd like. I'm also playing occasionally as the Philanthropists, with Huw and former LC bass player (and current former Former Utopia ex-former .. oh you get it), George.The latest Lazarus Clamp LP (Death to Technicians!) was released on Bearos records in April 2008. Initial pressings come with a free copy of the unreleased 3rd LP ('It aint what you do, its what it does to you,' taking its title from the Simon Armitage poem of the same name) which features some Elclamp and Arthur Clamp favourites too. The next one (Against Entitlement) is scheduled for a 2009 release by Little Red Rabbit.

My Interests

Music:

Member Since: 20/02/2006
Band Website: www.lazarusclamp.co.uk
Band Members: We hire werewolves, clowns, pirates, hypochrondriacs, monkeys and buffoons. We frown upon 'Musicians' and those who take too much care over their appearance.
Influences: I like interesting things. Obviously. Pebbles: they’re good. Counter-strike, I like that. Anything infused with the spirit of the post-Minutemen punk renaissance. Anything older than a live human being. The sea. Animals, especially monkeys and cats. I’ve just discovered perry: there should be more of that, more often. Italian food. Wine is rubbish though. And jazz (*except Charlie Parker). Obviously, being 87 years old, and only 1" high, I like people who wear soft shoes. I like books. Books are good. Jim Dodge, Angela Carter, Daren King, Russell Hoban, AL Kennedy, Kurt Vonnegut, JG Ballard, Will Self, David Mitchell, James Ellroy, Charles Bukowski, Alexander Trocchi, Anne Michaels, Richard Brautigan, William Gibson, Nelson Algren, and Janet Turner Hospital. I really like Simon Armitage and Kate Clanchy, too. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2iOnrMuwtwI
Sounds Like: Cold spit on hot coals.
Record Label: Cleverlegs/ Bearos / Sorted/ Words & Works.

My Blog

Against entitlement - 19th October, 2009.

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...
Posted by on Mon, 17 Aug 2009 03:04:00 GMT

Autumn gigs

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, w...
Posted by on Mon, 17 Aug 2009 03:02:00 GMT

Split 7" with Former Utopia on Damnably

http://blogs.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=blog...MySpace .com Blogs - former utopia MySpace Blog Shared via AddThis George Gargan has launched his Damnably label with a ltd edition 7" single. It ...
Posted by on Fri, 03 Jul 2009 08:12:00 GMT

Ex voto jukebox

I've been meaning to try this out for a while. For reasons I find impossible to identify, never mind articulate, I actually did it. See here:exvotojukebox.blogspot.com"At Ex Voto Jukebox, you can subm...
Posted by on Tue, 31 Mar 2009 05:44:00 GMT

New blog

We intend to use the following site to keep you up to date with general Lazarus Clamp news:http://www.lazarusclamp.co.uk/news/ Lazarus Clamp on iLike - Add iLike to your MySpace
Posted by on Tue, 03 Mar 2009 07:07:00 GMT

December 2008

Well, thanks to the extraordinary organisational capacity of Mr George Gargan; the goodwill and great effort of Calvin Party, MJ Hibbett, and Former Utopia; the fine musical choices of Rachel and Andy...
Posted by on Mon, 15 Dec 2008 00:01:00 GMT

Change of venue for London / multiplication of events

We are now playing not once, but twice on Sat Dec 6th, in London. First an afternoon freebie at Rota, and then an evening at the Wilmington. Details below.
Posted by on Sun, 09 Nov 2008 08:58:00 GMT

Wintery return to London Bridge

We are looking forward to this. Its a Saturday night, in an accessible bit of London, and Calvin Party have been doggedly doing their own enjoyably unfashionable thing for even longer than we have. Sh...
Posted by on Mon, 29 Sep 2008 21:15:00 GMT

New album in our grubby hands

Death to technicians! We are pleased to announce that we finally have a new album back from the pressing plant. It will be available on CD, from mid-April, 2008. It is called ’Death to Te...
Posted by on Sun, 30 Mar 2008 16:11:00 GMT

What could possiby go wrong?

George emailed me, because he is putting a band together, and he asked me how the process of learning new songs works in Lazarus Clamp. We have been doing it for years, and living in different cities ...
Posted by on Wed, 30 Jan 2008 15:57:00 GMT