Still Clumsy After All These Years
Shawn Rider, University of Idaho Argonaut, April 11, 1997
If you haven't heard of The Clumsy Lovers, please flog yourself now. I'll wait.
If you have heard of The Clumsy Lovers; if you pine away at night wishing your favorite band would stumble it's way back into your heart then breathe deeply. The Lovers are back together, back to their roots and playing at John's Alley in Moscow on Saturday, April 12.
The road has been twisting and rough for these guys. There are probably a lot of people who arrived in Moscow sometime after the Lovers had changed their name to The Six Million Dollar Band. SMDB played last fall at Palousa-fest, but those who remembered the Clumsy Lovers knew it just wasn't the same.
The band clued into that, too, so they switched around their lineup, changed their name back to the Clumsy Lovers, and are now pummeling the NorthWest with "Raging Celtic Banshee Rock" as they call it.
The new lineup features Chris Hamilton on guitar, vocals, mandolin; Jeremy Hughes on accordion, whistles, vocals; Chris Jonat plays bass and sings; Cameron Jonat drums and sings; Andrea Lewis plays a mean-ass fiddle; and Trevor Rogers plays guitar and sings some.
Fans who remember the Clumsy Lovers from '94-'95, when they played the Rennaissance Fair as well as several other gigs, won't recognize most of the members in the current lineup, but have no fear. Chris Jonat, who's the only member to be with the band through all of it's various incarnations, says changing the name back is "sort of a symbol of renewing our committment to being different."
I saw the new crew at Washington State University a couple weeks ago, and Jonat isn't fooling around. The show made me remember why I liked this band in the first place: they're irreverent, goofy, laid back and eclectic. Nobody can play a cover like the Clumsy Lovers. The band cites influences ranging from Twisted Sister, the Ramones and the Clash all the way to Neil Young, Mark O'Connor, the Pogues and Woody Guthrie. I've always described them to friends as They Might Be Giants meets the Pogues, but that description still falls short of conveying the incredible mix of genres these musicians have mastered.
The Vancouver sextet has roots that stretch all over the place. Hamilton has played in other celtic bands, and appeared as a pirate in two separate productions of The Pirates of Penzance. Hughes was with the Lovers when they first started out, and has played with many other Vancouver, BC bands such as The Paperboys and Bonnie Pit Laddie. Cameron Jonat played in an alt-rock band called Spin Cycle before playing drums for the Lovers. Chris Jonat has been with the Clumsy Lovers from the beginning, even through the Six Million Dollar Band days, and has also played bass for Carolyn Arends and The Paperboys. Lewis has a degree in music, and plays a tough, tough fiddle. Rogers played with Vancouver folk-rockers, the Road, as well as with Something Ska, before joining the Clumsy Lovers, and has fit right in.
There are no electric guitars anymore, but the Lovers still manage to "rock the house" to borrow a phrase. The band seems to have freed itself from even the pretense of being any kind of average rock band, and have really maximized their use of different instruments and styles. For example, who do you know who could pull off a cover of J. Geils Band's "Centerfold" with an accordian, ska guitar, mandolin and fiddle, insert a flawless rendition of Salt N Peppa's "Push It" as an interlude, and bring it all together in the end for a complete musical roller coaster. It's impressive conceptually, and the execution makes it remarkable.
And that's what we love about the Lovers. Whatever they do, it's distinctly their own sound. This is really what the band is concerned with: Making their own music and having fun doing it. None of the members are interested in becoming rock stars (except Hughes who says, "becoming a rock star is essential."). The major concern of the band is playing shows and making sure people have fun. They plan on touring a lot more, and a new album should be out in the relatively near future if all goes well.
That's good news for us in Moscow, because the Clumsy Lovers have without a doubt planted themselves in the local music scene. If John's Alley must stand, if the Ren Fair must go on, the Clumsy Lovers must play and you all must dance.