Garage rock fans are total nerds — backhandedly cool, with impeccable taste in second-hand flannel shirts and an encyclopaedic knowledge of the Crypt Records catalogue — but nerds nonetheless. As songwriter, vocalist and guitarist of Montreal-based garage outfit the Demon's Claws, Jeff Clarke knows. "We've played a bunch of garage rock festivals, like Gonerfest," he says. "They seem like comic book conventions. It's boring. I don't know a lot about records and you keep getting cornered by four guys in band shirts asking you about what bands you like."
While the nerds in New Bomb Turks tees will always be the frontlines of garage rock fandom, the music is seeping into the mainstream, with artists like King Khan, the Black Lips, and Clarke's Demon's Claws drawing bigger crowds. And the Demon's Claws' latest LP, The Defrosting Of…, released via In the Red, is poised to further solidify the bands position at forefront of the ongoing revival.
In a genre defined by a comforting thrashy 4/4 sameness, Demon's Claws are bringing rockabilly, psych and lyrics about laser beams into their scuzzy fold. "We don't really try and differentiate ourselves," says Clarke. "We just like a bunch of different types of music, and it kind of falls under garage rock because we do it kind of budget." A veteran of Montreal's frantic garage underground (he used to play with Scat Rag Boosters), Demon's Claws have emerged as the scene's elder statesman: inheritors to the throne of legendary groups like the Spaceshits, Sexareenos, and CPC Gangbangs, newly crowned kings of Canada's de factor garageland.
While the nerds in New Bomb Turks tees will always be the frontlines of garage rock fandom, the music is seeping into the mainstream, with artists like King Khan, the Black Lips, and Clarke's Demon's Claws drawing bigger crowds. And the Demon's Claws' latest LP, The Defrosting Of…, released via In the Red, is poised to further solidify the bands position at forefront of the ongoing revival.
In a genre defined by a comforting thrashy 4/4 sameness, Demon's Claws are bringing rockabilly, psych and lyrics about laser beams into their scuzzy fold. "We don't really try and differentiate ourselves," says Clarke. "We just like a bunch of different types of music, and it kind of falls under garage rock because we do it kind of budget." A veteran of Montreal's frantic garage underground (he used to play with Scat Rag Boosters), Demon's Claws have emerged as the scene's elder statesman: inheritors to the throne of legendary groups like the Spaceshits, Sexareenos, and CPC Gangbangs, newly crowned kings of Canada's de factor garageland.
