Hello Clyde
Hello Clyde is the side project of Chris Rohr of The White Elephant, though Rohr tells me that he actually considers Hello Clyde his “main squeeze” while the other band is on extended hiatus. “[Hello Clyde] is a revolving door of people that help color the songs I’ve made,” he says.
Hello Clyde ends up being a way for Rohr to stretch his creative legs. Fittingly, the new album, Rewind, is a departure from the garage blues sound of The White Elephant. The familiar rumbling hot rod rock and roll exhaust is still there, but Rohr has polished up the chrome to a gleaming alt rock sheen.
Helping bring this beast to the street is Luke Tweedy from Flat Black Studio. The album is another victory for the local studio, which seems to be able to work on just about any kind of music genre. On Rewind, Rohr is mining the sonic landscape of ’90s hard rock and alternative for nuggets, and refining that into grungy, shoegazey gold.
“Illinois” is a perfect example of how the time-tested quiet-loud-quiet song structure works to build tension and provide release. The explosion into the blistering fuzz guitar solo at 1:50 is fantastic, recalling early Butch Vig production with bands like Smashing Pumpkins and Nirvana.
Speaking of Nirvana, “Maggie” seems to echo the refrain of “Polly,” while also providing an updated take on old murder ballads. “Maggie never wanted to die,” Rohr sings in an unnervingly matter-of-fact voice, and “Today was the day, I took her to the lake, she screamed ‘no’ until I lost her in the wake.” The song’s dark poetry leaves me hoping Maggie wasn’t a real person.
With The White Elephant on hiatus, I’m happy that Rohr is still honing and developing his craft. In addition to his new release Rewind, be sure and check out his previous two EPs and his last album, Recycle — all available to stream for free on SoundCloud. For Rewind, he’s also going to do a limited run of 100 CDs.
This article was originally published in Little Village issue 197.
