October 2020 will see Gascon duo The Inspector Cluzo release a live acoustic album. The album will be preceded by a number of single releases from the album – the first being “Ideologies” on the 17thJuly 2020.
On the 22ndJune 1979, opening the album Rust Never Sleeps, a song was released by Neil Young and his Crazy Horse that history would turn into an anthem. My My, Hey Hey (Out of the Blue)contains all the urgency of punk, shaking the establishment at the time, but done in acoustic peacefulness. The album finishes, with the same song, which in the meantime becomes electrified, even electrocuted as Hey Hey, My My(Into the Black).The storm is impressive: grunge, ten years later will still bear the burn marks of this arson and wild dissonance.
Between acoustic and electric, Neil Young’s album was mostly written on the road, the two versions of Hey Hey My Mytested against two different backdrops: the campfire and the raging inferno. Neil Young and his horsemen of the apocalypse had the genius to not choose between the two. The tour, therefore, logically, started with Los Angeles and San Francisco, in fertile South-West America.
Over forty years later, in another South West, the song is played again, increasingly battered and worn over time by the love of many, this song which will never die. This South West, whose GASCONY corner is sometimes known as The Little California, is bordered by Bordeaux (Krakatoa), Biarritz (Theatre du Casino) and Mont-de-Marsan (Theatre de Gascogne). These venues hosted in early 2020, a passionate public, acoustic instruments, good vibrations and a mobile recording studio, all of which were necessary to make the live record, which you hold in your hands today, alive and kicking.
An unplugged album by a group known for having their fingers in the electric socket. The album features the Neil Young cover alongside a host of The Inspector Cluzo classics. The album was produced by engineer/mixer/producer Vance Powell (Jack White, Seasick Steve, Raconteurs, Stapleton, Clutch) & the mastering engineer Pete Lyman (Chris Stapleton, Tom Waits…..) , two royalties in the world of warm and woody analogic, gave the best of themselves to the two Gascons. Motivated not by ambition, not by compassion: simply because these songs deserved this kind of unruly respect, this messed up elegance, this American instinct. For these acoustic songs to make so much noise, their discreet science of sound was critical. It allowed two Gascon boys to highjack the spirit of unplugged recordings and turn it into filtered mayhem, tamed but not domesticated.
There is plenty to hear, within the gaps, in these versions. On Hey Hey My My, The Inspector Cluzo’s version of which has been validated by the Broken Arrow ranch, Neil Young sings: “There’s more to the picture than meets the eye”.In this album, there’s also more than meets the ear.
Full album track listing below –
- A Man Outstanding In His Field
- The sand Preacher
- Cultural Misunderstanding
- Ideologies – first single / released 17thJuly 2020
- The Run
- Lost In Translations
- Lou Casse Theme
- Fishermen
- The Globalisation Blues
- The Best
- We The People Of the Soil
- Hey Hey My My
- Brothers In Ideals
- No Deal At Crossroads
- Little Girl And The Whistlin’ Train
In keeping with their reputation as one the most prolific touring bands in the world (The Inspector Cluzo have played over 1000 shows in 65 countries to date), the band completed sold out USA support tours with Clutch and Eels in 2019 alongside a host of festival appearances across the globe (including Lollapalooza Chile and Brazil) and a maiden US headline tour.
The Inspector Cluzo had a series of European festivals and supports slots booked for 2020 – including Ramblin’ Man Fair and supports to Clutch – that have now been postponed due to Covid 19. The festivals and gigs are looking to be rescheduled asap.
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