HIGH TIMES IN THE DARK

Description

The punk-blues piano, garage-soul guitars and booming drums still leave plenty of room for Berit Ulseth’s superb voice as Grammy-winning producer Ted Hutt creates an exhilarating wall of sound on the band’s most captivating album to date. Johnny Iguana’s piano remains at the center of The Claudettes’ rock music, but Berit Ulseth’s sublime singing steals the show on the group’s fifth release, High Times in the Dark, due April 3 on Forty Below Records. Produced by Grammy winner Ted Hutt (Violent Femmes, Old Crow Medicine Show, The Devil Makes Three, Lucero), this richly atmospheric album conjures images of Julie London and Allen Toussaint fronting a 60s hot-rod band. It’s a smorgasbord of 13 songs of vintage yet vital sounds that the band calls “garage cabaret.” The Claudettes co-founder Michael Caskey is back, bringing dazzling drumming skills and a bubbling stage personality to the studio. In the wake of a series of tragedies and sudden deaths in the band’s realm - and in a climate of pessimism and discord nationwide - Johnny and Michael locked arms with Berit and bassist/guitarist Zach Verdoorn to create an album that wears its heart on its sleeve and, like the live shows the band has become known for, overflows with humor, love and a thirst for fun. After a series of phone conversations with bandleader Iguana, Hutt flew from Los Angeles to Chicago to listen to all the songs and potential arrangements for the new album. “As mellow as Ted’s personality is, he came out with a lot of suggestions,” says Iguana. “Ted said, ‘Cut this section, take out a few syllables in this line, write a new bridge for this song, split this VI bass part into bass parts and guitar parts, lose this song altogether ...’ In general, all those corrections would have had me standing up, as a songwriter. But we decided to try it his way, and it became clear: Ted is a great producer. These are all improvements.” The band tracked for 10 days at Shirk Studios in Chicago, then Ted and Ryan Mall mixed at Kingsize Soundlabs in Los Angeles, with mastering by Ryan A. Smith at Sterling Sound in Nashville. “I love the way our instruments sound on this album,” says Iguana, “but mostly I agree with what Ted said when he left Chicago to go back to LA. He said, ‘I think this album is really going to make Berit known.’ She really dug into the heart of these songs, and her tone is just the warmest thing you’ll ever hear.” High Times in the Dark is the follow-up to the band’s acclaimed Dance Scandal At The Gymnasium!, the 2018 album produced by Grammy-winning Black Keys producer Mark Neill. All the songs on High Times in the Dark were written by Iguana, who has recorded with Junior Wells, Buddy Guy and a host of other blues giants, as well as his own punk organ band, Oh My God. With this album, steeped in classic American roots music and a piano-driven approach that stands apart from all the guitar bands in the blues and roots scenes, The Claudettes move forward with an eminently original and alive blues-jazz-soul sound, with rock’n’roll and punk spirit.