Dew Claw has today premiered their new video for the track titled ‘Mouse Trap’ dropping tomorrow. Classic alternative as the alternative with a post-modern pop vibe and fun feeling abut it around the edges. Mersey meets music in the best of ways with a jangle pop track that could fit in any decade.
Not one for showing off any particular instrument, the bragging is in the track itself with a new song from an old band that sounds as fresh as day one. Accomplishment achieved.
When Chris heard Stephen’s demo for Mouse Trap, he thought “This is a great snapshot that depicts the essence of the song, unadorned yet full of vibe”. That vibe being a mix of 80’s New Zealand, i.e. The Bats with its driving yet distinct bass line, coupled with 70’s Krautrock mechanical simplicity that propels the feeling of the song straight into the listeners face and, if they are willing, into the rest of their being. That “snapshot” idea was then taken by Stephen in the creation of the video for Mouse Trap, presenting the duo within a configuration of “shadowboxes”. This simple, straightforward visual approach is a play on the album cover: The Birds, The Bees & The Monkees, a fave of the Dew Claw duo. Stephen and Chris felt that the approach of both these forms, the audio recording and accompanying video, would be a great compliment to the maximalist method applied to the song and video for Fantastic Voyage, the B-side of the 7” single, digitally released last month.
About Dew Claw
Since 2004, Dew Claw has been the music project for which Stephen Hunking has released his musings on life, love, parenting, personal themes and other abstract musings. Stephen has created 4 full-length releases plus various singles and EPs under the Dew Claw umbrella over the last 20 years. During the ‘10s, Stephen was also a member of the NY combo, XL Kings, that produced 2 full-length releases as well as a 7” single. He was also a creative force behind the intercontinental band Grand Union, a collaborative venture with Frode Strømstad (I Was A King), which vetted 3 single releases in 2018. Stephen initially honed his musical skills and songwriting chops as a member of the group Hypnolovewheel (1987-1994), with 2 albums independently released and another 3 albums on Alias Records, along with assorted singles and compilation appearances.
Chris Xefos is best known as a member of King Missile during their 1989-1994 era. This indie-to-major label period for KM brought about the college-rock smash “Jesus Was Way Cool” and alt-rock hit “Detachable Penis”. Post-KM, Chris settled in San Francisco working in music as a producer, engineer, and musician. In the ‘10s, Chris was a member of guitar instrumental groups Flotation Device and Rattletrap, the latter featuring Bruce Anderson of art-punk legends MX-80-Sound. In 2019, Bruce asked Chris to join MX-80 Sound and help complete their 2024 (and swan song) release, Better Than Life on Byron Coley’s Feeding Tube Records.
Stephen and Chris have been good friends since high school, discovering and playing music together over this entire time. During their NY/NJ fertile alt-rock period, the King Missile-Hypnolovewheel mafia was STRONG. The two bands shared a member for a time and Chris lent a hand with production duties on the first Hypno/Alias release.
Cut to 2021: Stephen and his wife escape from NY/NJ to re-start their lives as newly minted flower farmers in Camas, WA, just outside Portland, OR. With Chris and Stephen now in the same time zone, their collaborations were also reborn. Chris assisted with mixing and mastering for the 2022 Dew Claw release, Horripilation. After their work on this project, the pair felt it was time to cement their full-throttled partnership and join forces as Dew Claw.
In 2023, Dew 2.0 officially began work on new material. As part of recording these new songs, the duo enlisted help from friends far and wide. Stephen and Chris invited old friends from the east and west coasts of the US and not-so-old friends from Norway to participate in the wide-ranging project. Each song was worked on individually, from the ground up. Initial inspiration was drawn from the period when ‘60s band The Move morphed into Electric Light Orchestra in the early ‘70s, both substantial influences for the Dew 2.0 team. The results are a driving (indie/alt/classic) rock feel paired with more arranged, sometimes orchestral, instrumentation.
For their 2024 release, Dew Claw culled two simpler, yet still raucous, pieces into a 7” single, “Mouse Trap” b/w “Fantastic Voyage”. The 7” is being released as a limited edition, high-quality lathe-cut vinyl single. The digital release includes 5 remixes of “Fantastic Voyage”, several of which created by High Tunnels (aka Dave Ramirez, ex Hypno/KM inter-member). Three videos, directed by Stephen, have also been created to accompany this release.
Over the past 18 months, Dew Claw has amassed a large inventory of work that is slated to be released in 2025 and beyond. Stay tuned!
LINKS:
https://www.instagram.com/dewclaw2.0/
https://dedewclaw.bandcamp.com/