SYA003  The CLOCKS

'Time is on my side'  7" e.p.

Shake Your Archives # 1

400 copies

November 2003

SOLD OUT

track list:

Time is on my side / Kill talk  / Slave planet / Ticktockman / Confidentially Renee / Bust out

REVIEWS

English

The Clocks were an early eighties Cleveland band that featured Pagans member Mike Metoff and drew upon local legends like Devo, the Dead Boys, and the Raspberries, but still managed to sound 100% unique. The six tunes on this single are pretty damn eclectic, running the gamut from a fantastic double-time pop version of the Stones classic they took the title from, to the sci-fi new wave of 'Slave Planet.' My favorite cut though is 'Confidentially Renee,' a tune so perfect that it draws easy comparisons to both the Eat and late period Gizmos. If they ever made a 'Can't Stand The Midwest' volume two, this song should definitely be on there. As you might expect, this is limited and all of that jazz, so I'd get on this quick if you want to be able to hear this gem of a single.

(Steven Strange – Terminal Boredom webzine #4 – Aug./Sep. 2004)

* * * * * * * * * * *

Cleveland, Ohio, home to a number of influential early arty-punk era combos and by the time the 80s rolled around also home to the Clocks whose own blend of arty pop/punk found them ducking, diving and duking it out in their local taverns and ballrooms. Italy's Shake Your Ass Records has collected 6 of the bands 80s recordings for this EP and it's a most-listenable blend of quirky and arty 60s meets 80s art-beat. Sorta kinda Raybeats/Blondie/PSG axis. I think we're gonna be hearing a lot more from this era very soon

(Mohair Sweets webzine – January 2004)

Italian

Prologo: fine 70’s, l’ex Pagans Mike Metoff richiama alle armi 3 loosers di Cleveland per dar inizio ad una nuova creatura denminata THE CLOCKS. Un paio di singoli ed un lp il risultato. Fama poca, soldi manco a parlarne. Il tunnel del dimenticatoio imboccato a tutta velocità. Epilogo: inizio 2004, vengono ripescate 6 tracce e impresse nei solchi di un 7” EP. Dalla caramella punk Time is on my side, ai sublimi acquerelli power pop Kill Talk e Confidentially Renee. Passando attraverso la salmodiante wave Slave Planet, per finiri nei rigurgiti crampsiani Ticktock Man e Bust Out. Il singolo dei Clock è un pezzo di storia del punk minore.

(Manwell Graziani – Rumore #66 Aprile 2004)

German

Nachdem sich viele der frühen Cleveland Bands auflösten, oder ihre Aktivitäten stark einschränkten, gründeten sich 1980 die CLOCKS bestehend aus MIKE METOFF (PAGANS) Gesang und Gitarre, DAVE "MONDO" DELUCA (CHRONICS) auch Gesang und Gitarre, TITCH EROD (BERNIE & THE INVISIBLES) Bass, dazu zwei weitere Musiker für Keyboard und Schlagzeug. Diese Zusammenstellung enthält den 60s Klassiker "Time Is On My Side" in einer leicht schrägen Punk Version - erschien 1980 auf dem "Cleveland Confidential" 7"-Sampler. Dazu kommt die schleichende Gruselrock Nummer "Ticktock Man", die etwas an die CRAMPS erinnert, und die Garage Pop Punk Nummer "Confidentially Renee" von ihrer 7" aus dem gleichen Jahr. Die anderen 3 Songs stammen von ihrem Album aus dem Jahr 1983, "Kill Talk" ist eine flotte Powerpop Punk Nummer, der Song "Slave Planet" mit seiner Mischung aus 60s Garage und New Wave Punk erinnert an eine rauhere Ausgabe der B 52's, und mit "Bust Out" bekommt man noch einen weiteren Garage Pop Punk Hit. Kommt in s/w Artwork mit 2 Bandphotos und kurzer Bandgeschichte von DAVE DELUCA.

(Incognito Mailorder)

Time is on my side e.p. insert sheet by Mike "Tommy Gunn" Metoff

At the end of 1979 the “first wave” of the Cleveland underground music scene was coming to an end. Several bands broke up and some new bands were formed. Mike Metoff (Pagans) Dave “Mondo” Deluca (Chronics) and Titch Erod (Bernie & the Invisibles) got toghether at an east side trailer park and began to write songs. In January 1980, they recorded in an attic apartment knows as the Pigeon’s Roost with a borrowed drummer, Lonnie Pavis. The songs at the first session were Ticktock man, Confidentially Renee, Bust Out, and Alone in Flat B. After one gig, Lonnie Pavis was replaced on drums by Arne Klein. This lineup recorded one song at a downtown studio loft in Spring of 1980. The song was Time is on my side. The Clocks began playing out regularly, opening for local bands such as the Wild Giraffes, Lucky Pierre, the Adults, and the Generators. They also opened for touring bands Iggy Pop, the Cramps, the Raybeats, the Suburbs, and Human Switchboard. The early set list was mostly covers of rockabilly (Jungle rock-Hank Mizell, Bopa Lina-Rockateens) surf music (Diamond head-Ventures) psychedelia (Time has come today-Chamber Bros.) 60’s garage (Psycho-Sonics) R&B (Hole in my heart-Esquerita, Brainwasher-Junior Walker) a ska beat version of In the midnight hour and a dose of Elvis (Little sister, King Creole). Keyboard player Chas Smith joined the band after playing with Mike Metoff and Mike Hudson in a Pagans side-project called Les Raving Sounds. With the addiction of Smith on synthetizer, the Clocks sound began to change. The garage covers were replaced with more synthetizer dominated, science finction themed original songs. As a result, the Clocks soon became a popular headliner in local dance clubs. When they entered the studio in late 1981, there were problems. During these sessions they recorded the songs Slave planet, Kill talk, Sex dimension, Where the Skurds are, and Synthetic weekend. However overproduction and disagreement between the band members caused the Clocks to run out of money and leave the songs unmixed. The group had become less garage and more “new wave” sounding. They briefly changed the name to Radio Alarm Clocks in early 1982 when a major label band from England came out with the name “Clocks”.  Disagreement in the direction the group was heading in caused them to break up in Feb. 1982. A year later, a local record store manager named Randy Meggit paid the studio bill and released the new recordings along with the older tracks on an LP called “Wake me when it’s over” by the Radio Alarm Clocks.  (Mike Metoff)

Time is on my side e.p. LINER NOTES by Dave "Mondo" Deluca

In 1980, I was in a band called the Clocks (aka Radio Alarm Clocks). I had previously been in a band called The Chronics. All of the members' former bands would have been called punk for convenience. All would now be considered punk, via steeped, crusty ignorance. But "punk" was more an attitude than a style of music. Of the bands residing in Cleveland at that time, only the Pagans, endlessly rediscovered by generations from Shinjiku to Smolensk to Santiago De….sounded it. And they were certainly among the best "punk". But in 1980, the BIZ hadn't developed their "alternative" marketing strategy. The Clocks, like many other Cleveland bands of that time, were eclectic as hell. The 'alt' clans mixed; sure, poser/artsy/winners/wieners made ya gag, but the base was broadening. New sounds were bubbling in the pot. The Clocks borrowed sensibilities from the Cramps, Pere Ubu, Devo, even the Dead Boys (local heroes), but we weren't derivative, we just paid homage to our regional roots. Most critics who heard us said we reminded them of the Chocolate Watchband. Stylistically, we were all over the place. If you were a Cleveland musician at the beginning of the eighties, you were either in a bar band- making money playing covers, or you were in an 'art' band; ie meticulous with performance details but lax on chops, and unable to do anything but record and release 'interesting' stuff. When Larry Collins put together the first Studio-A-Rama for WRUW, the Clocks were there. We also did other live broadcasts, and the cassettes from these few shows became underground gold. The Clocks put out an album 'Wake Me When It's Over' on Randy Meggit's After Hours Records. By the time the Clocks album was in the can, I was gone.