Saturday, March 17   11:00 p.m.
Beauty Bar   (617 E 7th St)

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Formed in 2003, CLIPD BEAKS started off with little more than a battered Arp Axxe synthesizer and a microphone but quickly set about marking off their own turf at the intersection of psychedelic post-punk and futuristic noise.

Bassist Scott Ecklein and drummer Ray Benjamin met at age seven and have played music together ever since. The nascent Beaks rhythm section met guitarist/synthesist Greg Pritchard inadvertently when, during his �reactionary prepubescent punk� phase, he violently beat on one of Ray�s drums while calling them wankers due to their pre-teen band�s sonic similarities to Smashing Pumpkins.

After graduating from high school, where they experimented with mind-altering substances such as British rock and San Diego art-core, the three boys played in an epic instrumental post-rock/prog band. Singer Nic Barbeln was in a different band, whose delayed vocal loops and jam band tendencies they secretly admired from afar. When Nic�s band�s drummer ran off to Woodstock to become a Buddhist monk, a plan to unite the two factions was devised and circulated. After an impromptu jam session yielded favorable results, it was agreed, and that January, in a freezing cold loft above a metal bar in Saint Paul, Minnesota, CLIPD BEAKS was born!

Their first record, which was recorded and released independently, came out that July. It was called �Gang Caves,� and it was about caves near the Mississippi River that gangs used to hang out in. Incorporating lo-fi orchestral samples, liberal use of the aforementioned analog synth, and even effected vocals ala Vincent Price�s cameo on �Thriller�, the record still stands as a bizarre testament to the young Beaks� insatiable appetite for experimentation.

In March of 2006, Tigerbeat6 released the E.P. �Preyers�. Recorded in the weeks before their epic cross-country move to California, �Preyers� documented the anxiety of five boys growing into men in the strange last days of American Empire, leaving their placid Midwest homes behind to venture into the unknown. XLR8R described it as �profoundly psychedelic�makes you feel grateful just for being alive. An impressive take on hymnal post-rock�[CLIPD BEAKS] take things far beyond the regular scope of a Tigerbeat6 record.�

Currently CLIPD BEAKS are completing their first full-length album �Hoarse Lords�, which will be released in the summer of 2007. Containing nine �distortion paintings� recorded in a West Oakland rehearsal space favored by hyphy producers, the sound of the Bay seems to have left its mark as these tracks definitely slap harder than anything the band has done to date.