Demon's Claws

The Demon's Claws are one of the many bands to emerge from Montreal's thriving garage punk underground, playing a gritty mixture of folk-rock, country, and blues that's won them comparisons to the Rolling Stones and the Pretty Things, as well as punk-blues pioneers the Gun Club. (The Demon's Claws have been given the seal of approval by the folks at Norton Records, who released their cover of "Factory Girl" as part of their series of split singles of classic Rolling Stones tunes.) The Demon's Claws was founded in 2003 by Jeff Clarke (aka Lester Del Ray and Rudy Stanko), a former member of the Cut Offs and the Normals, taking the group name from a sharply turned piece of track that came with a toy racing car set he owned as a child. Also featuring Pat Meteor on guitar, Ysael Pepin (aka Le Lutin) on bass, and Serge Gendron (aka Skip Jensen) on drums, the Demon's Claws released their first single in 2005 for the German P. Trash label, with a self-titled full-length album appearing on the same imprint later that year. The New Zealand-based Perpetrator Records issued the band's next single, and in 2006, Serge Gendron left the band, with B-Man Le Duke taking over on drums; they same year they also added a keyboard player, Piero Ilov. The band toured Canada frequently and made occasional trips to the United States, where they formed a mutual appreciation society with manic Atlanta garage punks the Black Lips, who took the band on road as an opening act and shared the Norton Records Stones tribute 7" with them. Along with a single for Rob's House Records, the Demon's Claws released their second full-length album in 2007, Satan's Little Pet Pig, which was distributed by the noted garage punk outfit In the Red Records. After a long gap, their next album The Defrosting Of appeared in October of 2010.