Clutch is bringing its "straight-up, balls-out rock" style Monday night to Crowbar, 420 E. College Ave., as part of a tour to promote its latest release.

Accompanying Clutch at Crowbar will be Lifer, formerly Strangers With Candy, who used to be regulars in the area and have in the past been recognized by MTV as the cover band of the year.

Pure Rock Fury, a funky hard rock album, was just released by Clutch on March 6 and since then the band has been touring the East Coast.

The CD is a skillfully pieced together album containing simple humor as well as some hard-hitting tracks that have a classic-rock-meets-Rob Zombie sound.

Clutch consists of band members Neil Fallon (vocals), Tim Sult (guitars), Dan Maines (bass) and Jean-Paul Gaster (drums). They've been together since graduating high school in 1991 and have produced four albums in that time.

According to a press release by the band's label, Atlantic Records, the band said the album was "inspired in part by the pitfalls present in a pop culture-jamming generation.

"The album resounds with wide-open guitar riffs, funk-punk show drums and soul-flushing bass, all astutely entwined with the lyrics of Fallon — who is revealed here as a true yarn-spinning champion."

Stuart Oravetz, the band's publicist, said, "these guys bring straight-up, balls-out rock . . . they don't pull any gimmicks, just heavy music."

The show will include mostly songs from the new release, but will also have some of the older tunes that originally gained the band international popularity. "You can expect a wide range of things from the guys," Oravetz said.

Clutch has shared the stage with popular hard rock groups such as Marilyn Manson, Bad Religion, Fu Manchu and Pantera.

Oravetz said that the band's sound "stands out on its own" and that Clutch is hard to compare to other more mainstream bands.

"Maybe a little White Zombie, but no Limp Bizkit or anything else on the radio," he said. "If I had to pick one, probably something like Motorhead."

Oravetz went on to explain that the tour will consist of smaller venues to ensure a packed house.

"They're headlining the tour, so they got smaller ones (venues) for this tour — it's a warm-up for bigger things to come," he said.

David Wells, director of operations for Dante's Restaurants Inc., said that this is about the sixth time Clutch has played Crowbar and added that "this is a big month for the venue, and Clutch is one of the main shows I've been looking forward to."

Lifer will be opening the show at 10 p.m. Admission is $10 if purchased in advance and $12 at the door.