Benjamin Clapp
Benjamin Clapp (born October 13, 1977) is an American musician from Boise, Idaho. He has performed, composed, and recorded music with numerous artists, most notably Erik Sanko (The Lounge Lizards) and Skeleton Key, Tom Marshall (Phish) and Amfibian, Anthony Krizan (Spin Doctors), Jim Breuer, Kronos Quartet, Jesse Blaze Snider and Baptized By Fire, Dee Snider (Twisted Sister), Billy Martin (Medeski Martin and Wood), David Peel (The Lower East Side), and White Trash.
Benjamin Clapp
Lo3BoM · CC BY-SA 3.0
- Name
- Benjamin Clapp
- Born
- 13 October 1977
- Birthplace
- Boise, ID, U.S.
- Occupation
- * Musician
- Nationality
- United States
Reference Check
Propose documentary evidence for Benjamin Clapp. A contribution is never written directly as fact: identity, source, rights and evidence gates still decide.
Sign in to contribute
World of VALÉORINE
Documentary connections
Only confirmed graph relationships appear here. Images are shown only when their identity and reuse rights both pass the documentary gate.
Documentary evidence
Documentary basis
Authority files
wikidata · Q4888397 · wikipedia · Benjamin Clapp
In this article
Key facts
Key facts
• Name — Benjamin Clapp • Born — 13 October 1977 • Birthplace — Boise, ID, U.S. • Occupation — * Musician • songwriter • photographer • cinematographer • Years Active — 1993–present
Early life and education
Early life and education
At the age of eleven, Clapp began studying trombone in Idaho public schools. He studied privately under bass trombonist Mark Sellman for a number of years, and was awarded the Louis Armstrong Award in 1995, as well as performance awards at Boise State University and the Lionel Hampton International Jazz Festival. Meanwhile, he was self-learning to play drums; influenced early on by drummers Stewart Copeland, Lars Ulrich, and Dale Crover.
1993-2000
1993-2000
In 1993, Clapp joined Boise punk band, Haggis, following ex-Septic Death drummer Paul Birnbaum's departure from the band. The band went on to tour the West Coast, and release a number of singles and compilation tracks internationally, including the vinyl only 1995 release Step Into It, on German record label, Bilharziose. Through the next several years, Clapp was involved with a number of independent music projects in Boise, and went on to collaborate again with members of Haggis - this time with inclusion of Birnbaum. Clapp was a founding member of the Adversives and the Mosquitones, and performed on all of their recorded releases and national tours. Clapp formed independent record label Spudtown Records in 1995, and released the vinyl only compilation 12 Songs You Won't Like By 12 Bands You've Never Heard of From Boise, Idaho. The label continued working with regional bands to release their EPs and albums under the moniker STMC (Spudtown Music Collective) until Clapp relocated to the East Coast.
2001-present
2001-present
In early 2001, Clapp moved to New York City, and within months was hired on as drummer for a Warsaw Poland Brothers US tour, performing for the first time with the band in New Orleans with no audition or rehearsal. Later the same year he moved to New Jersey and became active in the music scene fostered by legendary promoter/performer Jack Monahan, at the Brighton Bar. He was invited to join the Do Dads, who would then go on to 3 Asbury Park Music Award nominations. By recommendation from rock photographer Mark Weiss to Twisted Sister frontman Dee Snider, Clapp was introduced to Snider's eldest son Jesse Blaze Snider in 2004, and they went on to perform together as Blazed, and from 2006 to 2008 as Baptized By Fire. Clapp also joined Erik Sanko's band Skeleton Key in 2004 as their "junk percussionist", and became further recognized for his use of non-traditional percussion: "...the real dirty work's done by brutish showman Benjamin Clapp. He chucks broken cymbals up into the air and slugs them on their way down. He has the worlds [sic] most dangerous tambourine: A rectangular frame, I'm guessing 36" x 24", with CIRCULAR SAW BLADES strung on it." Skeleton Key continued to tour the United States and Canada with Clapp in the band, and recorded songs which would eventually go on to limited release as The Lyons Quintette EP. Among a number of studio projects and touring artists that hire Clapp to perform on stage and in the studio, Phish lyricist Tom Marshall and his band Amfibian feature Clapp's trombone playing on their studio albums From the Ether and Skip the Goodbyes. Clapp's trombone playing is also a fixture in the current line-up for Elektra Records recording artists: White Trash, and is heard on their 2009 release 3-D Monkeys In Space.
Places
Named by the record
Places
Only places the record itself states, plotted where the house gazetteer settles their coordinates. Nothing is inferred from a name or a nationality.
New Brunswick
Residences
Boise.
Birth place
Discography
• 1994 - Bitter (with Haggis) credit: drums • 1994 - Encyclopedia of Post Punk Hits (with Haggis) credit: drums • 1995 - 20 Bands Trash 20 Songs to Find The Way to Sesame Street v/a compilation (with Haggis) credit: drums • 1995 - Toiletbowl Epiphonies (with The Mosquitones) credit: trombone • 1995 - Wade Free Wherever v/a compilation (with Haggis) credit: drums • 1995 - Step Into It (with Haggis) credit: drums • 1995 - Drunk and Disorderly (with Haggis) credit: drums • 1995 - 12 Songs You Won't Like by 12 Bands You've Never Heard Of v/a compilation (with Haggis) credit: drums • 1995 - 12 Songs You Won't Like by 12 Bands You've Never Heard Of v/a compilation (with the Adversives) credit: vocals, guitar • 1996 - The Search For Roger Ferris (with Adversives) credit: vocals, guitar • 1996 - The Dread/The Adversives Split 10" (with the Adversives) credit: vocals, guitar • 1996 - Wood Panel Pacer Wagon With Mags v/a compilation (with Haggis) credit: drums • 1997 - Liverache: Tales From the Liver's Edge v/a compilation (with Haggis) credit: drums • 1997 - Cause/The Adversives Split 7" (with the Adversives) credit: vocals, guitar • 1997 - Making Human Junk v/a compilation (with the Adversives) credit: vocals, guitar • 1997 - Mosquitones (with Mosquitones) credit: trombone • 1998 - Coolidge 50 v/a compilation (with Haggis) credit: drums • 1999 - Smile Upon The Children (with Diseased Media Society) credit: trombone • 1999 - Dance of the Dishwasher (with Los Mosquitones) credit: trombone • 1999 - Shotgun Response - Alliance In Defiance/The Adversives (with the Adversives) credit: vocals, guitar • 2000 - Adversives (with the Adversives) credit: vocals, guitar • 2001 - I Can't Sleep and I'm Never Awake (with The Unit Breed) credit: drums • 2001 - Boise, Idaho v/a compilation (with Mosquitones) credit: drums • 2004 - Live 1997-2003 (with Warsaw Poland Brothers) credit: drums • 2004 - From the Ether (with Amfibian) credit: trombone • 2004 - Highland at Euclid (with Mosquitones) credit: drums • 2004 - Live at the Metro (with Skeleton Key) credit: trombone, junk percussion • 2005 - Mermaid Parade (with the DoDads) credit: trombone • 2005 - Now The Party Starts (with Blazed) credit: drums • 2005 - The Lyons Quintette EP (with Skeleton Key) credit: trombone, junk percussion • 2006 - Butterbrain (with Butterbrain) credit: trombone • 2006 - Best of Ska and Rocksteady (with Warsaw Poland Brothers) credit: drums • 2006 - Juggernaut EP (with Baptized By Fire) credit: drums • 2007 - Flesheaters v/a compilation (with Baptized By Fire) credit: drums • 2007 - Eclectric (with Sunny Daze) credit: trombone • 2007 - Skip The Goodbyes (with Amfibian) credit: trombone • 2007 - First To Fight (with Warsaw Poland Brothers) credit: drums • 2008 - Code Red (with J-Henry) credit: trombone • 2009 - Jayder (with Jayder) credit: drums • 2009 - 3D Monkeys In Space (with White Trash) credit: trombone • 2009 - Tales From Dirty Jersey (with Barry and the Penetrators) credit: trombone • 2009 - The Long Evening (with Keith Monacchio) credit: trombone • 2010 - Tropism (with Jesse Urmey) credit: trombone • 2010 - Speak Softly and Carry a Big Stick (Vol. 1) (with Steve Honoshowsky) credit: drums • 2012 - Gravity is the Enemy (with Skeleton Key) credit: trombone, junk percussion • 2012 - Full Fathom 5 (with Tony Todesco & Full Fathom 5) credit: trombone • 2015 - Suburban Purgatory (with White Trash) credit: trombone • 2015 - Together at Last (with The Shady Street Show Band and Hot Blood) credit: trombone • 2018 - The In Part of the Out Crowd (with Acid) credit: drums • 2019 - Butterbrain - The EP (with Butterbrain) credit: trombone • 2020 - West Coast vs. East Coast: Public Serpents/Upper Downer split (with Public Serpents) credit: trombone • 2020 - Public Serpents / Escape From The Zoo split (with Public Serpents) credit: trombone • 2021 - Glamdemic! (with Space Panther) credit: drums
Text attribution
Licensing
Text attribution
Part of the biographical narrative on this page reuses licensed material. Its origin, revision and licence are recorded here.
The biographical narrative on this page is based on the Wikipedia article Benjamin Clapp, revision 1352537334 (EN edition), by its contributors. VALÉORINE has edited that text and built its own documentary record around it. The reused material is available under CC BY-SA 4.0, and this page's reuse of it is offered under the same licence. Everything else on this page — the chronology, the holdings, the evidence, the plates and the connections — is VALÉORINE's own record. Sources and licences.
Notes from the source article
Cited by Wikipedia
Notes from the source article
These works are cited by the source article, in its own numbering. They are recorded as its citations, not as sources VALÉORINE has verified.
- 1.Sean Moeller. Skeleton Key members get some meat on their bones. Quad-City Times. August 4, 2005.
- 2.Shawnté Salabert. VISITING ACTS It's A Zoo. Charleston City Paper. February 8, 2006.
- 3.Richard Skelly. Spin Doctors' Anthony Krizan rocking Roxy and Duke's. Asbury Park Press. November 30, 2017.
- 4.Amy Atkins. Baptized By Fire, Sept. 4-6, Various. Boise Weekly. September 3, 2008.
- 5.Kay Starr interview with Benjamin Clapp of Baptized X Fire. The Rhythm Authority.
- 6.Flex! Discography of US Punk and Hardcore.
- 7.Scene Reports : Boise Noise. 14. 1996.
- 8.the Asbury Music Company, Inc. 2008 Asbury Music Awards.
- 9.Baptized By Fire official band website. Previous Performances.
- 10.Heart on a Stick review of Skeleton Key performance in New York. Ugly Americans (Firewater, Cordero/Skeleton Key, Southpaw/Bowery Ballroom, 5/24 & 5/27/08).
- 11.Amy Atkins. Skeleton Key, The Adversives, Nov. 24, Neurolux. Boise Weekly. November 21, 2007.
References
Citations
References
Each reference names the institution holding it, so a reader may go to the document itself.
reference work
Secondary witnessreference work
Secondary witness
The Encyclopedia exists whether or not anything is for sale. Corrections are recorded rather than overwritten, and every version of this record is kept. Published 31 August 2026.
Elsewhere in Music memorabilia
44,023 published records in this field, each with its sources named.
- Benjamin C. S. BoylePerson
- Benjamin Carl UnseldPerson
- Benjamin CarrPerson
- Benjamín CastañedaPerson
- Benjamin CookePerson
- Benjamin CrossPerson
- Benjamin CurtisPerson
- Benjamin CutterPerson
Best supported in this field
For owners
Own a work by Benjamin Clapp?
A specialist will read what you send and tell you what the house can establish, what it cannot, and whether the object is suited to sale. There is no charge and no obligation. The object stays with you throughout; nothing is shipped to us unless it is arranged in writing beforehand.