Bio Full Biography »

Although Foster City, CA-native Allen Clapp only released one album and a couple of singles as Allen Clapp and His Orchestra, those records are among the best D.I.Y. pop releases of the '90s, with the album, 1994's One Hundred Percent Chance of Rain, a particular gem. Clapp began his musical career with a high school garage band that included his friend Larry Winther on guitar. After a couple of years, the group split in 1989, with Winther and drummer Maz Kattuah going on to form the garage rock novelty the Mummies. Clapp spent a couple of years in an acoustic folk duo (a style resurrected on One Hundred Percent Chance of Rain's standout "Man and Superman") before starting to write lighter and poppier songs which he recorded by himself with a cheap Radio Shack microphone and cassette four-track. Kattuah released a single by Clapp, "Very Peculiar Feeling," on his Four Letter Words label in early 1992. On the strength of that single, Bus Stop Records signed Clapp to record an album. De...