#the clean

[guessimdumb]

The Clean - Big Soft Punch (1990)

Recorded after the Clean reunited in the late 80s, this is a wonderful Robert Scott (the Bats) tune.

They'll need it if they're to fly

[bandcampsnoop]

4/11/25.

I have a decided soft-spot for bands who resurface for one reason or another. For example, Salem 66's compilation came 35 years after the bands relative "heyday". Some bands reform and make a new album (Action Painting!), while others just reissue older work. Butter Utter look like their doing both.

Butter Utter were, according to their Bandcamp page, one of Sweden's first punk bands. And apparently at an early gig, attendees fled. The band was told they needed to learn to play their instruments better. 40 years later, they learned that punk doesn't have to be played great. It just needs to sound great. So the band released "Legacy" - a compilation of demos and rarities (released by Leonid Brezjnev Records - a label that has two releases to its name - both by...you guessed it, Butter Utter)

Honestly, this sounds great. I wish I could have been in Uppsala, Sweden in 1977 screaming "MORE"!!! Perhaps I could have helped change the trajectory of Swedish punk.

This doesn't sound like traditional punk. This is really the kind of genius that happens when musicians get together without too much of an idea of what they want to accomplish. So, in that way, "Legacy" reminds me of the sound of early Flying Nun - The Clean (listen to "Kejsarens nya kläder"), and The Chills. It's also reminiscent to some degree of the New York City punk scene captured so well by Ork Records (early Feelies, Television, etc.). The band also mention Nick Lowe as an early influence.

If you're in Sweden this August, it looks like you can catch them in Gävle.

[tabby-tiger]

rip castle byers classics I just remember opening the playlisy and thinking wtf they actually put slug song on there 💀💀💀

Anyways yeah here's the drawing and song link 👍

[hark-sounds]

The Clean - Crazy, 2001.

[doomandgloomfromthetomb]

David Kilgour - The Gas Station, New York City, June 18, 1992

Good news! The Great Unwashed's Clean Out Of Our Minds is getting a much-needed reissue soon. This band was the 4-track project of David and Hamish Kilgour following The Clean's initial splintering. Killer stuff — but then, pretty much everything that the Brothers Kilgour touched is magic. Like David's first solo LP, Here Come The Cars! That one has been reissued a few times over the years, but it looks like it could use another edition; even the reissues are going for beaucoup bucks these days. Beaucoup!  

Anyway, here's something that passed my way recently, and I'm passing it your way, too — David playing an abandoned NYC gas station on a short tour in support of Here Come The Cars?! Why not! I could listen to only this guy play guitar for the rest of my days and be happy. There's something about his strumming/sparkling style that just knocks me clean out of my mind.

Over on Facebook recently, David offered up a fond remembrance of this gig:

"I could only afford to bring Noel Ward on bass from NZ so we picked up drummer James Kavoussi from Fly Ashtray. Unrest also played they were fantastic!!!!! A CMJ festival, I think...We got a flat tyre outside the venue and couldnt find a spare, all the while fighting off the junkie who was stripped to his waste and covered in lathered soap. There was a shooting gallery nearby . It was a terrifying scene. It didnt help Noel and I were driving Hamish and Lisa's car which was a huge stationwagon, like a oldsmobile from the 70s, fucking huge, mid summer, no air con. Ha! The glamour life!"

[mcnyers]

Ok.... how the crap did I never know that GBV covered one of my favorite Clean songs.......

[rag-and-bone]

it's bigger than both of us - NZ singles 1979-82

[saltlickmp3]

Aotearoa Music Month

It's almost the end of NZ Music Month, here are my personal favourite Aotearoa artists and a few song recommendations :)

(If you listen to one song from the list make it Old Peel)

Aldous Harding. Words cannot explain the sheer bonkersness of Aldous Harding. One of her earliest songs shares the name but seemingly little else with Titus Groan, the gothic-fantasy novel by Mervyn Peake, and the music video for 'Lawn' features her in a prosthetic lizard tail. Performing live, she often stares straight ahead as though she is not quite sure why you're all looking at her. Her songs, sometimes joyous (The Barrel, Fever, Lawn), and sometimes yearning (Pilot, Party) sometimes just bored (Ennui), are all unmistakably her. Her last few albums have been produced by PJ Harvey collaborator John Parish, and her band includes multi-instrumentalist H. Hawkline (Cate Le Bon collaborator). 2022's Warm Chris was my favourite album of the year, I listened to it almost everyday for two months, the standout line (from 'Fever' being 'the weather/opened up like a birthday card' which is just beautiful. Her best song, though, I think is 'Old Peel', a 2021 single in which the percussion is Harding banging on a coffee mug with a stick. And she does this live as well.

2. The Beths. The Beths are one of those wonderful indie bands whose music all sounds so cheerful but the songs are all about the crushing weight of your insecurities. They've released 3 studios albums and an EP, but I reckon their debut, Future Me Hates Me, is their best one - standout tracks are the title track, 'Happy Unhappy' and 'Uptown Girl'. Their sounds is a mix of contemporary indie pop (lots of chirpy backup vocals) and classic indie rock dirt, especially on 'Future Me Hates Me', though their new stuff is pretty heavy live. They also use a lot of the old NZ made amps and gear that was made here in the 60s and 70s when it was too expensive to import stuff( ask any adult who was in a band here when they were younger and they'll probably have one). 'I Want to Listen' from last years' 'Expert In A Dying Field' is really lovely, if you aren't in the mood for songs about not knowing if you're lovable cos they've got a fair few of those.

3. Voom. Voom are probably on the lesser known side, but their 2006 album 'Hello, Are You There' is right up there with Grandaddy and Built to Spill. It's one of those albums with like 17 songs but some of them are less than a minute long. Beautiful indie rock, full of classic stuff like 'Jimmy's Got A Boner' 'My Friend Satan' and 'I'm Leaving Forever'. The best song on the album is 'B Your Boy', which I could listen to for a very long time, and we're going to cover it in my band and I'm so excited. It's just a perfect song.

Those are my top three (at the moment) honourable mentions are -

Reb Fountain - I saw her live. It was scary. I loved it.

Marlon Williams - last year he invented a genre, Māori disco pop, wrote the most danceable song of the year (My Boy), and played bongos on 'Come To Me' (Björk cover) live.

Vera Ellen - Some nice pissed off indie rock. 'I Want 2 B Boy' is very cool.

Pickle Darling - very vibey bedroom pop, lots of delightful little tunes. Also they work at a record store in my hometown and is always really friendly when I'm in there :)

Tiny Ruins - I'm not the most familiar with their stuff but one of my friends tells me to listen to them all the time so they must be good. Indie folk.

The Clean - Dunedin sound band, not super familiar with them but they have a song called 'Point That Thing Somewhere Else' which sounds like Sonic Youth but somehow even cooler.

Dimmer - 'I Believe You Are A Star' sort of like Portishead, by ex-Straightjacket Fits musician Shanye Carter. loudest show I've ever been to.

This one song called 'Gaskrankinstation' by the Headless Chickens, it's hella dark but pretty damn cool. post-punk.

Special Mention to Flying Nun Records, the actual coolest record label.

[dec0mposing]

Beatnik - The Clean (1982)

[guerrilla-operator]

THE CLEAN

[whatsthesound]

Stephen, “Tape Machine” (1988)

[samaralubelski]

Go Fund Me for Hamish Kilgour - https://gofund.me/9d06d2d9

[bandcampsnoop]

2/22/25.

Holy cow. Where has this band been? Nag Ar Juna are (were) a Japanese oddball/jangle/pop band. This was released in 2013 by the Tokyo label de.te.ri.o.ra.tion. The label's last release was 2019.

Nag Ar Juna move between pop sounds reminiscent of early Pastels, Bronze Float (listen to that guitar), The Clean or The Velvet Underground (some of these songs have that Mo Tucker chug). There are several releases on the label from this band. Really, take some time to go through them all. I've been listening most to "How Many Friends Can Die Happily?", but "doqu" has more vocal interplay (male and female). There's a definite Georgia Hubley vibe on the 2nd song, "Sasage".

Of course, I'd be remiss if I didn't also mention Maple Fyshh. Nag Ar Juna must have listened to them while growing up. But, I hope it always goes without saying...Nag Ar Juna have crafted a sound all their own. Fantastic.

[spilladabalia]

The Clean - Dunes

[hark-sounds]

The Clean - Diamond Shine, 1990.