Hey folks, I'm on a bit of a mission of late. It seems that even among my biggest music geek friends, very few are aware of the wealth of great music that came from New Zealand starting in the late 70's and continuing to this day.
One of the most important of these acts were The Clean from Dunedin. Nine years ago, Merge Records put out an amazing two-disc compilatition simply titled Anthology. Not only is this collection essential, it is very much still in print and readily available. I urge you to head over to the Merge Records Online Store and pick up a copy-- you won't be sorry.
Below, I have put together a 25-song companion disc, which culls tracks from The Clean's five albums since 1990. The Anthology I mentioned above, covers the first three of these albums, but I tried to avoid overlap (there is one track on both).
The Clean are playing a handful of dates here in the U.S. this Spring:
May
30 Los Angeles CA The Echo
June
2 Austin TX Chaos in Tejas - Club De Ville
4 Allston MA Brighton Music Hall w/ Times New Viking
5 New York NY Le Poisson Rouge w/ Times New Viking
6 Philadelphia PA Johnny Brenda's w/ Times New Viking
7 Washington DC Rock & Roll Hotel w/ Times New Viking
8 Chapel HillLocal 506 w/ Times New Viking
I'll be at the Chapel Hill show!
Happy listening.
Excerpts from The Clean: 1990-2009
01. Bye Bye
02. Dunes
03. Home
04. Getting To You
05. Starting Point
06. Outside the Cage
07. 2 Reasons
08. Something I Need
09. Different World
10. Champagne and Misery
11. Changing Your Head
12. Happy Lil Fella
13. Rope
14. Valley Cab
15. Stars
16. Crazy
17. Golden Crown
18. E Motel
19. Poor Boy
20. Complications
21. Loog
22. Are You Really on Drugs
23. In the Dreamlife U Need a Rubber Soul
24. Factory Man
25. Asleep in the Tunnel
Total Time: 1:13:27
Download it here: Excerpts From The Clean: 1990-2009
8 comments:
Thanks for The Clean compilation--haven't spent enough time listening to their more recent stuff, so it's great to get your guided tour.
Been getting into a lot of New Zealand music lately. Put together a show on Flying Nun last month--http://www.last.fm/user/Uhwelluh/journal/2012/03/16/5di6kp_flying_nun_broadcast. Finding out just how influential a component the kiwi sound was on '90s US indie bands--hard to imagine what Pavement, Yo La Tengo & many of the Elephant 6 outfits would sound like without it. Not just influential on musicians though, but on labels, like Matador & Merge--where I think an affection for stuff like The Verlaines & Tall Dwarfs probably made the labels more eager to seek out & take on lo fi bands like GBV.
Very cool, Chris. I just friended you over at LastFM, but I don't do much over there. My computer stopped updating over there a long time ago.
As for Flying Nun and New Zealand in general, I've got a bit more in store here at the Shine. Hopefully, I'll post some tunes you might have missed.
I urge you to check out the last two Clean albums which were released on Merge. Two of the best albums of the 00's, if you ask me. I don't think the other three are in print, but also worth your time, if you haven't already listened to them.
I have heard of 'em, but I'm not sure if I ever HEARD 'em.
If you recommend them, then I will check it out.
As for Kiwi's, how about the Mutton Birds? Their best songs are up there with the best of anyone (tipped to them by Jack Rabid at The Big Takeover).
Great site (in case no one had told you!)
Ace
Interesting post since this group has come up in conversation a couple of times recently. Thank you for this opportunity to give them a listen.
This blog RULES! Just discovered it and I'm digging in. I've been enjoying the Clean Anthology myself, prepping to see them in Ch.Hill tomorrow as well, by coincidence. I was looking for some of their more recent stuff not covered by the Anthology... Basically I was looking for exactly this, for the exact reason you made it, haha.
But that's not even how I found it! I got distracted because some other blogger compared a Flying Nun band to a Paisley Underground band, and I realized I don't know much about that scene... I wonder if there's a compilation out there somewhere? A google search brought me here, and then I was curious what else you've posted... to find this Clean comp. Uncanny.
In addition to both of those I just grabbed the whole Rebellious Jukebox series... so this has been a major score for me. Thanks so much for posting!! I'll be checking in for sure. Tally Ho!
Very cool Lee! I'm currently in NC counting the minutes till the show tonight. I'll be wearing a Guided by Voices shirt, if you want to come up and say hello.
man, I blew it. I've been meaning to buy my ticket for a couple weeks now, but kept forgetting. Today I finally got around to it and it said online tickets were sold out, but tickets available at the door, so I made the drive over relatively early (I actually live outside Greensboro) but was DENIED. I'm kicking myself!
Well, hope you have fun. Let us know how it was.
It was an awesome show, but dear lord it was hot at the 506. I bet there were 200+ people in there, and it is not a big space.
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