Sounds like a righteous evening, and thanks to your luminous prose, I can at least imagine the vibe of a gig for which I was sadly too lame to accompany you on. Apparently, the guy at the end of the bar liked the show a lot too; it reminded him of a kiwi rock sampler he used to have.

Hi--very well written entry on Friday night's show. I was lucky enough to be there Thursday and Friday nights. (No thanks to Cake Shop. My own anecdote: I stopped by the place in early November to ask about tickets, and some doofus who obviously had never heard of The Clean told me they wouldn't be selling any. I was stunned, and I pressed him on the matter. His comments? People could just line up outside, like it was any other show at the club. I haven't been so dumbstruck all year. Weeks later, when I was e-yelling at the club's managers about Saturday night being "sold out" after trying to reserve some slots online, they apologized and told me the guy I talked to hadn't seen the memo. I agree: he definitely didn't get the memo.)

I hope I won't be blacklisted next time for saying this.

Speaking of Cake Shop: my understanding is that it was something worked out between the club and the band. They're on friendly terms, apparently, ergo three shows at a pretty humble club. For comparison, the previous times I saw The Clean were at Maxwell's in Hoboken (this was on September 17 2001--you don't really forget dates from that period) and The Knitting Factory (a far calmer June 2003). As to last week's lack of publicity, also intentional (again, this is what I was told): a little jaunt through Europe and a new album [!] are in the works, so what we saw were essentially rehearsals. Pretty good rehearsals, I'd say.

I too came to love The Clean through their oldest stuff (and a couple of my favorites on "Compilation"--"Count to Ten," "Wild Western Shores"--seem to have been off-the-top-of-their-heads flashes of genius, yet they deserve to be trotted out and played again. I fear they're virtually forgotten now...but imagine how many of these kinds of songs they must have had back in Dunedin circa 1981!). And it's worth having a copy of "Anthology" just for "Two Fat Sisters."

But I have a strong appreciation for their work since the early 1980s, and loved hearing them play that stuff too. I have a lot of time for both "Vehicle" and "Modern Rock" ("Someone" is a hell of a good song, and I think "Outside the Cage" is one of the band's most beguiling pieces--so psychedelic, so pensive), and some of "Getaway" is terrific (reacquaint yourself sometime with "Poor Boy" and "Complications." Both absolutely stunning).

But yes, the early stuff was great, and great still sounds great.

Lastly, I'm 95% sure Friday night's last song was "Slug Song"...but I'm 99% sure it wasn't "Anything Could Happen."

So there we are. Way more than my two cents' worth, I realize...for which, sorry. (No one forced you to read the whole thing, I guess.) Again, very nice work on your eloquent rundown of the experience.

I think I transposed "Anything" and "Slug Song" in my head maybe? I'll leave it as is though, and let the uncertainty play out for the interested down here. Claim it's all a meditation on the mysterious transience of subjective memory, or some shit. Thanks for your account though.

hey jeff,
i think you should try a different name for your sock puppet. Jeff is too obvious.

Slander!

No, no--it really was a different Jeff. That would be me. I'll also shamelessly attach a review of the show I did for the Financial Times.

Hmm. That seemed not to work. Let's try again: http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/6d51477c-a289-11dc-81c4-0000779fd2ac.html

nice piece, jeff. I knew you were legit, and was only joshing herr klingman. Btw, David Kilgour's Here Comes the Cars used to be my go-to late-night CD. A hidden gem well worth finding, people!

Thanks for the kind words, David. (You're not David Kilgour's sock-puppet, are you?) I was very pleased that my editors at the FT thought a little piece on The Clean was worth having. Believe it or not, I found this review exceedingly difficult to write. It's hard to explain The Clean's music and importance to an audience that you assume has never heard of them...it's much easier to write 1,000 words on a thing like this than 350 words.

Funny you mention "Here Come the Cars"--it was the one Kilgour album I never really rated, but in the last few weeks I've gone back to it and am enjoying it a lot more. (I think "Sugar Mouth" and "Feather in the Engine" are both stellar, and "Heavy Eights" and "Frozen Orange" have exceptional moments, even if they're inconsistent overall. "The Far Now" is the one that really disappointed me.)

Thanks for the kind words, David. (You're not David Kilgour's sock-puppet, are you?) I was very pleased that my editors at the FT thought a little piece on The Clean was worth having. Believe it or not, I found this review exceedingly difficult to write. It's hard to explain The Clean's music and importance to an audience that you assume has never heard of them...it's much easier to write 1,000 words on a thing like this than 350 words.

Funny you mention "Here Come the Cars"--it was the one Kilgour album I never really rated, but in the last few weeks I've gone back to it and am enjoying it a lot more. (I think "Sugar Mouth" and "Feather in the Engine" are both stellar, and "Heavy Eights" and "Frozen Orange" have exceptional moments, even if they're inconsistent overall. "The Far Now" is the one that really disappointed me.)

I fell for Here Come the Cars, just the sweet melancholy of the songs, and found it was the only thing that could calm me down after a night of insanity in the east village. I tracked down Sugar Mouth, but I found it less consistent, although the first three tracks are brilliant. Eventually I found Frozen Orange and agree that it is excellent in spots. I'll take your word on the others. HCTC has a magic and a flow to it, which is of course completely shattered by the one barn-burner, track 6, the aptly named "Spasm," which is about as welcome as Andy Summers's "Mother" on Synchronicity. But I kind of dig it now because it reminds me of how many times I lurched across my tiny bedroom to hit the forward button when it came on.

Hi--sorry for silence, just came across your post. If you're still looking at this thread, you've definitely convinced me to keep working at "Here Come the Cars"--and I'm intrigued by what's so offensive about "Spasm".

For my part, I'd ask you to listen more closely to two songs on "Sugar Mouth": "Filter" and "Recollection." I love the lyrics of "Filter" especially (and cannot figure out why the song got that title): "I don't want a war with you/ So I keep my distance/ That'll do/ You no good."

As for "A Feather in the Engine," it's absolutely terrific. Well worth seeking out--though I wouldn't be surprised if it took you a couple of listens.

I know I am ridiculously late in finding this, but I'm glad I did. I'll add this in case anyone's still out there:
The Great Unwashed (the band David and Hamish Kilgour formed after they canned the Clean for the first time) are also well worth checking out. Their album/EP compilation (just called "Collection") is interesting, but they kind of took a strange distorted folk approach to recording those tracks. A lot of the songs from that time sounded a lot better live, and there's a pretty awesome tape called "Oddities 2" (yes folks, a cassette! remember them?) that was released a long time ago (obviously) and has never appeared on CD. It's well worth tracking down for the live versions of "What You Should Be Now" and "Toadstool Blues", and the otherwise unreleased "Big Mouth" and "Middle-Sized Mind" (which is staggering, one of my top five songs involving David Kilgour, which is pretty much my all-time top five anyway).
I'm not sure why or how anyone would find "Spasm" offensive though . . . okay it's the most pacy song on HCTC, but it's hardly abrasive and doesn't ruin the mood of the record for me.
By the by, I saw the Clean in NZ in March 2007 and it was the best gig I've ever been at by a long way.