Rockbites: The Clean’s Getaway: buoyant, definitive

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August 2001 • Rockbites Alternative Daily

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The Clean’s Getaway: buoyant, definitive
17 August 2001

Next week New Zealand’s legendary The Clean release Getaway: their first album in five years, just their fourth since forming in Dunedin in 1978, and unambiguously one of the essential rock albums of 2001. It comes out worldwide (but not in New Zealand or Australia, curiously) on Merge, Matador, Zomba, and various other labels on Monday or Tuesday depending on where you are.
    The members of The Clean have drifted together and apart over the years as though the venture is no big deal; along the way pursuing several other higher visibility projects including The Bats, Bailter Space, Mad Scene, and Yo La Tengo; reforming as The Clean as the spirit moved them. This blithe attitude infuses Getaway, an album of stunning musicality that comes and goes as naturally and ephemerally as a breath.
    As you will expect if you’re a Clean fan, the ghost of the Velvet Underground rises in strong evidence on the new LP (e.g, on Crazy). But there’s a nod as well—in a sort of double irony—to Velvets fans The Dandy Warhols (Aho). There’s even a track in musical tribute to The Grateful Dead (Circle Canyon), on which Yo La Tengo founders Ira Kaplan and Georgia Hubley guest on guitar and drums.
    Mostly, though, this is definitive Clean—the band that was so important to the sounds of Yo La Tengo, Pavement, every band on Flying Nun, and countless others—having continued to grow musically and emotionally over their 23 years together and apart. Extremely varied, the thread that holds this album together is a musical evocation of hard earned optimism. To describe its 51 minutes and 15 tracks in one word happens to be easy. It’s uplifting.
    The Clean—David Kilgour, guitars; Hamish Kilgour, drums; Robert Scott, bass; all three share lead vocals—will stage a very brief bicoastal tour of the US next month. It will be their first such visit in 11 years. See the dates below.
    Getaway gets away with five bites out of five.

Rockbites ratings  5: life changing, 4: stunning, 3: captivating, 2: amusing, 1: annoying.

Here are the upcoming US dates for The Clean

September
15 - New York city, NY (Bowery Ballroom - CMJ fest w/ Spoon, The Ladybug Transistor, The Clientele)
17 - Hoboken, NJ (Maxwell’s - w/ Sonic Boom)
18 - Cambridge, MA (Middle East - w/ Apples In Stereo)
19 - Philadelphia, PA (5 Spot - w/ Apples In Stereo)
21 - San Francisco, CA (Bottom Of The Hill)
22 - Los Angeles, CA (Knitting Factory)
| The Clean on Merge Records | | The Clean on Flying Nun Records | | CD from Amazon UK | | CD | | top of page |

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