Sunday, May 24, 2009

Music Library: The Clientele, Clifford Brown, Clinic, Clique, Clive Kennedy, cLOUDDEAD, Club Wig

The Clientele - The Violet Hour, Strange Geometry, Bookshop Casanova EP, God Save The Clientele, and That Night, A Forest Grew EP. The Clientele play tasteful guitar pop influenced by Richard Thompson, Love, Galaxie 500, and any number of other excellent, tasteful guitar pop bands. So, yes, repetitive, but in the best way. Strange Geometry is my favorite of their albums and, while I'm not crazy about God Save The Clientele, the That Night, A Forest Grew EP is very promising (and yay for the Where The Wild Things Are reference).

Clifford Brown - Brownie: The Complete Emarcy Recordings of Clifford Brown. Clifford Brown was a brilliant bop trumpeter who died too soon in a car accident at age 25. Anyway, this is a fantastic set, with Brown backing or leading such jazz greats as Max Roach, Sonny Rollins, Dinah Washington, and Sarah Vaughan. They make a pretty convincing argument that if he had lived, Brown would be as well-known as, say, Dizzy Gillespie. Great stuff.

Clinic - "Walking With Thee" and Do It!. I like this band, although they pretty much have only one trick: mining the organ-dominated tracks from the Nuggets boxes.

The Clique - "I Am Superman." The original of the popular REM cover. The Clique was a Texas garage band, and this is about all I know of The Clique. Great song, though!

Clive Kennedy - "The Late Late Show." An odd glam one-hit wonder, I think. I don't know where I got it, but I suspect David Smay was involved.

cLOUDDEAD - cLOUDDEAD, The Peel Session EP, Dead Dogs Two EP, and Ten. I have this classified under "hip-hop," but it's not really hip-hop, so much as some sort of surreal Brian Eno-meets-El P thing with lyrics by Bunuel. I wish I had better words to describe it, because cLOUDDEAD produced some richly pleasing and heady music and are among my favorite bands. I've read that cLOUDDEAD's Ten is so named for being the tenth and final release of their career. cLOUDDEAD collects the first 6 EPs. The Peel Session EP is #7, and Dead Dogs Two EP is #9, so it appears that there's only one release that I don't have. eMusic doesn't offer it, so I'm curious how it fits into the arc of their music.

Club Wig - Club Wig and The Lost Album. Hometown heroes from Tuscaloosa, AL, Club Wig (named for the Ronnie Dawson song Club Wig Wam, I believe) was like a psychedelic version of the B-52s. Great stuff, with guitar-dance numbers leading into psych rave-outs. They recently made the demo tracks for their unreleased sophomore album (called The Lost Album here) available for fans, and although they don't sound quite finished, they point towards a promising place that Club Wig could have gone with a little more time. Presuming, of course, that someone would have prevailed upon them to eventually drop the rap track.

0 comments:

My photo
Cary, NC, United States
reachable at firstname lastname (all run together) at gmail dot com

About This Blog

From Here To Obscurity, founded ca. 2003, population 1. The management wishes to emphasize that no promises vis-a-vis your entertainment have been guaranteed and for all intents and purposes, intimations of enlightenment fall under the legal definition of entertainment. No refunds shall be given nor will requests be honored. Although some may ask, we have no intention of beginning again.

  © Blogger templates Brooklyn by Ourblogtemplates.com 2008

Back to TOP