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On The List: The Clientele

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These are the highlights of what we were listening to in our tour van on the long drives west across America and south through Europe last year. Interupted by compulsory Bee Gees marathons (everything from 1965 to 1972) from our tour driver, this was the stuff we used to sour the sometimes overly saccharine pill of the brothers Gibb.

- Alasdair Maclean

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Tracks

1. Various Artists - City Jungle, Pt. 1 - Beautiful Daze

"See paper tigers floating out at night / and you see wingless birds taking to flight." This is a garage punk coated with hi-rise dread. Due to a misprint on the first Acid Dreams compilation artwork, the song was originally credited to 'the Remaining Few', which I think would have been the perfect name for this band, you have the sense of a last stand being made before the monster fuzz guitar solo eats them alive.

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2. Razorcuts - Brighter Now

This record was dismissed by Q Magazine in 1988 as 'the pathetic whimsy of the Razorcuts.' Fuck Q magazine. The fact that the strings are obviously fake only adds to the sense of summery weirdness, along with the off-key vocals.

3. The Numbers Band - About the Eye Game

How come I never heard this before now? it sounds like Harry Dean Stanton from Repo Man fronting a more soulful (and faster!) MC5 or Dexys. Or maybe it even comes close to the white version of Miles Davis' 'On the Corner'. Good amphetamine-ish fun from 1975.

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4. Radar Bros. - Painted Forest Fire

No one does eerie in modern music as well as the Radar Brothers. This is my favourite song of theirs.

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5. Michael Head - Something Like You

Michael Head's most beautiful melody and a baroque string arrangement. It don't get much better than this.

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6. Jackie McLean - Old Gospel

Jackie plays with Ornette Coleman (on trumpet!) and experiments with mixing blues and semi-free jazz. Like his following record, 'Bout Soul', this is an unfairly overlooked masterpiece, and just about my favourite jazz record.

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7. Field Music - You Can Decide

The other current good British band.

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8. The Monkees - Ticket On A Ferry Ride

By this time Pete and Mike had left, and the Monkees were pretty much finished. Mickey's swansong is this bittersweet ballad that reminds me of the simplicity of their early singles, except it seems more knowing, more defeated. The songs Mickey sang were almost always sad and this one just aches.

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9. John Cale - Helen of Troy

Pretty nasty and menacing, but with good 70s radiophonic workshop electronics.

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10. Various - Help, I'm Lost - Mind's Eye

These guys took the noble project of transcribing their LSD visions into music with deadly seriousness: another garage punk gem from 1967, this time bordering on complete loss of control; "Silence hung the crystal notes of the night... my mind was racing, it burned, but it wanted to fly... music raced through my brain.. the craziest bundle of rain was a pleasure to feel, all was FANTASTICALLY real".. All scored through with a gloriously incongruous Eleanor Rigby string quartet, twiddly, intense raga guitar solos, and a Manazarek Organ, and held together by a relentless beat.

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The Lake House New from: $13.01 Used from: $8.99

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The Clientele Strange Geometry New from: $9.93 Used from: $5.99

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The Clientele God Save the Clientele New from: $10.18 Used from: $7.94

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Bowerbirds Deer Tick Arthur & Yu Opsvik & Jennings Deerhunter Lightning Dust Odawas Menomena Mary Weiss The Broken West Papercuts Baby Dayliner Currituck Co. Field Music Jana Hunter Citay Vetiver The Flaming Lips Wooden Wand Megan Reilly Samara Lubelski Great Lakes Eric Matthews Grizzly Bear The Clientele Starlight Mints The Essex Green Aloha Radar Bros. Shapes and Sizes Work Clothes Kelley Stoltz Silver Jews Dressy Bessy Elf Power [MORE...]

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On The List: The Clientele

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