The Clean playing at Other Music

Bob Burnett: I just happened across Other Music's webpage today to discover a nice 9 minute video clip they put together of a recent in-store gig by New Zealand's The Clean. If you are a long time c60 reader you'll recognize The Clean from a review Kim did of guitarist David Kilgour's excellent solo album, The Far Now.

On the strength of Kilgour's album (and at Kim's suggestion) I got The Clean: Anthology and really can't believe I completely missed this band from the late '70s through the '90s when they were releasing albums.


As is usually the case, Kim knew and was there to share so that I didn't totally miss out. So was Ira Kaplan of Yo La Tengo who wrote:

"I've spent more time loving the Clean in the last 25 years than any other band, and I probably can't describe why. But when any one of them — Hamish or David or Robert — start singing, I melt."

I'm sure none of this un-ruffles the musical feathers over the fact that Kim tried to get me to go see David Kilgour with him when he was on a (very rare) solo tour in DC recently.......and I was "too tired"........I must have known deep down there was no way he'd ever re-capture the moment the Other Music environment offered The Clean, right? A moment where the guitar and bass warmly and tastefully resonated beautifully, Hamish magically traded drums for tabla......their intuition at the top of their collective game.....nah......no way...right? Right?

Sorry Kim.........