C/D: the clientele

Good choice. No offense Warpaint.

Who wants a free ticket to their show in Brooklyn tonight? Email me.

I chose warpaint. No offense Clientele.

You sure? Warpaint is still active at least. Not sure how many of these The Clientele will do.

so that was a pretty great show. heavily weighted towards Suburban Light/Violet Hour era Clientele, and the sound was solid too. Nice to hear The House Always Wins instead of Lamplight... hope it points toward new material but was very much worth the trip for me!

Oh man that performance was so magical!

Now I can say I've seen both versions of the band (latest/earliest) as I saw them a few years ago at Maxwells.

Makes me want to write songs all day. I'm going to buy a little notebook that I can take with me so I can write lyrics on the fly. I've already got guitar-lines worked out over the years that owe a lot to these guys so maybe someday I'll get this little mini dream of mine realized.

As a bonus I got to buy directly from them:

Since K Got Over Me 7"
Lost Weekend EP 10"
Violet Hour LP 12"

Evan, it's not a big deal but that wasn't the earliest line up of the band: they went through two drummers before Mark joined (between "Suburban Light" and "The Violet Hour" iirc) and there was the early four-piece version with Innes of The Relict.

they actually played "Southern Way" during the Amor de Días set on Thursday w/Pam Berry singing!

!! Blimey.

Oh, yes that's right. Didn't know about the four-piece version under that name though! xp to Tim

Amor de Dias was very nice too! Lilys set fell apart though... oh well.

hahaha, I thought the Lilys were pretty great! Never seen 'em before, and it kind of lived up to my kooky expectations. Withered Hand really blew me away though. I had no idea they were part of the Fence Collective, so the appearance of King Creosote on stage was pretty surreal. And great!

Yeah they issued a bunch of recordings from that four-piece line-up as a tour CD called "It's Art Dad" some years ago. (Having quickly looked at the CD it says '91-'96, personnel Hornsey Maclean Evans Phillips.)

And I too really love Withered Hand!

Oh yeah, the second Clientele song on Friday was "Dear Jennifer" from It's Art Dad!

Have you heard any Lilys records prior to the show?

oh yeah, their first two or three albums I listened to a lot, but a long time ago... In the Presence of Nothing, Brief History of Amazing Letdowns, Eccsame the Photon Band

Those are my three favorites!

I mean, it's always a treat to see a rare performance of cuts from your top 10 favorite records by the original artist, but the full band set from last year was much more faithful. When I chatted with him afterwards he referenced some equipment issues and other hiccups during rehearsal (on his own- I didn't ask!). But even as a beat machine backed guitar medley it did not gel. To the point my girlfriend and I were wondering if the sounds-guy (Jesse, I think) even knew the songs! He was part of the line-up last year though. All sounded great then!

hahaha, until I caught the chorus from Ginger I didn't know they were even playing songs... I just figured they had gotten really lateral since I stopped listening

As a bonus I got to buy directly from them:

Since K Got Over Me 7"
Lost Weekend EP 10"
Violet Hour LP 12"

― Evan

Did they have a lot of their stuff for sale? Have been after a vinyl copy of Strange Geometry since I got into them.

Yeah I was able to make out Claire Hates Me, Ginger, and Returns Every Morning. Other than that I can't remember or I couldn't identify it even at the time.

xpost

KP- those were the only older records they had. I was also hoping they'd have Strange Geometry!

That's still a good selection. I got Violet Hour late last year without having to pay a crazy amount for it. It's one of those albums that was just made to be played on vinyl.

Oh for sure

http://www.jazzhouse.dk/jazzklub/clientele-uk-1

Copenhagen in August sounds nice.

Copenhagen in August was nice.

ended up giving my tickets to a friend since I had to attend a wedding - but I hear it was nice :')

Consensus among the small collection of regular Clientele show-goers was that it went very well - sorry you missed it Niels. The band seemed to enjoy it also. I had a great time too, always a pleasure to visit Copenhagen.

(Progress towards a new LP also, I hear - apparently the songs are really very good indeed, though they didn't play any new ones this time, largely due to lack of opportunity to rehearse them properly.)

(Fantastic news!)

A new album would be absolutely incredible news.

Alasdair solo in London tomorrow night, I'm looking forward to it: http://www.wegottickets.com/event/360295

Thx for reminder, now I just have to remember it's tomorrow...

(Is John promoting this?)

I'm not sure; I bought tickets.

Same here. We're 14 left, now only 11.

Good! See you there.

I would like to go but considering the time difference I think the show is over already.

You've about 13 hours before it starts, that's still time.

(Although ilm is showing me a GMT time for my post and not a BST time so be careful you're not an hour late.)

Yeah you'll need to get a swerve on though, it's the getting from Heathrow to Kings Cross that'll take the real time.

I'll parachute in to avoid ground transportation issues. Just want to be sure I don't upstage him with the landing.

I'll just try to imagine how great it'll be from way over here in the US

will leave the actual comments on the gig to tim but facebook said 7, we got tickets said 7:30. doors were actually 7:45 and that was followed by 50 minutes of sitting and waiting which is dull if you're there on your own and it's too dark to read...

anyway, he's playing again for Daylight Music at the Union Chapel on Nov 5th. remember, remember...

https://www.facebook.com/events/1200135206704929/

It was delightful, Alasdair playing mostly CLientele songs we're used to hearing at full-band shows, from the slower end of things (Reflections After Jane, Saturday etc, the most upbeat was Since K Got Over Me), one or two we're less used to hearing these days (Bicycles, Bonfires on the Heath, Devil Got My Woman) plus an untitled new one: he didn't announce the title but it sounded like vintage Clientele to me.

Maclean fully reverbed up in an echoey church is a very reverby thing indeed.

We're a couple of covers too. Sid James and durruti column

(Not Sid James.)

Were. Bloody autocorrect.

Are there any other bands that exist that sound anything like the Clientele?

Legit question

I think maybe there's a thread for that? Or it's discussed upthread.

Recently I've gotten a similar vibe from deerhunter's fading frontier

But the short answer is no nothing

There's just nothing quite as sophisticated and tuneful. Melodic indie rock, even the more sonically consistent bands in that category like Real Estate don't seem to have the effortless complexity and even-handedness Clientele has. Everyone else is "trying" in different ways and Clientele never had to in the first place. Their music goes well with similar things in other categories, like charming old houses and pretty gardens, things that are undeniable.

Which Durutti Column song, koogs?