What is The Clean?

The Clean were an influential first-wave punk band that formed in Dunedin, New Zealand in 1978. Led through a number of early rotating line-ups by brothers Hamish and David Kilgour, the band settled down to the well-known line-up with bassist Robert Scott. Early incarnations of the Clean included Peter Gutteridge on bass (who wrote "Point That Thing"), Doug Hood on vocals (who later worked with Toy Love and founded the "Looney Tours" touring company). The Clean soon forged a distinctive and quirky sound that relied heavily on organ melodies and simple, Ramones-style chord progressions.

In 1981, a fan of the Clean founded the Flying Nun label to release their first single, "Tally Ho." A follow-up track off one of their early EPs, "Beatnik", also achieved success, as did the second single, "Getting Older".

The Flying Nun label went on to be New Zealand's biggest independent record company, championing the Dunedin Sound, a loosely-connected style of music largely produced by bands from this southern city. Others on the label included The Chills, The Verlaines, The Bats, and Sneaky Feelings. The line-ups of these bands were often interrelated, with Peter Gutteridge being a founding member of the Chills, David Kilgour briefly in the Chills off-shoot band Time Flies, and Robert Scott being the founder of The Bats.

During much of the 1980s, the Clean were officially split up, and during this time the Kilgour Brothers worked together on an experimental album and ep using the deliberately punning name of "The Great Unwashed" - the album was similarly punningly titled "Clean Out Of Our Minds". Reforming in the late 1980s, the band found a slightly poppier vein of music while retaining their experimental edge.

Although they released several chart-topping songs in their native country, the Clean are a cult band in the rest of the world. However, their influence is surprisingly far-reaching. They became a staple of college radio in the 1980s. Stephen Malkmus of Pavement cites the Clean as a major influence, and the band's droney 80s output is a direct forerunner of Yo La Tengo. Other bands, such as Camper Van Beethoven have a sound that seems heavily influenced by the Clean.

The Clean continue to produce music, and Flying Nun recently issued a comprehensive collection of their previously hard-to-find singles. Output from the band has been sporadic over the years, with all group members involved in other projects and Hamish Kilgour now living in New York. Other projects involving members of the band include The Bats and The Magick Heads (Scott), Stephen, The Heavy Eights (David Kilgour), and The Mad Scene (Hamish Kilgour).

They are currently touring New Zealand on the 'Bangers and Mash' tour. During this tour they celebrated Hamish Kilgour's 50th birthday while playing at 'The Studio' on Karangahape Road in Auckland on Saturday 17 March 2007.

Discography

Cover	Date	Title	Label	Charted	Country	Catalog Number
Albums
	1982	Oddities	Flying Nun Records	-	-	FNMC ODD1
	1987	Compilation	Flying Nun Records	-	-	FNCD154
	1990	Vehicle	Flying Nun Records	-	-	FNCD147
	1994	Modern Rock	Flying Nun Records	-	-	FNCD292
	1996	Unknown Country	Flying Nun Records	-	-	FNCD349
	2001	Getaway	Flying Nun Records/Merge Records	-	-	FNCD459/MRG188
	2001	Slush Fund	Arc	-	NZ	Arc Cafe #1
	2002	Anthology	Flying Nun Records/Merge Records	-	-	FNCD468/MRG220
	2003		Cleano	-	NZ	Cleano 0001
EPs
	1981	Boodle Boodle Boodle	Flying Nun Records	4	NZ	FN003
	1982	Great Sounds Great, Good Sounds Good, So-so Sounds So-so, Bad Sounds Bad, Rotten Sounds Rotten	Flying Nun Records	-	NZ	FNGOOD001
	1986	Live Dead Clean	Flying Nun Records	-	NZ	FNLDC01
	1990	In a Live	Flying Nun Records	-	NZ/Europe	FN145/FNE29
7"s
	1981	Tally Ho/Platypus	Flying Nun Records	19	NZ	FN002
	1982	Getting Older/Whatever I do/Scrape Music	Flying Nun Records	-	NZ	FNLAST1
	1994	Late Last Night/Psychedelic Clown	Dark Beloved Cloud	-	US	dbc020

External Links

• The Clean and David Kilgour discography
• MySpace page