Ending up the week with a session from Clinic, recorded for Marc Riley at BBC 6 Music on September 28, 2010.
Heather Phares at AllMusic offers up this excerpt from her fine bio of the band, just so you know:
One of indie’s most distinctive and mysterious acts, Clinic combine decades’ worth of familiar sounds in surprising ways. At any given moment, it’s possible to hear shades of the Seeds‘ churning garage rock, the Velvet Underground‘s chugging cool, Suicide‘s icy pulse, Ennio Morricone‘s spaghetti Western drama, or Augustus Pablo‘s moody dub within their music. Coupled with Ade Blackburn‘s acidic vocals and their fondness for wearing surgical masks in concert, the Liverpool-based act created an unmistakable image and sound that nevertheless shifted subtly on each album. On 2000’s Internal Wrangler, Clinic led with the raw strangeness of their music, then emphasized its sophistication on 2002’s chilly Walking with Thee. Later, when the band explored folk (on 2006’s Visitations), ’60s pop (on 2010’s Bubblegum), and experimental electronics (on 2012’s Free Reign), the results were equally unexpected and effortless. Despite their accomplishments over the years — touring with Radiohead, a Grammy nomination — Clinic remained outside of the mainstream with the acerbic political commentary of 2019’s Wheeltappers and Shunters and the dreamy disco of 2021’s Fantasy Island.
Clinic formed in 1997, when longtime friends Ade Blackburn (vocals/guitars/keyboards) and Jonathan Hartley (guitars/keyboards) left their previous band, Pure Morning. To complete their new project’s lineup, they recruited Brian Campbell (bass/flute/vocals) and Carl Turney (drums/piano/vocals). The band embellished on their punk and garage rock roots with keyboards they found at flea markets and jumble sales, as heard on their debut EP, I.P.C. Subeditors Dictate Our Youth. Released on their own Aladdin’s Cave of Golf label, it reached number nine in John Peel‘s Festive 50 singles roundup of 1997. The following year, Clinic issued the equally well-received singles “Cement Mixer” and “Monkey on My Back.” A bidding war followed, and the band signed with Domino Records in 1999 because of the label’s diverse roster and independent spirit. Clinic’s first release for Domino was that year’s The Second Line, an EP whose title track peaked at number 24 on the U.K. Indie Singles Chart and was famously used in ads for Levi’s Jeans in the U.K. The song also appeared on Clinic’s acclaimed May 2000 debut album, Internal Wrangler. Over a year in the making and, like their previous releases, self-financed, the set reached number 12 on the U.K. Albums Chart and number 25 on the U.K. Indie Albums chart. The singles “The Return of Evil Bill” and “Distortions” both made it to the Top 20 of the U.K. Indie Singles Chart, while “The Second Line” made it to number 56 on the U.K. Singles Chart when it was re-released in support of the album.
You can catch the rest of their bio by visiting their AllMusic page.
Okay – here comes Saturday – relax and breathe deep.
