A lot has changed since Clinic first shell-shocked the scene in the late ’90s with a waxen trio of blitzkrieg EPs, and the many rave reviews and rarefied Radiohead comparisons that followed its earliest albums, 2000’s Internal Wrangler and 2002’s Walking With Thee. Born during those final twilight hours of the music industry’s money-minting heyday, Clinic has defiantly survived the many upheavals and unthinking revolutions that surround the working band in the internet age. Free Reign (Domino) is Clinic’s seventh album, as well as the most focused and singular of the band’s career to date. Frontman Ade Blackburn will be guest editing magnetmagazine.com all week. Read our brand new Clinic feature.
Blackburn: Hailing from late-’70s Los Angeles, the Screamers are still ripe for rediscovery. It’s punk without guitars or bass and still sounds contemporary. Plenty of nasty keyboard dissonance but with an abundance of hooks. They’re another big influence for Clinic. Singer Tomata du Plenty seemed the perfect punk icon to displace Elvis in the nation’s affections. It didn’t quite materialize. They never released any proper records in their lifetime but several demo compilations are definitely worth hunting down. I’d go for In a Better World, a mixture of demos and live.
Video after the jump.
