The Clean — Getaway

The Clean is the original post-punk independent band from New Zealand.

In 1981 they recorded a four-track song called "Tally-Ho" for under $100 NZ dollars and it actually had enough airplay to chart on the New Zealand Top 40 charts. The money they and friend Roger Shepherd made with that single helped start the important Kiwi-based record label, Flying Nun, which spawned a whole independent scene in that wee country down under.

The Clean then broke up for seven years. One band member Robert Scott formed The Bats and Flying Nun put out albums by The Chills, John Paul Satre Experience, The Verlaines, The 3D's and many more over the past two decades. Brothers Hamish and David Kilgour and Scott, got back together in 1990 then again in 1994 and 1996 to record, release, tour and break-up the band again. Now it's the twentieth anniversary of the band's earliest success and there's a new Clean album.

Getaway traces the band's many different style changes from the early punk days through the mid-'80s "Non Clean " period when the Kilgour brothers went under the name The Great Unwashed and had a sound that was folkier and more lyrically-oriented. Throughout Getaway there are moments that are reminiscent of fellow Australian vets, The Go-Betweens, as well as the droning folksy space rock of Yo La Tengo. This latter influence is not too surprising because of the appearance of both YLT's Ira Kaplan and Georgia Hubley on several of Getaway's tracks. Simply, Getaway represents some of the best music the trio has made in the last 20 years.

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