The Clean was a New Zealand

indie rock Indie rock is a subgenre of rock music that originated in the United States, United Kingdom and New Zealand from the 1970s to the 1980s. Originally used to describe independent record labels, the term became associated with the music they produc ...

band that formed in

Dunedin Dunedin ( ; mi, Ōtepoti) is the second-largest city in the South Island of New Zealand (after Christchurch), and the principal city of the Otago region. Its name comes from , the Scottish Gaelic name for Edinburgh, the capital of Scotland. Th ...

in 1978. They have been described as the most influential band to come from the

Flying Nun ''The Flying Nun'' is an American sitcom about a community of nuns which included one who could fly when the wind caught her cornette. It was produced by Screen Gems for ABC based on the 1965 book '' The Fifteenth Pelican,'' written by Tere ...

label, which recorded many artists associated with the "

Dunedin sound The Dunedin sound was a style of indie pop music created in the southern New Zealand university city of Dunedin in the early 1980s. Characteristics According to Matthew Bannister, Dunedin sound "was typically marked by the use of droning or ...

".Schmidt, Andrew
"The Clean – Profile" profile
''AudioCulture''. Led through a number of early rotating line-ups by brothers Hamish and David Kilgour, the band settled on their well-known and current line-up with bassist Robert Scott. The band name comes from a character from the movie ''Free Ride'' called Mr. Clean.

History

Hamish and David Kilgour started to play and write music together in Dunedin in 1978, "building up a fat songbook of primitive

punk Punk or punks may refer to: Genres, subculture, and related aspects * Punk rock, a music genre originating in the 1970s associated with various subgenres * Punk subculture, a subculture associated with punk rock, or aspects of the subculture s ...

, minimalist pop, infectious

folk rock Folk rock is a hybrid music genre that combines the elements of folk and rock music, which arose in the United States, Canada, and the United Kingdom in the mid-1960s. In the U.S., folk rock emerged from the folk music revival. Performers s ...

, and adventurous psychedelic instrumentals. Their sound was built around David Kilgour's off-centre, 1960s-influenced guitar, Hamish's motorik drumming, and melodic driving bass, first from Peter Gutteridge, then Robert Scott". The band's 1981 debut single "Tally Ho!" was the second release on Roger Shepherd's Flying Nun Records label. "Tally Ho!" reached number 19 on the New Zealand Singles Chart, giving the fledgling label its first hit. Even with the group in abeyance ''The Odditties'' compilation tape of unreleased material appeared in July 1983, followed by a live EP, ''Live Dead Clean'', in 1986, and a greatest hits collection called ''Compilation'' and second ''Odditties'' tape in 1988. For most of the 1980s, The Clean were disbanded; during this time, the Kilgour brothers worked together on an experimental album and EP with the deliberately

pun A pun, also known as paronomasia, is a form of word play that exploits multiple meanings of a term, or of similar-sounding words, for an intended humorous or rhetorical effect. These ambiguities can arise from the intentional use of homophoni ...

ny titles "The Great Unwashed" and "Clean Out of Our Minds". In 1989 and 1990, the Clean toured New Zealand, the United States, and Britain and the rest of Europe to promote their album ''

Vehicle A vehicle (from la, vehiculum) is a machine that transports people or cargo. Vehicles include wagons, bicycles, motor vehicles (motorcycles, cars, trucks, buses, mobility scooters for disabled people), railed vehicles (trains, trams), ...

''. In 1995, Flying Nun released '' Abbasalutely'', an Abba tribute compilation. David Kilgour and Robert Scott recorded '' Waterloo'' under the band name Cloth, which the liner notes describe as "the Clean minus Hamish". In 2003, the two-disc compilation ''Anthology'', released on Merge Records, awakened new interest in the band in the US, building on an international reputation that had been enhanced by endorsements from prominent 1990s indie groups such as Pavement and

Yo La Tengo Yo La Tengo (YLT; Spanish for "I have her") is an American indie rock band formed in Hoboken, New Jersey, in 1984. Since 1992, the lineup has consisted of Ira Kaplan (guitars, piano, vocals), Georgia Hubley (drums, piano, vocals), and James M ...

. The band released records on US and New Zealand labels—their most recent album being '' Mister Pop'' in 2009. They toured the US in 2012 and 2014. Hamish Kilgour's death was announced on 6 December 2022, days after his family reporting him missing.

Discography

*''

'' (1990) *'' Modern Rock'' (1994) *'' Unknown Country'' (1996) *'' Getaway'' (2001) *'' Mister Pop'' (2009)

Awards

Aotearoa Music Awards

The

Aotearoa Music Awards The Aotearoa Music Awards (previously called the New Zealand Music Awards), conferred annually by Recorded Music NZ, honour outstanding artistic and technical achievements in the recording industry. The awards are among the most significant tha ...

(previously known as ''New Zealand Music Awards'' (NZMA)) are an annual awards night celebrating excellence in New Zealand music and have been presented annually since 1965. ! , - , 2017 , , The Clean , ,

New Zealand Music Hall of Fame The New Zealand Music Hall of Fame , Te Whare Taonga Puoro o Aotearoa is a figurative hall of fame dedicated to noteworthy New Zealand musicians. The hall was created in 2007 by Recorded Music NZ (then known as the Recording Industry Associati ...

, , , , , -

Filmography

*1999: '' Scarfies'', in which they are seen performing the song "Tally Ho!" in a performance at the Empire Tavern, Dunedin (the line-up for this performance was David Kilgour, Robert Scott, Robbie Yeats, and Thomas Bell). The song appeared on the soundtrack.

References

External links

Interview at Acetone MagazineThe Clean on Flying Nun Records

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Clean, The New Zealand indie rock groups Flying Nun Records artists Musical groups established in 1978 Dunedin Sound musical groups Jangle pop groups Sibling musical groups Merge Records artists 1978 establishments in New Zealand