Dry Cleaning

Simon Reynolds mentioned he'd played Dry Cleaning's New Long Leg more than any other recent release, figured I would check it out, am now in that giddy flush of love for anew band and a new sound. Hadn't heard them mentioned here yet. The pleasure buttons nudged by Wet Leg and LoneLady are jammed on full by these guys (and I see there was a mention on the Wet Leg thread after all).
anyway https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6PuqlOTyJt0

i think there was a fair bit of discussion in the current-ish crop of post-punk bands thread

they're decent but i think squid ended up mining somewhat similar territory much more successfully to my ears this year, just without the deadpan thing

I found Squid interesting but ultimately too fussy - may do that with these guys too but it’s much more electrifying at present

I get Lithics and Dry Cleaning confused sometimes. (Love em both)

They're very close to the only rock act I can imagine voting for in a 2021 poll. (Admittedly, I haven't searched particularly vigorously for other contenders.) Some days "Viking Hair", from a couple of years ago, is clearly the best thing I've ever heard lol.

I feared early on that I was merely desperate for a Life Without Buildings substitute but they're pretty durable and the comparison now feels kinda regrettable.

"Scratchcard Lanyard" was first released, ahead of the album, in November 2020, but it seems to have grown in popularity over the past few months. I've been obsessed with it over the holiday period, and I nommed it for the EOY tracks poll.

I like the album.

“Her Hippo” made my year-end playlist, but the couple of times I listened to the whole album I wasn’t sure I needed more than the one song. Maybe I’ll try again.

The album is pretty good, a grower. I found the preceding two EPs more immediately appealing especially “Sweet Princess”.

I’m smiling constantly and people constantly step on me

the last thing I looked at in this hand mirror was a human arsehole

My brain started mashing up "Scratchcard Lanyard" and Sleater-Kinney's "Get Up" the other day and it was a lightbulb moment of why Dry Cleaning and Lithics are so appealing to me.

new song & video

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gjVc8lYIaUM

Nice! Good for 3 consecutive plays, even. (Brevity obviously helps on that front.)

file under 'fantastic verses, godawful chorus', what the hell is that banking-advert whistle doing here

i mean thankfully 75% of the song is fantastic but that was A Decision wasn't it

so good
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OkYbEPd2qTY

Saw them live on Saturday, incredible show.

another new one

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lYNwr7wuRHY

New one is possibly their all time best

Or at least feels like it could be

Really liking the McGeoch influence on Tom

"Anna" is good, I think, after a few listens. It's apparently the LP opener, which seems a bold move, unless perhaps it's quite representative of nu-DC.

I like how their visuals keep oscillating between "seemingly near-random footage" and "discernible production budget" lol.

got my tickets for the Melbourne show in December WOOOOO

also milo z thanks for the Lithics mentions, I've had a blast getting into their catalogue

"Gary Ashby" is seemingly a tortoise, no?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XdvrSu38pWY

just got tickets for their february nyc show

New single/video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XyfYFznhyJI

No great surprises but a nice Reynolds piece: https://www.nytimes.com/2022/10/14/arts/music/dry-cleaning-stumpwork.html

Wearing a long black lace skirt and a sparkly gold camisole, she curled her fingers around the mic stand like the stem of a wineglass

yes

loving "stumpwork" so far. it's only a slight shift from "new long leg" (she sings a very tiny bit! there's more acoustic guitar) but that's OK with me. i would turn the vocals down a hair in the mix if i could

This is fantastic isn't it? A clear step up

The vocals are absurdly high in the mix. It actually does my head in.

I’m not feeling this, the separation of the vocals makes them feel too disconnected and it’s missing the counterpoint between high energy music and lackadaisical vocal word. Feels kind of plodding overall.

I'm still trying to assimilate the early-released tracks into the context of the album (super irritating strategy to me) but I sure wouldn't describe Shaw's vocals as lackadaisical. I think the mix is right to foreground her charisma over the less unique sounds of the band, and it adds power to have her insinuating in your ear rather than blending with the band. I'm a little concerned the live show might favour the latter.

Before this thread it really hadn't occurred to me that the vocals were particularly foregrounded. At least not problematically so.

I need to put in some more effort with the 5+ minute tracks but I may end up preferring this to New Long Leg. Feels more varied and I'm totally digging the wonky sax and synth shadings on a bunch of tracks, not least the final three.

droopy flute solo comes here

I’ve come to realise Shaw has the same acerbic, insightful, imitative qualities I love in Laurie Anderson, simultaneous horrified fascination and baffled affection for the culture.

I’ve come to realise Shaw has the same acerbic, insightful, imitative qualities I love in Laurie Anderson, simultaneous horrified fascination and baffled affection for the culture.

Feel like this one is a “grower”. After listening to “Stumpwork” on Friday I immediately listened to “Sweet Princess” again and marveled how great they were straight out of the gate.

The cover grosses me out and somehow makes me want to listen to this less

haha yeah no fucking way would i buy the vinyl

Haha right? Imagine going back and telling Vaughn Oliver that’s what the label would release for a cover in the future.

this is one of his sleeves for Scheer
https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/a/a2/Scheer_-_Infliction.jpg
and Pod featured him nude dancing with a belt of dead eels, he would have been totally down with the Stumpwork sleeve.
There’s a limited mirrorboard edition with a silver cover if it helps?

It was a joke based on how 4ad used to be known for a very specific house style, from which this Dry Cleaning cover diverges wildly, but thanks for the “well, actually” lesson anyway.

ok, missed it

the mix doesn't bother me on headphones

i do see the laurie anderson thing, though i feel like anderson's lyrics are more cohesive/thematic than shaw's, which often feel like a string of non sequiters (not a criticism)

It reminds me of the week I spent using the Conet Project CDs as commuting listening in the train, a sense of tuning into the random clutter of unspoken thoughts around us.

Also, jon v c, I frequently feel like the stupidest person in the thread for my banal posts, I’m sorry that one came across as condescending but usually I’m explaining things to myself.

Feels very weird that this is isn't being widely spoken of in the terms of something quite brilliant tbh. Liberty Log alone has single-handedly rescued Anglo post-rock from a decade of torpor

It's more quiet, more unassuming, more humble, and yet contains vastly more galaxies than any number of these Squid types combined. It isn't just the frontwoman, rightly foregrounded. This band's secret weapon is its music. And so the Life Without Buildings comparisons make more sense this time

excellent band, consistently bad cover art

Dry Cleaning I mean, but come to think of it, Silkworm too

counterpoint: the cover is great

Dry Cleaning

Grammy award winning artwork no less.

superficially this band sometimes makes me think of the jesus lizard - surprisingly groovy rhythm section, guitarist with big interesting riffs, singer declaiming over all of it. i would at least be surprised if their guitarist wasn't influenced by duane denison, the way his riffs are structured over the bass/drums feels similar.

^^^ good comparison

Such a joy to have a great band hit a new level of success and recognition, then respond by fucking with the formula and going weirder.
That said, I am getting a lot of This Heat from the new one.

I'm finding a lot of it surprisingly ear-wormy at the same time. "The Cute Things" and the title track have already each taken up residence in my brain for about as about many hours as the more obviously hummable "Joy" has. :)

Been getting good chills from it each time I've listened. Tom Dowse perhaps MVP in breaking/shaking things up, but they're all bringing it.

Finishing up my first listen here. Good vibes on a cool-into-chilly afternoon, I'd say. Tickets in hand for the May show; I still regret not seeing them on what I think was their first American tour in late 2021 but even beyond COVID trepidation, I had tickets but couldn't go because I'd just broken a bone in my shoulder the day before! So making up for lost time.

Lyrics of the first track are like a slap in the face. "Have you ever spat cum onto the carpet of a Travelodge?"

That’s some Arab Strap vibes right there. (Approvingly.)

I saw them at Pitchfork '22 a couple months before the second album and they rocked.

Caught the first Melbourne show of the Stumpwork tour, pretty great, and mildly astonishing to see all the elements come together seamlessly live.

Joy is such an earworm, band can write a proper choon

"My Soul / Half Pint" incredible, McGeoch scrawls over a motoring groove, Shaw muttering in a daze. I fucking love this record.

"I love to count, it relaxes me and it gives me an achievable goal." :)

Are there any concerns with vocal mix this time? (Genuinely curious, as someone barely able to perceive 2022's infractions in the first place.)

same

Next stop, Panini Island

Threw this on and the mix is kind of driving me crazy, the vocals are so loud in the mix in a way that doesn't match with the 'please don't pay attention to my voice' vocal style.

I'm sure it would be hard to find the right balance, but at least in headphones it's not working for me.

xpost

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PYc-lPA5VPs

Secret Love is really taking a beating from the RYM kids lol:

https://rateyourmusic.com/release/album/dry-cleaning/secret-love/

Amateur internet reviews looking, um, amateur is hardly news but it's vaguely interesting that recent ones shoehorn them into the 'Windmill scene' as a means of recycling their established gripes about a scene I'd rarely heard mentioned in the same breath as DC in the first place.

You guys are convincing me try this on for size after the first LP didn’t click at all (pre release singles aside) to the point where I skipped the second LP

IF anything, the vocals are occasionally hard to hear (I don't care).

Yeah, on a first listen this is clicking, has potential. (And it’s been a nice way to ease myself into what will be a trying Wednesday.)

The problem I had with the first LP was: a) the vocals + music didn’t cohere on most cuts and then b) either the sequencing of tracks felt off, or the songs seemed to be imported from different albums, or something?

Unusually, I think I'm happier watching Dry Cleaning's many online/live sessions more than hearing them in album form.

what the hell is the "Windmill scene?"

I believe it's the likes of Black MIDI, Squid, and Black Country thingamabob. Folks associated with the Brixton venue of that name.

RYM is basically prep school for Guardian comments sections? / or c+ping below; is Morrissey writing the reviews? -

"And one more overhyped band that seems to be getting all the attention and praise of the sheeplike indie crowd through the usual channels of hipsterism, not least among them RYM where I beg to dissent and differ from the unanimity that seems to have become the rule here. The fact that this is released by the ultimate trendsetting label 4AD Records accounts for the supposed ‘credibility’ of what should have remained completely anecdotal and confidential, confined to The Windmill pub/venue in Brixton, London, where it may have emanated from, though I’m not even sure of that and don’t really care to know more about that uninteresting music ‘scene’, and still less about a band called Dry Cleaning."

the children are wrong

Was genuinely hoping the Windmill Scene would look something like this

http://www.t-web.co.uk/bigmill.jpg

http://www.t-web.co.uk/bigmill.jpg

Ah well http://www.t-web.co.uk/bigmill.jpg

One thing that may turn off the kids is that DC's lyrics are quite "adult"--in the sense that they have themes of adult quiddities and anxieties that people in their 20s and younger may not relate to but I sure do in my sixth decade. They very rearely do lyrics of the romantic kind (the new album being an exception). But I think anyone of any age could get with "Gary Ashby"!

i'm still working through my feelings about the new album. i enjoy listening to it, except maybe "cruise ship designer" which feels a bit dry cleaning by the numbers. but there aren't really a lot of tracks that stick with me either. "hit my head all day" is the one that that gets in my head the most, probably mostly just from the repetition. i like cate le bon but i think her production overwhelmed some of these songs, a number of them sound like cate le bon songs with the dry cleaning singer on top.

I like it as much as the others. My favorites: the title track," "Hit My Head All Day," "Evil Evil Idiot, "Let Me Grow and You'll See the Fruit."

xp That’s interesting, I find this album the most ear-wormy and melodic of their work

Likewise

"evil evil idiot" is truly an anthem for our times

where it may have emanated from, though I’m not even sure of that and don’t really care to know more about that uninteresting music ‘scene’

Also, you could just not write anything you dolt.

Hehe. I couldn't see, in a quick scan of setlists.com at least, that Dry Cleaning had appeared at the venue in question. Maybe it's become like 'Canterbury prog' inside some listener's heads, more a sound than a strict geographical thing. In this case bands with guitars and vaguely sprechgesang-ish elements or something.

"windmill scene" is indeed a music reviewer brain-worm that may have once had a bit of sense to it, but is now pretty much as meaningless as "indie sleaze"

I like how people have vastly different takes on how loud/quiet the vocals are. I assume that's because there's no broadly established standard for how this kind of vocal should sit in a mix. Obviously I like where they've landed with this, maybe especially on headphones: you get an effect where it feels like there's a rock band in front of you while Florence is speaking from within your head, like an inner monologue. (In part because, mixing-wise, they keep a lot of the lower proximity-effect frequencies of her voice and let the guitar dominate the more present band right above that!) I can imagine that being claustrophobic for some listeners, but I think it's much better than if they tried to push her voice back into some kind of stage arrangement.

About RYM ... I have not spent much time there but I feel like it's often home to a thing that bugs me, which is people (dudes) who follow indie music but have profoundly negative or threatened reactions to acts they perceive as too arty or pretentious or trying to do something weird or "hip," and feel a need to punish or discourage such stuff. This is not a new habit, and my reaction when I encountered it used to be, like, if you just want decent songs and nobody trying annoying pretentious stuff, why are you listening to indie rock, just listen to more mainstream pop-rock. But over the past few decades "more mainstream pop-rock" has gradually disappeared as a genre category and basically dropped its audience into the "indie" pool, so ... I think you get a lot of people who are following this media space while being constantly frustrated by praise for stuff they were never going to dig, because there was never a good lane reserved for those whose tastes revolved around the more popular/crossover rock bands. (By which I mean, over the years, maybe White Stripes or Arctic Monkeys or now Geese.) Maybe that's a rude or stereotyping accusation, but I don't mean it in a bad way — it's just a function of where people talk! — and at least a couple of the bad reactions on RYM remind me of it.

- nods head throughout post -

Well observed on the mixing too - maybe for some the intimacy on the voice registers as “loud”

I have to admit their aesthetic is definitely part of the appeal for me. When I first heard them I figured they looked like Elastica or Savages or something, so I was pretty delighted to see that they basically look like four people who would never be in a band together. Like the guitarist is hardcore, the bassist is a metalhead, the drummer is indie rock, and then Florence is just standing out front with long hair and dresses making funny faces.

New one-off track, I guess:

https://drycleaning.bandcamp.com/album/sliced-by-a-fingernail

And it’s a wonder

Whoa. Freaky.

Incidentally I notice they're coming further south this time around (June), matttkkkk!

Yeah last show of the tour in old Slowbart, part of the Dark Mofo festival. I’ve cooled a little on the album but will go if I can get a ticket - went to Melbourne for their last visit so this is a bit easier!