Clumsy Lovers
The Clumsy Lovers return to the Garage. $10 21+ $14 under 21 [clumsy lovers Links] [clumsy lovers bio]
The career of most bands follows a
depressing, predictable course: the flame of initial promise; followed
by great expectations; followed by swift decline and demise, brought
about by internal and external pressures, arrogance, poor instinct, a
loss of the naive charm that marked the band as special in the first
place, or all of the above. You, the audience, have heard the story,
read the best-selling biography, and seen the major motion picture ?
time and time again.
So it comes as no small surprise that The Clumsy Lovers ? ten years and
over 1,500 live performances deep ? are only now poised to achieve the
creative and popular breakthrough of their lives. Without ever having
courted or discouraged success, the happy-go-lucky Vancouver quintet has
made an album that expertly walks the tightrope between tradition-minded
roots music ("Raging bluegrass Celtic rock," a reviewer once said) and
sparkling modern pop. In trying to please no one but themselves, The
Clumsy Lovers have conceived a collection of songs that may prove to
please damn near everyone.
"We've been a band for a long time, and we've never really imposed any
kind of musical restrictions on ourselves," says bassist and band
spokesman Chris Jonat. "It's really just, 'Whatever happens, happens.'"
Smart Kid is the Clumsy Lovers' seventh album, and second for Nettwerk
Records. Like its acclaimed predecessor, After the Flood, it was made in
collaboration with producer John Webster, who encouraged the band to
approach the studio with a more adventurous spirit. The band has long
felt at home on any stage, whether in front of 50 raucous patrons at a
roadhouse or thousands of music-lovers at a festival or concert hall.
But the band used to view the studio as a necessary evil ? a domain in
which to make audio souvenirs for audiences to take away from Lovers
live shows. Those older recordings were reasonably accurate documents of
the band's onstage sound, but they were hardly the sort of artifacts
that would help take them to the next level.
"For a long time I was a big proponent of 'Make sure your CD represents
your live show,' especially for us because we tour so much. And, before
After the Flood, 95 per cent of our sales were off-stage," explains
Jonat. "I'm a late learner, but what works live doesn't necessarily work
in the studio, and vice versa. More than I ever did before, I view them
as two separate art forms. You definitely still want it to sound like
you, but what bears repeated listening is different from what's fun to
hear in the pub or in the concert hall."
From the rollicking story-in-song "Bobby Banjo" to the bittersweet
knees-up "Coming Home" to the mournful and poignant "Not Long For This
World," Smart Kid is the Clumsy Lovers' long-playing pinnacle ? and a
strong suggestion that, after having come so far, the band is only going
to go further, get better. Long may they clumsily stumble from strength
to strength.
COPYRIGHT ©
2003 YELLOWSTONE VALLEY BREWING CO.