The Clean are a band that for years I thought everyone knew about, but it seems that too few people have ever heard of them. They formed in Dunedin, New Zealand as teenagers in 1978. Led through a number of rotating line-ups by brothers Hamish and David Kilgour, the band (usually a trio), forged a distinctive and quirky sound that relied heavily on organ melodies and simple chord progressions. The Clean were one of the first bands in the country to play original material. They carved out a distinctive, noisy but melodic sound, distinguished by David's screeching, distorted guitar. In 1981, a fan of the Clean founded the Flying Nun label to release their first single, "Tally Ho." A follow-up track off one of their early EPs, "Beatnik", also achieved success, as did the second single, "Getting Older". They are one of my all time faves, and I am consistently inspired by them. Mazarin has always covered Clean songs on almost every tour we've done, we even played an entire set of their songs at a show at Phi Lam in Philly years ago.