Watch the video for “Wild Winter Trees” now!

The video for “Wild Winter Trees” was directed by Mikhaël Hers. Mikhaël Hers has directed three short films, including Charell and Primrose Hill, official selections of the International Critic’s Week in 2006 and 2007 (Cannes), respectively. He featured a couple Clientele songs in a film called “Memory Lane,” his first feature-length, that was presented at the 2010 Locarno Film Festival. After the band saw the premiere they thought it only perfect for him to direct the video for this single. The images work as an analog to the lyrics of the song, but deepen and focus its ideas of innocence lost and time passing.

This week, the band has teamed up with MAGNET to be guest editors on the website. Visit MagnetMagazine.com to enjoy their bi-daily posts through out Sunday, and check out their Magnet Q&A to learn more about the duo.

Street of the Love of Days is available on CD, LP and digital download in the Merge store.

Click here to view the embedded video.

09-09 Oakland, CA New Parish
09-10 San Francisco, CA Independent
09-11 Los Angeles, CA Echoplex
09-12 San Diego, CA M-Theory in-store performance at 4:30pm
09-12 San Diego, CA Casbah

Vote for The Clientele’s cover of MIA’s “Paper Planes,” Wye Oak’s cover of The Kinks’ “Strangers,” & Superchunk’s cover of The Cure’s “In Between Days to make the “Top 5″ and watch a wrap up of all 25 covers at the AV Club.

Minotaur, The Clientele’s sixth release, does not, as it is so easy to suggest, mark the end of a lost decade, for The Clientele have never been “lost,” nor does it mark a life at the edges of material success or debilitating failure. Through whispers, Minotaur reminds us that The Clientele’s truth waits within a geographic poetry, that The Clientele are of the edges. Minotaur enables us to read their albums as rain-soaked maps from a decade of exploration. A journey into the nebulous, into the eeriness between the edges of the dying village and the new estate, between the unknowable edges of the city and the sanctuary of the marshes, the places where dreams and fears replace street signs and nothing can ever be “ordinary.” If walking, as Iain Sinclair has suggested, across such terrain “confirms identity,” then Minotaur reasserts The Clientele’s skewed, bucolic visions.

These songs, from the caress of the title track through the Television-esque tensions of “Jerry” (“Am I afraid? Are you afraid?”), to undoubtedly one of The Clientele’s most beautiful pieces, “Nothing Here Is What It Seems,” are the falling leaves, the turning ashes of the “Bonfire Sessions.”

Download an mp3 of “Jerry” now, and order The Clientele’s most recent full-length Bonfires on the Heath on CD and LP in the Merge store. Get your tickets now for The Clientele on tour in September!

The Clientele on Tour:
Sep-06 Seattle, WA TBA
Sep-07 Portland, OR Doug Fir
Sep-09 Oakland, CA  New Parish
Sep-10 San Francisco, CA  Independent
Sep-11 Los Angeles, CA Echoplex
Sep-12 San Diego, CA Casbah

See The Clientele on tour in September and order their latest album Bonfires on the Heath on CD, LP and digital download in the Merge store.

The Clientele on tour:
Sep-06 Seattle, WA TBA
Sep-07 Portland, OR Doug Fir
Sep-09 Oakland, CA  New Parish
Sep-10 San Francisco, CA  Independent
Sep-11 Los Angeles, CA Echoplex
Sep-12 San Diego, CA Casbah

As always, you can find new albums from all of these artists and more in our handy Merge store.

Free Merge 2010 digital sampler track listing:
1. Radar Brothers – Horses Warriors (from The Illustrated Garden)
2. Let’s Wrestle – I Won’t Lie to You (from In the Court of the Wrestling Let’s)
3. Destroyer – The Very Modern Dance (from Streethawk: A Seduction)
4. Shout Out Louds – Fall Hard (from Work)
5. Spoon – Written in Reverse (from Transference)
6. Lou Barlow – Don’t Apologize (from Goodnight Unknown)
7. She & Him – Thieves (from Volume Two)
8. Superchunk – Learned to Surf (from Leaves in the Gutter)
9. Alec Bathgate – Glide (from Stroke: Songs for Chris Knox)
10. The Clientele – I Wonder Who We Are (from Bonfires on the Heath)
11. Caribou – Odessa (from Swim)
12. The Clean – In the Dreamlife U Need a Rubber Soul (from Mister Pop)
13. Wye Oak – I Hope You Die (from My Neighbor / My Creator)
14. Lambchop – Give It (from Live at XX Merge)

The Clientele will return to the US in September for west coast dates, and you can order their latest album, Bonfires on the Heath, on CD, LP and digital download in the Merge store.

The Clientele on Tour:
Sep-06 Seattle, WA TBA
Sep-07 Portland, OR Doug Fir
Sep-09 Oakland, CA  New Parish
Sep-10 San Francisco, CA  Independent
Sep-11 Los Angeles, CA Echoplex
Sep-12 San Diego, CA Casbah

The Clientele’s latest album, Bonfires on the Heath is available on CD, LP and digital download in the Merge store. If you missed it, be sure to watch their late night television debut on Late Night with Jimmy Fallon.

Sep-06 Seattle, WA TBA
Sep-07 Portland, OR Doug Fir
Sep-09 Oakland, CA  New Parish
Sep-10 San Francisco, CA  Independent
Sep-11 Los Angeles, CA Echoplex
Sep-12 San Diego, CA Casbah

Alasdair, Mel, Mark & James visited KEXP’s John in the Morning to record a session at the Cutting Room studio. The session airs today, Tuesday 3/30 at 11am Eastern on 91.5-FM WNYE in NYC, 8am Pacific on 90.3-FM KEXP in Seattle, and online at KEXP.org. Listen in!

The Clientele also paid a visit to WNYC’s Soundcheck last week while in New York at the end of their 6-week tour! You can listen to their session online now.

If you missed them on tour, visit the Merge Store for all your Clientele needs! Bonfires on the Heath available on CD and digital.

Featured on individual critics’ year-end lists at The Onion AV Club, Pitchfork, NPR Music, and more, Bonfires on the Heath is in a sense a return to the Clientele’s roots, the dreamlike suburban landscapes first encountered in the early singles, their trippy sense of menace stronger now. Back in London, they’ve drawn on older traditions of English folk, which exist here side by side with the band’s more familiar bossa and pop elements. Mel Draisey’s contributions on piano and violin add beautifully to MacLean’s timeless, eerie songs.

Bonfires on the Heath is available on CD, LP (with MP3 download), and digital download in the Merge store. Watch video of The Clientele playing a stripped-down version of “Bonfires on the Heath” from XX Merge!

On Wednesday, March 24^th, The Clientele will be making their television debut on Late Night with Jimmy Fallon. Here is where you come in…

How would you like a chance to be close The Clientele’s performance on the show?

Click on the link below and you will be directed to our “Band Bench” Sweepstakes entry form. Enter for a chance to win seats on our band benches and an opportunity to surround the stage during The Clientele’s performance.

Please make sure you include the following band code: CLI, in your entry form.

http://www.fallonbandbench.com

Alasdair MacLean recently visited BaebleMusic’s Guest Apartment in NYC to perform a few songs for you! The band is currently on tour state-side in support of Bonfires on the Heath. Don’t miss them!

02-26 Birmingham, AL Bottletree
02-27 Baton Rouge, LA Spanish Moon
02-28 Dallas, TX Granada Theater
03-01 Austin, TX The Mohawk
03-02 Marfa, TX Marfa Book Co.
03-04 San Diego, CA The Casbah
03-05 Los Angeles, CA Spaceland
03-06 Los Angeles, CA Spaceland
03-07 Visalia, CA The Cellar Door
03-09 San Francisco, CA Great American Music Hall
03-11 Portland, OR Doug Fir
03-12 Seattle, WA Tractor Tavern
03-15 Minneapolis, MN Cedar Cultural Center
03-16 Madison, WI High Noon Saloon
03-17 Chicago, IL Lincoln Hall
03-18 Ann Arbor, MI Blind Pig
03-19 Toronto, ON Canada The Legendary Horseshoe Tavern
03-20 Montreal, QC Canada Il Motore
03-21 Allston, MA Great Scott
03-23 New York, NY Bowery Ballroom

1. Liam Hayes and Plush live at the Kings Head, London, 16th October
This was my musical experience of the year, no contest. Liam Hayes’ has a gift for writing these slowly unravelling, restlessly beautiful songs, and as great as they sound in the studio with a full horn section, drums etc. this performance in a tiny pub, with just a Wurlitzer and a Fender Rhodes was even better. Certain friends of mine would say he has a unique sense of harmonic progression, all I could think of was that I’ve never heard such gorgeous chords, I wanted to stop him and write them down. But the audience – many of whom were moved to tears -  would have murdered me.

2. Ubuweb
OK, this has been going since 1996, but I only discovered it this year, so it counts for me. It’s a free resource for avant-garde sound and video. It pretty much only features stuff that’s hard to get hold of commercially, so anyone wanting to stick it to the man in the shape
of multimedia conglomerates like Actuel Records or Cold Blue Music Recordings will be disappointed. But I found, among many, many incredible things, the uncharacteristic and haunting ‘Litany For The Whale’ by John Cage, ‘Body Meta’ by Ornette Coleman from 1975, where we find him playing free funk(!) and a scratchy but totally captivating 9 minute version of Erik Satie’s ‘Vexations’.

3. Destroyer – Bay of Pigs 12”
I always go on about Destroyer, but they keep getting better with every release. And the music is just as extraordinary as the words;
the sounds on this record are incredible.

4. Louis Philippe and Testbild!
This hasn’t been released yet, but he’s recording it in the same studio that Lupe and I are making our Amor de Dias record in, and as a work-in-progress it sounds fantastic. They’ve found a way to record a string quartet using fancy mic placements which make it sound like a Nelson Riddle string section.

4. Billy Mahonie live at the Lexington, London, 8th October
Howard from Billy Mahonie used to drum for the Clientele around the time of ‘Suburban Light’. His first love, though, was always Billy Mahonie, who split up in the early 2000s. John Peel loved them and the NME used to hype them but they never really achieved the success they deserved. They reunited for a one-off show this year, and once again I just watched in awe at the unbelievable, eerie telepathy between the musicians; I’ve never seen anything like it before or since. At times they were so in sync it was almost comical. Despite the fact they have no singer, they have to be the best live band I’ve ever seen; there’s an exquisite pace and economy to their stuff, I think they’re now being re-appraised as one of the best bands of their era, so good luck to them, better late than never.

Featured on individual critic’s year end lists at The Onion AV Club, Pitchfork, NPR Music, and more, Bonfires on the Heath is in a sense a return to the Clientele’s roots; the dreamlike suburban landscapes first encountered in the early singles, their trippy sense of menace stronger now. Back in London, they’ve drawn on older traditions of English folk, which exist here side by side with the band’s more familiar bossa and pop elements. Mel Draisey’s contributions on piano and violin add beautifully to MacLean’s timeless, eerie songs.

Bonfires on the Heath is available on CD, LP (with MP3 download) and digital download in the Merge store, and watch video of The Clientele playing a stripped-down version of “Bonfires on the Heath” from XX Merge!

The Clientele on tour:
2/21  Hoboken, NJ Maxwell’s
2/22  Philadelphia, PA  Johnny Brenda’s
2/23  Washington, DC Black Cat
2/24  Chapel Hill, NC Cats Cradle
2/25  Atlanta, GA The Earl
2/26  Birmingham, AL Bottletree
2/27  Baton Rouge, LA Spanish Moon
2/28  Dallas, TX Granada Theatre
3/01  Austin, TX Mohawk
3/04  San Diego, CA Casbah
3/05  Los Angeles, CA  Spaceland
3/06  Los Angeles, CA  Spaceland
3/07  Visalia, CA Cellar Door
3/09  San Francisco, CA Great American Music Hall
3/11  Portland, OR Doug Fir Lounge
3/12  Seattle, WA Tractor Tavern
3/15  Minneapolis, MN Cedar Cultural Center
3/16  Madison, WI High Noon Saloon
3/17  Chicago, IL Lincoln Hall
3/19  Toronto, ONT Horseshoe Tavern
3/20  Montreal, QC Il Motore
3/21  Allston, MA Great Scott
3/23  New York, NY Bowery Ballroom

The Clientele’s new album, Bonfires on the Heath is available on CD, LP and digital download in the Merge store.

Alasdair MacLean stopped by WFMU this week to play Irwin Chusid’s show on Wednesday. The session is online for your enjoyment.

Bonfires on the Heath is in stores & the Merge Store now! Visit Converse.com for a pastoral version of the title track, performed by the band on a late July day in honor of XX Merge.

Frontman Alasdair MacLean will visit New York for an intimate performance at Joe’s Pub on October 29th at 10 PM. Tickets are available now.

Also, visit Converse.com for a beautiful video of a pastoral, twigs-and-all take on “Bonfires on the Heath” from XX Merge.

The Clientele video is the second in a series showcasing six Merge bands performing stripped-down sets somewhat spontaneously in various locations during the festival. Superchunk kicked off the series with one of their new songs, “Crossed Wires.”

Check back next week for the next clip in this series of unique sessions courtesy of Converse.com.

Visit the XX Merge page for a selection of photos that capture some of our favorite moments from our 20th anniversary festival!

“languidly psychedelic new track “Harvest Time”, flows forth in hazy technicolor” ~Pitchfork

The gorgeous mix of drone, strings, and Alasdair MacLean’s evocative “Harvest Time” narrative perfectly sets this hauntingly beautiful tone. ~Stereogum

All photos by Brian Vetter

The Clientele formed a long time ago in the backwoods of suburban Hampshire, playing together as kids at school, rehearsing in a thatched cottage remote from any kind of music scene, but hypnotized by the magical strangeness of Galaxie 500 and Felt and the psych pop of Love and the Zombies.

Bonfires on the Heath is in a sense a return to the Clientele’s roots; the dreamlike suburban landscapes first encountered in the early singles, their trippy sense of menace stronger now. Now in London, they’ve drawn on older traditions of English folk, which exist here side by side with the band’s more familiar bossa and pop elements. Mel Draisey’s contributions on piano and violin add beautifully to MacLean’s timeless, eerie songs.

The Clientele will play in Brooklyn, NY at the Music Hall of Williamsburg on July 19th with Richard Buckner, and as part of XX Merge. Visit their blog for more news, photos and stories.

M. Ward will perform live on KEXP at 1pm PST; 4pm PST. He’ll be joined by a special guest vocalist! If you can’t listen at work, catch the streaming archive.

The Broken West are coming to the end of yet another tour. Don’t worry, though, those crazy boys can’t stay home for long! They did a few dates with Fountains of Wayne who gave them a shout on their Onion tour diary.

With so many bands on tour, it is nice to get an occasional update about crowd size, celebrity sightings, drunken antics, etc. The Broken West are excellent at sending their reports that we post here, but we thought a little blog collection would be fun “hump day” reading for you! Enjoy!

The Clientele: Alasdair, Mark, & Mel.
The Rosebuds
Portastatic

And as a bonus – The Ladybug Transistor on Daytrotter

Feel free to post your own show reviews & gossip! We love it! Full list of Merge Tour Dates here!

Big Merge week on the lower half of your FM dial!

Win & Regine from Arcade Fire will be interviewed by Terry Gross on Fresh Air today! Fresh Air is a nationally syndicated NPR program. You can listen to your local NPR station or online here.

The Rosebuds & The Clientele each visited World Cafe recently for live sessions and interviews with David Dye. The Clientele session will air Tuesday, June 5th & The Rosebuds will air Wednesday, June 6th! World Cafe is also nationally syndicated on NPR, or you can listen here.

The Clientele regaled the listeners of KCRW in Los Angeles on Morning Becomes Eclectic Thursday, May 24th. Listen here! Don’t miss The Clientele on tour!

The Rosebuds visited WNYC’s Soundcheck at almost the same time on Thursday, May 24th for a stripped down session and chat with host John Schaeffer. (cool audio player below!) And, The Rosebuds are on tour! Here’s a fantastic report of their New York show at the Bowery last night!

And here are archives of a couple of recent Arcade Fire radio interviews:
Richard on Q104.3′s “Out of the Box” with host Jonathan Clarke.

Tim & Jeremy on WNYC’s “Soundcheck” with John Schaeffer.

Arcade Fire are on the West Coast this week finishing up their US Tour!

Also, check out this rad hip hop artist – DT the Emcee – and his song, For Gui, which samples The Clientele! Seems unlikely, but is actually very cool! Check it out via his myspace.

The Clientele are currently finishing up their new full-length for early next year! We can’t wait!

Christina

Spread the love!
Christina

I stayed an extra night to see The Clientele in Atlanta. It was beautiful! Be sure to catch them this month on tour. Their new songs are fantastic! The photo is of James and Mark from the Clientele with Neko – one of the cutest dogs I know!

Christina

So, last week some clown(s) broke into my house and stole, amongst other things, my DVD player and my digital cable box. Don’t ask me why someone would steal a cable box, but it happened. In any case, the end result being that I have not been able to watch any DVDs. But on the flipside, since I got a new cable box, I suddenly have access to virtually every movie channel on the planet. We’ll see how long it takes the cable company to catch on. Or if they try to charge me for services I never ordered. Needless to say I’ve been watching and DVR-ing movies like crazy.

Tonight, I watched Lost In Translation for what must be, at least, the 12th time. One thing I always notice about the film is how perfect the soundtrack seems to be. Both the score by Kevin Shields and the songs that are included. Moods and ambiance are captured exquisitely. Could there be a more perfect song to end the movie than “Just Like Honey”? Gets me every time, and has me rushing to dig up my old battered copy of Psychocandy.

As it happens, last night I watched Garden State, for what was probably the 3rd or 4th time (hey, it was on).
Again, I noticed the soundtrack. I think the soundtrack to this particular film got more hype than the movie itself. If that is possible. But after watching Lost In Translation tonight, I got to thinking about the soundtracks for both movies and what they added to each film.

In my humble opinion, the Garden State soundtrack contained some great songs, but at times their use in the film seemed a bit forced or perhaps even inconsequential. It was like the “hip” factor might have made its way into the equation a little too often. Like maybe they were trying a little too hard. While the soundtrack for Lost in Translation seemed a bit more cohesive, and did a better job, in my opinion, of adding texture to the film. Hmmm?

I’m sure both filmmakers were going for the same sort of things when they choose the music for their films (and by all accounts, both Sophia Coppola and Zach Braff were very invested in the soundtracks), but for whatever reason I just identified more with Sophia’s choices than Zach’s. Perhaps its just a matter of my tastes lining up closer with hers. Who knows? Of course, as far as soundtracks go, these are two of the better ones in recent memory. There are plenty of gratuitous clunkers out there.

Anyway, I suppose now would be a great time to work in a plug about Merge music used in films. But I’m too tired to think of any. Besides Mac’s scores for Looking For Leonard and Who Loves The Sun, of course. And though I have not seen the film, The Clientele get some prime placement in the opening credits of the latest Keanu Reeves/Sandra Bullock vehicle, The Lake House. Beyond that I’m at a loss at the moment.

Maybe tomorrow I’ll come back and list a bunch of them. Maybe not.
Until then feel free to list some of your favorites in the comments.

Good night and good luck,

-martin

(If you have not heard it yet, you should check out Mac’s podcast on the making of the Who Loves The Sun score, and some of his favorite film scores. There is a direct link to the podcast from the Merge homepage.)