Firm friends for years, the band DRY CLEANING (comprising of Lewis Maynard, Tom Dowse, Florence Shaw & Nick Buxton) only started making music after a 2017 karaoke party inspired a collaboration.
When they started they knew they wanted to make simple music, direct and uncomplicated. The musical influences were clear — the Feelies, the Necessaries, the B52s and Pylon as a starting point.
The band now release their debut single and the debut EP highlight, “Magic of Meghan” (video below), a celebratory song about Meghan, Duchess of Sussex. It is rampant and cheerful with squeegee guitars, sticky bass notes and expressionist vocal techniques that reveal some fairly homely poetry.
Meanwhile, also on the E.P. is “Goodnight” which has throaty bounciness, (and nearly a surf sound, though not quite) and that characteristic spoken word in the stanzas and an odd sort of hallucinating party vibe… in fact, it’s the kind of thing you might have witnessed at Max’s Kansas City, circa 1980.
“New Job” has distortion jumbled in among the twang, and an impulsive riff that guides an expressive lyric.
Please do check the video (below) for “Magic of Meghan” which was made by Sheffield artist Lucy Vann who investigates, records and reinterprets overlooked behaviors and occurrences in the everyday, in this case through moving image, but she also works with photography, writing, sound, objects and performance.
Imagine punkish guitars, pop nuttiness, British humor, and popsicle joy wrapped in sweet veneer.
Link: https://drycleaning.bandcamp.com/releases
Archive with: Blur, B52s
Main Photo Credit: Hanna Katrina
RAW RAMP 