Cleaners Catch Up, Already

So my grand idea of doing some serous blog world domination and posting at an obsessive rate lasted a week and that week was a few weeks ago. I can’t convince myself to care but i will continue to try to keep caring. Anyway, I’m just gonna post 3 new Cleaners albums to make up for lost time. I haven’t even heard all these albums yet, so you might be about to embark on some serious aural gold diggin’ that your nerdy friend over here hasn’t even dipped his mussed up hands in yet. How exciting, right?! Ehhh, yeah well, Mr Martin Newell pumped out so many perfect pop ditties over the course of the eighties that chances of your opening up one of these lil treasure chests and getting sprayed in the face with a thirty year old booby trap are quite limited. He certainly always seemed like a gentle man in his songs. Very sensitive and earnest, probably unpretentious to a fault, if you look at it from a career standpoint. A bigger ego and crush on fame and these little tunes probably could have been everywhere, spinning on lil’ lucy new wave’s juke box and getting the teenage collectors a reason to wake up in the morning after John Peel should have played it the night before. Have you ever heard the story about Martin touring around England on a bicycle? Well that’s about all i know about the story, but how dreamy, huh?

Download:

Cleaners From Venus

Any Normal Monday (1982)

Back from the Cleaners (1995)

My Back Wages (2000) A Collection of Rarities

just easily, efficiently and securely Blow Away Your Troubles

Hi, and welcome back to Cleaners From Venus Fridays. I had a long writing on this debut Cleaners album that i was fairly proud of and it just got eaten by wordpress. So i’m unreasonably frustrated and instead of re-writing it, i’m going to make a cassette copy of it and go walk around in the sunshine. I guess i could summarize what i had already written; This album is really good.

Enjoy! Stay Stoked, folks!

Download: Cleaners From Venus – Blow Away Your Troubles

Cleaners From Venus Fridays!

Heeeeeeyyy, I Have Great News!

So, to let you in on a little secret, by far and away the most popular post ever seen on this here rinky dink blug was on the two albums by the Cleaners From Venus. It really wasn’t one of my more well written posts, (and maybe this one is sliding towards the same) which is a shame for how many people have read it but dem’s da breaks and now I’m proud to announce soon to be available 5+ more albums for download right here at thee Biannual Haircut and that gives me 5+ times to come up with a better title and not take cheap shots at Ariel Pink! The deal here is every Friday, till i fuck up or run out of stuff, i’ll put up a new Cleaners From Venus LP.

The craziest thing is how far and wide those previously posted albums spread on the internet and even seem to have lead to some industrious All Stars, from pretty near where i’m from, reissuing Midnight Cleaners, Under Wartime Conditions and In The Golden Autumn on snazzy Cassette!

So, anyways and first off, my buddy Andy who does this great pictureblog, is the one responsible for all these new albums, so visit his site and thank him kindly! Today, to even out the inevitable excitement frenzy, i’m gonna offer up a Cleaners album that was previously available on Andy’s old blog, but in a lower sound quality and only broken up into two cassette sides, rather than track by track. This one today is the improved experience!

I’ll start off writing that Midnight Cleaners is the best Cleaners album i’ve heard. In fact it’s one of the best DIY/ outsider/ pop/ albums i’ve ever heard. As good as Phonography and chasing after Like Flies On Sherbert. Out of the nine songs on here there are seven perfect pop gems, one wacked out dub goof and one spaced sound collage studio jerk off which all work perfectly together. Don’t miss this one if you haven’t heard it yet.

Download: The Cleaners From Venus – Midnight Cleaners

and visit Martin’s website: http://www.martinnewell.co.uk/ and tell him he’s a genius and it’s a crime these sounds aren’t available on record.

The Cleaners From Venus Sounds Like The Title to a Dan Akroyd Movie You’ve Never Seen

Alas, they but a simple band, but a very interesting one at that. You’ve heard Ariel Pink right? Ever wonder where he got the inspiration to make his music sound like it was recorded on the other end of a tin can and string microphone? I hope you never bought into that whole “it sounds like shit cause it was the best we could do” bit. Mr. Pink has always been able to record to any level of fidelity he wanted to but as chosen his own aural aesthetics to mimic the likes of The Cleaners from Venus and their contemporaries is the British d.i.y. post punk era. What separates the Cleaners from said contemporaries was the quality and volume of their output. The brains behind the outfit was always Martin Newall who had strangely been involved in the music biz for many years on both an indie level and major. The indie side always made more sense to him so he hung out there, living in obscurity but non the less happy and productive.
The two albums i’m putting up are In The Golden Autumn and Under Wartime Conditions. In the Golden Autumn is the easy favorite of mine with far better songs and the production getting in the way less than in Under Wartime Conditions. There are moments i like in Under Wartime but i’d say go straight for In the Golden Autumn which gets my highest recommendation and if it fits your fancy well dig in to Under Wartime Conditions. If you still want more i will direct you right over to BarfOutDolls bloggorama from even more albums from the Cleaners (They will be up shortly, so I’m told). Most of which i’m yet to hear but i plan on checking them out ayyyysaaapppp.

Download: In The Golden Autumn (1983)
Download: Under Wartime Conditions (1984)

Check out this bunch of goofballs! Left to right Dave Vanian of the Damed, Mr. Rock and roll High school himself and Captain Sensible also of the Damned who hired Martin Newell to be his lyricist on all solo projects after ol’ Robyn Hitchcock left to do his solo gig.

one final thing, if you have some spare time here is a lengthy in-depth interview with the man himself. I tried in vain to insert it into this post, to no avail. Why does wordpress suck balls with video??????????

Video Interview with Mr. Martin Newell