What is Andy Clockwise? Does he really speak robot? And why will you be seeing him selling out the Hotel Café or spaceland time after time? Will he blast away the incertitude that haunted December; will he help you forget another night? Is he the new rock and roll/ electronic pop hero and is he here to save?
Andy loves each and every one of us all. He says so. Kingly, charismatic, all loving, and kind, Andy comes from an innocent time when songs repaired broken hearts, or broken social identities, or even broken governments. Going to an Andy Clockwise show is like invading the medicine show. What is it he’s selling anyway?
It’s a revival of sentiment. It’s okay to feel again, and to feel foolish, and self-aware, and it’s okay to keep coming back for more.
After a recent explosive performance at the now ridiculously over-crowded Sunday night Cinespace Extravaganza, it has become clear that the universal appeal of ditties such as My Generation and Everybody’s in a Band have made magic with the shiny new kids, as thunderous applause, and hearty affirmations thrilled round the room. Who is he?
And who or what is a generation, or a genre, anymore? As he has so eloquently stated, Andy came from Sydney to the States to become everything you hate. If a city has a zeitgeist, Andy’s on it. Andy might just be a high priest of the revolution or devolution of one’s own Hollywood madcap race to oblivion/greatness.
If one really must have a hero, or a leader, if the opposition must have a voice, I nominate Andy Clockwise as speaker pro tem of the blossoming catastrophic phenomenon, known as my generation.
Not that we believe in any such thing.
Clockwise has co-produced the new album with Daniel Rejmer, whose recording credits include The Kills, Billy Bragg, Björk and Nick Cave.
His reputation for daring on-stage showmanship has garnered Clockwise a fervent live following; his unpredictable and electrifying live shows have sold out venues across Australia, London, New York - and more recently some of LA’s most iconic venues: The Hotel Café, The Viper Room and Spaceland.
Single-handedly writing, recording and producing his debut EP in 2002, the release of Song Exhibition spawned a couple of high rotation singles on Australian national radio station Triple J ('Song for the Unemployed' and 'Every Song'), a healthy dose of critical claim and an army of new fans. The mini-album reached number three on Australian indy music charts, and spent seven months in the Australian Independent Record charts’ Top 20.
Ambitious, thrilling and unpredictable are just a few of the superlatives critics reached for to describe Classic FM, a double concept album written, produced, engineered and mixed by Clockwise in his own studio and released in 2006.
Written about an imaginary radio station, Classic FM quickly became one of the highest rotating albums on Australian independent radio, with hit singles including ‘Alice May’, ‘Mr. Taste Maker’ and ‘Taking Over the World’.
The success of Classic FM led to Clockwise touring with INXS and former Stranglers front man Hugh Cornwall, before headlining his own national tour.
One word, watch your drink, he’ll rip it right out of your hand.
Forget your future and forget your past, pack us in like sardines and remind yourself of a day pre-myspace when love was still a four letter word, every body was in a band, Beyonce fueled the reigning goddess religion, and a frontman could work up a crowd.
Be prepared to be so designated, so loved, so schmarmy with adoration that you become a regular devotee.
See you there!
“This is an incredibly audacious, prodigious, powerful debut double album from a local indie artist with talent to burn. There is a word that starts with ‘g’ and rhymes with ‘abstemious’. It’s in the range of his voice, his multi-instrumental expertise and the sheer scope of his genre-hopping swoops from satirical jester to sentimental bloke and back again … The man also known as Andy Kelly can do just about anything … He’s so good, it’s almost unfair.”
~ The Daily Telegraph
“Andy Clockwise doesn’t know any backwards steps … Classic FM is the sort of double-disc set that’s easy to put on and disappear in.”
~ Rolling Stone
“This one-man band has multiple personalities, all of them listener friendly.”
~ Who Magazine
“I don't usually write show reviews. I don't believe in them. If you want to know how the concert was, we can talk about it. That said, I will tell you to pay attention to someone brilliant, to something fresh, to an undeniable hurricane of sound, I will tell you this: go listen to Andy Clockwise.”
~ http://musicturnstheworld.blogspot.com Karla Braun
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