antipopper

The latest in my series of charmers: Jodi Phyllis of The Clouds, who sings “Pocket” from their 1991 album Penny Century, and “Apollo” from the 1992 Octopus album. This band were the darlings of Sydney’s indie scene, which no longer really exists for various (mostly unfortunate) reasons, but besides the sorry fact that pub culture is a gross white ghetto, one factor that most don’t want to face is that indie guitar music can get really boring. But not The Clouds. They were tangential. They were pretentious, in a good way. They were also pretending to be a 4AD band, but their obvious debt to The Pixies in particular never seemed to count against them, because they wore their love on their sleeves, swerving science-fictionally from noisy ray-attack to sublime and surfy quiet. And quiet love is what these songs are about: melancholy indie longing, a long white sigh. It seems like so long ago.