Alternative
Merge Records reissues The Clean’s second EP, “Great Sounds Great, Good Sounds Good, So-So Sounds So-So, Bad Sounds Bad, Rotten Sounds Rotten!!”, on 13 November, along with the “Getting Older” seven-inch single. Both are from 1982 and neither has been pressed since.
It is also the first time either has been available on vinyl in North America. Both come on black vinyl, remastered by Tex Houston from fresh transfers of the original master tapes, held at the Alexander Turnbull Library of the National Library of New Zealand.
The EP came out on Flying Nun, the Dunedin label the band grew up around, and is credited to David Kilgour, Hamish Kilgour and Robert Scott. There are seven tracks: “Fish”, “Flowers”, “Side On” and “Slug Song” on side one, and “Beatnik”, “End Of My Dream” and “On Again/Off Again” on side two.
On the seven-inch, the announcement flags one detail: a few seconds of band chatter and false starts precede the song, which were not on the original release.
Text by Marçal Bonastre