"we took the Valium / we took the dumb vows / we tried to ski down your lawn..."
Who doesn't like a good story. One with imagery that is compelling but leaves more to be revealed between the lines. Things, situations that may never be answered but can be imagined by each person who hears it. That is the feeling I got listening to "Dreaming of Dancing in a Different Town", a punchy compelling bit of storytelling by Clementine Was Right, the songwriting project of poetry and fiction writer Mike Young. He and a superbly talented host of bandmates / collaborators have crafted a song that like an addictive movie trailer gives us wonderful glimpses, of relationships full of longing, lost moments, bruised and torn, "We took the Valium / We took the dumb vows / We tried to ski down your lawn / We stole the dump truck / Oh well we jumped off / Off of the green bridge at dawn" and like Polaroids with creases and all scratched up, you get the feeling that as much as you want to revel in the memories they contain pain as well.
Clementine Was Right share:
[“Dreaming of Dancing in a Different Town” is about the ache of naïve promises. You start out flirting and trading clove cigarettes outside the laser tag place, and you end up running into someone years later and admitting you never understood why they were crying. You wanted to. You had a lot of plans. You jumped into the river at dawn. You haven’t forgotten any of them.]
[“Dreaming of Dancing in a Different Town” is about the ache of naïve promises. You start out flirting and trading clove cigarettes outside the laser tag place, and you end up running into someone years later and admitting you never understood why they were crying. You wanted to. You had a lot of plans. You jumped into the river at dawn. You haven’t forgotten any of them.]
The song, stylistically, feels so utterly earnest. A blend of heartland rock, indie rock and, what I like to call, garden rock, the musical narrative is not only elevated by all the performances involved: the downturned lead vocal aesthetic by Young and supporting backing vox, the punctuating drum work, wanderlustful guitar work and the emotionally killing lead guitar work at the coda but but is a track that feels lived (and lived in).
Clementine was Right likes to ramble but is now based in Denver, with collaborators from Arkansas to Hawaii, the band will release their second LP, "Can't Get Right With the Darkness", in March 2022.
"Dreaming of Dancing in a Different Town" features Jude Brothers (Vocals, field recordings), Dick Darden (Drums, vocals), Gion Davis (Vocals), Hayden Johnson (Bass), Lisa Kori (Vocals), Kole Oakes (Accordion), Alissa Nordmoe (Lap steel, vocals), Nathan Smerage (Guitar), James Williams (Vocals) and Mike Young (Guitar, synths, vocals).
-Robb Donker Curtius
THE FACTS AS WE KNOW THEM - PRESS NOTES:
https://theblueturn.com/clementinewasright/
https://www.facebook.com/clementinewasright
https://clementinewasright.bandcamp.com/
https://www.instagram.com/clementine_was_right/
https://open.spotify.com/artist/78FYLtixjSu0bgFRXfj7cZ
Clementine Was Right is the songwriting project of poet and fiction writer Mike Young. Chronicling years of uprooting—from Northern California to New England, Alaska to New Mexico—the music gallops and sways through hook-smeared bootgaze and cosmic scoot, harmonizing and storytelling.
After releasing three books of poems and stories in the early 2010s (with praise from VICE, BOMB, The Believer), Mike moved to New Mexico and started Clementine Was Right in 2016. Now based in Denver, with collaborators from Arkansas to Hawaii, the band will release their second LP, Can't Get Right With the Darkness, in March 2022.
Recorded at Memphis Magnetic, Can't Get Right With the Darkness confidently matures the band's vision with bolder joys and darker waves. This record is for dancing even deeper and the feathers on the river, the strangers you made along the way and the candles you don't know how to hold.
It sounds a little like The Flying Burrito Brothers asking Magnolia Electric Co. to help them find Texacala Jones's lost cabin on the Pacific coast. For an ideal listening experience, we suggest taking the next bus out of your hometown, meeting St. Francis and his wolves in an old tire store, and packing the rain in the smell of your coat.
Mike and the band have been featured in Adobe & Teardrops, Gimme Country, AltCountry.NL, and elsewhere, and they've shared bills with Pearl Charles, Sadie Dupuis, Nat Baldwin (of Dirty Projectors), and many others.
THE FACTS AS WE KNOW THEM - PRESS NOTES:
https://theblueturn.com/clementinewasright/
https://www.facebook.com/clementinewasright
https://clementinewasright.bandcamp.com/
https://www.instagram.com/clementine_was_right/
https://open.spotify.com/artist/78FYLtixjSu0bgFRXfj7cZ
Clementine Was Right is the songwriting project of poet and fiction writer Mike Young. Chronicling years of uprooting—from Northern California to New England, Alaska to New Mexico—the music gallops and sways through hook-smeared bootgaze and cosmic scoot, harmonizing and storytelling.
After releasing three books of poems and stories in the early 2010s (with praise from VICE, BOMB, The Believer), Mike moved to New Mexico and started Clementine Was Right in 2016. Now based in Denver, with collaborators from Arkansas to Hawaii, the band will release their second LP, Can't Get Right With the Darkness, in March 2022.
Recorded at Memphis Magnetic, Can't Get Right With the Darkness confidently matures the band's vision with bolder joys and darker waves. This record is for dancing even deeper and the feathers on the river, the strangers you made along the way and the candles you don't know how to hold.
It sounds a little like The Flying Burrito Brothers asking Magnolia Electric Co. to help them find Texacala Jones's lost cabin on the Pacific coast. For an ideal listening experience, we suggest taking the next bus out of your hometown, meeting St. Francis and his wolves in an old tire store, and packing the rain in the smell of your coat.
Mike and the band have been featured in Adobe & Teardrops, Gimme Country, AltCountry.NL, and elsewhere, and they've shared bills with Pearl Charles, Sadie Dupuis, Nat Baldwin (of Dirty Projectors), and many others.
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