It's a Rio de Janeiro bouncy ball

May 10, 2021 6:33 PM

Dry Cleaning is a post-punk band from South London featuring a tight rhythm section, sweet guitar riffs, and wonderfully scattershot spoken word vocals. A song with a fun arty music video. A song about the Duchess of Sussex. The title track from their new album.
posted by a feather in amber (22 comments total)

I loooove that video and that song. She kinda looks like she could be John Lydon's daughter and that song could be the daughter of a PiL song and a Gang of Four song. Anyway, those teeth are the plutonic ideal of British teeth. xoxo
posted by gwint at 6:49 PM on May 10, 2021

I cosied on to Dry Cleaning a few weeks ago. I like 'em!
posted by ashbury at 7:17 PM on May 10, 2021

I love Dry Cleaning! I believe I was introduced to them via Apple Music’s personalized New Music playlist and I devoured their whole discography immediately.
posted by ejs at 7:25 PM on May 10, 2021

Reminds me of Au Pairs
posted by Mr. Yuck at 8:09 PM on May 10, 2021 [4 favorites]

Reminds me of The Fall.
posted by 3.2.3 at 8:37 PM on May 10, 2021 [2 favorites]

Reminds me of "Tunic (Song for Karen)"

(and of course most 2021 bands will tip their hat to some cool influences ... but Dry Cleaning have a pretty great mix, and are giving it their own spin.)
posted by lisa g at 9:19 PM on May 10, 2021

I love how Americans will describe basically anything as 'post punk'.
posted by GallonOfAlan at 11:49 PM on May 10, 2021 [3 favorites]

Reminds me of Life Without Buildings, only London.
posted by acb at 1:28 AM on May 11, 2021

Yes, most British people don't have routine cosmetic dentistry. Can we move on from that now? Are we still also saying that British people only eat unseasoned over-boiled food?

I'm enjoying Dry Cleaning. I usually don't like spoken-word stuff delivered in that flat, detached way, but Florence Shaw's lyrics are great.
posted by pipeski at 4:02 AM on May 11, 2021 [4 favorites]

Glad to see them getting some love here; I've seen them a couple of times over the few years and they were the last band I saw before lockdown last year in the UK, in an absolutely rammed tiny back room of a pub. They're just brilliant and deserve the moment in the spotlight they're currently getting. Don't think I'll be seeing them in such a small venue again, though.
posted by parm at 5:52 AM on May 11, 2021

Dry Cleaning is the type of band that if you described their sound to me (spoken word thanks like random snatches of conversation stitched together, ennui), I’d be positive that I would hate them. But I absolutely love this album. They’re touring next year and I’ll definitely be going to see them!
posted by spikysimon at 5:57 AM on May 11, 2021 [2 favorites]

My comment about British teeth was dumb and wrong and I apologize.
posted by gwint at 6:01 AM on May 11, 2021 [4 favorites]

This is great. Discovering new music remains one of my favorite things about this site.
posted by Dip Flash at 6:38 AM on May 11, 2021

I didn't wake up today to have feelings about music that are vaguely reminiscent of a time when bands and songs were everything, yet here I am. That familiar old joy and excitement, this really hits the target. Thank you! They had me after the first video, so funny and so lovely.
posted by elkevelvet at 7:16 AM on May 11, 2021

Nice retro sound
posted by thelonius at 8:19 AM on May 11, 2021

Reminds me of a mix of Sonic Youth and PJ Harvey and I'm really enjoying these songs. Thanks so much for linking!
posted by mogget at 9:00 AM on May 11, 2021

detached English art-rock sprechgesang? Deborah Evans-Stickland would like a word.
posted by scruss at 10:58 AM on May 11, 2021

I enjoyed this so much! Thanks for introducing me to them!
posted by corey flood at 11:53 AM on May 11, 2021

A bit like a deadpan Delta 5. (TFTL.)
posted by progosk at 1:04 PM on May 11, 2021

post punk ergo propter punk
posted by doiheartwentyone at 2:38 PM on May 11, 2021 [2 favorites]

Like how the kids are picking up the cassette-as-performance-instrument. Feel like my generation should have figured that one out the first time around.
posted by q*ben at 7:30 PM on May 11, 2021

I think as much as there's antecedents in sound I like how clearly a lot of the lyrics come from YouTube and so on. In that way you'd have to declare Underworld's processes an influence.
posted by treblekicker at 4:07 AM on May 12, 2021