Petula Clarck (Belgian fucking rock)

[Vesanic]

Wanted to give these guys a bit of exposure, they're from my home province, I saw them live and they're pretty great. They're two guys (one guitarist/vocalist + one drummer), they have one rule for their music, they take one hour and a half to make a song. If it's good, they play it live, record it, no retouch. If it's bad, it's thrown away. They have lots of catchy riffs and have a nice decadence going on, as well as a solid little discography behind them already. You can listen to everything on their website/bandcamp.

Petula Clarck - Supreme


http://www.petulaclarck.com
http://petulaclarck.bandcamp.com
http://www.facebook.com/pages/Petula-Clarck/269888816404396

[peterdigiacomo]

Sounds pretty cool. I enjoy the last 20 seconds most. Very catchy rift.

[DeftonesNZ]

That sounds like it could be a very early SOAD demo

[Diplo]

Yeah very fun music.
Some part remind me the SOAD demo too.

[Crazylegs]

where's the math?

[DeftonesNZ]

I didn't really hear math rock sound either sounds pretty straight forward to be far though i don't know much mathrock I just think DEP when i hear the term, also on the 1 and a half hour limit they put on themselves it's interesting as a concept but I think in reality it's super limiting, for instance the riffs sound super plain and underdeveloped, my problem with it is that it reminds of when I'm just watching tv and messing around on my guitar, I could play and write primitive riffs like that all day but I would never actually release them, I'm a horrible guitar player aswell but i could write something like that song in under 5 minutes and I guess thats what bothers me, I don't like knowing that even with how shit I am I could still do that easily, it just seems like a lack of effort on their part, I think there's basically only two differents parts to the whole song a simple riff thats starts on a single string that expands into powerchords and some simple tremolo picking makes me wonder what the songs they throw out are like, would be good if they took more time to get the songs to there potential I get the whole idea behind capturing the energy but in the end I think it just means the music sounds lazy, you can capture energy and rawness without sacrificing the musicianship look at bands like bad brains they sound super raw and energetic but there's some great musicianship happening underneath, all that  being said it would be super interesting to see what they could come up with if they took the restriction off themselves.

[Diplo]

I agree with you but seriously dude, could you write with paragraphs ?

[Vesanic]

You're right, but that's what I like about it. In a live show, it's actually interesting. It goes from a heavy rhythm to "party music" in a second, it doesn't try to impose a mood it's not supposed to, it's instinctive and kind of modest like that. I mean for example, the song I posted is very simple and short, but still, you listen to that shit loud with good earphones and it remains catchy as fuck, no matter the lack of variations, no matter how odd some of the transitions can be, and no matter how short the song is. You take it for what it is.


And about their work length being limited, there again I think it's more interesting than limiting. Take one of your favourite songs, who's to say it wasn't actually better at its raw one-hour old demo state before it took months and months of layers? By working in such a limited time, you give what you have at that moment. And it doesn't mean you can't be focused, but it's gonna be obviously more instinctive, more spontaneous. I see how it can be limiting to you, and you're right in some ways I'm sure, but yeah, that's how I see it.

[DeftonesNZ]

To be fair I'm probably a bit bias to start with I get really into the long postrock stuff which the like the complete other end of the scale, I love hearing all the changes and different textures, basically I'm attracted to music that seems composed I like to hear the instruments weave in together, I find it amazing especially when bands do it because it's 4/5 different musicians somehow locking into the same thing when by all rights it should just be a mess but it's not they somehow build tension and create something extremely emotive, I don't think a band like this really ever had a chance with me it's just so opposite to what I get into songs like Christmas Steps by Mogwai are what clicks with me but I actually thought after hearing this that they sound like they'd be fun live, there's a ton of songs like that with me I would never have them on it ipod on listen to them on my own but they come on at a party and I get into them.

[Vesanic]

Here's a whole live session if anyone's interested

Petula Clarck - Spontrash from Belgium @ MrMunchkin Streams 10 February 2014

[Vesanic]

I noticed they have a couple more moody tracks like this one, "Coyote", which I think is really good.

I definitely recommend the album it's from. A messy, gritty piece :

AYE-AYE-AYE (2009)
http://petulaclarck.bandcamp.com/album/aye-aye-aye-2

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