Pitchfork

The Clientele are currently on tour with labelmates Spoon, and while they've enjoyed the experience greatly, Alasdair MacLean tells us the bands have very different audiences. "I think our music is very different from theirs and our audience is quite different as well. I think you can tell who has come to see who very quickly. The more studious looking fellows with books of poetry are there to see us, and the young ladies dancing about are there to see them. But I kind of want to swap audiences with them in a way..."

A band with plenty of singles and EPs to its name, the Clientele are set to release their follow-up to 2003's The Violet Hour. Mixed, mastered, and recorded at Bark Studios in East London with the help of producer Brian O'Shaughnessy, the new album has been titled Strange Geometry. Working with O'Shaughnessy was a blessing for the band, as MacLean says, "We would just be sitting in our little studio and our mixing desk would blow up, and so we'd have to start all over again. That type of stuff didn't happen with Brian."

But plenty did happen with O'Shaughnessy, as he was able to improve the band's sound drastically. "It's as if you took the other albums, and they were in a fish tank, and you took them out, and suddenly some air had been let into the room and the sound was clearer," says MacLean.

One of the strong influences on the band while they were recording Strange Geometry was the baroque pop of the self-titled (and only) album by Cardinal, released in 1994. Other influences include the bands usual mid-60s pop favorites, from Left Banke to the Beatles, as well as a hint of country music. Maclean says, "We wanted to make a record that was easy on the listener's ear, that didn't require the listener to make any effort. Sunshine pop like Love and Brian Wilson, things we've always been listening to."

And then they brought on French pop balladeer Louis Philippe, whom MacLean described as "old-fashioned and exacting," to work on string arrangements for the album. "He wants everything precisely in tune and precisely in time. We just said, 'Louis, make the string arrangements sound like "Eleanor Rigby".' And he went away, and then he came back with these little strange string arrangements that sounded like something from an Errol Flynn movie. So he didn't do what we wanted at all, he did exactly what he wanted. But it was better as a result. Working with him was very exciting and I think it worked really well."

The album contains 12 tracks, though roughly 25 were completed. The band recorded over an hour's worth of material in their own studio before working with O'Shaughnessy. They then narrowed it down to the 12 tracks they felt coalesced the best.

For now, the Clientele are still on the road with Spoon for a few more weeks. After the album is released, they will come back to headline a North American tour in the fall. As for performing the new songs live, with their complicated arrangements, MacLean simply says, "It'll be a nightmare."

Here are the remaining dates:

06-10 Cleveland, OH - Beachland Ballroom #
06-11 Chicago, IL - Vic Theatre #
06-12 Minneapolis, MN - First Avenue #
06-13 Lawrence, KS - Granada #
06-14 Englewood, CO - Gothic Theatre#
06-16 Portland, OR - Crystal Ballroom #
06-17 Vancouver, British Columbia - Commodore Ballroom #
06-18 Seattle, WA - Showbox #
06-20 San Francisco, CA - The Fillmore #
06-21 Los Angeles, CA - Avalan Hollywood #
06-22 Tucson, AZ - Rialto Theatre #
06-24 Dallas, TX - Gypsy Ballroom $
06-25 Austin, TX - Stubb's BBQ $

# with Spoon
$ with both Spoon and Sally Crewe & the Sudden Moves

* Pitchfork Review: The Clientele: The Violet Hour
* The Clientele: