Clinic

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• Genre: Post-Punk
• Hometown: Liverpool

About

When Clinic debuted in 1997 with the single "IPC Sub-Editors Dictate Our Youth," the group sounded like some off-kilter art-punk group who cut their teeth on the Fall, Jamaican dub and the last few minutes of the Velvet Underground's "Sister Ray." The band's rhythmic post-punk was completely out of step with the rest of the musical landscape, and they seemed destined to become one of the first few great, original groups of the new millennium. The fact that they all wore surgical masks was perhaps the only shtick; the music itself was vibrant and totally original. Their 2001 release, Internal Wrangler, helped remove any doubts about the band's unique vision, which infused subterranean, discordant punk with melodica solos and blasts of guitar. Both 2002's Walking With Thee and 2004's Winchester Cathedral contain plenty of the jagged spark that made their early records so vital. Visitations appeared in October 2006.

- Jon Pruett