In late 1987, I read something in Option magazine about The Chills. I got Brave Words on cassette -- back in the days when Homestead Records in the U.S. was distributing A LOT of killer music, both homegrown and imported -- and then I sought out anything on the Flying Nun label.
If the Creation folks in England were attempting to make something Sixties-infused, with a Byrds record as the common touchstone, the guys behind New Zealand's Flying Nun Records were on a more literate wavelength. Looking to both Australia's The Go-Betweens and NYC's Television for inspiration, these bands were rough around the edges but their tunes had melody and the words to the songs had smarts.
First it was The Chills, then The Verlaines, and then The Clean for me. It would be a year or so before I met anyone else into these bands even while I found a handful of people who knew who those Creation bands were. The Flying Nun stuff seemed more obscure and wonderful.
This is "Getting Older" and it's The Clean's second single. And it's hard in spots -- were they listening to Neil Young or Sonic Youth? -- but it's also got real yearning in the vocals. It's the sound of young men who'll never get old...or young men who know deep down how inevitable that journey will be.
