Jim Clements & The Right To Die:Band BiographyWith a touch of Randy Newman’s dark wit, a sprinkling of Nick Cave’s macabre romanticism, and a knack for story-telling that would give The Decemberists a run for their money, Jim Clements will appeal to anyone with a soft-spot for a literate songwriter. His first album, Kill Devil Hills featured raging angels, world-destroying floods, flowerbed graves, glass ships, grey-clad virgins, volcanoes, murder, self-loathing, redemption, damnation, all in less than an hour (and you could tap your foot to it). He’s admittedly softening as his youth slips away; his new album is obsessed with saints, but, admittedly, only the creepy ones. Mr. Clements, since his relocation from Toronto, Canada to the UK has put together a new band that goes by the not-as-offensive-as-they’d-hoped moniker of The Right To Die. You can maybe hear some of Neil Young's messy prettiness in Jim’s acoustic guitar, and shades of Desire-era Dylan in Maya Ahuja’s ever-present gypsy violin. Tom Wait’s smoky jazz occasionally haunts Lucy Jordan’s piano, while Jim’s little brother Richard has been promoted from the pots and pans to the drums. Dave Gooblar (also front man of London indie-rock outfit Gooblar) brings his unashamed melodic sense to the bass (i.e. he thinks he’s playing a guitar). Clements’s unique and versatile voice has taken a positive turn after his discovery of the joys of cheap scotch and chain-smoking. The style’s been called Americana, folk, country, country-folk, country-pop, acoustic, alt-country, music hall, popular song. Who knows? All we can say for sure is that the band is comprised of acoustic instruments, but couldn’t sound less like James Blunt.Kill Devil Hills was released in Toronto, Canada in the summer of 2004 to glowing reviews, with a CD-release at the legendary El Mocambo, followed by regular gigs with his makeshift band at many of the city’s musical hotspots. Clements also performed a weekly acoustic residency on College Street while all this was going on. In the summer of 2005, Clements took his show across the pond on a UK tour that dragged him and his cohorts from London to Aberdeen, and everywhere in between. He has shared bills with talents such as The Broken Family Band, Nathan Lawr, Boy, Paul James Berry, and Royal City. After a self-imposed writing hiatus, Jim Clements is back with his new band, a new album called When The Saints Go, and a heap of new material about religious visions, silent movie stars, murderers, road trips, and deposed saints, and one song sung from the perspective of a fish.About When The Saints GoAfter a three-year interlude of growing, regressing, and procrastinating, Jim Clements has returned to deliver on the promise of his 2004 debut album, Kill Devil Hills, with a new band, The Right To Die, and a new album, entitled When The Saints Go. The new release is a loose concept album, which means that about half the record is conceptually structured around saints, religious visions, miracles, and the like, while the other half of the record is conceptually structured around other things, such as how hard it is to pick up in bars, and the complexities of body disposal.Highlights of the record include St. Louise, a gypsy ode to troubled silent film star Louise Brooks, St. Christopher’s Traveling Blues, in which the recently decanonized patron saint of road trips fires off a bitter warning to ‘those boys in Rome,’ and Visions of Jehovah, a lilting Beatle-esque piano-led duet between a woman suffering from unwelcome religious visions (“How can I lie on the beach when he’s in each grain of sand?”), and her jealous priest.Finally with a dream band to call his own, Jim was able to throw off the shackles of ProTools and home recording, and embrace a more 1970’s audio verite approach. With the help of producer Chris D’Adda, the band spent three whiskey-fuelled days in the country, managing to record eleven new songs live off the floor on vintage gear with the only substantial overdubs being Dean Drouillard’s slide guitar on St. Christopher, and Gene Hardy’s haunting singing saw on The Bottom Feeders. It sounds like those old records; y’know, the one’s you like.Reviews of Kill Devil HillsToronto-based artist Jim Clements is another in a long line of fresh-faced Canadian singer/songwriters waiting for their debut album to make them the next Neil Young. Much more so than others Clements has got a heck of a shot, his voice warbling above the strains of violin and carefully picked acoustic guitar setting him apart. Sitting in the vein of alt.country, Kill Devil Hills presents Clements as a thoughtful, extremely talented lyricist. Not as edgy as a Patrick Wolf but much darker than your run-of-the-mill Nick Drake knockoff, Clements mixes beautiful melodies with stories about killing a potential lover's current boyfriend, and the oddly haunting tale of lost youth found in "Wendy Darling" (of Peter Pan fame, get it?). The odds of actually making it to Neil Young proportions are ridiculously slim, but if a bet had to be placed, Clements would be a top choice.From: Soulshine
Out-Of-Nowhere Award: a debut record called Kill Devil Hills on Fading Ways Records. It has the heart and soul of all those old country records, but it's super-catchy and folky and front porchy - part "Broken and Blue" by the Fembots, part Crazy Horse guitar, part Will Oldham voice, part absolutely fucking heartbreaking slide guitar. Worth your time and your dime.From: CHMA Best of Year listJim Clements is really something special. With only the lightest, minimalist stroke of guitar and voice Kill Devil Hills paints a spooky, shadowy landscape. Clements has a knack for the kind of deeply black humoured lyrics you can return to year after year and still wonder about, drawing amazingly vivid scenes yet leaving enough details to the imagination to leave you asking after his characters. Kill Devil Hills is a fascinating place to visit and like it or not you might just stay.From: Bubblegum Slut UK FanzineWhat is going on in Canada? Clements is yet another one off the production line of exceptional talent being turned out with monotonous regularity from Canada these days. On first listen, the baby faced troubadour comes across as a Costello/Chris Mills type song writer who's voice has a peculiar (thus engagingly distinctive) English clipped style about it - but lyrically he has a real sting in his tale.From: Americana UK MagazineIn a world where competent acousticy-strummy-folky-singery-songwritery sort of people are ten-a-fucking-penny, you have to have something to make you stand out from the crowd. Jim Clements might have a quirky, high register vocal style, but that only narrows down the field to 300,000 or so. So I was charging up my critical bellows with a view to winnowing out a bit more of the chaff for you good people. But chaff Mr Clements ain’t… The name of Nick Cave has been whispered, but he has more in common with another Jim, Mr O’Rourke – especially on the transgressive delights of Coming Up Roses and Before the Beating Starts. I know quoting lyrics in a review is somewhat gauche, but how often do you get a chorus like “And in a cruel twist of fate, I met my true love three days late; She’d met another tender lover, so much like me he could be my brother; So I’m buckling down, trying to make her come around; A few choice words or perhaps a murder; I’ll break their hearts before the beating even starts”?From: SoundsXP***1/2Clements shows himself a talented songwriter, and Kill Devil Hills is chock-full of beautiful ballads…. Like [Wilco’s] Jeff Tweedy, Jim Clements has a way of making darkness beautiful…. Expect good things from him.FROM: antiMusic
