Express 5: Clinic Names Its Favorite Tools

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THE MUSICIANS IN British psychedelic band Clinic wear surgical masks in all their group's promotional photos — but it's a ruse. Because despite the band's name, it's the garage, not the hospital, that's the structure most closely linked to Clinic.

The phrase "garage rock" is most often used to describe bands that have their collective fingers on the pulse of mid-1960s music that was blues-based and often amateurish (feigned or real), but infused with enough distortion, percussion and random craziness that it sounds more like experimental pop than Delta get-downs.

Clinic's latest CD, "Do It!" (Domino), is garage rock to the T-square, from its clattering drums and wheezing organ to its fuzzed guitars and overall rump-roasting thump. It's gutbucket blues run through the raw energy of rock — then that rock is run through the grinder, which spits it out as something primal, familiar and satisfying. It's kind of like the feeling you get when you cut the lawn or pound a nail or build something from scratch.

With all that in mind, we asked Clinic's singer-keyboardist Ade Blackburn to Express 5 of his favorite tools found in the garage. The 11-year-old Liverpudlian quartet plays the Black Cat's main stage tonight.

» Fishing Rod: This is a bit more specific to my garage and stretching the "tool" definition. [He mentions British comedic actor Kenneth Williams, which will mean something to Anglophiles ... and nothing to the rest of us.] But certainly an essential for a relaxing day out and a popular pastime in Maghull, England.

» Spade: All-round gardening utensil with absolute versatility. I usually get mine from B and Q near Edge Lane, which has quite an erotic garden center.

» Hoe: An early '70's British sitcom staple. Used in side-splitter scenes in "The Good Life." Also mentioned in the lyrics to The Seeds' "Mr Farmer."

» Chainsaw: Reminds me of "American Psycho" and, again, has many comedy uses.

» Saw: Saving the best till last and truly indispensable. We used one on the song "Children of Kellogg" — not bowed, just cutting.

» Black Cat, 1811 14th St. NW; with BBQ, Wed., 8 p.m., $13; 800-551-7328. (U St.-Cardozo)

» Read our previous feature on Clinic here.

Photo by Nick Brown