Featuring classics like “Anything Could Happen” and “Point That Thing Somewhere Else,” The Clean's Boodle Boodle Boodle EP arrived two months after the “Tally Ho!” single, peaking at #5 and staying in the NZ Top 20 for nearly six months. Recorded on four-track by The Clean’s childhood friends Chris Knox and Doug Hood, its five hugely influential songs provided a roadmap for the “Dunedin sound” that would soon follow. Boodle Boodle Boodle was awarded the Classic Record distinction by New Zealand’s Taite Music Prize in 2017.


Our take: Second in Merge’s 40th Anniversary reissue series is Boodle Boodle Boodle, a 5-song 12” EP from 1981. While “Tally Ho” was a triumph, the Clean didn’t rest on their laurels here, totally changing their sound yet arriving at something just as exciting. It’s apparent that you’re in for something different from the beginning of the first track, “Billy 2,” with its chiming, crisply recorded acoustic guitars. While the sheen here is different to “Tally Ho,” it’s also apparent that the Clean were no one-hit wonders, as the a-side of Boodle Boodle Boodle is a 3-punch combo of upbeat pop with driving, punky rhythms and infectious choruses. If “Tally Ho” sounds of a piece with the ramshackle UKDIY scene, Boodle Boodle Boodle presages American indie rock, and it’s hard to imagine Guided by Voices, Pavement, and Jay Reatard didn’t pick up a few tricks from it. After the triple feature on side A, side B starts with a slow jammer and the record ends with “Point That Thing Somewhere Else,” one of the Clean’s many longer tracks, this one sounding like the offspring of The Velvet Underground & Nico and Neu!. As with the “Tally Ho” single, I’ve heard these tracks before, but I’m pleased to have the awesome original cover art restored here, and Merge’s edition also comes with a booklet / zine packed with comics and collage art that only came with the record’s rare first pressing. Since this came out I’ve been listening to Boodle Boodle Boodle constantly, so much that I’d worry my partner was getting sick of it (if it were possible to get sick of a record so great). The Clean also released a 7” and a 12” EP in 1982… here’s hoping Merge brings us 40th anniversary editions of those next year.