Viennese trio
My Ugly Clementine rock against the optimization mania
The band My Ugly Clementine. photo
© Rea von Vi/Living Room Promotion/dpa
The musicians of My Ugly Clementine are considered an alternative Viennese supergroup. Their new album focuses on friendship and the art of saying no. Musically, it’s a road trip through the 90’s.
For their second album called “The Good Life”, the three musicians from My Ugly Clementine embark on a search for the real life without any illusions. The Viennese rock band hit the right sound long ago. The group released their debut album “Vitamin C” three years ago. It was promptly dubbed “European Independent Album of the Year”. From then on, My Ugly Clementine was considered a supergroup of the alternative Viennese music scene.
Band founder Sophie Lindinger has long been established as part of the electro-pop duo Leyya, Mira Lu Kovacs is a successful solo artist and songwriter, and Nastasja Ronck has made a name for herself with projects such as Sharktank and Lucid Kid. Until a year ago, Kem Kolleritsch alias Kerosin95 was also there.
Distorted guitars with grunge appeal
For My Ugly Clementine, the band members do without the electronic and quieter sounds of their other projects and really step on the gas with distorted guitars, bass and drums. On the new album cover, the three Clementines pose in nightmare ’90s fashion (colored pants and pastel cardigans with oversized collars). Fittingly, grunge dominates the 12 songs. The polyphonic singing of the trio creates an atmosphere that sounds like a jointly experienced road trip or festival summer.
But “The Good Life” is not a feel-good album about the good life. It’s not about constantly optimizing yourself, Ronck tells the German Press Agency. “A good life is a life that’s okay, and where things often don’t go so well, but where you just learn to deal with it,” she says. “The album could probably have been called The Okay Life, but that doesn’t sound so good after all.”
The theme isn’t just about friendship (“Circles”) and cultivated boredom (“Feet Up”), but also about drawing boundaries, such as in the scream-along number “No”. “We are all three people who want to please many people,” explains Ronck. Therefore, they would have asked themselves how they could play the role of the main character in the plot of their lives.
In any case, the Clementines will play the leading role in the coming weeks and months on their tour, which will take them to Munich, Cologne, Hamburg, Berlin and Dresden from the end of September.