Clyde Federal

Imagine the rainy-day wonder of an unrequited love sparkling through the crackling speakers of a radio circa 1963. Large, sad eyes loom upwards towards the sky, and as the climax of the chorus ascends, your heart pulls out of its adolescent chest in full, miserable, and inspiring glory. That moment, that song, becomes suspended in time and memory. It's with that same thrill that Contraphonic Music Ltd. presents Chicago's Clyde Federal, and the release of Sensitive Skin / Please Be Real, a double EP featuring 10 songs which recreate that feeling.

Formed in 2002 around the disarmingly direct and memorable songs of front man Michael Lyons Sturgess, Clyde Federal came into full fruition with the addition of drummer Michael David Bulington (both Sturgess and Bullington played in country/soul torch singer Kelly Hogan's band), Jeremy Gregg Morse (autoharp), and Vincent Tulio Laconte (bass.) After a string of demos, the likes of which are collected on their CD Best Practices, the quartet quickly captured their initial chiming sound with engineer Dan Dietrich during the recording of the Please Be Real EP, and was soon gracing Chicago stages with the likes of The Figgs, Rilo Kiley, Mecca Normal, Ambulance, Ltd., Washington Social Club, Outrageous Cherry, and The M's. Praise was beginning to circulate like a game of telephone, with British rag The Wire going so far as to declare them "uncanny Motown."

After a year of gigging and home recording, Dietrich invited the band to record in his brand new Wall to Wall studio, and the resulting Sensitive Skin is a maturing exposition from a maturing band, pounding home their frantic hooks with a raw confidence that earlier recordings had only hinted at. With this release, Clyde Federal employ a time-honed pop approach with a timeless feel, as if the staples of rock and roll and soul all fell into one, accepting palm. With an intelligent lyrical poignancy, and wide-eyed wanderlust to their refreshingly meaningful pop, Clyde Federal, indeed, is a welcome addition to the annals of rock by which they are so inspired.