Clinic + Clogs

Those who dismissed Clinic as a gimmick when the band emerged from Liverpool at the turn of the '00s—its members' faces hidden behind surgical masks—may now bite their tongues. A decade on, Liverpool's "lab four" have maintained an unerring cool. The band's new album, the uncharacteristically mellow Bubblegum, doesn't come out until October (on Domino), but Clinic gives New York a preview in three shows. Less an offshoot of Brassland label chief Bryce Dessner’s day job with indie-rock band the National than a parallel-universe precursor, Clogs is a happy phenomenon: one of those shamelessly novel contemporary-music whatsits that appeals as much to young rock fans as to chamber-ensemble geeks eager for a new kind of kick.