Miscellaneous XTC Press Clippings: 2006

• “Course A002: XTC - The Band and Their Music”, The Treehouse University, 2006
• “Andy Partridge: A Soviet Slab of Song”, Total Music Magazine, 2006
• “Andy Partridge is not a Social Worker”, MP3.com, December 20, 2006
• “Song of the Week -- Andy's take: Thanks For Christmas”, XTC Fans, December 18, 2006
• “Warm and Fuzzy: XTC's Andy Partridge unearths his musical treasure trove”, The Pitch, December 14, 2006
• “A warm and fuzzy Partridge? Not!”, The Boston Globe, December 13, 2006
• “XTC Become Action Figures”, Pitchfork, December 11, 2006
• Review of Andy Partridge: “Sonic Boom”, Fingertips, December 10, 2006
• “Song of the Week -- Andy's take: Senses Working Overtime”, XTC Fans, December 10, 2006
• “Genius of Pop: XTC's Andy Partridge unearths his musical treasure trove”, St. Louis Riverfront Times, December 6, 2006
• “XTC's Partridge discusses boxset, Monstrance”, Variety, December 4, 2006
• “Song of the Week -- Andy's take: The Ballad of Peter Pumpkinhead”, XTC Fans, December 3, 2006
• “Day In The Life: Andy Partridge, guitarist and chief songwriter with XTC, and the founder of Ape House records”, The Independent, November 30, 2006
• “Music You Should Hear: Andy Partridge”, Amazon.com, November 27, 2006
• “Song of the Week -- Andy's take: Dear God”, XTC Fans, November 26, 2006
• “Artist Driven: Mix It Up: Andy Partridge”, Amplifier, November 20, 2006
• “Song of the Week -- Andy's take: Science Friction”, XTC Fans, November 19, 2006
• “Countdowns To XTC”, MOJO, December 2006
• “A Chat with Andy Partridge”, Bullz-Eye, November 17, 2006
• “Song of the Week -- Andy's take: Harvest Festival”, XTC Fans, November 12, 2006
• “Amazon Wire”, Amazon.com, November 3, 2006
• “Interview with Andy Partridge”, Puremusic, November 2006
• “Song of the Week -- Andy's take: Snowman”, XTC Fans, November 5, 2006
• “Song of the Week -- Andy's take: Merely a Man”, XTC Fans, October 30, 2006
• “The Definitive 1000 Songs of all Time 1955 to 2005: Number 749 - XTc ‘Generals & Majors’”, Crowbarred, October 29, 2006
• “The Man Who Sailed Around His Soul”, PopMatters, October 27, 2006
• “Travestismo Ilustrado”, the-Strip-ARTE!, October 22, 2006
• “A Garden of Earthly XTC Delights”, Los Angeles Times, October 22, 2006
• “The Definitive 1000 Songs of all Time 1955 to 2005: Number 773 - XTC ‘Making Plans for Nigel’”, Crowbarred, October 16, 2006
• “Positively Yeah Yeah Yeah: New Tunes”, CityBeat, October 4, 2006
• “I Pissed God Off: Interview with Andy Partridge”, Morphizm, October 2, 2006
• “Podcast: Interview with Andy Partridge of XTC”, Club Kingsnake, September 20, 2006
• “Treble's Best Albums of the '80s”, Treble, September 11, 2006
• “XTC — Das Ende der Demokratie”, Intro, 31 August 2006
• “XTC set to release nine-disc box of rarities”, Reuters/Billboard, August 29, 2006
• “XTC's Partridge Combs Archives For Mammoth Box”, Billboard, August 28, 2006
• “Andy Partridge Opens Up His Ape House”, ChartAttack, August 22, 2006
• “Investing Survival Guide: Financial Independence: Independence: A Soundtrack”, BusinessWeek, August 14, 2006
• “Mission: unlistenable”, Guardian, August 4, 2006
• “Here comes President Enik again” compares the song “Here Comes President Kill Again” to recent events, Timedoor, July 21, 2006
• “XTC's Andy Partridge - Senses Working Overtime”, Paste, July 17, 2006
• “Paste's 100 Best Living Songwriters: The List”, Paste, June 8, 2006
• “Paste Magazine Culture Club Episode 19: Paul McCartney, R.E.M.'s Peter Buck and XTC's Andy Partridge - Special 100 Best Living Songwriters Episode”, Paste, June 8, 2006
• “Vpro's nachtleven: grensverkeer Andy Partridge Nacht”, Vpro, May 24, 2006
• “De liedjes van Mr. Partridge en XTC”, VPRO Gids, May 23, 2006
• “Making Drinks for Nigel, Pt. 1”, Mocking Music, May 4, 2006
• “The Lyrical Andy Partridge”, by Todd Bernhardt, XTC Fans, March 24, 2006
• “Best Song Ever: 49(+1) Love Songs”, Treble, February 13, 2006
• Review of Apple Bite, Glide, January 20, 2006

MOJO
December 2006
Page 22

Countdowns to XTC
Andy Partridge presents demos in box of Proustian lushness.

“I'm a slut for packaging”, says XTC's Andy Partridge. His new 9-CD box set The Official Fuzzy Warbles Collector's Edition is incontrovertible evidence. Each of his Fuzzy Warbles demo discs come in a fake 1950s stamp album, presenting song-sketches from every phase of his career.

“The box harks back to the time when stamp albums had a badly drawn UN globe and pictures of stamps you couldn't find”, explains Partridge, “plus the space thing they had, with a kids' encyclopedia graphic of cutting through the Earth's strata where you see dinosaur skeletons. It's that musically, essentially”.

With his Monstrance album of improvised music with early XTC keyboard player Barry Andrews released in January, MOJO must also ask about that long-dormant parent band. “I speak of XTC in the past tense”, admits Partridge. “It's in the freezer and I dunno if it'll ever come out again. Colin [Moulding] phoned me recently and said he wasn't interested in music any more, and it wouldn't be XTC without him. But I have been ummm'ing and arr'ing about working with Dave Gregory again so I mustn't say ‘no’”.

[Thanks to Paul Culnane]

XTC set to release nine-disc box of rarities

By Greg Prato Tue Aug 29, 4:04 AM ET

NEW YORK (Billboard) - XTC guitarist Andy Partridge recently combed his vaults and discovered an exorbitant amount of rarities and outtakes recorded by the defunct English art-rock combo, resulting in a nine-disc boxed set that will come out on October 16.

"The Fuzzy Warbles Collectors Album" (Virtual Label) features alternate versions of many XTC favorites, unreleased tracks and also unfinished material that Partridge revisited and completed for this release.

"Working on this stuff took many years," Partridge told Billboard.com. "I just kept writing -- who knows what's going to fall out? It was recorded in spare bedrooms, the kitchen, the attic and of course my now infamous garden shed. Pop songs, radio jingles, film and TV music, or just plain old goofing about."

Partridge rediscovered many forgotten tracks in the process. "'I Don't Want To Be Here' for one," he said. "Lots of folks love this song but XTC was pretty democratic, so if someone didn't go for a tune, it got binned. 'Everything' was another. One of the most touching lyrics I ever wrote -- in the toilet. 'The Bland Leading the Bland' -- so proud of this autobiographical rallying call to end that boring donut mentality. You can kind of see why I just didn't want these songs collecting dust and going unheard. We threw away better material than most bands made a career out of."

Among his other favorites: "Wonder Annual" ("I always thought XTC should have recorded this surprisingly structured psychedelic slice"), "End of the Pier" ("It would have made a great out-of-season seaside companion piece to 'Seagulls Screaming Kiss Her Kiss Her"') and "2 Rainbeau Melt" ("Some of my favorite-ever lyrics matched to a trippy improvised soundscape. It arrived too late for the 'Wasp Star' album").

Partridge also helped assemble the packaging, which he modeled after a child's stamp album. "How better to represent a large and diverse set of home recordings than to depict them as a series of imaginary stamps?," he said.

Partridge has a number of other projects in the works, the first of which will be "a double-disc set of purely improvised music called 'Monstrance.' My partners in one-take, overdub-free, unrehearsed crime are Barry Andrews -- ex-XTC keys man from way back -- and (drummer) Martyn Barker. Let's face it, nothing short of capital punishment is going to stop me making music."

Reuters/Billboard

Copyright © 2006 Reuters Limited. All rights reserved.
[Thanks to William Loring]

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