Tuesday, November 12th, 2002

Will Bryant reports:
XTC have released the tracklists for the first two volumes of Fuzzy Warbles, the ambitious multi-disc project meant to serve as a clearing house for unreleased demos, unused recordings, and extremely rare out-of-print material spanning the band's career. As previously reported, XTC's Colin Moulding has announced that he will not be participating in the project, which means not only will Fuzzy Warbles be limited to Andy Partridge's recording archives, but the series will be released on Partridge's new label, Ape. Both volumes are due in the UK on December 4th, or for the truly impatient on Japanese label Pony Canyon on November 20th.

Unlike the Coat of Many Cupboards box set released earlier this year, the first two volumes of Fuzzy Warbles present material spanning 20+ years, in non-chronological order, with everything from late-70s Drums and Wires material on up through 2000's Wasp Star. As expected, both volumes include some-- but not all-- of XTC's fanclub-only cassettes Jules Verne's Sketchbook (1987) and The Bull with the Golden Guts (1992); two demos recorded, but rejected, for the 1996 animated film James and the Giant Peach; four Apple Venus-era demos which were not included on the albums or as b-sides; and one selection from Andy's 1994 contribution to They Might Be Giants' mailorder-only Hello Recording Club. Other cuts announced are unheard even outside the voracious circle of diehard XTC collectors.

One of the most bizarre inclusions is a cut titled "Born Out of Your Mouth", which was actually composed by Partridge at Microsoft's behest. MSN hired Partridge to compose original music for an interactive project called Rifff in 1997, and Partridge programmed the song to be playable on pre-MP3 era sound cards. The tune was accompanied by animation and sound cues that changed as the user navigated MSN's Rifff environment (a similar idea is employed on the main menu of XTC's official website).

The first two volumes of Fuzzy Warbles were mastered by long-time XTC engineer Ian Cooper and, according to the Idea Records website, both sound "fantastic". Naturally. Tracklists:

Fuzzy Warbles, Vol. 1:

01 Dame Fortune [Apple Venus demo]
02 Born Out Of Your Mouth
03 Howlin' Burston
04 Don't Let Us Bug Ya [James and the Giant Peach demo]
05 That Wag
06 That Wave [Nonsuch demo]
07 Ocean's Daughter [The Big Express demo]
08 Everything [The Bull With The Golden Guts cassette]
09 MOGO
10 Goosey Goosey [The Bull With The Golden Guts cassette]
11 Merely A Man [Oranges and Lemons demo]
12 EPNS
13 Summer Hot As This [The Big Express demo]
14 Miniature Sun [Oranges and Lemons demo]
15 I Bought Myself A Liarbird [The Big Express demo]
16 Complicated Game [Drums and Wires demo]
17 Wonder Annual [Apple Venus demo]
18 Space Wray [The Bull With The Golden Guts cassette]
19 Rocket [The Bull With The Golden Guts cassette]

Fuzzy Warbles, Vol. 2:

01 Ridgeway Path [The Bull With The Golden Guts cassette]
02 I Don't Want To Be Here [Apple Venus demo]
03 Young Marrieds
04 No One Here Available [The Bull With The Golden Guts cassette]
05 Obscene Procession [Jules Verne's Sketchbook cassette]
05 Miller Time
06 You're The Wish You Are I Had [The Big Express demo]
07 Ra Ra Rehearsal
08 Ra Ra For Red Rocking Horse [Jules Verne's Sketchbook cassette]
09 Everything'll Be Alright [James and the Giant Peach demo]
10 25 O'Clock [Dukes of Stratosphear demo]
11 GOOM
12 Chain Of Command [Drums and Wires demo]
13 All Of A Sudden [English Settlement demo]
14 Summer's Cauldron [Skylarking demo]
15 Then She Appeared [Nonsuch demo]
16 It's Snowing Angels [Hello Recording Club EP, 1994]
17 Ship Trapped In The Ice [Apple Venus demo]

.: Pitchfork Review: XTC: A Coat of Many Cupboards
.: Pitchfork News: XTC Recording New LP; Robert Schneider Collaboration on Hold
.: We Are The World: Digging through their Drawers: Classic Unreleased XTC Demos
.: XTC: http://www.xtcidearecords.co.uk

Thursday, August 15th, 2002

Will Bryant reports:
XTC's Andy Partridge and Colin Moulding are in the studio recording material for a new XTC album, according to an update posted on the band's official website. This will be the band's official follow-up to the two-volume Apple Venus LPs, which to date have been released in four different forms-- as Apple Venus, Wasp Star (Apple Venus Part 2), Homespun and Homegrown (the demos for each volume), with rumored instrumental versions Instru Venus and Wasp Trumental looming on the horizon. Songs recorded thus far for the project, which has the working title Tunes to Help You Breathe More Easily, include "My Heart Is a Compass," "Oh My Brittania," "Say It," and "Whispered Hymn."

In addition, Partridge reports that his collaboration with Elephant 6 principal Robert Schneider has been put on hold until Schneider has completed promotional commitments for the Apples in Stereo's Velocity of Sound, due October 8th on SpinArt. Partridge and Schneider have written approximately 35 pieces of music for the project, which has been known as Orchestre Fantastique. Partridge and Schneider had planned to record the album this fall in London. As previously reported, the Apples kick off a fall tour with Clinic September 24th in Lexington, Kentucky.

XTC are also proceeding with an ambitious plan to release twelve albums' worth of outtakes, home demos, and unreleased music spanning the entire career of the band. Originally conceived as a box set, Fuzzy Warbles will now be released two albums at a time, with the first titles available as early as October. Earlier this year, XTC released a number of alternate versions, demos, and previously unreleased recordings as the box set Coat of Many Cupboards. The material amassed for the Fuzzy Warbles series now numbers around 250 tracks total, according to XTC's webmaster.

.: Pitchfork Review: XTC: A Coat of Many Cupboards
.: XTC: http://www.xtcidearecords.co.uk
.: The Apples In Stereo: http://www.applesinstereo.com

Friday, April 19th, 2002

You can tell more about a band from their raw, uncensored demos and cast-offs than from their best albums. This is especially true of brilliant pop legends XTC, who have written and recorded dozens of songs that they never officially released. Some of these demos are better than anything an average band ever writes; others are just fucked up. XTC's recent box set, Coat of Many Cupboards, digs up just a few of those gems, and until the band releases the rest in their upcoming Fuzzy Warbles series, here are a few rare songs worth looking for that show them at their best and worst-- even if some might dig just a little too deeply into the head of Andy Partridge.

• "Goodbye Humanosaurus" and "Monkeys in Human-skin Suits": When the venal and mortal sins of man catch up to us, Andy Partridge believes that justice will come not from God, the law, or the free market, but from the forces of evolution. "Goodbye Humanosaurus" clumsily predicts our extinction at our own hands, from "CFC's and germ-war microbes," while the catchy, promising demo of "Monkeys in Human-skin Suits" argues we're going backwards: "Monkeys in human-skin suits/ Climbing to the top of our institutes." Of course, these sentiments were better put in English Settlement's "Down in the Cockpit," where only the male side of humanity is removed from the picture.
• "Car Out of Control": A Colin Moulding leftover from 1992's Nonsuch that shows again why Moulding started as the band's hitmaker (before Partridge's "Senses Working Overtime" established itself as a cornerstone of Western civilization). Through the crap recording you can hear Moulding's woeful voice and slippery bass line. The disorienting bridge and moody tune wouldn't have fit on the album it was intended for, but it makes you wonder how much better that album could have been had this and the recently released "Didn't Hurt a Bit" found their way onto the final mix.
• "Third Stone from the Sun": Dave Gregory was the main axeman and keyboardist for years, but he almost never wrote a note. Even as a solo artist he lets other people do the writing: Gregory covered Hendrix's "Third Stone from the Sun" as his alter-ego David Dreams for the tribute album If 6 Was 9, making an almost note-for-note rendition that still somehow sounds like XTC's gentler psychedelia. This is a nice listen, though the total faithfulness doesn't look good for Gregory: whose shadow didn't he get stuck in?
• "It's Not a Real Song": Every so often an artist is challenged to make up something on the spot. Usually it fails. And even XTC couldn't handle the pressure when they were asked to improvise during a People photo shoot. The band plays a basic Bo Diddley beat, with Partridge squeezing out a few non-verses before slipping into a couple of rude but entertaining jokes about his bandmates.
• "Bags of Fun With Buster": Inexplicable. Written by Partridge and released as a single by "Johnny Japes and His Jesticles," "Bags of Fun With Buster" is a novelty song about a man with giant "bollocks." Sample verse: "Buster! Watch out for that revolving door/ Ooh Buster! They look so incredibly sore/ Buster! Especially as you drag them through that powerful cleaning agent someone spilled upon the floor." So aimless, crass and most of all, unsubtle, that Partridge couldn't have shocked us more if he'd tattooed "Paul is Dead" on his ass and put it on the cover. When the guys call for a "sax swing solo," you know it's time to move on.
• "Visit to the Doctor": Another Partridge demo that's too dumb and blunt for official release. The "ba ba ba ba baaaaa" hook is a killer, and the lyric "my prescription make you feel alright" has a 60s charm, but the chorus of "I'll kiss it better better girl" is way beneath Partridge. You can picture him lurking around the studio in a long trenchcoat.
• "Everything'll be Alright": On the other hand, we have Partridge writing a children's song, for the film James and the Giant Peach. (He wasn't picked.) Partridge sounds openly joyful on the demo, and the lyrics are almost "All of a Sudden"-like in their bursting imagery-- sample verse, on "what the ladybug thinks": "If the rain comes down push a pencil around/ And draw a funny face by simply joining up the big dots." Someone should turn this into a kid's book, with freak-out Yellow Submarine-like illustrations. Well, for British kids.
• "Young Cleopatra": The tour of Partridge's brain ends right in the middle with one of the greatest, catchiest XTC songs ever. Written for Mummer but too poppy-- and maybe disturbing-- to fit, on first listen this is a truly ecstatic tribute to a pretty fourteen-year-old girl who rules the schoolyard. This is a song I'd play for my daughter if I had one, balancing, "One glance from those two eyes/ Will seal your playground empire," with the wittily parental, "You'll never be the queen unless you do as your told." It's fantastic-- until you realize that Partridge isn't the kid's dad: "I'm glad your father is my friend/ And now that school is at an end/ He's only an excuse for me/ To wait here at your palace gates." Yikes! For perspective, Partridge was only months away from his 30th birthday when he recorded this in 1983. It's even more unsettling when you consider the seemingly genuine love that went into the lyric, "Your school uniform looks grey on others, but silver on you." Gorgeous line, that. But will it save him from jail?

-Chris Dahlen