Chalkhills Digest Volume 1, Issue 100
Date: Wednesday, 27 June 1990
Chalkhills, Number 100
(Can you believe it?)
Wednesday, 27 June 1990
Today's Topics:
just stuff
Re: Chalkhills #99
The Great Album Debate, part XLVII
O&L, and the 'best of' collection
RE: Chalkhills #97
More Rock History
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Date: Thu, 21 Jun 90 09:34:53 -0400
From: King Hell Wombat <jsd@gaffa.mit.edu>
Subject: just stuff
How dare you readers let my favourite album ("Big Express") come in
next to last! Get some taste, y'all!
Anyway, someone (Joe Lynn?) asked who we would all like to see
producing the next XTC album.
My top three producers list (for them) would be:
1. Thomas Dolby
2. Clint Ruin (aka J.G. Thirwell aka Foetus)
3. George Martin (anybody remember this dinosaur? :)
/j/
"Christian Zombie Vampires!!!"
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| | |\ | jsd@gaffa.mit.edu | ZIK ZAK - We make everything you need, |
| \|on |/rukman | jsd@umass.bitnet | and you need everything we make. |
+----------------------------------------------------------------------------+
[][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][] Date: Thu, 21 Jun 90 09:50:13 EDT From: nobody@kodak.com (John White (x37690)) Subject: Re: Chalkhills #99 >From: oconnor!keaton!jtl@oddjob.uchicago.edu (Joe Lynn): >If you were an exec at Virgin and you were assigned the task of >lining up a producer for the next XTC album, whom, if anyone, >would you hire? Andy Partridge The guy who produced Good for your Soul by Oingo Boingo The guy who produced Cosmic Thing by The B52s The guy who produced Captain Swing by Michele Shocked The guy who produced The Big Express Todd Rundgren
------------------------------ >From: mb20@prism.gatech.edu (BRANCH,MICHAEL B): >...Then, the second Dukes LP really dissappointed >me (am I the only one that didn't care for it? I loved the first one) Maybe it's because I had the 2nd first, but I like it more. The only song I don't like (read: hate) is Leave Jackie Alone (or whatever - the 2nd song.) I really like Vanishing Girl, She's a Little Lighthouse, Kollidascope, and others which I can't think of right now. When I taped 25 O'clock from the radio I didn't like it, could be my poor recording job, or that the joke was already told once before (as someone once said of #2). ------------------------------> >From: John M. Relph <relph@presto.ig.com>: > 9. Favourite album > E. Mummer No shat! I still don't like this album. Why? Well, (from possibly corrupt memory), I still like In Loving Memory Of A Name. I used to like Funk Pop A Roll, Ladybird, and Wonderland but I'm tired of them. I might someday like Me And The Wind, Love On A Farmboy's Wages, and Human Alchemy. I don't like Great Fire or Deliver Us From The Elements. The songs I like I tend to like too much and burn out on them. The songs I hate I tend to dispise. There are some songs that are coming on, but the album is just too damn uneven. What's the deal with Funk Pop A Roll? Who thought that fits? Who likes Andy's voice on Great Fire? Deliver Us From The Elements drags on (a left over problem from English Settlement ala Leisure). Please, someone tell me why I should like this album. Give me a list of the songs with your ranking of best and worst and explain how you can deal with the bad ones. Me? I'd put Psonic Psunspot, O&L or D&W as 5th best. Peace, Love, Nuclear Weapons, - John (white@serum.kodak.com) "I'm not nobody" - RE: my return address
[][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][] From: stewarte@sco.com Subject: The Great Album Debate, part XLVII Date: Thu, 21 Jun 90 11:27:46 PDT John Relph quotes Joe Lynn quoting me as saying: >>> "Great Fire" (which seemed to me like a bit too obvious attempt to >>> replicate "Senses Working Overtime" -- quirky rhythms in the quiet verses, >>> which are linked by a big stompy chorus). (Geez, you mean somebody's archiving all this stuff? I'd better stop spouting nonsense all the time, lest someone call me on it...) Anyway, John replies: >Oddly enough, "Great Fire" was not originally part of the _Mummer_ >album. Virgin Records did not think there was a single on the album, >so XTC went back and resequenced the album to include "Great Fire". If I recall correctly, that's the context out of which my original comment came. I think that's why it ended up sounding like "Senses"; it was sort of an under-pressure bit of songwriting. >It still flopped. Here's another excerpt from _X-plaining XTC Part 2_, >by Steve Kolanjian and David Dasch: > > The following finished songs have been recorded with Steve > Nye as engineer. All the songs, except "Jump (Love And > Swimming Pools)", are to be included on the next XTC LP. > Some of the working titles were to be FALLEN FROM THE > GARDEN, later FRUIT. Wow! When I read this, it instantly occurred to me that either of these would have been better titles than "Mummer". I like "Mummer", in its own way, but "Fallen From the Garden" is really the perfect name for that album. The earthiness of it...the sense of struggle in "Deliver Us" or "Farmboy's Wages"...in my mind, it fits perfectly. > Beating of Hearts (A) Jump (Love And Swimming Pools) (A) > Deliver Us From The Elements (C) Ladybird (A) > Funk Pop A Roll (A)* Love On A Farmboy's Wages (A) > Human Alchemy (A)* Me And The Wind (A) > In Loving Memory Of A Name (C) Wonderland (C)* Thanks to the miracles of programmable CD players, we can now hear what the original album would have sounded like (except for the remixing, of course)...I think I'll try it out at home. Just looking at it, it seems like a better running order... -- Stewart
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Date: Thu, 21 Jun 90 14:27:17 PDT
From: batman@ebay.sun.com (I Am the Anti-Elvis!)
Subject: O&L, and the 'best of' collection
> > The songwriting is banal, the production style is not
> > just heavy handed, but totally wrong for XTC. It's like XTC
> > doing a Dukes style satire of a stupid L.A. pop band.
>
>Karl is being a little rough on the album:
No way. I was being gentle. See older postings on this
same subject for rough (Right, Duane?)
> Paul Fox, after all, is
>known for producing _pop_ bands, and the band should have known this
>when he was chosen. Perhaps John Relph was right last year when he
>said that Fox was suffering from the "you guys are great" syndrome,
>and allowed far too much 'stuff' on the record.
I don't blame only the producer. I think XTC know that kind
of shitty record they were making here. They made a *choice*
to make a record lame enough to make money. More power to 'em;
they've made music enough for a lifetime already.
>If you were an exec at Virgin and you were assigned the task of
>lining up a producer for the next XTC album, whom, if anyone,
>would you hire?
Steve Albini.
Just imagine it.
>From: glickman@hustat.harvard.edu (Mark Glickman)
>Subject: My "Best of XTC" Compilation Tape
>
>A couple of friends asked me to put together a compilation tape of
>what I consider to be the best of XTC. They've certainly heard
>enough of my ranting and raving about the group to want to see
>what the fuss is about! Here's what I stuck onto a 100-minute tape:
Great compilation. But there's *one* glaring omission
(Among a hundred minor omissions, of course):
'Radios in Motion'.
Greatest song in XTC's early career, and a perftect exampl/t
o
'where they started'.
-Karl
-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
Karl MacRae batman@batcave.Ebay.sun.com
Sun Microsystems, Milpitas, Ca. (The armpit of Silicon Valley)
1550 Buckeye, Milpitas, CA 95035 Mailstop M21-25 (408)922-4996
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The Capacity for innocent enjoyment-
Isn't the kind of thing you learn out of a book.
There's a river of sensation running deep and wet and wild
And you swim it when you see it
And you see it when you do not need to look....
Shrieback - 'Intoxication'
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[][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][] Date: Wed, 27 Jun 90 05:22:21 PDT From: "I put it in a letter. What could be better?!" <wilson@pneuma.enet.dec.com> Subject: RE: Chalkhills #97 I was watching a film, "Girl in a Swing," last night and lo and behold in the opening scenes is an aerial view of the "English Settlement" cover. I had no idea that this is an actual site in England! Is this a representation of a horse? Is this a Druidic structure? One learns something every day... Wes
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Date: Wed, 27 Jun 1990 15:50:14 PDT
From: John M. Relph <chalkhills-request@chalkhills.org>
Subject: More Rock History
An excerpt from _The Encyclopedia of Pop Rock and Soul, revised
edition_, by Irwin Stambler, St. Martin's Press, New York, 1989.
Reproduced without permission.
XTC: Vocal and instrumental group. Original members (1976): Andy
Partridge, born Malta; others all born U.K.: Barry Andrews, Colin
Moulding, Terry Chambers. Andrews replaced by Dave Gregory in 1979.
Chambers left in 1982.
A group that provided melodically challenging and
high-vitality postpunk rock, XTC might be bracketed with
Talking Heads as a thinking person's band, though the two
groups' styles weren't directly comparable. XTC gained
enormous popularity in the U.K. in the late 1970s and early
1980s, but remained essentially a cult favorite in the U.S.
during those years.
The group's members mostly grew up in working class areas
of Swindon, England, where all forsook formal education in
their teens in favor of essaying pop music careers. Andy
Partridge, born on the Mediterranean island of Malta, was
taken to England by his family at an early age and stayed in
school until age 15. After that, he worked as a ``teaboy''
(English equivalent of a U.S. ``gofer'') at a newspaper and
then took art classes at a local technical college while
teaching himself to play guitar in his off hours. About the
same time, Colin Moulding, who lived on the same block as
Partridge, was learning bass guitar while bringing in spare
change as a milkman's assistant, day laborer, and council
worker. Their drummer acquaintance Terry Chambers had been
thrown out of school at 15 for an incident in which he
overimbibed hard cider. Like others of his age group, he
dreamed of music success as he worked at a series of jobs
including builder's merchant and lithographic printer.
Those three played with many different bands, sometimes
together, sometimes separately, including Star Park, the
Helium Kids [sic], Skyscraper, and Snakes, before getting
together to found XTC in 1976. The group started as a
foursome with Barry Andrews joining as keyboards player. By
early 1977, they had build up a substantial following in the
Swindon area. Encouraged by that reception, as well as
favorable comments by local writers about the band's
combination of humor and incisive comment on the depressing
teen-employment environment, Partridge and friends felt the
time was ripe to move to London, where the punk movement was
in full flower.
In mid-1977, the group signed with Virgin Records, which
issued its debut single, ``3 DEP,'' [sic] in October,
followed by five more singles through 1979 including
``Making Plans for Nigel,'' a top 20 U.K. hit in late 1979.
In 1978, Virgin released the band's first two British
albums: _White Music_ and _Go 2_. Both made the English top
30.
The band supported its records with almost non-stop
touring, initially in the U.K., but later in Japan,
Australia, New Zealand, Venezuela, Continental Europe, and
eventually the U.S. The band's debut in the States came on
New Year's Eve 1978 on a bill that included the Talking
Heads. The audience reaction was good enough to bring
porposals for a dozen more appearances in 1979. It also
spurred the record company to make plans for a more
ambitious tour later in the year to coincide with the band's
first LP to be released in the U.S., _Drums & Wires_.
Before that took place, XTC had to reorganize a bit back in
Swindon when Andrews decided to leave. His place was taken
by Dave Gregory, who had played keyboards on occasion with
the band in the past. His previous credentials included
working as a guitarist/keyboardist with Dean Gabber and his
Gabberdines.
The new alignment still won praise from British critics.
Writing in _New Musical Express_, Paul Morley enthused that
XTC continued to excel at ``making multilayered music of wit
and elegance . . . music that demands new adjectives.''
John Orme of _Melody Maker_ called _Drums & Wires_ a very
impressive album in which ``with a bit of complexity,
contrast, fluency, and humour, XTC has broken cover and
broken ground.''
Partridge stated in record company bio notes: ``I came
into music about the time of psychadelia and it was magic.
It was sort of R & B plus magic -- which is really what we
do. . . . I like lumps and spike bits and music that makes
you think `Oh! Gosh! What's that?' XTC have always made
people say `Gosh' and for all the right reasons.''
The _Drums & Wires_ album, backed by a number of live
appearances in the U.S., made a respectable number of
stateside fans aware of the band. Its excellent follow-up,
_Black Sea_ (1980), moved into the top 50 region.
However, by late 1981, there were signs of burnout among
band members that caused a hiatus in live performances.
Partridge, for one, had developed a strong antipathy to
crowds of all kinds. The band's newest LP, _English
Settlement_, was released both in the U.K. and in the U.S.,
but while it did well at home, it didn't expand the audience
acquired with _Black Sea_, perhaps becuase of the dearth of
concert support. In late 1982, Terry Chambers, disgruntled
with the lack of activity, left the group for new pastures
in Australia. Partridge, Moulding, and Gregory decided to
carry on as a threesome.
During 1983, they began work on another studio album, one
that emphasized acoustic instruments. _Mummer_ (fall 1983)
was released on a new U.S. label, Geffen Records. The album
did not spend much time on the charts in either Britain or
the States, suggesting some confusion among fans about its
softer tone compared to the previous album's.
In 1984, band members returned to the hard-blues approach
of its salad days for the next studio compilation.
Partridge stated: ``With our new album I wanted to crank it
up again, to let the music have a more boisterous feel. The
lyrics of _Mummer_ had a very small horizon about the size
of my back garden. The new album (_The Big Express_) is a
harder record that has us looking out at the world again.''
The album, released by Geffen in the U.S. in October 1984,
was an interesting one, but again did not catch fire with
record buyers beyond the band's hardcore following. (In
1985, the group's psychadelic alter ego, the Dukes of
Stratosphear, completed the LP _25 O'Clock_, issued only in
England.) Geffen executives expressed confidence that the
band's importance would eventually be realized by a lrger
number of rock fans as the label issued the new LP
_Skylarking_ in 1986.
Despite the group's problems in winning large-scale
respect outside England, optimism has always been part of
Partridge's outlook. He expressed that to Kristine McKenna
(_Los Angeles Times, April 4, 1982): ``Pop music is full of
lots of fun and carnage -- the microphone bending,
shirt-slashed-to-the-waist stuff. We don't deal with that,
not only because we're not particularly handsome,
shirt-slashed-to-the-waist types, but because we have
different goals. Music can't change the culture, but I do
believe it can reflect hope. Perhaps it's naive of me, but
that's something I want to do.''
[][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][] For all administrative issues, such as change of address, withdrawal from the list, discography requests (last update 3 June), back issues, etc., send a message to the following address: <chalkhills-request@chalkhills.org> Any and all views expressed in Chalkhills are those of the individual contributors only.
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