Chalkhills, Number 175

                Tuesday, 3 September 1991
Today's Topics:
                     crazed rantings
                    The endless groove
                    endless grooves...
               Look Look, KFJC, Beach Boys
   dukes cover, rnbb guy, bless you celtic?, new songs
                     Countdown to XTC

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From: Funk Pop A Vole <jondr@sco.com>
Subject: crazed rantings
Organization: Mangled Bloody Carcass Of Sound Productions
Date: Wed, 28 Aug 91 15:48:31 PDT

-----From: glickman@hustat.harvard.edu (Mark Glickman)
>If I remember correctly, the first American pressing of _ES_
>had "Snowman" as the *first* song on the album (i.e., the
>single LP without "Yacht Dance", "Knuckle Down", etc.), or
>maybe it was the first song on side 2.  I think the last
>song was "All of a Sudden," which, of course, expresses even *more* of a
>sense of loss than does "Snowman."

The only sense of loss I get when contemplating Epic releases is the loss of
those beautiful songs.  How any yank record business hack could think him
(or her) self worthy of knifing English Settlement.... ah, words just fail
me.

Snowman, and Funk Pop A Roll, and Train Running Low On Soul Coal are perfect
album closers because they do more than whine about injustice - they kick it
in the teeth.  Well, Snowman is a bit whiny, but I still gotta love it if
only for the line "people will always be tempted to wipe their feet on
anything with `welcome' written on it."  That, to me, is the kick in that
song.  Soul Coal whines a bit lyrically but it's such a hyper rocking tune
that it's hard to take any of it as a statement of defeat.  (and of course
that's not the message it sends anyway)

----From: Jones Rutledge <76516.430@compuserve.com>

[Go Fuck Yourself With Your Atom Bomb]
> Is there really a song by that title? By what artist?

Yeah, Andy talks about it in one of the Little Expresses that I don't own.
Sorry I can't be more helpful.

>Is this not one of those endless groove things, several examples of which
>exist on vinyl (the beatles have a prominant example which escapes me, I
>think on peppers.) If you had a turntable that did not automatically pick
>up before the record was over, a vinyl Lp is pressed with a groove that
>doubles back on itself to keep the stylus from jumping over to the label.
>Several crafty artists would place messages in this groove. Can anybody
>name anymore examples?

I don't think the original Dukes EP had a locked groove.  The only other
example (other than Sgt Pepper) that I can think of is a Sonic Youth album.
Maybe "Evol"?  I can't remember now but the song was called Starpower.  Or
Starchild.  Gee, I'm not being very helpful today.

>Both the "disgusting" and the "atom bomb" phrase are on 25 0'clock vinyl.
>Isn't one of them a segue between songs?

You're contradicting yourself - a locked groove can't segue into anything by
definition.

Anyway, given that they both appear at the ends of their respective sides,
and neither of them are locked grooves, I'd say it would be hard from them
to segue into anything other than that annoying scraping noise that your
needle makes when it runs out of record to play.

>Did either of these make it do the "chocolate fireball" cd?

Both did.  They are at the end of My Love Explodes and Mole From The
Ministry.  It's interesting to note that the psychedelic link bits on Psonic
Psunspot have no consistency to where they appear - some are at the ends of
tracks, some at the beginning.

Jon Drukman (love pantry)                       uunet!sco!jondr   jondr@sco.com
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Always note the sequencer - this will never let us down.

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Date: Wed, 28 Aug 91 16:10:47 PDT
From: kate@nrc.com (Kathi Samec)
Subject: The endless groove

I know there are many but one I can think of
is David Bromberg says - Debbie Boon - in the groove

In response to the GM mag reviews. I am glad I don't pay
attention to reviews.

------
Kathi Samec     Network Research Corporation   - Clothes make the man, naked
kate@nrc.com    2380 N Rose Ave                  people have little or no
                Oxnard, Ca. 93030                influence on society.
                (805) 485-2700				- M. Twain

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Date: Thu, 29 Aug 91 08:17:45 -0400
From: Larry W. Seals <ecsvax!seals@uncecs.edu>
Subject: endless grooves...

Jones Rutledge writes:

>Is this not one of those endless groove things, several examples of which
>exist on vinyl
> Can anybody
>name anymore examples?

On the James Gang's 1st album _Yer_Album_ (with Joe Walsh around 1969
or so), at the end of side one Walsh can be heard to say "Turn me over"
and at the end of side two there is "Play me again".

Larry Seals     seals@ecsvax     (.sig on vacation)

		[ Oops, nil XTC content, oh well. -- John ]

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Date: 31 Aug 91 01:59:42 EDT
From: Eric Singer <70323.3013@compuserve.com>
Subject: Look Look, KFJC, Beach Boys

Anyone know of a source for the Look Look video?  I have a tip that
a Chalkhills reader up in Montreal was selling them a few months ago -
true?

John Relph writes in #173:
>John Mav, DJ and XTC fan extraordinaire, played this sound, slowed down
>and reversed, a number of times on one of his KFJC XTC Specials.  I know
>tapes of the KFJC XTC Specials have circulated fairly widely, so it's
>possible that your friend had a tape of this...

Now that you mention it, I am pretty sure this is what my friend had.
Would anyone happen to have a decent copy of the KFJC Specials?

John Pinto writes in #174
>3) The Beach Boy- XTC similarities need to be explored. There are some
>interesting parallels in both music and history. For example <tortured
>musical geniuses suffer mental breakdowns while on tour and refuse to
>perform live>.  If you haven't you really should listen to Smiley Smile.
>It will change the way you hear XTC.

There's something that's been bothering me about the Beach Boys for a
long time.  Recall the controversy many years ago when James Watt
(Secretary of the Interior under Reagan) banned the Beach Boys from
playing at some or other public park due to the decadent nature of rock
'n' roll.  Despite this, a few years later, Mike Love donated seed
money to the PMRC (Parents' Music Resource Center), Tipper Gore's
Senatorially-connected rock censorship vehicle.  [I don't know where I
read this fact, so correct me if I'm not 100% on.]

Does Andy know this?  Does it bother him, too?  Does it bother anyone
else but me?

Just wonderin',
Eric Singer

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Subject: dukes cover, rnbb guy, bless you celtic?, new songs
From: oscar@darkside.com (oscar)
Date: Sat, 31 Aug 91 19:22:38 PDT
Organization: The Dark Side of the Moon +1 408 245 SPAM

John Pinto wonders if the Dukes cover imagery is (jokingly) meaningful,
like a good psychedelic 60s album.  I saw a coffee table book in
a Waldenbooks, Album Cover Art of the 60s.  And it has a little thing
on the dukes at the end!  According to Andy, it has no special
meaning, but who knows, it might!  Sort of like the Beatles "Glass
Onion," references to other songs, just to throw people off who
were expecting a secret message.  As for the book in itself, I
recommend it!

A guy standing next to me at a CD store with a listening area was
listening to Rag n Bone Buffet , domestic.  I realized later that
I was wearing my Skylarking shirt, but I didn't say anything to him.

Anyone consider "Bless You All You Pretty Girls"  to be celtic-sounding?

Though none are commonly found, the number of post- O&L songs is
increasing... are there any besides:
My Paint Heroes, Skeletons, This is the End, It's Snowing Angels,
Then She Appeared?  Any other Dukes songs?

With a name like "Balloon", or "Wonder Annual", it sounds like another
pastoral album,  which is fine with me!  But everyone seems to want
a harder edge, like the earlier stuff.  Oh well, at least it's being
made!  Anyone want to stab at the month/s when it will be released?

The radio station Live 105 played a block of XTC during a countdown
of the 105 best bands... and they did a promo, with Colin saying
hello, and Andy saying "San Francisco... your fly is down"
Kevin
oscar@darkside.com

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Date: Tue, 3 Sep 91 21:30:57 PDT
From: John M. Relph <chalkhills-request@chalkhills.org>
Subject: Countdown to XTC
Organisation: Chalkhills Anonymous

This was seen in _New Musical Express_, 24 August 1991, and sent to me
by _Little Express_ subscriber Natalie Johnson.

    Countdown to XTC

    ``The high point of XTC drummer Terry Chambers' career
    was breaking into a fish shop and pissing into a bath of
    uncooked chips.'' -- XTC's Andy Partridge

    ``It's driving me mad!  Where are XTC?  Oh misery -- put
    me out of it!'' -- Marcus Ford, Rugby

      XTC are, even as we communicate, piecing together an
    album at a market town studio.  Andy Partridge took time
    out from the sessions to report:

      ``We're working with Gus Dudgeon (he of various Elton
    John sessions and Bowie's `Space Oddity' fame), who's so
    wrong for the project that he's right for it.  Actually,
    Gus is all right -- apart from his clothes sense.  When we
    first saw him, we were in a pub and Colin looked out the
    window, saw Gus and the way he was dressed and yelled:
    `Don't let him come in here -- he'll get beaten up!'

      ``We should have made the album a year ago, but we've
    had wretched luck with a couple of other producers.  One
    kept us waiting for months while he finished his missus'
    album, then, just when he was supposed to start with us,
    nipped off on a two-week holiday in the Bahamas.  Also we
    took about 30 songs into Virgin Records and all of them
    got rejected.  Now we hope to record about 20 tracks, if
    the budget allows it.  One of the songs is cod-Bacharach.''

      Partridge, the man who once provided the whole history
    of rock in just three chords (he can also provide a fair
    impression of Morrissey by using just three notes) says
    that, though he's now an in-demand producer in his own
    right, XTC really need a separate ``ringmaster''.

      ``The last band I produced was The Lilac Time.
    Previously I'd worked with The Mission but it was a
    complete disaster.  Serves me right really, because it was
    the only job I'd ever taken for purely mercenary reasons.

      ``Working with Stephen Duffy was entirely different,
    even though he's totally besotted with Nick Drake.  He's
    also the biggest Beatle fan I've ever met.  He would point
    out things I had never noticed, things like the duff
    guitar solo on `I'm Down', how you can actually hear the
    string section talking on the stereo mix of `All You Need
    Is Love' and the fact that John Lennon can be heard
    exclaiming `f---ing hell' amid `Hey Jude'.''

      So when can we expect the new album?

      ``Maybe late this year or early next year.''

      Probably best to say early next year then?

      ``Yes, that's about right.''

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Welcome to new XTC friends Ara Hacopian, Treefrog, Pamela
Moore, Dan Cohen, George J Synowiec, and Bart (Laz) Smith,
and returning subscriber Aaron Pasternack.

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All views expressed in Chalkhills are those of the
individual contributors only.  The Jesters will creep in.

---

Go back to Volume 1.

4 September 1991 / Feedback