Chalkhills Digest Volume 1, Issue 389
Date: Sunday, 30 October 1994
Chalkhills Digest, Number 389
Sunday, 30 October 1994
Today's Topics:
Potential XTC covers
Re: Helicopter Covers
It wasn't a Hefty (was Re: Chalkhills Digest #388)
Re: Chalkhills Digest #388
newbie
Re: Chalkhills Digest #388
hey, I'm knew too...
FTP, Drums and Wireless
Simpleton #19
Re: Chalkhills Digest #388
danny
Re: Chalkhills Digest #388
TwO CenTs...
Lack of interest in XTC
Golden Age of the...
digitzed song trades
Keep it in the family?
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---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Thu, 27 Oct 1994 14:12:25 -0400 From: "Karen E. Lewis (ba amst)" <klewis1@gl.umbc.edu> Subject: Potential XTC covers The XTC covers that I would like to see: James: Another Satellite, Then She Appeared Paul Westerberg: Extrovert They Might Be Giants: Knuckle Down New Order: Over Rusty Water (remix, of course!) The Judybats: Grass Karen
------------------------------ Date: 27 Oct 1994 11:12:52 U From: "Steve Krause" <Steve_Krause@qm.sri.com> Subject: Re: Helicopter Covers In Chalkihills #388, Jeffrey Langr <0005392548@mcimail.com> had some suggestions for covers, including the brilliant > Adrian Belew: Snowman > He Said: Travels in Nihilon but > I'm still trying to figure out who should cover "Helicopter." In another part of #388, Kevin Brunkhorst suggests Danny Elfman, which would have been one of my picks. Some other candidates: a) Lene Lovich, b) Stump, c) The Kronos Quartet _________________________________________________________________________ Steve Krause, Media Futures Program http://www.sri.com/mfp/mfp.html SRI International, Menlo Park, CA phone: +1 415 859 4746
------------------------------ Date: Thu, 27 Oct 94 14:30:38 EDT From: patty@gdb.org (Patty Haley) Subject: It wasn't a Hefty (was Re: Chalkhills Digest #388) > From: John_Pidgeon@eyenet.north.net (John Pidgeon) > Just a quick question today. When I bought Black Sea when it first came > out, it came in a black garbage bag. Was this only done in Canada? No, my copy was the same way. And that black garbage bag, as you call it, just looked like a lunch baggy thingy as opposed to yer basic kitchen pail slop-catcher. Still as ugly as sin, though. WHY they did this, I dunno, but that's art. > >Joe Odukoya brags: > > >> I've just bought the XTC radio sessions CD > >> Here is a complete track listing > >[snip] > > > >OK, what's the diff between this disc and the ones Wes mentions above? > >I'm assuming these are BBC radio sessions. > By the way re: "Joe Odukoya brags" it wasn't supposed to be a brag :-( I > just thought that fellow chalkers might like to know that it was finally > available (as I mentioned it a few weeks ago and promised more info as > soon as I had any). Perhaps I should keep my mouth shut in future...- > Joeo - Joe, that was me. Yes, we are all here to share information, and I wasn't dissing you, I just get bored with quoting other people and saying "says" all the time. No harm meant, so chill, my son. > From: Jeffrey Langr <0005392548@mcimail.com> > > Actually I really enjoy seeing good bands at crummy dives, like the 9:30 in > D.C. or the 8x10 in Baltimore. Some of the best shows I've ever seen were > in places like that; I think the bands know they have to try harder. It's > also a bit more personal. It builds character I'm sure... It must be a > comedown after the arena tours though. Would you rather see XTC at a 20,000 > seat air-conditioned basketball arena where the ushers keep making you sit > down or in a smelly stuffy hellhole that fits only 200, standing only? Absolutely right, Jeff. Seeing a band in a total rathole like the two you mention above (I live in Baltimore, so I know both clubs well) also supplies you with a hell of a boast (erm, or should that be "brag" factor) when said band breaks it live. You're queuing up with the greater unwashed to see 'em at the Enormodome and you can get 'em steaming with comments like: "Shucks. I remember the night I saw 'em play to a "crowd" of 34. Hell, we all went out for pizza afterward, and the singer wound up marrying the waitress who waited on us at the Pizza Hut that night." That Enormodome crap is so, well, un-intimate. (Did I just invent a word?) Does anyone else feel the way I do that tribute albums suck a honker? I hate 'em! A good song by the original band can be RUINED by a cover version, and I am so used to listening to the original versions of songs that even a groovy version of "Bungalow" (is it possible?) makes me want to go back and listen to the original. Some cover versions can be good, but if you really want to waste money, buy a tribute album. Some interesting ideas here, though. I'm not saying that other bands shouldn't cover XTC songs, I am just saying that it is a lot more palatable to hear a band do an XTC song on their record than to sit through a bunch of almost entirely sub-par covers at once. Shudder! And I can't believe how many folks believe that XTC named themselves after the drug. I got into a major argument over the summer with a know-it-all type who swore that XTC were being naughty boys when they chose their name. As Andy says, the only drug the band does is caffeine. So there. Usually those believers of this falsehood are those, like the know-it-all, who don't listen to the band at all. Harumph. -Patty Catherine Wheel World Wide Web Home Page: http://gdbdoc.gdb.org/~patty/CW/CW_home_page.html
------------------------------
Date: Thu, 27 Oct 1994 11:44:08 -0700 (PDT)
From: Paul Pearson <pearsonp@elwha.evergreen.edu>
Subject: Re: Chalkhills Digest #388
> From: John_Pidgeon@eyenet.north.net (John Pidgeon)
> Subject: black sea cover
>
> Good day,
>
> Just a quick question today. When I bought Black Sea when it first came
> out, it came in a black garbage bag. Was this only done in Canada?
>
> John Pidgeon
> Toronto
My first copy was also in a black garbage bag and I bought it in
Sacramento. But the label was Virgin, who didn't release U.S. records
without an affiliate at the time Black Sea came out, so I imagine it was
an imported copy (imported to us meaning from the UK). My memory fails
me occasionally.
Paul
------------------------------
From: Michael Minahan 9232324 <mrm@maxwell.ee.washington.edu>
Subject: newbie
Date: Thu, 27 Oct 94 11:48:27 PDT
Hey everybody!
I've been an admirer of xtc since I first heard "Pretty Girls" (Big
Express '84) on KJET here in Seattle and wanted to hear more. I remember
a friend had borrowed English Settlement and I taped it from him.
Needless to say, I wore out the tape! (For sentimental reasons it was
the first xtc cd I bought) I then taped Black Sea and rocked-out during my
paper-route each day! The first album I actually
bought was Big Express which I initially felt was a Big Bummer.
Back then, NOBODY knew about them. My friend and I thought we had found
the Golden Fleece.
Anyhow, is anyone interested in what other bands xtc fans listen to?
Currently, my heavy rotation play lists includes:
Wall of Voodoo -- Dark Continent
Leo Kottke -- A Shout Toward Noon
Suzanne Vega
Terry Evans -- Blues for Thought
Joe Jackson -- Night Music
Maybe I'm mellowing as I age...but I did listen to English Settlement
for the first time in a long time last night. Have you listened to ES
lately? WOW!
"Like a rocket from a bottle set free.......I've been this explosive
since you met me!"
See ya,
Mike Minahan
PS. Can anybody tell me what XTC Explodes Together is all about? I'm
interested in getting ahold of it if it's not just another compilation of
singles.
Thanks!
------------------------------ Date: Thu, 27 Oct 94 15:28:40 EDT From: "Gene (Sp00n) Yoon" <ST004422@BROWNVM.BROWN.EDU> Subject: Re: Chalkhills Digest #388 Two issues ago, Royal Ed said, re touring: >For once, I have to disagree. When the Beatles finally decided there was >more to life than being Fab, a retirement from the road was essential to >their maturity. I grant you that the rationale here is different (personal >rather than democratic) but the essence is the same. The things I treasure >most about sophisticated, multilayered works like *Oranges and Lemons* and >*Mummer* (or *Magical Mystery Tour* and *Revolver*) are the precision and >care of the craft, not any raw kick that could be feasibly reproduced at a >sweaty club on the lower East Side. The ROIR tape, I think, highlights this Okay, both the Beatles and XTC reached new heights in creativity and studio experimentation after each stopped touring, but all four Beatles went back to live performances after four years, when they spontaneously exploded as a group. Well, it's been *twelve* years since XTC was on the road, and this big no-tour refusal has gotten very silly, and I don't think I'd be wrong to say that Colin and Dave think so, too. Andy obviously had very good reasons to take time off, but now it seems he's just being stubborn to a principle. And it's cost them as a group, not only monetarily but with their popular acceptance, or non-acceptance, as several recent Chalkhillians have pointed out. Touring happens to be a huge part of promotion and often directly affects radio airplay, so it's no wonder that our friends have dumb express- ions on their faces when we tell them XTC is our favorite group. Not only that, but by not touring for so long but they're actually bringing down the quality and output of their songs (three years between albums, as opposed to one a year in the old days); they're missing those creative influences from hearing other artists perform while on the road. I think Colin was quoted as saying that not touring has certainly affected his songwriting, and he pledged that if XTC doesn't tour he'd find other means to perform live, for the sake of his art, more or less. And even Andy's songs on Nonsuch, while still exemplary, didn't break any new ground, and the album as a whole (I still love it) was a bit lackluster compared to some earlier ones, IMO,H. I remember seeing the Three on MTV after Oranges and Lemons was released, and they had a small studio audience. The transition to small club shouldn't be all that hard. And with today's technology and Virgin Records' resources, reproducing their studio sound, one of AP's trepidations, wouldn't be too difficult. Hey, if bands like the Cocteau Twins can do it.... Oh, while I'm at it, and just to be nitpicky, I think Snowman would qualify as the last song on the last album before their last live appearance, not Travel to N, though that would kind of ruin the Tomorrow Never Knows corr- elation. On another note, (I'm writing a lot here; my Chalkhills sessions have become few and far between) It's very to exciting to have David Yazbek here--ooooo, someone "famous". Or, better yet, ooo, someone with personal contact with AP, someone whose worked with him, and more yet to come. Mr. Yazbek can I call you David, will you please relay our discussions on Chalkhills to AP when possible? We'd love to hear what he thinks.... And I *knew* it wasn't him on Change My World--!! But Sean Altman does do a nice impression. Gene
------------------------------ Date: Thu, 27 Oct 1994 13:52:42 -0700 (PDT) From: Anshuman Duneja <amduneja@ucdavis.edu> Subject: hey, I'm knew too... Wow..I thought I'd bever find this place...I guess the fact that no one has ever heard of XTC around here makes a difference...I guess it's about the same amount of people that know about XTC that know about Tintin, who I can't find anywhere around ack... I guerss I first got into XTC when i heard dear god, but that was even before i knew who they were, so I suppose I should say something else, but I don' really know what... It seems that all the people who like really hip bands like other hip bands...since it seems like a bunch of people here also like They Might Be Giants, R.E.M., and (Oingo) Boingo...so these are obviously way cool bands then... Oh, and I have a recording off the radio of an interview with Andy Partridge from Live 105...a radio station in the SF area. I just thought i'd mention that in case anyone might want it...it's pretty groovy...even one of the people who called in to ask a question didn't know who XTC is...sheesh, but they got her good...heehee./..
------------------------------ From: CurtissH@aol.com Date: Thu, 27 Oct 1994 18:12:17 -0400 Subject: FTP, Drums and Wireless I'm going to hit two subjects here, and I'll try to be quick about it. Pat Tomek said: >Since I can't ftp from AOL, I haven't gotten the archives yet... Try the Keyword FTP. It's a little known fact that you *can* ftp from AOL. Par Nilsson wanted info on the BBC disk. It's called "XTC Drums and Wireless: BBC Radio Sessions 77-89." I'm listening to it right now, and it's killer. God bless the boys for bringing such joy to this poor man's life. It's on Nighttracks Records (?), which seems to be affiliated with BBC Radio. The only number I see that looks like a catalogue number is CDNT008. I got my copy mail order from Music Machine. Phone 410-356-4567, fax 410-356-4693, in Maryland, USA. It cost $18 (+$4 S&H), and clocks in at 61 minutes. (Oh, and I think ABACAB is a chord progression--or so I've heard.) Later, all Curtiss Hammock, Atlanta, GA, USA
------------------------------ From: Hae007@aol.com Date: Thu, 27 Oct 1994 19:09:06 -0400 Subject: Simpleton #19 File this under trivia but in Billboard's 100th Anniversary issue, Mayor of Simpleton came in at #19 on the Modern Rock List.
------------------------------ Date: Fri, 28 Oct 1994 12:56:36 +1200 From: james.dignan@stonebow.otago.ac.nz (James Dignan) Subject: Re: Chalkhills Digest #388 BBC's amazing radio series "The history of Pop" is playing on the radio here in NZ, and I'm delighted to hear that one of the pieces they use to introduce the show is "This is Pop" (Yeah, yeah, I say!) From: John_Pidgeon@eyenet.north.net (John Pidgeon) Subject: black sea cover >When I bought Black Sea when it first came out, it came in a black garbage >bag. In New Zealand, it was in a lime green paper bag! >From: John.J.Pinto@Dartmouth.EDU (John J. Pinto) >Now that the subject of the "hook" has been fully treated is there anyone >would like to try and define "the middle eight"? Sometimes, instead of verse/chorus/verse/chorus, a song will have one short chorus lasting eight bars in the middle. This is the middle eight. A perfect example is the Beatles' "And I love her" The middle eight here starting "A love like ours..." (BTW, in this song, the middle eight was written by John, the rest by Paul). An XTC example would be then bit starting "Love's not a product you can hoard..." etc. from All of a Sudden. As someone else pointed out, they may appear twice in a song, or with (as opposed to instead of) choruses. Functionally they are similar to bridges. James
------------------------------ From: Kevin Carhart <ukevc@mcl.mcl.ucsb.edu> Subject: danny Date: Thu, 27 Oct 1994 18:25:48 -0700 (PDT) Kevin Brunkhorst wrote: Andy could have built Danny Elfman in his garage You are so right. Readers of this ,tell me if any of this rings with some of you: I love XTC, but I am lukewarm on Oingo Boingo, Violent Femmes.... and while I respect them, I am even lukewarm on They Might Be Giants. These bands are often lumped together. I don't quite know why and I occasionally try to define what it is I like about eclectic, quirky XTC that I don't also find in eclectic, quirky Oingo Boingo. I don't know.. maybe it's the Englishness? Maybe I'm just a snob, and prejudge American bands, but I don't think so. Oingo Boingo seems dark and desolate to me, XTC are often kind of optimistic. I had someone once tell me that the only other place that he found that special quality of XTC was in Oingo Boingo "Wild Sex in the Working Class", but IMO that song doesn't have it at all! I think XTC would do it in more oblique, understated ways, maybe hinting at the coat on the ground in the meeting place, but to sing "wild sex" in the title is just awful. What do you all say? Kevin ukevc@mcl.ucsb.edu
------------------------------
Date: Thu, 27 Oct 1994 20:45:06 -0500 (CDT)
From: Julian Cook <xlr8r@metronet.com>
Subject: Re: Chalkhills Digest #388
I have seen the wonderful CD called "Drujms and Wireless". Where can some
rabid yank XTC fans pick this up? Anyone in the U.S. going to distribute
this?
Thanks!
Julian
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//
// "Imagination is more important than knowledge"
\\ // Albert Einstein
\X/
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xlr8r@metronet.com Improved .sig under construction
------------------------------ From: silva@pc110.ccrc.uga.edu Date: Fri, 28 Oct 94 10:28:28 Subject: TwO CenTs... Okay for starters, mgooch said: >Okay, I must say, too, that Blur's >album is the best album this year. NoT. Better choices: - David Byrne - Dookie (Green Day) - Pomme Fritz (The Orb) - A Date with the Smithereens and on and on... Then Jeffery Langr said: >Would you rather see XTC at a 20,000 >seat air-conditioned basketball arena where the ushers keep making you sit >down or in a smelly stuffy hellhole that fits only 200, standing only? Neither. I think Andy said they ready more for theatres these days and I tend to agree. Something intimate, definitely, but I think their club days are behind them. Not that will get a chance any time soon... Followed by Robert Stacy saying: >I think it would >do Andy, Dave, and Colin a world of good, too, to ride the rush of >performing for an appreciative, animate audience. My guess is there's >only so much pleasure to be derived from listening to the tape reels >spin in the studio . . . I'm sure Colin and Dave are more than up for it. I really believe that Andy thinks it will be an unsettling experience. The last time he mentioned touring to Geffen, they responded by saying "Great, let's book stadiums!" to which Andy shrunk away in horror. Liek he says "We're like a delicate orchid, you just can't put us out under a huge heat lamp and expect us not to wither." Plus I think for Andy, recording is just as satisfying. And the most objectionable thing last issue came from the administrator: >Rather, change >the subject of your posting to refer to the original subject, for >example, "Re: The Big Express Sucks!". Good God man, how did your fingers even let you type the words! :-> --------------------- JoE Silva Carbohydrate Center, Univ of GA
------------------------------ Date: Wed, 26 Oct 94 12:00:42 EST From: stacy@trc.com (Robert Stacy) Subject: Lack of interest in XTC Boy, Brian, did you call _that_ one. I recall a similar reaction a couple of years ago when I declared aloud at a celebratory gathering of (usually) bright people, after the discussion ambled onto the topic of music, that, of the many bands I'd enjoyed over the years, my favorite was XTC. Blank looks. "What did they do?" asked one woman. Er, where to begin? "'Towers of London'," I essayed confidently. Nothing. "'Making Plans for Nigel'? 'Generals and Majors'?" Some of the patient, expectant looks now betrayed a hint of kindliness that bordered on pity -- like that reserved for a distant, inbred relative. By now, a small but distinctly desperate tone had crept into my voice. "'Senses Working Overtime'!" This, triumphantly. But still no response, other than one or two gazes flickering away in sympathetic embarassment. This was getting serious. What the hell was _wrong_ with these people? "'Dear God'? 'Mayor of Simpleton'! Arr--" "Oh," responded the original inquirer, rescuing me from incipient, paroxysmal tongue failure. "'Dear God.' I liked that. I remember hearing that on the radio and liked it a lot. That was--who? X, D--?" "XTC," I said gratefully. "That's right, that got them a lot of airplay. But they were around for years before that broke. There are so many other songs they've done that, both lyrically and musically, outstrip--" But it was already too late. Relieved of the discomfiting, impromptu obligation by its members to acknowledge that anyone actually knew what the hell I was talking about, the group rapidly moved the discussion on in another direction, leaving me and the original questioner in one of those little conversational eddies that quickly swirls, dissipates, and dies when set against the challenge of the larger flow. > I don't understand the music-buying/listening public sometimes. > It's very frustrating for someone for whom music is his life. I'm not sure there's anything there _to_ understand, Brian. The channels by which the vast majority of the music-buying public are made aware of what's available are informed by a sensibility that is mostly antithetical to the purveyance of intelligent, heart-searching art of the sort XTC creates. Enjoy the music. Call your local radio station with requests, especially when there's something new in current release. Play things for friends that you think they might like when you have the chance. Spread the good word in as non-off-putting a manner as you know how. I mean, what else is there to be done? --RSt
------------------------------ From: mallard@uclink.berkeley.edu (Chong Hyun Byun) Subject: Golden Age of the... Date: Fri, 28 Oct 1994 17:00:48 -0700 (PDT) First of all, a big thank you very much to everyone who gave explanations of what a bridge is. I especially liked Curtiss H.'s example of the Led Zep song "The Crunge". Yes, Curtiss, as an XTC fan, I admit that I do have a copy of _Houses of the Holy_! I'm going home to listen to that song right now. Well, after I listen to the copy of _Drums and Wireless_ I just picked up, of course. Yes, I nabbed one. I nearly keeled over when I saw it in the lower bin at my favorite record store. Okay, regarding the confusion as to whether or not this is the same thing as the BBC Radio One deal: I think it is. A friend of mine who works in that same record store explained to me that the BBC label usually puts out either live performance albums or stuff from their archives. So Drums and Wireless = BBC Vol. 2, most likely. Anyone else have any insight? Well, the cover art is neat--it's a take-off on the _Drums and Wires_ cover. On the inside of the booklet, there's a nice drawing of Andy, Dave, and Colin which reminds me of the acoustic tour photo in Twomey's book. Anyway...everyone go grab a copy of it at Amoeba Records in Berkeley, CA. Only 16.98, cheap, huh? Regarding the info John Relph supplied that Johnny Nexdor and his Neighbors is not Andy and John Linnell: NOOO!!! Shoot, I always thought it was Andy, and then John L. on the bridges (I hope I'm using this musical term correctly!). Now I have to go home and revise the way I view the world. :) Christie Byun
------------------------------ Date: Fri, 28 Oct 1994 23:58:18 -0700 From: Kevin Carhart <ukevc@mcl.mcl.ucsb.edu> Subject: digitzed song trades I'd like to try a trade of digitized music over email, dispensing with the postal service altogether. I have quite a bit of interesting XTC if someone is interested. I've had this idea in my head for quite a while but I want to see how it comes out in practice. I suggested it to the 4AD list a long time ago but didn't really follow through. There are a lot of issues on this sort of thing that will come up over the next few years, including whether such trades will hurt the artists, and what the record companies will do if it starts in mass quantities. I think I can rationalize trading XTC in this way because we are a fan community who buys all the "Rag n Bone" type of projects and supports the band extensively. But after all the damn A&R people that Andy and the boys have had to suffer through, my attitude is "screw Geffen". Anyway, let's take this off the list, email me and we'll talk copyright violation. This will be especially good if you like low fidelity as much as high, and don't care if something is MPEG quality or not. drop me a line by WASTE. Trystero! ------------ My beloved former roomate and XTC fan Joe has graduated from college and is living in the city (Santa Barbara) with his longtime girlfriend/ defacto fiancee Heather. I said to him today, "you both are so great, you're the archetypal Earn Enough For Us couple" "I think of us more as the Love on a Farmboy's Wages couple" he said. they're both awesome. I was playing him "Cherry in your Tree" over the phone. Kevin
------------------------------ Date: Sun, 30 Oct 1994 16:07:59 +0100 From: d.flach@topos.ruu.nl (Dirk Paul Flach) Subject: Keep it in the family? Hi all, following the chalkhills digest for some time now, I get the impression that a fair amount of the chalkhills subscribers are fans of XTC, following their brother. At least that's the case for me, and I read it a few times in the digest from other people. What does this mean? Is XTC in our genes? And maybe, are younger brothers bigger fans than older brothers? It would make a interesting investigation, wouldn't it. Does anybody have thought about this? Maybe the people who were introduced by XTC by their brothers can mail me personally, so I can make a summary for the digest. Dirk Paul
------------------------------ End of Chalkhills Digest #389 *****************************
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