Chalkhills Digest Volume 10, Issue 14
Date: Friday, 26 March 2004
Chalkhills Digest, Volume 10, Number 14
Friday, 26 March 2004
Topics:
XTC on DVD
Re: History of it
Let's Make A Dental
How I got into XTC
I think the Ford execs get the joke
Wonderfalls & First Heard
Ass-pants
Curiosity About George
Uffington Horse Green Shirts
Wonderfalls Article
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---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Sat, 20 Mar 2004 22:56:20 -0500 From: Benjamin Gott <bgott@rectoryschool.org> Subject: XTC on DVD Message-ID: <B649088A-7AEB-11D8-8CAB-0003931489DA@rectoryschool.org> Fellow Chalk-geeks, While browsing in a Hyannis, MA record store (the incredibly stocked and wonderfully named Spinnaker Records), my friend Beverly discovered the "Punk Generation" DVD for $4.00. "Punk Generation" is listed in the Chalkhills discography (Netherlands, 2002, Disky Catalog No. 927909) because it contains a clean, digitally-remastered copy of the "Making Plans for Nigel" video. It also contains 999's "Homicide," Buzzcock's "Promises," and The Vapors' "Turning Japanese," among others. Hey -- for $4.00, who can complain? I also bought 25 CDs from the wall marked "Cheapo Used CDs" which contained thousands, if not tens of thousands, of discs priced at three for $5. It was completely and utterly worth it to spend $1.67 each on Michael Penn's "Resigned," Sam Phillips's "The Indescribable Wow" and "Omnipop," Prefab Sprout's "Jordan: The Comeback" (which makes a great gift), two Mark Eitzel albums, Roger McGuinn's "Back from Rio"...and a CD single of "The Disappointed." I love iTunes and digital music as much as the next guy, but how cool is it to spend an hour and a half actually browsing? On another note: who was the numbskull who named the new Tears for Fears album "Everybody Loves a Happy Ending"? It would ship thousands more units if it was called "Everybody Loves Ass Pants." Love, -Ben (who is convinced that the best use of a Tears for Fears song in a movie is "Head Over Heels" playing during the establishing shots of Donnie's high school in "Donnie Darko")
------------------------------ Date: Sat, 20 Mar 2004 23:10:41 -0500 (EST) From: RSMko@webtv.net (Marston Moor) Subject: Re: History of it Message-ID: <9078-405D15C1-1625@storefull-3294.bay.webtv.net> The Reverend Doctor Ryan Anthony, located at 1013 hamsterranch@yahoo.com, sent in this wire: >>"Isn't it time for the Great Ape to bring >>his twenty-two-second "History of Rock >>'n' Roll" up to date?" Funny post, Ry. Hmm. Guess I'll give it a bit of a go. NOT! ~~RSTV New Jersey Devil http://www.rsteviemoore.com
------------------------------ Date: Sat, 20 Mar 2004 23:14:42 EST From: StarlingV@aol.com Subject: Let's Make A Dental Message-ID: <6.248269f1.2d8e70b2@aol.com> In a message dated 3/20/2004 11:01:02 PM Eastern Standard Time, Bill said: > I sympathize on the wisdom teeth front Front?? Me too. Yikes, they're bad enough when they have to be pulled from the *back* of your mouth. -Janis (not so sure of Santa or the buck-toothed fairy)
------------------------------ Date: Sun, 21 Mar 2004 11:53:08 +0530 From: "Sughosh Varadarajan" <aqualung@hotpop.com> Subject: How I got into XTC Message-ID: <001c01c40f0d$1a2f1060$373641db@SughoshVaradarajan> Hmm let's see now....I think the first I ever heard of XTC was when MTV came to India in 1991-92 and I caught the promo with Andy saying "Ahaaaa you lucky dogs! We're XTC and you're watching MTV!". This was around the time Nonsuch came out I guess, cos I remember seeing the vid for the Disappointed a few times. Loved the song. Couldn't get hold of it ANYWHERE! (:-( Of course this was in the pre-mp3 years. Couple of years later MTV (or was it Channel [V] asia by then I can't recall) did a "classic" special on bands by alphabet, and of course XTC were the choice for X. They played "Mayor of Simpleton" and I abslutely fell in love with the song! I think I also saw the "Dear God" vid on MTV's Alternative Nation and by this time I had decided this was definitely a band to check out. By sheer chance found an old vinyl copy of English Settlement in the town street market, and a tape of Black Sea, and that's where I seriously got hooked on to XTC. Couldn't get hold of the other albums until about 2001 (even then more through audiogalaxy/kazaa cos I was still quite penniless). Happily I now have a credit card and have been generally bugging every person I know coming down from the US to carry at least a couple of discs for me, which means I now have all of the albums except for the first two, which I'm still a little sceptical about as I'm not so much a fan of the early years as Skylarking onwards. Hmm. Yes. That's it. Cheers Sughosh -- "No matter how close to yours another's steps have grown, In the end, there is one dance you'll do alone" - Jackson Browne
------------------------------
Date: Sun, 21 Mar 2004 00:16:36 -0800 (PST)
From: Ryan Anthony <hamsterranch@yahoo.com>
Subject: I think the Ford execs get the joke
Message-ID: <20040321081636.11835.qmail@web10107.mail.yahoo.com>
Whoops! In my call for an updated version of XTC's
22-second-long "History of Rock 'n' Roll" which
brought up the rear of the previous Dispatch, in "I'm
surprised that no contributor to the *King For A Day*
project didn't tackle 'History,'" kindly correct
"didn't tackle" to TACKLED.
Am with difficulty, this every time being correctness
among those English language, yes exactly my friend?
Some of our Chalkbrethren, referencing Ford Motor
Company's current use of Peter Gabriel's "Big Time" in
TV ads, have speculated that the song's irreverent
take on consumerism flies way over Ford's head: "How
ironic"; "The joke's on them"; etcetera.
Maybe not. Advertising agency creative types and big
corporate kahunas aren't stupid, nor are they as far
out of touch with "the street" as we grimy little
impotent wage-slave intellectuals might like to think.
I suspect the Ford execs who green-lighted "Big Time,"
like the Daimler bosses who okayed Janis Joplin's even
more sardonic "Mercedes-Benz" ("Oh Lord, Won't You Buy
Me ...") a few years ago, not only GOT the joke, they
chuckled heartily all the way to the bank, especially
after smug criticisms drew additional attention to
their products and, I daresay, increased sales.
Does anyone remember "Lupo the Butcher," the hypergory
cartoon that was part of Spike & Mike's Festival of
Sick & Twisted Animation around a decade ago? Did
anyone see the sneaker ad with Lupo that ran during
the NCAA and NBA tournaments soon afterward? Whoever
okey-dokeyed THAT campaign wins the Hip Executive of
All Time Award. Did he keep his job? I'm guessing he
prospered. Maybe he works fairly high up at Ford Motor
today.
Ryan Anthony
An independent Internet content provider
P.S.: Not to ruin anyone's day, but do you realize
"Big Time" is nearly 20 years old?
P.P.S.: Ford? Been there; drove that. Now driving:
Nissan Xterra -- the unofficial Official Vehicle of XTC.
------------------------------ Date: Mon, 22 Mar 2004 09:52:29 -0500 From: "Ted Harms" <tmharms@library.uwaterloo.ca> Subject: Wonderfalls & First Heard Message-ID: <000401c4101d$4d049b20$2f8a6181@tmharms> Saw Wonderfalls last Friday and kudos to my wife for asking, without any kind of clues or prompting on my part, if that was Andy singing. How I got into xTc? I remember hearing 'No Thugs' on the radio during grade 9 art class and, because of that, I went out and bought English Settlement (sadly, it was the single LP version). Before that, there are faint memories of hearing 'Nigel' on the radio and them performing in Hamilton (exact date: March 12, 1980 - thanks to Wes and Optimism's Flame) Ted Harms Davis Centre Library, Univ. of Waterloo | tmharms@uwaterloo.ca | "Awkward grammar appals a craftsman." Christian Bok
------------------------------ Date: Tue, 23 Mar 2004 03:08:01 +0000 From: "Paul Culnane" <paulculnane@hotmail.com> Subject: Ass-pants Message-ID: <BAY7-F48xOzW3izue6S000248c2@hotmail.com> ...or ARSE-pants as we would say it in Australia... >From a fun-packed recent Chalkhills Digest, I noted with great interest the following: 1) The Mole, in keeping with his moniker, shared this discovery with us: >Attention Trainspotters: The subject translates into Coat of Many Cupboards - Science Friction, being the lead-off track on Disc one. I have been doing some research on things and this is NOT as claimed on COMC a CBS Demo. <snip> If Virgin or the band had the tape of this for COMC hopefully the rest of the tracks will see the light of day, perhaps on the Warbles. Just thought you all might be interested. It made my week frankly.< That's most interesting Mole. Thanks. Care to tell us how you found that out????? And yes please to release of the other tunes from those early sessions! Then Steve Dockery discussed the video clip for "Nigel"... >So I trimmed off the interview footage and stuck in the actual Nigel track from the album, and once I got it lined up properly, it stayed stayed in sync the entire time (anyone who's ever tried to match these sorts of things up understands my amazement).< Oh yeah, tell me about it. Pre-Anthology, a holiday project for me was to assemble the compleat Beatles single A & B sides onto a four-hour Super-VHS tape. Where there wasn't an actual clip made for a particular song, I edited "found footage" from various sources, with generally pleasing results. But I also remastered the sound into stereo, clip by clip. I used vinyl or CD, and achieved perfect synch throughout. The whole thing took me about two months hard slog to complete, but I'm very proud of the result I must say. One particular challenge was "Revolution", where they're singing live over the studio backing track, with extra "shoo-be-do-wops" not on the record. It would have looked silly when Paul & George came up to the mic delivering these extra vox, but you couldn't hear it if I just overdubbed it from the record. So to overcome this dilemma, first I synched up the stereo vinyl (tweaking it just slightly with varispeed) and then fed through the mono audio track, positioning it in the centre of the stereo "picture", mixed slightly lower than the record, but allowing the "shoo-be-do-wops" and John's live grunts to be audible. Came up a treat, even though there's just a tasty bit of (accidental) phasing as they go into Nicky Hopkins' piano solo. Sorry to appear a techno-bore - just thought some of you biffins might find that interesting... Anyway, Steve asked: >Here's my question: At the beginning of the clip, before the video proper starts up, there's a bit of an interview with Colin wherein he talks about the song. Anybody know where this clip comes from originally?< That would be from the "Look Look" video compilation, released on Virgin Vision in 1982. The clips on that were also remastered into stereo. And let me say, it's a damn shame that Virgin seems to have put the kibosh on the comprehensive XTC DVD that Colin was working on! :-( Finally, Ryan Anthony, in an entertaining post, remarked: >Jonathan L. assaulted me relentlessly with XTC, at least once per show, until I sat up and took notice. More than Andy's vocals or Colin's songs (Colin's stuff got the majority of what little airplay XTC enjoyed in those days) or Barry's cheesy organ or, later, Dave's guitar, it was Terry's gorilla-on-crack kitwork that initially got my attention. I hadn't heard the like since the prime of Keith Moon.< Ryan, I took the liberty of forwarding that to Terry, because I know he'll really get a chuckle out of the epithet you chose to describe his playing style, not to mention being mentioned in the same breath as one of his heroes, Moonie!!!!! ~~p@ul-of-oz
------------------------------ Date: Tue, 23 Mar 2004 16:07:39 -0500 From: KEVIN.WOLLENWEBER@jpmorgan.com Subject: Curiosity About George Message-ID: <OF99096FD4.4A744CDF-ON85256E60.00716DEB@chase.com> to D.Seddon@btinternet.com: Hmmm, I'm not the one you should be asking about videos on any given audio/visual collection as my sightlessness renders me incapable of answering you with grand details, but I will say that I found the DVD's audio rather fascinating. It features an introduction to each video by George himself, segments from an interview no doubt. The other little bit of collectable beauty, I'm sure, is the small hard cover book that the DVD is housed in rather tightly in a section of its back cover. I'm sure that there are some great liners and such, if you care about all that. The box itself is rather handsome as well, with actual tactile designs (and pictures, no doubt) around it, but you've seen that for yourself while browsing. The main reason to buy the George Harrison collection, THE DARK HORSE YEARS, is to have all that material that you'd said you enjoyed for years on vinyl now in one place and, yes, I can attest to the remastering of these stunning albums to be truly amazing!! The disks (with the exception of the LIVE IN JAPAN double) each have a bonus or two. However, if you really don't feel that you want all that, the albums themselves will be sold separately beginning March 30, minus the DVD. You were wary of spending $60? Wow, I wish I found it for that low a price. I bought it at a shop here in Manhattan that normally discounts such collections. The price given was the lowest of any Manhattan stores, and it wasn't anywhere near as low as $60! I consider that a bargain! Go for the box and be amazed and delighted to hear all these fine albums...*AND* a DVD, celebrating perhaps the most prolific and content music that the ex-Beatle had made throughout his career, with some of the tunes on the LIVE IN JAPAN set actually being some of his best work composed when he was still with the Fab Four! But you have that choice, and I think you'll be happy with the results, no matter which you choose. Oh, and I would insist that Jason Falkner fans pick up his new e.p., now sold at Not Lame's website or by phone. Man, is it good. While I do wish his lyrics would vary a bit more apart from the relationships he's had as a pop star, I can't resist those infectious hooks and overlapping chords. Can't wait for his next full-length album. Lastly, if anyone knows whether Adrian Belew has released any new projects apart from King Crimson, please let me know what these are and where I might find them. Last I heard, he had been working on a project with the bassist of Primis...oooh what I'd give to hear those two bouncing twisted chords off each other on a live stage!! I had also heard that something new was coming from the Psychodots/Bears, a very welcome addition to this year's new releases if such a project sees the light of day this year. I'm also still enjoying the two new NUGGETS disks from Rhino Handmade. I truly think that some selections from these special editions to the NUGGETS series are what Andy Partridge had been listening to when he might have been composing songs for his own bubblegum collection. I hope he doesn't abandon that project entirely, although his work yet to come with other more modern musicians may be the link to the best of those otherwise aborted tunes. As of this writing, I have not heard the "Wonderfalls" tune, but I'll seek it out somehow. Glad to see that he's prolific lately. Yours, sliding down the rainbow, Kevin
------------------------------ Date: Fri, 26 Mar 2004 09:30:43 -0800 From: Phil Corless <phil@pkmeco.com> Subject: Uffington Horse Green Shirts Message-ID: <6.0.1.1.2.20040326092905.01bc2008@pop.mindspring.com> After many requests, I am finally making more of the green t-shirts with just the Uffington Horse on it. Pre-order the shirt at: http://www.pkmeco.com/xtc/xtcgreen.htm
------------------------------ Date: Fri, 26 Mar 2004 18:22:32 -0800 From: Phil Corless <phil@pkmeco.com> Subject: Wonderfalls Article Message-ID: <6.0.1.1.2.20040326182146.01b7ee98@pop.mindspring.com> An article about Wonderfalls in the SFGate.com, Andy gets a mention at the end: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/c/a/2004/03/26/DDG225QG6C1.DTL
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