Chalkhills Digest, Volume 11, Number 26

                   Friday, 17 June 2005

Topics:

                 Masters of their domain
                        Judee Sill
         It's Nearly Africa and other "mash-ups"
                  What's New? Veda Hille

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You can read it in your bible.

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Date: Sat, 11 Jun 2005 09:56:53 -0700
From: "Wayne Klein" <wtdk123@msn.com>
Subject: Masters of their domain
Message-ID: <BAY108-F115A302A01B4542C2B6DC1F9FE0@phx.gbl>

Just a couple of quick notes some related and some unrelated to XTC:

Rewatching "Wonderfalls" again. It's beyond me how a show this clever was
cancelled. There I answered my own question I suppose. It was too clever.
Luckily, "Arrested Development" won an Emmy perhaps that's that saved it.
Any chance that a full 3 or 4 minute version of "Wonderfalls" will be
included on the "Fuzzy Warbles" set?

It was great seeing Andy, Colin and Dave back together again even if only
for a moment at the Pugwash website.

Don't know if there are any old movie fans out there but the wit of Preston
Sturges movies are very much in tune with that of Partridge's. A number of
Sturges classic films are finally being released on DVD--"Unfaithfully
Yours" in July (along with another fav of mine the film noirish "Night
Moves" with Gene Hackman directed by Arthur Penn) and "The Miracle of Morgan
Creek" in September.

Sad to hear about the passing of actress Anne Bancroft.

In XTC (indirectly) related news--finally picked up the remastered/reissued
Kirsty MacColl CDs (even my least favorite "Electric Landlandy" had enough
bonus tracks to justify buying it). Just curious if anyone here picked up
the boxed set and if so any impressions of the unreleased material on that?
I don't want to spring for it if it's not worth it. Also, how involved was
Steve Lilywhite in the production of it?

Quietly waiting for another album from the masters of their domain

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Date: Sun, 12 Jun 2005 18:53:02 -0400
From: Benjamin Gott <bgott@rectoryschool.org>
Subject: Judee Sill
Message-ID: <7D072B27-FED4-4228-AE97-117F6C9AD775@rectoryschool.org>

Yo!

Andy wrote, about Judee Sill's "The Kiss":

"...`The Kiss' is the most beautiful song ever recorded."

Earlier in the interview, Andy remarked:

"The mood and sound on our later albums comes from hearing Judee
Sill, the layered vocals and beautiful arrangements. My music would
have been very different but for her."

For anyone who couldn't grab Rhino Handmade's reissues of Sill's
first two (and only two) albums, they are available on iTunes.  I
knew nothing about her until I read Andy's thoughts on her music.
(You too can read about the albums -- and Andy's reaction to them --
by going here: http://chalkhills.org/articles/Uncut0504.html.)

I am stunned by everything I've downloaded (especially "The Kiss").
Sill's multi-tracked vocals stand out; you can even hear where Andy
has copped some of her phrasing (his long vowel sounds, for example).

Check it out if you haven't already.  Love it, love it, love it.

-Ben

--
Benjamin Gott
Departments of English & Reading
Assistant Director of Admissions
http://www.rectoryschool.org

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Date: Thu, 16 Jun 2005 04:02:08 +0100 (BST)
From: Paul Culnane <paulculnane@yahoo.co.uk>
Subject: It's Nearly Africa and other "mash-ups"
Message-ID: <20050616030208.16442.qmail@web86905.mail.ukl.yahoo.com>

Re: recent discussion about some track containing a sample of "It's Nearly
Africa", that someone heard on the radio while visiting Australia.  Dunno
anything about this, but are you sure it was INA, and not "Melt The Guns"?
Triple-J-FM here were playing a track by some Japanese outfit (their name
eludes me just now), which blatantly sampled that diddly little riff from
"Guns" - an interesting juxtaposition.

I've recently heard two other XTC mash-ups (as I believe these things are
gauchly referred to).  One courtesy of fellow Chalkster Bill Sherlock, by
some mob called Go Home Productions, called "Londinium Loves", which
cleverly blends Blur's "London Loves" with XTC's "Towers Of London" (with a
dash of The Kinks' "Tired Of Waiting").

The other one is more obscure and my memory fails me as to who, what, where,
why, but this was also really cool - again "Towers Of London" this time
segueing into the Beatles' "Rain".  It sounded perfect, made all the more
poignant, given that the night after Lennon was murdered, XTC were playing
in Liverpool, and as a tribute, the band decided to do that very segue.  The
two songs are very similar in terms of key and tempo, so the blend fit well.
I remember Andy explaining to me that it was very hard to do because tears
of sorrow were spurting from his eyes.  I think many of us would relate to
that.  I've been frantically trying to sift through my mountain of
unclassified CDs to find this track, so far to no avail.  If I do find it,
I'll let you know, but perhaps someone else out there might know about this
and be able to shed some light????

Ask Mark Kirk about his stash of Beatles remixes and mashups - he's got a
very tasty one which mixes The Monkees with "Paperback Writer".

Okay, some might find these mixy things a bit frivolous and disposable, but
when they're done well (cf Belgium's 2ManyDJs), they can afford some fun...

Paul

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Date: Thu, 16 Jun 2005 16:22:53 -0400
From: John Relph <relph@tmbg.org>
Subject: What's New? Veda Hille
Message-ID: <17073.57245.742679.471878@f5.idiot-dog.com>

Folks,

When there is new news on the XTC Idea Records or APE Records web
sites, I don't usually drop a line to Chalkhills and I don't usually
make a corresponding entry in the Headline News section of Chalkhills
(unless it's something really amazing).  Instead, you can get RSS
feeds for these from Chalkhills so you get notified as soon as the
news items become available.  I really encourage you to use the RSS
feeds.  They are much more timely than these irregular issues of
Chalkhills.

In addition, you can get RSS notification when there are changes to
the discography and to the "What's New?" section of Chalkhills.

If you use Firefox (and you should) then you can add those RSS feeds
as "Live Bookmarks".  Surf to http://chalkhills.org/news.html and
click the little orange icon at the bottom of the browser window.

That said, I highly recommend the work of Veda Hille, recently signed
to Ape House Records.  I saw her a few years back opening for Happy
Rhodes at the Kuumbwa Jazz Center in Santa Cruz (same place where
Becki diGregorio played her "seven worthies... of the bamboo grove" CD
release party concert).  Veda was amazing.  Since then I've acquired
most of her works, and I'm still listening.  My favorite is her album
"Field Study".  It has the amazingly wonderful song "Tuktoyaktuk
Hymn".

Samples from songs on her new album are available on the Ape House
Records web site.  (If you can get them to play.)

	-- John

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End of Chalkhills Digest #11-26
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