Chalkhills Digest, Volume 13, Number 42

                 Monday, 19 November 2007

Topics:

                   Brainiac's Daughter
                  Holy Funk Pop a Roll!
                         Remoulds
           Help Me If You Can I'm Feeling Down
         The Nines' new album/Jason Falkner/Bleu
                          Covers

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Spiral, dug by the diamond.

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Date: Thu, 15 Nov 2007 11:09:45 -0500
From: John Relph <relph@tmbg.org>
Subject: Brainiac's Daughter
Message-ID: <18236.28489.387353.317862@seedbed.idiot-dog.com>

Folks,

"Brainiac's Daughter" gets a name check in the song "Ugly But Rakish"
on Francine's album "Airshow":

   I am live in the water rising in rings
   Love that brainiac's daughter whenever she sings

I am guessing that's a Dukes reference because Clayton Scoble, leader
of Francine, is a known XTC offender.  He recommended Dave Gregory for
the Aimee Mann tour.

	-- John

--
np: Francine: Airshow

------------------------------

Date: Tue, 13 Nov 2007 19:52:35 -0500
From: Ben Gott <ben@loquaciousmusic.com>
Subject: Holy Funk Pop a Roll!
Message-ID: <766BDBEC-62AE-4920-8787-C557B21D4A9F@loquaciousmusic.com>

Hi gang,

Just breaking in to tell you that I had quite the amazing iTunes
shuffle moment tonight when Suzanne Vega's "Rusted Pipe" segued into
"Funk Pop a Roll."

Sometimes, I love music so much, it hurts.

Ben

------------------------------

Date: Wed, 14 Nov 2007 09:05:47 EST
From: MVOMALLEY57@aol.com
Subject: Remoulds
Message-ID: <d19.15ff2ed2.346c5abb@aol.com>

Thanks to everyone who responded to my request about Dave Gregory's
Remould's CD I have been working many hours lately and have not had a
chance to respond but I will soon.

Michael

------------------------------

Date: Thu, 15 Nov 2007 10:14:46 +0000
From: <homefrontradio@hotmail.com>
Subject: Help Me If You Can I'm Feeling Down
Message-ID: <BAY128-W3451BFD691E30BE6802899D0820@phx.gbl>

>I have 3,000 plus songs on my ipod, and I'm sick of every one of them.  Can
>someone please throw some new music out for me...the last great leads I got
>off here were the new Jason Falkner album and Fripp's Exposure.  But I'm a
>little progged-out at the moment, and I've consumed every Falkner album so
>many times my toilet bowl now writes catchy pop, plays the drums and talks
>to itself in the studio.  I need something I can't stop listening to...it's
>been years since I've had such a thing...help!

I'm experiencing much the same thing at the moment, and although this might
sound like depression, negativity or cynicism, I'm honestly quite worried
and sad about this state of affairs.  I've faced the sudden realization this
year that my relationship with music, the one constant in my life through
all its various changes and ups and downs, has suddenly left me.

Has this happened to anyone else?  Did you just need a break and then it
eventually came flooding back?  Or was it a moment where it just didn't
matter as much in your life anymore and was never as exciting to you again?

Was it the fact that records became Compact Discs, and I was no longer able
to lie on the floor and gaze at the large sleeves in obsessive detail?  It
made music seem so much smaller and unimportant, and less involving.
(Compare the `English Settlement' 2 Record set to the crappy cd booklet.
You could spread that entire thing out on your floor in a semi-circle and
just be surrounded by imagery).

Was it the fact that digital mastering seemed to suck the life out of all my
favourite records, none of which ever sound as exciting as they did on
vinyl?  Is it the excessive compression and lack of dynamics in most modern
music that usually means the start of the song doesn't sound any different
to the end of the song, and you feel like you've just spun your wheels in
place for 4 minutes?

Is it the fact that online shopping and outlets like I-Tunes killed the
humble record shop, and took the hunting and gathering experience out of
music completely, for you no longer had to search for years to locate rare
albums, or kick yourself for missing that now-out-of-print single with
exclusive B-sides, that undoubtedly sucked, but there was always the danger
that *maybe they didn't*?

Is it the fact that I've digitized my entire CD collection, so that now
music has not only become completely faceless, the sheer mass of
easily-available listening material makes it impossible to form intense
listening relationships with any one album, to give it time to seize you by
the throat and *make* you pay attention to it, because there's always
another one just a skip away?

And even the artists I did like, like the aforementioned Jason Falkner, I
can't get excited about, because they always deliver *exactly what I expect
them to*, which means when I purchased albums by Fountains of Wayne, Apples
In Stereo and Crowded House this year, they sat in their wrapping for months
because I felt like I'd heard them already, and when I did finally hear
them, (Apples In Stereo - bought in January, first played last week), I
realized my imagined albums were fairly close on the mark.  Do I really need
another Suzanne Vega album in my life, intellectually-admired but
spiritually-unloved?

Damn, I miss XTC.  You never really knew what to expect.  Could I have
predicted `Poor Skeleton Steps Out' or `Omnibus' or `Easter Theatre' or
`Bungalow'?

Did anyone read that Martin Newell interview linked here a few weeks ago?  I
found this *incredibly* profound:

"I think there is almost too much music about. On reflection, I was much
happier as a 16 year old, with only three albums and ten singles, which I
played over and over. Now I have a room full of CDs and tapes, I have never
had such access to music and yet I can't think what to play."

He's hit the nail right on the head for me.  There was a period in my school
years where I played `Skylarking', `Hounds Of Love', `Little Creatures',
`Actually', `Time And Tide' and 'Tallulah', because *they were the only
albums I owned*.  I could fit in two before school and one after, (unless my
sister got to the record player first to spin `Different Light' or `Crowded
House').  I believe I know those albums better than I know myself.

So, having said all that, does anyone thinks they can kickstart my love of
music again?  If anyone can name recent albums that fit this criteria, I'd
like to hear about them, because I have only heard *one* album this entire
year I consider a keeper:

- you obsessed over it at the expense of everything else in your
  collection for months
- you can sing the entire thing from beginning to end, including the
  instrumental fills
- only one song you consider filler per ten tracks
- concise, melodic, hooky, focused, not wispy, grungy,
  oh-so-precious or `noise'
- creative disciplined musicianship by bands who tune their
  instruments
- sounds fresh and unique to an experienced listener, and doesn't
  sound like an older band that have already been there, done that,
  and better
- excites your intellectual curiousity
- hasn't been excessively hyped by the NME or Melody Maker (for the
  Brits), or Pitchfork for the Americans, (because I've been burnt too
  many times by both sources, going as far back as the Stone Roses) (1)

Thanks,
Simon

(1) Seriously, the reviews for 'What The World Is Waiting For' described it
as 'A completely new style of music unlike anything else you've ever heard',
and since the late 80's were a bit Poohey, with Poison, Europe and Bon Jovi
on one side, and Stock / Aitken / Waterman's cowbell + soap bimbo = number
#1 production line on the other, I needed *something*.  My hands actually
shook as i put it on the record player, wondering what on *earth* it must
sound like,  (no doubt imagining something as far out as 'Eep Opp Ork Ah Ah'
from the Jetsons).  Then came the sense of crushing disappointment as I
realised the future of music apparantly was something that sounded a bit
like a less-histrionic Smiths, or, more worryingly, Herman's Hermits on
Weed.

Hey, I've just realised I've probably still got that single, and since I
*never* played it again, (even whatever the hell the Double A Side was), and
was incredibly anal about my record collection, it would be in mint
condition and might be worth something.  To E-bay!  (There's that Hunter /
Gatherer spirit after all).

Of course, there's the remote possibility I traded it for Transvision Vamp,
and if I did, I definitely got the better deal.

------------------------------

Date: Thu, 15 Nov 2007 22:23:52 -0500
From: david henwood <henwooddavid@hotmail.com>
Subject: The Nines' new album/Jason Falkner/Bleu
Message-ID: <BAY120-W2624227B8C4958FDF1B4F6C1830@phx.gbl>

I thought that this would be of interest to Nines fans, as the Nines have
worked with Andy Partridge on their last album. The Nines have recently
released their new album, "Gran Jukle's Field" on T.A.S GOLD. The new album
features collaborations with Jason Falkner (Jellyfish, the Grays, Macca),
Bleu (L.E.O) and Tim Bovaconti (Ron Sexsmith) and many other pop gents. A
real mix of influences on this ranging from Kinks to 70's Bee Gees and
Wings. You can check out streams at www.myspace.com/ninespop

------------------------------

Date: Mon, 19 Nov 2007 23:32:54 -0500
From: John Relph <relph@tmbg.org>
Subject: Covers
Message-ID: <18242.25462.62785.65969@seedbed.idiot-dog.com>

Folks,

I have attempted to compile a list of all of the "released" "studio"
recordings of XTC songs by other artists.  So far I think I've
identified 291.  I know there are more.  You know there are more.
Tell me which ones I missed.

Here you can find the list:

  http://chalkhills.org/reelbyreal/i_cover.html

Some of them are dubious, for example, Shonen Knife's song "Bear Up,
Nigel" is really only inspired by XTC.  Perhaps I'll take it off the
list...

Thank you for your help.

	-- John

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End of Chalkhills Digest #13-42
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