Chalkhills Digest, Volume 13, Number 8

                Thursday, 15 February 2007

Topics:

                          LOAFBW
                       Andy on WNYC
          end of XTC, and that AVClub interview
                  To Kill or Be Killed?
                   Re: the AV interview
                  Re: AV interview posts
                         The End
                         Hot Fuzz

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Get the expert, on mademoiselles.

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

Date: Wed, 14 Feb 2007 16:52:43 -0500
From: tgreul@aol.com
Subject: LOAFBW
Message-ID: <8C91E99971F3380-1B5C-81B@WEBMAIL-DC01.sysops.aol.com>

Can't recall if this has been mentioned here, but old folkies Fairport
Convention do a version of Love on a Farm Boys Wages on their new CD
"Sense of Occasion".  The reviews I've read of the song have been
favorable.  It's available from the band and at Amazon, etc.

Tom

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

Date: Wed, 14 Feb 2007 13:49:05 -0800 (PST)
From: "Par" Nilsson <pbgn@yahoo.com>
Subject: Andy on WNYC
Message-ID: <583690.25086.qm@web30203.mail.mud.yahoo.com>

Andy was on WNYC the other day:
http://www.wnyc.org/shows/spinning/episodes/2007/02/11

Ever since he started the band XTC in the late '70s,
Andy Partridge has been writing songs that are both
adventurous and catchy. Bending the rules of
songwriting until they're nice and bouncy, Partridge
has used them as a springboard to a distinctive style
he continues to explore and enlarge. After listening
to "Fuzzy Warbles," a nine-CD set of Partridge's song
demos, host David Garland calls Partridge on the phone
for an in-depth conversation about songwriting ideas,
craft, and fun. We'll also have a preview of
"Monstrance," a forthcoming album by Partridge's new
improvising trio.

Cheers,

Par

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

Date: Wed, 14 Feb 2007 13:33:01 -0800 (PST)
From: Jemiah Jefferson <jemiah@q7.com>
Subject: end of XTC, and that AVClub interview
Message-ID: <Pine.LNX.4.64.0702141328540.2716@q7.q7.com>

The funny thing is, I don't see that that interview made anything more
official than what we've known for ages. Colin isn't interested in writing
songs right now; he's no longer in touch with Andy. I knew this already. I
know how people change.

I just can't help but feel optimistic, because so many bands that I
thought were dunzo over never again got back together, and released more
new music, and went on tour, and everything. And a couple of them haven't.
(My Bloody Valentine? I have given up, y'all, no matter what Kevin
Shields keeps saying. He's a junkie; don't trust him. ;))

I'm just glad to see XTC getting lots of exposure, and Andy doing loads of
interviews and being his clever, irascible self. In my ideal world, Colin
would keep writing songs, and playing with Andy (or anybody) but who knows
what he's about?

Chin up, Chalksters. It's still just as dark as it was a moment ago.

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

Date: Wed, 14 Feb 2007 17:44:29 -0500
From: Kevin <dancingweed@optonline.net>
Subject: To Kill or Be Killed?
Message-ID: <006101c75089$b0666270$dd282d18@Kevin>

Hello, Chalkhill Dwellers:

Boy, I guess that the idea of a group, a bunch of people forming musical
units that stick together for a lengthy period of time, is not as much the
norm anymore, and unfortunately the entity doesn't stick around long
especially when all the artists combined have their own idea of what they
think that a composition should be.  While we found out how fragile the
musical union of talent can be from as far back as the Beatles, with all
four having their own ideas that so often clashed when it came to the final
product, it is a shame when you hear about talents coming together to make
even one or two songs like Andy Partridge and Robert Schneider of Apples in
Stereo, another example of talents that I would have thought would blend
perfectly.  But it was Aimee Mann who once said that, if she wrote with her
husband, Michael Penn, she'd be too intimidated, and that's a real shame
because, if you do listen to the rare times when the two have joined voices,
even on a cover song, you are aware of how perfect the combination actually
is!!  And why, oh why is this especially so with pop musicians?  Okay, maybe
this is true in all walks of life, but it is especially true of pop
musicians who one would believe are on the same wavelength!!  Not being in
the music business, it is a phenomenon that I will not quite ever
understand.

>From rumors that have gone around, and these are just rumors, I'd heard that
nothing really gelled with members of Blind Faith, yet that album still
stands as a monumental recording to me and one that I would have hoped would
have gone further than one solitary album.  Yet, even when you listen to the
expanded edition of that album, there are almost no rare tracks that were
composed but not released!!  There was no other inspiration within the unit
that was begun but never quite finished!!

I guess it shows that art has to come from one individual vision with the
others on the session understanding that this is this individual's turn to
shine, with possibly the others taking their place where the writer has
given them the chance to shine, like the way Yes sometimes worked with
spaces for individual members to lend something to the mix like chord
changes and such, or the way in which the other members of the Who worked
within Pete Townshend's framework for a song or story arc/concept to a given
album.  And I don't at all say that such work ethic is easy to do.

But then again, didn't Paul McCartney work best when seemingly intimidated
by John's contribution or addition to a given song?  Paul wasn't writing
anything quite as cerebral when the band split up and he went off to do his
solo material.  It was certainly tuneful; I'm not trying to knock any of it,
but it missed John's production twists or lyric that was off the wall.

I'd always thought of Andy Partridge as Paul and John combined, and that the
way Apples in Stereo worked, just liking the way an idea in the studio would
suddenly take shape and the others would just run with it instead of being
so technical, would have lent itself well to some of Andy's ideas.  So who
is intimidating who?  I don't know, but wow, was I disappointed that the
ultimate combination of talents here didn't really bloom into some album
concept.

I guess that, once again, we listeners are expecting too much and are
looking at talent like furniture that you can mix and match for effect, and
that just isn't the way it works.  In the end, they have to feel that
they've created a body of work that they can be proud of.

At least, though, we have this improvisational thing coming in April,
according to Andy Partridge interviews...and what is this, about three disks
worth?  Cool.  I'll be looking for it.

Unpredictability is the key!!

Kevin

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

Date: Wed, 14 Feb 2007 14:46:20 -0800 (PST)
From: Lee Owens <leenashville@yahoo.com>
Subject: Re: the AV interview
Message-ID: <568236.569.qm@web34310.mail.mud.yahoo.com>

Oh well, that's that!  If Andy hadn't spent so much time doing Fuzzy
Warbles perhaps Colin would have become interested, but as usual, the
band always revolved around Andy.  I do think he is being a bit unfair
in some of his comments to Colin and I can quite understand why Colin
could possilbly be a bit put out with him and the music business in
general. After all, it really doesn't have anything to do with talent
any longer.

(With the Antares Auto-Tune device, the unsuspecting public get all
manner of garbage foisted upon them.  If you don't know what this
is....perhaps you'd better learn.....It is the reason performances are
no longer captured...they are totally manufactured and phony....ask
Britney Spears, Tim McGraw, Justin Timberlake, Ashley Simpson, just to
name a few.)

Not to mention the fact that it has always been Andy's way or the
highway as it were, even though the most accessible record they ever
did was one he hated doing (Skylarking) because some of the control
was wrested out of his hands.  I think Todd did one hell of fine job
"producing" that project and the results were stupendous.

Ah, I do miss the old days when you knew the person could actually
sing and weren't relying on total trickery.  At least with an XTC
project, we knew they sang it all, they might have corrected mistakes
with a few punch ins but it wasn't all cut and paste and then
artifically tuning it....or even using that tuning device LIVE.....

Signed,
An engineer who knows

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

Date: Wed, 14 Feb 2007 16:25:00 -0800
From: Steve <ste7phen@yahoo.com>
Subject: Re: AV interview posts
Message-ID: <45D3A85C.1070807@yahoo.com>

don device:
>
> Andy, in a disturbing Onion AV interview;

The Colonel said:
>
> So of course I've had my suspicions for a while, but
> it was still pretty depressing to see it made somewhat
> official...
>
> http://www.avclub.com/content/node/58367

You guys...
disturbing??? depressing??? This interview is one of the funniest things
I've read in a while...

I admit the world's got me little disturbed and depressed though; who in
their right mind wouldn't be?

However, for Andy the tinnitus has got to be the big bummer for music;
the most common statement about tinnitus is that the brain learns to
tune it out overtime (by simply ignoring it) but it is still there and
generally does not go away. Argh.

I appreciate his candor in the interview; how long can we be in
denial... and what better time to do an interview than after dentistry?

another steve

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

Date: Wed, 14 Feb 2007 20:53:06 -0800
From: Phil Corless <phil@pkmeco.com>
Subject: The End
Message-ID: <6.0.1.1.2.20070214201224.027fdd18@mail.adelphia.net>

I don't know about all of you, but if Colin really wants to call it quits
as a musician, I think he should give the word to his fans.  We've
supported him for thirty years, and it seems only right that he give us
some sort of statement confirming that he is no longer interested in XTC.

I have to admit some disappointment that their triumphant return in 1999
resulted in only two CDs, Apple Venus and Wasp Star.  As great as those
discs are, I kind of expected more in the past eight years, especially
after the long layoff of the 90's.

Oh well, they've still give us more than enough music to keep me happy for
the rest of my life.  And I now look forward to the first proper Andy
Partridge solo CD.

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

Date: Thu, 15 Feb 2007 16:15:44 +0000 (GMT)
From: STEPHEN JACKSON <planet_skaro@btinternet.com>
Subject: Hot Fuzz
Message-ID: <51366.1201.qm@web86411.mail.ird.yahoo.com>

I went to see Simon Pegg's film "Hot Fuzz" last night, which I found
very enjoyable not least the moment when I felt a distinct thrill as
Terry Chamber's snare triplets introduced that under-appreciated
single "Sgt Rock"... I think it was certainly more audible than
"Nigel" was in "Layer Cake" even if the scene itself was not as
memorable.

Anyway, If you like British comedy, go and see the film, and enjoy the
soundtrack!

Steve.

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End of Chalkhills Digest #13-8
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