Chalkhills Digest Volume 13, Issue 9
Date: Tuesday, 20 February 2007
Chalkhills Digest, Volume 13, Number 9
Tuesday, 20 February 2007
Topics:
Finality
more on that Onion interview
Round Goes the Wheel
"that the idea of a group"
Antares Auto-Tune device review
The Future's In Space
Colin Moulding, my little show horse
"Stupidly Happy" is the MySpace song of the week
Barry Andrews single-download
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This is the part where all the lights flicker on.
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Date: Thu, 15 Feb 2007 12:28:10 -0800
From: David Gershman <dagersh@pobox.com>
Subject: Finality
Message-ID: <45D4C25A.5050202@pobox.com>
I think this quote from the Onion interview pretty much says it
all...XTC is no more:
*AVC: Would you want to revive XTC if Colin was interested? Or are
you ready to move on?*
*AP:* No, I think I could kill him now. I've been married to him
since 1972, and I know all the good bits about him, and certainly
all the bad bits. I think we reached a creative impasse some time
ago. I know the songs he brought up for /Wasp Star/ were kind of
also-rans, rejects from another time. I think Colin has written one
new song in the last 10 years. So I find myself in a very weird
position, because it's the first time since 1969 that I haven't been
in a group.
Very sad, but at least we can be fairly sure of it now.
Dave
------------------------------ Date: Thu, 15 Feb 2007 15:53:53 -0500 From: "jude hayden" <jude.hayden@gmail.com> Subject: more on that Onion interview Message-ID: <cfe8e1c00702151253u29af18e5u804bf365d698a98d@mail.gmail.com> >>>>Last time, Lee Owens said: "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."<<<< See, I didn't think Andy was being snarky or mean to Colin at all. OK, there was obviously *some* bitterness over being more or less abandoned by a long-time friend, but it seemed to me that Andy's comments about Colin's attitude and creative slump over the past decade were simply candid, not mean-spirited. Plus, we know that Colin opted out of participating in the Fuzzy Warbles project early on, and apparently couldn't really be bothered to do much of anything XTC-wise anymore. It probably didn't help that even a few Chalkhills folks slammed the Colin songs from the past few albums (how many times did I read the phrase "Bungle- Oh!", I wonder???). I'm sure Colin's disheartened, but Andy doesn't need to shoulder much of the blame.
------------------------------ Date: Thu, 15 Feb 2007 13:11:38 -0800 (PST) From: Todd Bernhardt <beat_town@yahoo.com> Subject: Round Goes the Wheel Message-ID: <342149.53970.qm@web32005.mail.mud.yahoo.com> Hi: Lee Owens said: > 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. That's nonsense. Andy asked Colin repeatedly to be involved in the FW project, and has been waiting for years for him to write and contribute songs to an XTC album. Andy *wants* to do another XTC album. It's Colin who does not ... for the moment, anyway. Look, this is not necessarily the end of the band. If Colin decides to be involved again, then XTC will be a band again. XTC is not a going concern -- i.e., a legal entity -- without both Andy and Colin. Until then, let's support Andy in his creative endeavors. I'm really looking forward to Monstrance, and can't wait for the solo album, whatever form it takes. -Todd The world is round and the place which may seem like the end may also be only the beginning. -George Baker (1877-1965)
------------------------------ Date: Thu, 15 Feb 2007 15:27:08 -0800 From: Steve <ste7phen@yahoo.com> Subject: "that the idea of a group" Message-ID: <45D4EC4C.3020403@yahoo.com> Kevin wrote: > > 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... i think you've hit here. my favorite music lately is by musicians that gig together for a few months and possibly do an album and then go directly in to the next incarnation of various musicians. its not easy to keep track of the names of all the bands, especially when they have variations of the same members... and the music can be superb. i see monstrance as an example of this. when you get excellent musicians together for "conversation" you don't need the all important and long lived singular group anymore and some of the best of current music reflects this. another steve
------------------------------
Date: Fri, 16 Feb 2007 04:59:50 -0800 (PST)
From: Kzincat <kzincat98@yahoo.com>
Subject: Antares Auto-Tune device review
Message-ID: <252507.59182.qm@web90507.mail.mud.yahoo.com>
Since it interested me, too:
http://www.antarestech.com/news/reviews/AVP1-EQ.shtml
Is this the same machine that Cher used, and Kid Rock
to warble their voices?
How far off can you be and still have it compensate
for your pitchy singing? Would like to hear a before
and after.
>(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.)
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
***************************************************
"It is not *who* is right, but *what* is right, that is of importance."
-- Thomas Huxley
------------------------------ Date: Fri, 16 Feb 2007 14:37:57 -0000 From: Adrian Ransome <Adrian.Ransome@tsi-ltd.co.uk> Subject: The Future's In Space Message-ID: <13CABB99EBDBAA4BB63D3D2E976AEF3B08FBA0@nt4server03.tsi-ltd.co.uk> HUMPH! Just WHO does Colin Moulding think he is? How dare he just drop out of the music industry without so much as a "by your leave"? After all this time I spent buying Xtc albums and subscribing to the unofficial mailing list and reading posts on his band's forum you'd think he'd at least have the bloody decency to ring me up personally and explain to me just why the hell he doesn't feel like making music any more, the cheeky work-shy fecker. . Of course, I blame Andy Partridge for being prolific and writing all those bleeding songs. I reckon those demos made Colin stop writing songs. If it weren't for Partridge releasing albums of demo tracks to keep the wolf from his Swindonian door I reckon he and Colin would still be making music. I reckon if it weren't for Andy's demos, they would now be on tour with The Police. I reckon they would be releasing albums of new music every six months, touring with The Police and living in giant inflatable marshmallow pumpkin shaped snowdomes with perspex swans and chairs made out of haystacks with wigs on the top made out of spaghetti. In space. Bloody Moulding. Bloody Partridge. Bloody hell! ade
------------------------------ Date: Fri, 16 Feb 2007 19:23:53 -0800 From: "Pastula Aaron" <pastula12@hotmail.com> Subject: Colin Moulding, my little show horse Message-ID: <BAY109-F354D6E94B8C352659C8762A2940@phx.gbl> >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. Thirty years, huh? Is there an XTC fans gold watch rewards program that I'm not aware of? :) Personally, I think it's Colin's business, and his alone. He, Andy and Dave are obviously moving on with their lives in varying ways -- they're not living in the past, so why should we? I, for one, am not that worried about what he's up to these days, but I wish him nothing but happiness, and all the best. He -- and XTC -- have already given me everything I could ever hope for in music, starting when I was 12 and riding along in that van full of dorky kids during summer sailing camp in San Diego, when the counselor I had a mad crush on played me Skylarking for the first time...my God, what more could I ask? (That said, I am STILL hoping for the eventual recording and release of XTC's The History of the Middle Ages, the best unused album title in the history of unused album titles, hands down. Dare to dream, I guess.) All good things, my friends. All good things. And for those who talked up Fripp's Exposure -- THANK YOU. I finally found it last weekend, and am loving it. Particularly the Daryl Hall-infused "New York New York New York" on the second disc. If you're a "Red" and "Discipline"-era King Crimson fan, you need this record. Yes, I said "need." It grows on you, steadily. Carry on. AP
------------------------------ Date: Sun, 18 Feb 2007 18:16:35 -0800 (PST) From: Todd Bernhardt <beat_town@yahoo.com> Subject: "Stupidly Happy" is the MySpace song of the week Message-ID: <524901.10327.qm@web32009.mail.mud.yahoo.com> Hi: Over at the XTCfans MySpace site (http://www.myspace.com/xtcfans), the song of the week is "Stupidly Happy." If you want to know why Andy prefers to pitch harmonies under the main vocal, and which multinational corporation was interested in using the song for a jingle, check out the XTCfans blog site at http://blog.myspace.com/xtcfans. With idiot grin, Todd
------------------------------ Date: Mon, 19 Feb 2007 21:34:49 -0800 (PST) From: Tyler Hewitt <tahewitt@yahoo.com> Subject: Barry Andrews single-download Message-ID: <20070220053450.51306.qmail@web51703.mail.yahoo.com> Browsing around various music blogs, I found this: http://www.wiels.nl/blog/index.php?m=01&y=07&d=07&entry=entry070107-192855 It's a Dutch blog, and what's interesting is that you can download a Barry Andrews single from 1981. >From the blog: Barry Andrews was founding member of XTC (1977-1978). In 1981 he formed Shriekback with David Allen (Gang of Four) and Carl Marsh. In between he played with Robert Fripp's League of Gentlemen and had his own band Restaurant for Dogs. >From this period dates this solo 7". 1 Rossmore Road 2 Restaurant for Dogs: Pages of My Love The download includes scans of the single sleeve. I'm listening to it as I write this. It's nothng at all like Shriekback (or XTC). It's not bad, but at the same time dosen't bowl me over.
------------------------------ End of Chalkhills Digest #13-9 ******************************
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