Chalkhills Digest Volume 14, Issue 7
Date: Tuesday, 4 March 2008

          Chalkhills Digest, Volume 14, Number 7

                  Tuesday, 4 March 2008

Topics:

                RE: Looking For Footprints
                          Plans
                     time passing by
                        Ray Davies
                    Love RAIN O'er Me!
           Re: ......and the jellyfish stings..
      "Yacht Dance" is the MySpace song of the week
              Looking For Footprints sleeve
                    Why Do Men Fight?
                       XTC Sighting

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I'm respirating.

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

Date: Fri, 29 Feb 2008 10:30:43 -0800 (PST)
From: Tyler Hewitt <tahewitt@yahoo.com>
Subject: RE: Looking For Footprints
Message-ID: <63937.25943.qm@web51705.mail.re2.yahoo.com>

Can't say for sure. I do know that I bought the
occasional issue of Flexipop magazine back in the
early '80's, and don't recall any of the flexidiscs
ever coming in a sleeve.

>Duncan Watson just sent in a photo of a pic sleeve for
>the Looking For Footprints single:
>
>http://chalkhills.org/cgi-bin/img?images/cover/LFF.jpg
>
>So.  What do you think?  Is it legit?  Or is it an
>after-market mod?  The world needs to know.

My blog:http://lastlightbender.blogspot.com/

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

Date: Fri, 29 Feb 2008 17:16:09 -0500
From: Viscount LaCarte <viscountlacarte@hotmail.com>
Subject: Plans
Message-ID: <BAY108-W9C6365E90268F5F1B830EAC140@phx.gbl>

All:

>Hi people of the chalk. Just felt the need to surface for another
moan. Having watched some of the Brit awards last week, i realised
that until Macca came on at the end, it was the usual uninspirednon-event.<

<Snip>

>Nigel T.<

His parents only want what's best

for him...

:Al

"Nigel is happy in his work!"

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

Date: Sat, 1 Mar 2008 13:57:53 +0100
From: Don Device <device@noos.fr>
Subject: time passing by
Message-ID: <06C45B13-410A-456A-B7EB-372F416EB472@noos.fr>

> Chalkers all,

Gotta agree with Todd (though he really deserves a shout out for all
the work he's doing with Andy and the XTC fans site) that it's
depressing to see so little discussion here, especially as it's not as
if nothing's going on! I haven't been able to isten to all of the Andy
interview, but in the first half hour or so I learnt plenty of things
I hadn't know, and I'm a pretty rabid fan.  those interested should
follow the link on the Chalkhills site, which I'm glad to say is
looking better than ever...

For my part, I'd begin to arrange to interview Andy for a Parisian
fanzine/web mag (cheers again, Todd) and after much hemming and hawing
(or the French equivalent) they basically told me they weren't
interested. You could have knocked me down with a hammer! This from a
magazine that's had me on the cover! And interviewed me three times!
and I'm no Arctic Monkey either (nor a spring chicken, nor a... well
I'm not a lot of things, to tell you the truth....)

Are we all old fogies going outta date? Is there hope?

Please weigh in!

xo,
d2

PS: John, I think it's a nice-looking bootleg. Keep up the good work.
Site is easier to read than ever!

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

Date: Sat, 1 Mar 2008 13:58:51 +0100
From: Don Device <device@noos.fr>
Subject: Ray Davies
Message-ID: <0A3ED246-7B99-4746-9D3C-CABE1A451343@noos.fr>

All,

Here's a link to the "Working Man Cafe" article, which I too find
quite good.

http://backtorockville.typepad.com/back_to_rockville/2008/02/review-ray-davi
.html

Best,
d2

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

Date: Sat, 01 Mar 2008 09:45:47 -0500
From: Kevin <dancingweed@optonline.net>
Subject: Love RAIN O'er Me!
Message-ID: <001101c87baa$efbd3370$e92c2d18@Kevin>

Well, there is one quite good new album that has recently been released and
that is Joe Jackson's RAIN.  That man's work never ceases to amaze me, even
if he falls back to familiar chord changes and themes.  He's very good at
it, and I think this album deserves a listen.

And, to beat_town@yahoo.com, you were right about that Andy Partridge
interview (on RundgrenRadio.com).  It is totally amazing and funny and
revealing as far as how musicians get along with their producers and what it
takes to get a recording done.  There were times when I felt I had to defend
Mr. Rundgren, though, but I think this is a case, at times, of two distinct
and sometimes stubborn personalities clashing hard enough to get a job done
and, hey, they did it!!  SKYLARKING turned out to be a masterwork in my
estimation with the input of both whenever they could reluctantly connect.
Perhaps it should be put in the same category as the struggle of John
Lennon/Phil Spector.  That turned into, ultimately, an amazing vision and
sound that the world will not forget.

I was crushed to hear that Todd Rundgren really does *NOT* like the
recording process, producing and all that.  I was always siting certain
examples on all of his albums where it seemed as if he was enjoying the hell
out of the abilities of the "sounds of the studio".  Just listen to A
WIZARD, A TRUE STAR.  At one time in my life, I so wanted to do that!!  I
have always been one of the few that finds that album to be a masterpiece,
but it is the kind of masterpiece that cannot be duplicated by any other
artist, not even the next power pop king or queen, because it is a touch
that is Todd's alone.  Maybe it is that flare for arrangement that Andy kept
harkening back to when he did find something to complement Todd on, but I
always come back to that album for its production and its twisted use of
stereo separation.  In fact, it is an album that might sound interesting if
reissued (by whatever label owns his catalogue now) as a CD/DVD combo with
the DVD allowing us to hear the audio all around our heads.  Sure, the man
must have been dangerously red-eyed by the time the job was done, to the
point where he and his studio looked like that picture of one-time Jefferson
Airplane bassist Jack Cassidy on the cover of BLESS ITS POINTED LITTLE HEAD,
whew; just listening to the stereo tricks on that album makes my head spin
and I've always been in awe of it.

And I'd say, what musician, what artist in this over-crowded world do you
know that doesn't have limitations and quirks?  While it makes them hard to
deal with by the press and even their immediate families, we fans get hours
and hours of pleasure from hearing the results of endless head-banging and
that "tortured artist effect", even when it came to Andy Partridge's own
work!!  The stuff is extraordinary.

And, getting back to my earlier point, it is also what has made Joe
Jackson's work so amazing all these years.  This new album continues to show
his versatility.  I only wish that he had himself a full band with strings
and brass, because some of the songs scream for a full "big band".  But, as
Andy Partridge has said, record companies throw less and less money at
genuine talent.  Maybe Joe Jackson could show up somewhere and create a real
scene, punching out patrons and workers and just destroying property
"because I can", and then the record company would consider him worth
promoting after the New York Post gets finished with him!!  No, Joe, say it
ain't so, and please don't!  I'm only kidding!

But Joe Jackson and Andy Partridge are too similar in scope in some ways.  I
think that, out of all the Partridge co-writes and productions, I'd like to
see him get back with Martin Newell.  That was extraordinary!!

Oh, and one more thing:  I saw that show that featured Todd Rundgren and Joe
Jackson on the same stage and I do have to admit that Joe Jackson's energy
level and prowess as a solo performer outdid Todd that night, but again, I'm
comparing oranges and lemons (heh heh).  I don't expect Todd, at any age, to
be Joe Jackson or vice versa, but there are spots on this new RAIN album
that sound as if he had learned something from working with Todd.  Jackson's
vocal range is amazing, although hampered perhaps by his smoking, at least
in the live performance found on the DVD, but that's a minor thought and not
meaning to be a finger-wagging.  Life is there to be lived and Joe knows how
to live it and ponder it clearly.

Kevin

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

Date: Sun, 2 Mar 2008 11:31:36 +0000 (GMT)
From: STEPHEN JACKSON <planet_skaro@btinternet.com>
Subject: Re: ......and the jellyfish stings..
Message-ID: <830320.40857.qm@web86411.mail.ukl.yahoo.com>

Nigel wrote:

   "It makes me sick to think that the Arctic Monkeys can churn out
    the same old dirge, CD after CD which sounds the same (smells like
    oasis)"

I take exception to this (and to notion that things only improved at
the Brits when Paul McCartney came on, but I'm prepared to overlook
this)

CD after CD? Artic Monkeys have only released 2 albums in their
incredibly short career, although I concede that, sonically at least,
there is not much of a difference between the two albums. However,
they sound absolutely *nothing* like Oasis, apart from in the
following ways:

  1. Both bands feature drums, guitars and bass.
  2. They both have men from the northern provinces of England as
     their vocalists. 

Have you actually/heard read Alex Tuner's lyrics? They are
astonishing, particularly when you consider how young he is.

I'm not a big AM fan, but I know a good thing when I hear it. If I was
15 (and I'm far from it) then I would be greeting the Artic Monkeys
with the same zealous enthusiasm that some of us felt back when "White
Music" was released. Artic Monkeys are only on their second record- a
much better follow up to a debut, incidentally, than Go2 was.

Open your ears, and if you can't do that, then at least recognise that
the Artic Monkeys are peerless in the, largely dreadful, crop of
guitar bands currently troubling the British charts.

  Steve

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

Date: Sun, 2 Mar 2008 17:17:53 -0800 (PST)
From: Todd Bernhardt <beat_town@yahoo.com>
Subject: "Yacht Dance" is the MySpace song of the week
Message-ID: <898883.7324.qm@web32004.mail.mud.yahoo.com>

Hi:

Over at the XTCfans MySpace site (http://www.myspace.com/xtcfans), the
song of the week is "Yacht Dance."

If you want to know which folk song Andy considers to be the
"grandfather of 'Yacht Dance'," and what the name of David Yazbek's
next album will be (the new one, "Evil Monkey Man," is already out and
in my CD player), check out the XTCfans blog site at
http://blog.myspace.com/xtcfans.

We will dance like tiny boats with cotton sails upon the tops of the
Seas, made of people stained with scorn who never see the light of real love...

-Todd

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

Date: Mon, 3 Mar 2008 09:45:09 -0000 (GMT)
From: "Darryl W. Bullock" <dwbullock@blueyonder.co.uk>
Subject: Looking For Footprints sleeve
Message-ID: <64877.77.103.167.33.1204537509.SVYUQm9OT0h5Rh0W.squirrel@77.103.167.33>

I've never seen this before either; the one man who would know for sure
though would be The Mole!

The hard vinyl version certainly came without a cover, and being in the UK
and having purchased many issues of the magazine during its short two year
or so run I can assure Hillers that, as a rule, the flexis came naked.

There's a complete list of discs issued by the magazine at
http://whom.co.uk/html/flexipop.htm

D

Darryl W. Bullock

www.writesight.com/writers/thisispop
www.worldsworstrecords.blogspot.com

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

Date: Mon, 3 Mar 2008 06:24:27 -0800 (PST)
From: Jackson <jydson@yahoo.com>
Subject: Why Do Men Fight?
Message-ID: <569030.12783.qm@web56802.mail.re3.yahoo.com>

It's been six years or so I've asked everywhere and everyone
(including chalkhills) if they knew the whereabouts of Mick Jones of
Clash/BAD fame ..never an answer....

Listening to an interview on local college radio http://www.wtmd.org
check out their favorite 897 albums of all time!) I was surprised to
learn that Mr. Jones has been in a band entitled Carbon-Silicon..hear
a live set...   http://spinner.aol.com/artists/3x3/carbon-silicon

Chalking off,

Jack

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

Date: Mon, 3 Mar 2008 15:40:55 +0100
From: Don Device <device@noos.fr>
Subject: XTC Sighting
Message-ID: <EC2942CF-ACE8-47C9-82E8-FAB968266479@noos.fr>

All,

On the Onion AvClub site, there's an article on songs about death
which includes 'Dear God' and it's clip...

http://www.avclub.com/content/feature/dont_taunt_the_reaper_26/2

Strangely in the comments section, there's a lot of hate for the song
and most people find it strident or XTC to be a silly pop band.

Check it out and weigh in yourselves. it's a great site anyways.

xo,
d2

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

End of Chalkhills Digest #14-7
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