Chalkhills Digest Volume 5, Issue 249
Date: Wednesday, 18 August 1999

         Chalkhills Digest, Volume 5, Number 249

                Wednesday, 18 August 1999

Today's Topics:

                        Re: Belew
                     Q: ? A: Nirvana
               What a lucky day that was...
                     bring back xtc!
          Sorry I could resist... Nirvana again
                  oleson, oleson & mills
             topicalism and profane revisions
                        "Oh Yoko"
             That Smoke in Easter Theatre...
                           eCD
                    changing subjects
           Being For The Benefit Of Mr Blegvad
                       Spruik off!
 Re: Here's to bow down to the ones called the blind men
                         uk vs us
                     Pissing Matches
               Everything you know is wrong
                    Atari Teenage Riot
                  God and the Astronauts
                   Sputnik Encounter #1
           Shootyz Groove - Dear God Oh my God

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Showed the Vatican what gold's for.

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

Message-Id: <l03130300b3dd41919cad@[204.144.224.150]>
Date: Sun, 15 Aug 1999 22:33:17 -0600
From: Brian Landy <blandy@lawyernet.com>
Subject: Re: Belew

For anyone checking out Belew's solo stuff, I must recommend "here."  This
is by far my favorite.  Fantastic pop on par with XTC.  I think Belew plays
all the instruments.

==================================
Brian Landy, Attorney at Law
blandy@lawyernet.com
==================================

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

From: JEFFREY.THOMAS.JT@bayer-ag.de
Subject: Q: ? A: Nirvana
Message-Id: <0006800014177464000002L042*@MHS>
Date: Mon, 16 Aug 1999 10:43:54 +0200

Howdy again, Hillers,

Don't really want to take sides in this incredibly important Nirvana
thing, but my Chalkhills friend and helper David Seddon might just have
leaned out of the window a *bit* too far with some of his (nevertheless
interesting) comments.  Loved Megan's responses, particularly w/ regard to
Lady Di.  Believe me Megan, she's not the only elevated nobody, there are
more of them.  This may or may not be interpreted by "Britannia" as a
product of the ever-encroaching American cultural values in their world,
but it is true -- and not only there.  You see it everywhere.  And the
values are in *their world*, whether originally American or not.

In addition, although I have *not* actually read the article, I have heard
that "Q" magazine, a very *popular* music mag in Britain, may have
rebutted point 6 of David's post best:

>6.  I can understand why Americans may value him [Cobain] (tho' I think
>it's bogus and hollow...as in what I said about JFK), but I cannot for
>the life of me see why any European would be taken in by this hype.

I think the readers/editors of Q chose, right behind Nos. 1 & 2 (Lennon
and McCartney), Mister Kurt "Tiny Pupils" Cobain as the #3 most
important/influential musician of the rock era or whatever.  If this rumor
is true, either Dave was just plain wrong, or he's thinking "insular", and
actually complimenting the French, Dutch, and Germans while avoiding the
jab at the Brits on his own doorstep.  'Cause it looks like a lot of
people there in GB were taken in by that hype.

I'm not gonna say what I think of Nirvana, but I do think the second-best
argument to use to rebut Dave's sentiments came from Dave himself.  Two
words: Oasis.  ...  Jeez, that actually rebuts a whole slew/slue of Dave's
points.  We could start with ... aahhh, nevermind.

- Jeff

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

Message-ID: <37B82A40.304B08F7@geocities.com>
Date: Mon, 16 Aug 1999 17:12:01 +0200
From: dieling <lemoncurry@geocities.com>
Subject: What a lucky day that was...

Moin Kreiders,

as we're used to say here in rainy stormy, say it, even autumny northern
germany, where the eclipse was like quite dark grey skies turning just a
bit darker for a minute, and that was even mostly because of an
especially autumny-looking cloud that creeped up behind some roof.
Well, that was not a lucky day, but the day before that I went to
Hamburg to browse record shops, and my hunt was succesfull, as I can now
call me proud owner of the following XTC vinyl cuties:

3-D EP !!!!
Go+ EP !!!!
Senses Working Overtime 7' w/ Tissue Tigers and Blame the Weather !!!!
Beeswax !!!!
Big Express with round cover !!!!

And guess what, I have that Big Express with the round cover twice, as
there were two copies in the plastic sleeve. So, anyone interested ?
But alas, I can hear you going, "yeah, but which country? which year?
which number ?"
I'll check that out.

Anyway, what a lucky day that was...
Plus, got a Ken Ishii "Overlap" EP and Acid Scout's "Musik fur
Millionen" CD, but I guess there's only very very few here who know what
that is...

Bye all, and good luck for all and everything...

Lemoncurry
lemoncurry@geocities.com

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

From: dan@gge.com
Message-ID: <37B85267.6B4393F@gge.com>
Date: Mon, 16 Aug 1999 11:03:28 -0700
Subject: bring back xtc!

dan phipps posted this listing from goldmine magazine:
>CD -- XTC:  Due soon -- new Japanese "Apple Venus, Vol.
  >1 Singles EP" features the A- & B-sides of their 3-
   >CD maxi-singles, "Green Man," "I'd Like That" and
   >"Easter Theatre"!..........$26.00

so that means the 'how greenman came to be' track exists and is
soon-to-be available? that's the only reason i wanted it anyway.
i'm just gonna toss this out there: anyone else feel like killing the
nirvana thread? we could talk about something else like, oh.... i
dunno.... xtc, or something.

rheostatics, anyone?

like a new town animal
in a furnished cage,
dan

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

Message-ID: <37b83e4b.fa82d8dc@frontiercorp.com>
Date: Mon, 16 Aug 1999 12:37:31 -0400
From: "SHAWN BERKELEY" <shawn_berkeley@frontiercorp.com>
Subject: Sorry I could resist... Nirvana again

All-

    Well, I for one find this a fascinating discussion and page down if
this bores you. Sure it's not xtc, but items like this make the list
interesting don't they?

>>Dave Seddon Wrote
>>Sex Pistols?  I'm not a fan, but they are not a footnote to pop
history
>>like Nirvana!  There was some merit there!

It is interesting how divisive a topic this has become.  My thoughts
are:
- Nirvana, as others noted, had significant and lasting effects on:
    -The music industry: hair bands out, real people in... (anyone could
buy jeans, T-shirt, cardigan and look sloppy)
    -Music: Nirvana broke punk rock in America!  So, Dave's note above
is interesting. In fact, Nirvana played the role of the Sex Pistols in
America 10
    years later!  Respectfully- Footnote my ass! (uh... I hope I'm not
asking for trouble here...)
-Cobain was a very melodic song writer whose STYLE was heavy.  Beautiful
tunes...
-People will cover Nirvana, buy their records and swap bootlegs in 20
years.  Fact.
-Cobain really was cool in several ways (again as noted by others):
    -He did push his "underground" favorites: allowing them to open
concerts (Raincoats, Shonen Knife), name dropping them, and attending
shows.
    -He embraced the feminine: Note the dress wearing (to antagonize the
"frat" boys who started to love the band?) holding the baby etc
-PS: The Foo Fighters are okay (I may be generous here): the
song-writing is just not up to Curt's level. They are Nirvana's
footnote...
-PSS: Oasis are derivative as hell, but do (DID- that last album was
awful) a great job at it!  You have to love brothers' fighting (you have
to listen to this fantastic bootleg (?) called Snivelling Rivalry for a
giant laugh...)

    Again, I think we have the classic argument this list is known for
occurring due to the cultures that mix on this list!:
Those of us who came to xtc from punk rock (Not classic punk, but punk
in the tradition of diy, quirky is good, lack of success is ok, mtv is
the enemy) look at Nirvana as a huge success story: they changed the
world, had the songs, had a non-conformist spokesperson in Cobain and
sold a lot a records.  We feel good about that.  To me they are a F*%K
you to G&R, the Stones, Sting, Motley Crue etc.  That they get credit
for "alternative" music is too bad; we should all agree that the
alternative FM stations that every market has (Seattle KNDD "the end")
are despicable.
    Those who come to xtc from the musicians side just have to
disrespect Nirvana- too noisy, too sloppy, not enough chords, oh and led
by an addict (no argument there- Cobain was a selfish idiot).  Well, you
are wrong. Too bad.  Oops- didn't I start this with, "that this is just
my opinion". Oh I didn't....  Thanks for the bandwidth and have fun.
Using Rick Wakeman's cape as toilet paper,         -Shamus

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

Message-ID: <19990816215016.13483.rocketmail@web204.mail.yahoo.com>
Date: Mon, 16 Aug 1999 14:50:16 -0700 (PDT)
From: fflynt <fflynt@yahoo.com>
Subject: oleson, oleson & mills

> From: "Steve Oleson" <Steve.Oleson@OAG.STATE.TX.US>
> Subject: I had a dream last night, oh boy!
> How do we polish our lives and nourish our >
spontaneity and brilliance? (A
> good night's sleep would help!)  Andy seems to know
> the secret. What do you
> Chalkhillers think?

polish our lives and nourish our spontaneity and
brilliance? 2 ounces of plutonium, thrice daily. and
andy or anyone else still bothering to release records
in spite of the music industry doesn't "know secrets",
or they'd become accountants (meaning partridge and
every other applicable individual would become several
accountants, each). he (partridge) would also take 2
ounces of plutonium thrice daily.

> From: "Mugsie Rimmer" <B_Mills@email.msn.com>
> Subject: XTC
> I may be thick ! But does anyone know how to convert
> US type video to UK
> type!
> Answers from Brits only ,it's easier that way!
yes, one keeps whispering very gently into the tape's
ears, the tape must then express its desire to be
converted. then again, if the tape is from cardiff,
slip it a tenner and beat it into conversion after
fourteen pints of caffrey's ale, consumed by the tape,
of course.

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

From: dan@gge.com
Message-ID: <37B887D5.94060901@gge.com>
Date: Mon, 16 Aug 1999 14:51:42 -0700
Subject: topicalism and profane revisions

chris wrote:
>C'mon folks keep the content relevant to the
>greatest band that's ever been.
>I know we're all entitled to our own opinions
>on whatever, but some of this shits becoming overtly BORING!

i've been on the chalkhills list since around the release of av1. one of
my first postings sounded alot like yours. everyone was talking about
the beatles & beach boys non-stop. but after a while i got really into
and participated in threads of many different topics that had only a
tenuous silky thread connecting them to xtc. chalkhills is one of the
only places i get to have passionate discussions about music, because
out of all my "real-world" (analog) friends i'm the only one that's that
rabid about it and xtc-ish music in particular. it always circles back
to our lads from pig hill eventually, even if the deviations sometimes
(often?) seem agonizingly obscure and dull (esp. the stuff about a.
belew).
this was not a flame.

this is:

tim wrote:
#2 - NONSUCH
          songs I'd replace: "Holly up on Poppy"
                                         "Then She Appeared"
          with:  "Where Did the Ordinary People Go?"
                   "Goodbye Humanosaurus"

are you out of your %$# *@! mind?!?! if you even look at the song title
'then she appeared' on the cd cover with anything but religious awe,
i'll..... i'll.... grrrrrrrr! boy that just burns me up! and i'm only
going off about this one item on that blasphemous, pompous, revisionist
list of yours. i won't even acknowledge what you were ready to do to
skylarking and the others. what are you, the grand inquisitor or
something?!

exiting to the tune of 'books are burning',
dan

(note: for the squeamish & irony-impaired, the above flame was just a
bit of spirited raillery. please don't anyone get righteously indignant
about cruelty &/or civility in newsgroups.)

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

Message-ID: <37B8904D.786B@gte.net>
Date: Mon, 16 Aug 1999 15:27:25 -0700
From: "May O'Mahoney" <may5272@gte.net>
Subject: "Oh Yoko"

(PART 1 OF 5)

Chris Chapman wrote:
"...there seems to be far to many posts which have nothing at all to
with what this sites all about."

Right.  So here goes the first e-mail from yours truly that will have
absolutely nothing to do with Sting, Nirvana, UK vs. US Video Tape, My
Brilliant Thoughts Are Better Than Your Brilliant Thoughts, Obscure
Bands That No One Gives A @#$% About, and Woodstock.

This e-mail will devote itself entirely to responses to other chalkies
(with no content from above) OR will have content in relation to, next
to, near, by, from, about, for, on top of, underneath, adjacent to...
                         X......T.......C.

(PART 2 OF 5)

Steve Oleson wrote:
"How do we polish our lives and nourish our spontaneity and brilliance?

Inspiration may be a form of superconsciousness, or perhaps of
subconscious - I wouldn't know.  But I am sure it is the antithesis of
self-consciousness.
-Aaron Copeland

(OK, so I think that's Stewart Copeland's dad but that still does not
have anything to do DIRECTLY with Sting.)

(PART 3 OF 5)

Harrison Sherwood wrote:
"Really, asking for an interpretation of "Stairway to Heaven" is one of
those jokes where the act of asking is the joke itself, don't you think?
Sort of like, "How many Canadians does it take to dismantle a nuclear
reactor?"

(Good one!)

I only know this one:
"How many men does it take to screw in a lightbulb?"

(PART 4 OF 5)

steve wrote:"Now that the smoke has cleared and most of our emotional
attachments to AV1 have dissolved...  Where do folks see it in relation
to the rest of the discography?"

This is how I see AV1:

It's my birthday and I'm seven years old.  I've opened the second to the
last wonderful gift, played with it, enjoyed it immensely, but cannot
wait to see what is in that final package - hoping that it's that
exciting, clangerous, scratchy guitar, hooks-left-dangling-in-mid-air,
boisterous confection that I'm hoping it's going to be...

(PART 5 OF 5)

Joshua Hall-Bachner wrote:
"...small trends therefore have the potential to make a much larger
impact on the (UK) charts."

THANK YOU JOSHUA HALL BACHNER FOR YOUR INSIGHT!  Now I can show this to
all of my friends and relatives that accuse me of being a snotty,
pretentious, UK Invasion Groupie and tell them to...
PISS OFF!

Speaking of which I am currently listening to the "Rushmore" soundtrack.
!VIVA LA! UK Rocked then and still rocks now. (I think the first
exclamation mark is supposed to be upside down.  I suggest you stand on
your head for that one.)

Yours Truly,
May O'Mahoney

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

Message-ID: <900822C71730D2118D8C00805F65765C8DBB17@EINSTEIN>
From: Jill Oleson <oleson@moneystar.com>
Subject: That Smoke in Easter Theatre...
Date: Mon, 16 Aug 1999 17:23:33 -0500

I love the line in "Easter Theatre" where Andy sings:

"If we'd all breathe in and blow away the smoke..."

Every time I hear that line, I think of it as a metaphor
for something.  However, I can't figure out for what.
Is the smoke a metaphor for something we could
see if we would just determine that we want to see it?

If so, is it a metaphor for:
  *  the industrial haze of our overly busy lives?
  *  our blind cruelty to others who are deemed inferior?
  *  the early morning fog as we daily stumble toward ecstasy?
  *  the black smut from a rush-hour clutter of cars?
  *  a mirage creating a non-existent oasis in the desert heat?
  *  a thunderhead that threatens to drown as it drenches?
  *  a cottony cloud that comforts till it's transported afar?
  *  an illusion obscuring what otherwise might be our reality?

Or could it be:
  *  our collective mistakes?
  *  our stupidity?
  *  an illusion?

Please tell me what your opinion is.  I encourage you
to be poetic in your response and not at all shy.

Thanks,

Jill Oleson
Austin, Texas

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

Message-ID: <37B8A3C7.E0DC3203@tmbg.org>
Date: Mon, 16 Aug 1999 19:50:36 -0400
From: Ben Gott/Loquacious Music <gott@tmbg.org>
Organization: http://listen.to/loquacious
Subject: eCD

Gang,

George Toledo wrote:

>Well, the official word (via tvt) is that the greenman video was so
>"horrible" that it will not be released. That's a dissapointment.

Hey, TVT!  Why don't you make "Apple Venus Volume 2" an "Enhanced CD"?  You
know, like Morrissey's "Early Burglary Years" or Sarah McLachlan's
"Fumbling..." or Mike Oldfield's "Songs of Distant Earth" or whatever?  I
myself would cherish a cute little interactive XTC thing in which I could
view the "Greenman" video, listen to Andy & Colin chat about the songs, see
pictures of the original lyrics, etc.  Anyone else agree?

-Ben

+----------------------------------------------------------------+
     Benjamin Gott . Loquacious Music . Salisbury, CT 06068
AOL: Plan4Nigel . Telephone (860) 435-9726 . Mobile (207) 798-1859
 "Son," he said / "Grab your things, I've come to take you home."
+----------------------------------------------------------------+

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

From: OMBEAN1@aol.com
Message-ID: <343ba4f.24e9fc78@aol.com>
Date: Mon, 16 Aug 1999 19:44:56 EDT
Subject: changing subjects

Chalkbreath,
 ENOUGH ALREADY!!!   Im ready to blow MY brains out. Nirvana web site is two
more aisles down on the right. Theres plenty of XTC to be talking about.
"Homespun",no Greenman. Dont worry Chris Chapman,youre not wrong. I still
have AV1 in my car.I play it every day. "Id Like That" is so damn catchy &
"Harvest Festival" still mesmerizes me.
 Id like to know what happened to the "Greenman" video for TVT to label it
"horrible".
   Mitch, fill us in ----please! Whats going on . We want studio doings.
 I cant remember who said it but, replace "Then She Appeared" on Nonsuch?!?!
Have you lost your mind? At least its XTC related.
 The rant is over.It rained ,I should be happy. Roger

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

From: Iain.Murray.70428176@army.defence.gov.au
Message-Id: <4A2567D0.0001FA3C.00@stagemaster.army.defence.gov.au>
Date: Tue, 17 Aug 1999 10:31:18 +1000
Subject: Being For The Benefit Of Mr Blegvad

(Let's see if I can sneak this past the e-mail police without the "SEC :
UNCLASSIFIED" disclaimer........)

I borrowed a few albums from a friend over the weekend. One was
Shriekback's "Oil And Gold" (which I was told was a good place to start),
and it wasn't too bad ; but the one that really grabbed me, for reasons
which I'll explain in a minute, was "King Strut And Other Stories", by
Peter Blegvad. Until the past two days, I'd only ever heard *of* Blegvad -
I'd never actually heard any of his stuff.

As it turns out, the title track and "King Strut (reprise)" were co-written
with Andy Partridge. Andy also produced about four of the album's 12
tracks. Having listened to AV1 incessantly for the past few months, "King
Strut (reprise)" came as something of a revelation. I don't know if anyone
else is familiar with this album, and "King Strut (reprise)" in particular,
but the credits for this track list Peter Blegvad as providing acoustic
guitar and vocals, and Andy Partridge does "everything else". This
"everything else" includes a horn part that sounds (at least, to me) very
similar to the horn part at the beginning of "River Of Orchids" ; this
album was recorded about nine years earlier than AV1. If you can find a
copy, I can't recommend it highly enough (and to think that my friend found
it on vinyl for one dollar!).

I'm probably the only one who finds this interesting, but at least it was
XTC-related for a change.........

Iain

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

Message-ID: <001901bee862$3ef909e0$4c611e18@we.mediaone.net>
From: "Drew MacDonald" <drewmacdonald@mediaone.net>
Subject: Spruik off!
Date: Mon, 16 Aug 1999 20:40:27 -0700

Three quick notes:

1.) Chris Chapman, I don't think you'll be getting the flames you expect. I
think plenty of us agree that this forum should stay focused on Our Boys,
although I have been known to veer off-topic myself.

2.) Maybe it's good for humanity that "Greenman" isn't
coming out as a single, because then it might be played on the radio at
unexpected times in public places. And because I can't hear that intro
without swaying and swirling like a blissed-out Deadhead or a "danseur
interpretiv",  innocent people might actually witness me dancing. Not for
the squeamish, I assure you.

3.) I never want to see the word "spruiking" again. Not here. Not anwhere.

Drew
now playing: Michael Carpenter (Mr. Chapman's fellow Aussie) - "Baby"

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

Message-ID: <37B8E4CE.2E036A0A@pobox.com>
Date: Tue, 17 Aug 1999 00:27:58 -0400
From: Jefferson Ogata <ogata@pobox.com>
Organization: The Antibozo
Subject: Re: Here's to bow down to the ones called the blind men

<JEFFREY.THOMAS.JT@bayer-ag.de> wrote:
> I find it fascinating to read that everyone's favorite song with hit
> potential is stricken from the TVT/Cooking Vinyl catalogue and no one
> seems to really get upset.

Sorry, I don't agree. I find Green Man to be rather preachy and unusually
repetitive for an XTC song. I'm all for focusing marketing money on the
songs with hit potential, but I don't think Green Man would pay off. Let's
wait for Volume 2, and then we can watch TVT and Cooking Vinyl kick the
masses' asses.

The esteemed Harrison Sherwood <sherwood@averstar.com> wrote:
> From: Jon Rosenberger <wile1coyote@yahoo.com>
> Subject: Zep-Cobain-and maybe XTC Too
> >>"Can someone please point out a cohesive lyric that Robert Plant
> actually wrote?"
>
> Sure--""And she's climbing a stairway to heaven""  it's meaning is
> obscure and open to interpretaion but it is certainly cohesive.

I haven't been reading the digests quite as carefully as I used to, but am
I the only one to notice that the line is being misquoted? It's "And she's
buying a stairway to heaven," which certainly isn't quite so cohesive. I
mean, who buys stairways anyway? -- home builders mainly, I
suppose. Strange metaphor, if you ask me.

"otis career jr" <ribber@trail.com> wrote:
> re: Bears - eh.... ok stuff, but certainly nothing to write
> home to mom about! A couple decent tunes on each lp, n thats about it,
> kids....
> .... If you like the 'quirk' in XTC's stuff, I'd send ya shopping for Soul
> Coughing's newer, "EL Oso"... not sounds like XTC, but there's a similar
> attitude thing.

Rather ironic that "El Oso" means "The Bear", isn't it?

--
Jefferson Ogata.  smtp: <ogata@pobox.com>  http://www.pobox.com/~ogata/
finger: ogata@pobox.com  ICQ: 19569681  whois: jo317@whois.internic.net

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

From: jsteich@mindspring.com
Message-ID: <001301bee86e$032d4e60$dc388ad1@funtosplamisham>
Subject: uk vs us
Date: Tue, 17 Aug 1999 01:04:39 -0400

whats up with all the america bashing, especially by all the
british/european lovelies who know about as much about it as what they see
on the fucking television?  america is not what you think it is, its not
what i think it is (even if i live here), and its definatly not what america
says it is.  american culture may not be the deepest around, but it is
incredibly broad.  we take everyones shit, gobble it up and spit it right
back at everyone else.  and everyone takes it, especially the uk.  america
is just a place to live (as england is, only you dont have to pay to use the
filthy bathrooms).

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

From: WTDK@aol.com
Message-ID: <6b4f9d10.24ea3200@aol.com>
Date: Mon, 16 Aug 1999 23:33:20 EDT
Subject: Pissing Matches

Yea! Finally someone after my own heart! Let's get back to what this space
is devoted to--discussion of xtc and related bands!  Let's put an end to
pissing matches about my band is better than your band, etc. and
justifications as to why we listen to the bands we do.

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

Message-ID: <D9E6CEC7734AD111BCF70090273C5D674B63B7@user8.chemonics.net>
From: Todd Bernhardt <TBernhardt@Chemonics.net>
Subject: Everything you know is wrong
Date: Tue, 17 Aug 1999 04:46:36 -0400

Hi:

Good golly, I'm checking in from Mali! (Here for a two-week business thang.)

To Michael Davies:
Nice post.

George Toledo revealed:
>Well, the official word (via tvt) is that the greenman video was so
"horrible" that it will not be released. That's a dissapointment.<

Now _that's_ interesting. It makes me REALLY want a copy. (I wonder, though,
could it possibly be worse than the video for "Wonderland"?)

Finally:
Folks, about the American vs. Brits comments -- puhleeze. Remember, all
generalizations are wrong (including this one).

Au revoir,
Todd

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

From: CCooli9575@aol.com
Message-ID: <48fecfb7.24ea98e4@aol.com>
Date: Tue, 17 Aug 1999 06:52:20 EDT
Subject: Atari Teenage Riot

>Personally I don't know where the "next big thing" is going to come from.
>All I know is that it will come from an unexpected quarter, and it
>probably won't be about music, and someone's gonna try and make a shitload
>of money out of it.

>What? Computers? Oh yeah, more than likely ....

  In that case, I would guess Atari Teenage Riot would be the next big thing.
End of civilisation as we know it, folks. When I was straining to think of
truly original bands in the 90's earlier, I'd forgotten about them. Try to
imagine thrash-punk programmed on Quicktime samples and that's them. Highly
grating and very difficult listening, but admittedly original. I thought of
two other 90's bands who sound like nobody else: The Eels and
Silverfish.(yeah, and I suppose the Earwigs, The Cockroaches and The
Blackflies too! :-))

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

Message-Id: <199908171512.LAA23836@lima.epix.net>
From: "Michael Davies" <miser17@epix.net>
Date: Mon, 16 Aug 1999 20:04:35 -0500
Subject: God and the Astronauts

> the charts. One should also note that though the American pop music charts
> may be cack, there are many (and diverse) artists who succeed to such a
> level that they become large-scale cult acts, whose names may be familiar
> to a large portion of American youth -- Bjork, Portishead, Stereolab, and
> Pavement, to name a few examples from my own collection.

Bjork may be familiar to the typical teenager, but the typical
teenager thinks she's incredibly weird.  The typical teenager has
never heard of Portishead, Stereolab, or Pavement.  Pavement and
Portishead each had one hit about five years ago, and Stereolab have
never had a hit.  It seems like in Britain bands can be critically
acclaimed, hang around for a while expecting and being expected to
have hits, and eventually have hits.  In America almost no popular
bands have ever been heard of by anyone before their success.  Not
many bands gradually build followings on major labels here.

On the other hand, our bands don't have "feuds" all the time.  That
must be silly to read about.  The closest our bands come to that is
the singer of Third Eye Blind saying that the singer from Matchbox 20
might want to lay off the cupcakes, and the singer from Matchbox 20
responding with something like "Well, that guy's got enough problems
himself, you know."

In my last post I said that "Dancin' in the Moonlight" was by Harvest
King.  Since then I have realized that it is actually by King
Harvest.  Thanks for indulging my idiocy, everyone.  I can't stand
myself.

You'd better listen to me!  It's a powder keg!
Michael davies
miser17@epix.net

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Message-Id: <199908171627.JAA00330@access.tucson.org>
From: "Jeff Smelser" <jsmelser@access.tucson.org>
Date: Tue, 17 Aug 1999 09:24:54 -0700
Subject: Sputnik Encounter #1

Hi Chalkhillians,

Last Friday night I was happy to meet Bill Sputnik Spooner when
he and his band, The Folk-Ups played here in Tucson.

We had exchanged a few emails in the past, during which I
mentioned being on Chalkhills/ XTC list.  He said he liked XTC.
So, the first thing I did when I walked up to him was ask if he had
Apple Venus #1 as I held it up saying that this was their new
album.  He said he didn't have it so I gave him mine to enjoy while
he traveled.  He seemed glad to have some new music in his life.

After this I got him to sign my Remote Control album where in the
bottom right Hollywood Square he wrote, "To Jeff:  Thanks for
being, and the CD. xxxx Sputnik."  Then he drew a little ghostly
figure overlooking his shoulder in HIS bottom left-hand square.

Later the Folk-Ups played 2 fabulous sets which included a lot of
Bill's original material, some cool covers like Foxy Lady and
Please Please Me, and a handful of Tubes songs stemming mostly
from the first two albums.

The Folk-Ups are definately worth checking out if they come to
your town.

SMX

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Date: Tue, 17 Aug 1999 12:27:04 -0400 (EDT)
From: Brian Whitman <bwhitman@crudites.org>
Subject: Shootyz Groove - Dear God Oh my God
Message-ID: <Pine.LNX.4.10.9908171217560.24580-100000@netspace.org>

Oh my!

[I searched back a few Chalkhills and looked on the web page and couldn't
find anything about this.]

I was in Tower last night persuing the Listening Stations and one was from
this rock/rap/funk group Shootyz Groove that I seem to remember from many
moons ago. Anyway, they covered 'Dear God'! It was called "Dear God (Oh My
God.)" I listened to it! I'm pretty sure this wasn't the much-talked-about
sample of said song by another rap artist, because there was no sample as
far I can tell from the actual song, it was a 'cover.' So anyway, the
lyrics were only the same on the choruses, the verses were this rap-type
thing. It was interesting to say the least.

Brian Whitman
bwhitman@crudites.org
http://www.netspace.org/users/bwhitman

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End of Chalkhills Digest #5-249
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18 August 1999 / Feedback