Chalkhills Digest Volume 6, Issue 140
Date: Tuesday, 30 May 2000
Chalkhills Digest, Volume 6, Number 140
Tuesday, 30 May 2000
Topics:
Nice doggie
how now brown cow
Are the stars in alignment or what??!!
Review time (run for the hills...)
ELECTRIC X T C
The Full Yazbek
good god almighty!!!
Translating English to American
Various rantings from a de-lurker
Cardiff man fries brain in sunny shock horror!
Purge your demo(n)s
Long, but worth it (I hope)
Picture Book
Blastin' XTC & The Worst Songs From The Best Bands.
xtc ON npr
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Is this anybody's golden age?
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Date: Sat, 27 May 2000 05:20:32 PDT
From: "Duncan Kimball" <dunks58@hotmail.com>
Subject: Nice doggie
Message-ID: <20000527122032.9404.qmail@hotmail.com>
Hail, Argonauts!
Vee Tube:
- Christ! I actually UNDERSTOOD what you were saying! Have I ascended to a
higher plane of conscousness, or are you just dumbing it down for the plebs?
* * *
davidoh:
- you must have really liked math(s) at school. *Really* ... REALLY
* * *
Frank McDonnell:
>... at each listen SIFJ gains more of it's own identity in my mind.
Good call!
(That descending bassline, just before the chorus ...mmmm...chocolatey....)
>XTC are the kings at closing an album.
I was totally out of line with that crack about "Church of Women" being the
closer. What was I thinking? Was I on drugs? (If not, why not?)
* * *
WES:
>Well, I guess Andy just
>hasn't mastered the art of the fade.
>There's always next album Andy,
>don't give up.
Are you being sar-carstic?
* * *
This week's winner of the Chalkhills "Johnny On The Spot" Award goes to:
[drum roll]
- David ("Well, actually, that guy would have been me, in my office")
Hathaway
Is this service above and beyond the call of duty, or what?? Man, you should
be put on retainer by TVT's Marketing Dep't. Talk about Presence of Mind!
Good work!
* * *
Metaphor of the week:
>..."like a masturbator stopping in mid-
>stroke..."
- Ben Gott
I have it on good authority that an advance copy of this line was shown to
Barbara Cartland only moments before her death.
* * *
>Subject: Harrison? I'm waiting...
Master, we await your wisdom.
* * *
John " I just didn't think customer service like this existed any longer"
Boudreau"
Any chance you could get those people from Polk to do a bit of customer
service training for the Australian banks?
* * *
>Re: Iain Murray and the Dog with no Nuts!!
Iain
- Class act, old son
Toni
- if I were your dog I would think myself lucky I got away with only having
my nuts cut off. If it were my dog ....
(yeah, picture that ... Me? WITH A DOG?? bwahahahaha)
Duncan ("I had a pet once. It was delicious.") Kimball
------------------------------ Date: Fri, 26 May 2000 18:50:14 EDT From: Saints3Den@aol.com Subject: how now brown cow Message-ID: <35.5b723b1.266059a6@aol.com> folks... strange how such a great song as "church" ends up with COW as an acronym. but then again, mebbe thats where the milk that turns to butter comes from... and speaking of church of women...I can just imagine some future "Lilith Fair" with the grand finale as a stage full of "divas" going on and on, ad infinitum -singing Church Of Women... " like those men like those men, we are nothing like those men... " a veritable lesbian anthem... Wounded Horse . really growing on me . I originally fell for the advance "it sucks" announcement before hearing it. I wonder if those who can't stomach it are in the "Bungalo rules" club ? This song brings to me the image from the "stage-fright" concert, where the band starts to rip through "Respectable Street", only to have Andy "stumble and fall like a wounded horse" off the stage. Hey! I wonder if that is around the same time that Andy "found out she was riding another man"? Anyone know the chronology of these things? Could it really be "her " fault XTC no longer tours? Is it only a coincidence that two of the Wasp Star nay-sayers are big time Dave Gregory collaborators? I am thinking of that RSMOORE fellow and Mark Stribjos, who I can't recall ever saying anything against XTC. You two! front and center! Is it only a coincidence, or are you letting your tethers to the great squinty cloud your vision? Also... Mark, I don''t care how old Andy's songs are as long as the pipeline stays open. Please Sir Partridge. I want some more. Lastly. whew! "Zippy the pinhead" is looking for the voice of zippy for some tv project . you can send choices via zippythepinhead.com site. With all the mention on the 'hills recently, I sent in TOM WAITS as a suggestion. I also submitted Wallace Shawn and Christopher Lloyd... whaddaya think? push me off to start the fun on a bike ride to the Wasp Star eddie st.martin
------------------------------ Date: Fri, 26 May 2000 16:35:36 -0700 From: "Macdonald, Robert " <RMacdonald@bcbc.bc.ca> Subject: Are the stars in alignment or what??!! Message-ID: <EB3FE924F73DD11187E400805FEA8E810495570F@bcbcmail.bcbc.bc.ca> Just a quickie to be followed by a more thorough exploration of Wasp Star at a later date. I don't know about the rest of you but I have been hearing a much better buzz about this album than from AV vol. 1. (don't get me wrong I <<LOVED>> AV1) Evidence. 1. When I picked it up from the local HMV they had it in their new release shelf on the release date! 2. The sales clerk actually said to me when I walked up with the cd...."I've heard good things about this". Usually they don't have a clue. 3. The local mainstream rock station 100.3 the Q which will only play Nigel and occasionally Dear God (and then usually by Sarah M.) has been playing "I'm The Man..." and the dj was heard saying before playing it that they had been getting quite a few calls for it!! 4. I went into the Future Shop today (electronics superstore with cd area) and they actually had Wasp Star in their new release bin and previous to that they didn't even have and XTC slot in their cd racks!! If this kind of thing is happening here in sleepy Victoria, then it must be happening at a greater rate elsewhere. I'm hoping that they will be able to sell way more copies then they did Vol. 1!! Cheers Rob Macdonald Victoria BC PS I just finished listening to the cd and The Wheel and the Maypole still raised the hair on the back of my neck and that's after hearing it around 20 times in the past four days!!!
------------------------------ Date: Fri, 26 May 2000 17:58:59 -0700 From: Ed Kedzierski <ed.kedzierski@blvdmedia.com> Subject: Review time (run for the hills...) Message-ID: <08B5DDC2BABCD311BFC6005004A884B013B67A@mgcservices.com> Well, it's time for me to add to the obligatory review glut, not that I feel guilty about it or anything... (of course the usuall disclaimers about how it's all opinion, apologies for mentioning demos, etc. Oh, and sorry that so much of it is actually arguing with stuff that others have said, but it was too late to change that once I read some of the stuff that's been posted...) Playground: Love the way this begins. Did I mention how much I love the guitar sound on this album? This song makes me wish that the last album-opener to start with an electric guitar (Peter Pumkinhead, as if you didn't know) had been recorded more like this, as I always thought that PP's guitar sound was too clean and sterile - even the distortion & the noise at the beginning was too clean, but this... the guitars have a great trebly-scratchy sound, (totally unlike the generic "fake alternative" guitar sound I was complaining about a while back, based on a sound that was maybe enjoyable on one Sonic Youth song 15 years ago, but now... enough!) and a presence that makes it sound like your stereo speaker IS the amp the guitar is plugged into, an effect I love but haven't heard for years and years (since early "guitar in one speaker, drums & vocals in the other" stereo recordings from the sixties). Funnily enough, I used to have quite a thing about what this song is about (the whole "your school experiences affect your entire life" thing), but these days I'm pretty much over it (still think it's fairly true, but it doesn't send me into the rant it used to); a few years ago this would have had me playing it several times before going to the next song (similarly, had I heard "Your Dictionary" in around '95 when I was pretty bitter over being dumped... well perhaps it's just as well that I didn't have that song to help me keep dwelling on it). Like this version quite a bit more than the demo (which, weirdly enough, took the longest of all the demos I heard for me to get into). Stupidly Happy: DOO-do-do-do-doot! I'm tempted to leave it at that. What can I say? Massively fun. Love the extra layering, especially when the giant plays the big guitar... In Another Life: Walked around the office today with that harmonica bit running through my head. This song makes me want to create a TV show just to use this song as a theme (in fact, I think some sort of fake opening credit sequence to a fictitious sitcom would would make a good video for this...) My Brown Guitar: I also loved the earlier version, but after a month or two of having my expectations for the final version hammered into the ground by everyone's bitching, I was pleasantly surprised when I finally heard it. Very pleasantly surprised. It's a little slower, but the way some people were going on about it I almost expected it to sound like HAL shutting down. I mean come on, it's not THAT much slower. I think that this is one where I like the two versions almost equally: I loved the twangy, echoey leads in the original, but I also like the skewed (almost tempted to use the q word...) noisy one here, and I definitely prefer the way this one ends. Also, the guitars on the chorus remind me more than a little of "Merely A Man" (in a very good way). Boarded Up: I really tried to like the demo for this but it was the one I kept skipping. Gave the official version a listen and... WOW! Talk about coming to life! I really like this song now, and before I thought it would be the weak link. The noises, strings, the slightly altered guitar part, Colin's vocal performance, the whispered bits... all a vast improvement. This version is eerie and intriguing, where the demo was merely bleak. Man Who Murdered Love: this might be the one that is reminding people of XTC's imitators, but as far as I'm concerned it's really a case of the true masters returning and blowing the pretenders off the stage. If this one doesn't catch in your brain, you must be some sort of earless space toad. Very reminiscent of XTC of some year's past (which I guess it kind of is, being written so long ago), but there's no way that that's a bad thing. We're All Light: What a lot of fuss over a sound effect! And a very cool, fun one at that - gives each part of the song an extra little burst of energy & really helps drive things along. And I'm sorry, but I think a lot of people are being historically confused here - there seems to be this attitude that XTC are sacrificing the timelessness of their sound by allowing such a "techno" or "hip-hop" sound into one of their songs. Nonsense. They're just extending that timelessness further. This is not an invention of the nineties, and dates back to the ancestors of current tech-dominated genres (at least 15 or more years) like old industrial, "extra-old-school" rap & hip-hop (who mentioned Cypress Hill? Do you really think that they invented these sounds? Even just within rap you can go back many many years before that band was even formed & find these sounds... ever even heard of Grandmaster Flash?) and of course good old synth-pop. It also really reminds me of the days when there was a rich and fertile cross pollination constantly going on between all these genres, which was always leaking out into even the poppiest post-punk stuff. To me this represents the band casually showing off (not full frontal, just a cheeky little flash of nipple) the fact that they've been around since the days when people felt free to mix & match and people didn't worry as much about sticking to their genres. I mean, why are "techno" (the specifically named current genre) and hip-hop the only things anyone can think of? How about, say, Severed Heads? Or even something like Skinny Puppy, or that little percussion effect in the Woodentops' "Love Affair With Everyday Living?" In my mind, there's a certain 80s feel to this song, but in a totally good way, with the band showing the same expertise with the 80s elements as they always have with 60s elements. I've veered off a bit here but basically: song me like. Also, reminds me just a bit of "Omnibus". Standing in for Joe: Speaking of 60s elements... Man, whatever band name this would have gone under if the bubblegum album had come out, this song is the "Dukes' Cameo" for this album. The mix of sounds forming the main riff, the bassline, the strings, the guitar touches - this could be a newly found Dukes song given the "Yellow Submarine" remix treatment. Reminds me of so many things (texturally, that is; I've never heard "Barrytown" & can barely remember what "Tell Me What You See" sounds like.) '67 Stones, Love, even a bit of Donovan... Sure, it's a silly song, but what's the harm in that? Not only my favourite Colin song on this album, but one of my favourites on this album period. Wounded Horse: Now come on. What's not to like? I'm getting into some pretty tenuous (and based on purely personal reactions) connections here, but to me this song is like "Shake You Donkey Up" pulled ass backwards through "No Language in Our Lungs" until it turns inside out an becomes the bastard child of "2000 Umbrellas" and "Blue Overall". As it were. With really loud guitars. At first, I kind of missed the "lonesome cowboy" whistle at the beginning of the demo, but that's worn off. In fact, this was the song that was playing in my head the most today. You and the Clouds: I'm still trying not to go "Grrrr... does NOT sound like Sting, damnit" when I play this, so it may take a while for my enjoyment to be entirely untainted by that little dispute, but it's getting better all the time. I'm actually getting the slightest whiff of the Cure's "Close to Me" as well (perhaps it's just the way the horns come in) but in a good way (again). Also, I love what Colin's doing on the bass as we get to the final verses. Church of Women: Stunning. From the demo I knew that this song would be nothing less than impressive, but the final version is beyond my expectations. The sort of "Let it Be" style guitar-keyboard bit that comes in on the "gargoyles round their hearts/thorns around their minds" parts pushes a great song into the sublime. The punched up guitars in the "lie for a lie" part and the fact that Andy chose a more restrained solo after proving on the demo that he can noodle with the best of them just earn extra points. I can hear the similarities someone was mentioning between this and "Books Are Burning", but this makes me wish that "Books" was recorded more in the way that this song was, giving it a bit more life. Wheel and the Maypole: for me, one of the reasons I love this song so much goes back to the whole reason I was never really able to get into prog. I can remember, when I did check the occasional prog album out, hearing snippets of actual songs (that I would often not mind) that would go off into endless instrumental indulgences (which I couldn't stand at all). I can remember looking at friends' double and triple albums by bands like Yes, etc. and I would see that an entire side would have only two (or even only one) songs on it, and as I looked at that expanse of black taking up so much vinyl, I'd wonder "how much of that is a song that I might enjoy, and how much is endless deedly-deedly-deedly on the guitar or wep-wep-wep-wep on the synth? Why can't it all be song?" Same thing with songs that would go on for 7 minutes with endless repititions of the chorus and no new verses - "A long song sure, but just as long as there's MORE SONG in it!" This song really delivers on that wish for me; besides, I'm a sucker for the two-part combined thing, as long as neither part is an extended instrumental jam. A lesser band, with an inflated opinion of the audiences' interest in hearing them wank, would have put an interminable meandering instrumental section between the two sections, but here we go from the real thing to the real thing, no bullshit. Perfect, a triumph, etc., especially the big chords after each "pot won't hold our love" (loved that bit in the demo, and love that it's so much bigger here), and the fuzzy, phasy, feedbacky guitar behind the "everything decays" part. Well, maybe I should have arbitrarily chosen something to dislike just to keep from seeming too gushing, but that would have been a lie. I really f**king like this album, and it is beyond a shadow of a doubt "real" XTC. Still not comfortable using song quotes to sign off, Ed K.
------------------------------ Date: Sat, 27 May 2000 21:52:18 +0100 From: davebancroft@cwctv.net Subject: ELECTRIC X T C Message-ID: <0c5373749201b50DTVMAIL12@smtp.cwctv.net> dont they sound more at ease going back tobasics and without VIRGIN? THEY own their ideas,not virgin,you or I .ws is a kick up the arses that thought they were aspent force from dave,the man who murdered love
------------------------------ Date: Sat, 27 May 2000 13:59:52 -0700 From: "Drew MacDonald" <drewmacdonald@mediaone.net> Subject: The Full Yazbek Message-ID: <000001bfc81e$b11b6580$ac841818@we.mediaone.net> Sorry if this is old news, but Yazbek fans will be interested to know that David has done the music & lyrics for the new, big-budget, hopefully-Broadway-bound stage musical version of "The Full Monty." It's the cover story of tomorrow's entertainment section of the Los Angeles Times. They even named Yazbek's albums in the story. I suppose the article will soon be up at www.latimes.com , but it's not yet there as of this posting. Drew
------------------------------ Date: Sat, 27 May 2000 13:41:58 -0400 From: "Daniel Phipps" <phipps@schoollink.net> Subject: good god almighty!!! Message-ID: <000701bfc802$dc5dfc60$538c04d8@pavilion> just got back from purchasing "wasp star..." and i'm listening to it now for the first time as i key this and just have to say -- ANOTHER XTC CLASSIC LIVES!!!!!!!!!! man, oh man, oh man!! these guys have done it once again, people! not a damned bad cut on it! wonderful! stupendous! it is time to shout out the fact that the "electric" xtc is back and in fine form, thank you! andy and colin haven't lost a thing in the talent department, no matter how long it might take between music releases! ...and, omigod!!, this one has the lyrics!!!!!!!! good job as usual, guys! :-) dan is indeed "stupidly happy"!!! xtc rules! -- /dan ------------------------------------------------------------------------- /dan & ginger phipps <phipps@schoollink.net> "right here in this moment is right where i'm meant to be..." (edwin mccain)
------------------------------
Date: Sat, 27 May 2000 12:16:35 -0400
From: "Tim Kendrick" <tim63@earthlink.net>
Subject: Translating English to American
Message-ID: <000e01bfc7f6$ef67c220$3f981b3f@tim63>
Hi Everyone!
One of the benefits of living with an Englishman
is that he helps me understand some of the English
phrases that Colin and Andy use.
Specifically in this case, some of the lyrics to
"In Another Life".
LINE: "In your mills and boon"
Mills and Boon publish trashy English romance novels.
LINE: "I'll bring you Milk Tray from a parachute"
Milk Tray is a box of chocolates - TV commercials feature death defying
ways a guy can bring the candy to his love, including dropping down
from the sky in a parachute. (A spoof of James Bond kind of thing.)
LINE: "Test matches we might win"
England apparently never wins their test matches (cricket).
I'll give out more for my fellow Americans later!
Tim K.
------------------------------ Date: Sun, 28 May 2000 10:04:54 -0400 From: "Jerry" <xtc@mindspring.com> Subject: Various rantings from a de-lurker Message-ID: <NEBBIAFGAKPHLJBBHBIAAEDKCAAA.xtc@mindspring.com> Does anyone even use that word anymore? De-lurker... First off, the album has hardly left my player since it got in my house, a day after release. Favorite line: "Some sweet girl, playing my wife/runs off with a boy whose bike she'll ride." As a man who had his first wife leave him for a man who rides bikes for recreation (not that I don't, but it's another story), a man who "played in my playground," so to speak... the line hit home, as does the whole song. I'm sure Marianne was lurking (there it is again) in that song's line, somewhere? Don't know if anyone has picked up the latest Guitar Player magazine (look for the 'zine with the most talentless hypocrite sell-out on the cover, and you will see at the bottom a teaser for an interview with Andy), but in this article he is asked to pick his two favorite guitar influences. I will ruin the suspenes when I tell you that it's Ollie Halsall and Jerry Garcia. As a bass player in a Dead cover band in Atlanta (plug, plug) I'm impressed. (The suspense will have to remain if you are curious about who the hypocrite is and about the rest of the interview. For instance, I was shocked to learn that the album was recorded almost entierly through a Pod, rather than miking the amps.) Now, an unrleated XTC question for Duncan Kimball... it is true that your highly politicized signature line is annoying, but for the life of me, it is also incomprehensible. Mind explaining it?
------------------------------ Date: Sat, 27 May 2000 11:36:30 +0000 From: Scott Barnard <gforsche@videotron.ca> Subject: Cardiff man fries brain in sunny shock horror! Message-ID: <"000f01bfc7cf$cd5c5000$736ac818"@oemcomputer.videotron.ca> We poor misguided souls should all take a moment to thank Mr powerpop for setting us straight on Wasp Star. Through his benevolence we can now see that what we had thought was a joyful, giddy, slammin' slice of perfect summer pop is really a rather substandard collection of b-sides and retreads (as was the pompous, overblown, tuneless AV1). How could we have so deluded ourselves? Mr powerpop? On evidence, a misnomer of the highest order, methinks. ---- I wholeheartedly agree with vee tube that WS has a very real "band" feel to it. And as much as I loved his work, I think Dave's absence is at least part of the reason. A friend of mine, who rather grudgingly admires XTC (he's a metalloid), on hearing certain tracks (Supergirl, Pink Thing, Merely a Man) will invariably remark, "Oh, did they bring in a session guy to do that?". That sort of sums it up for me. On the last several albums, it always felt like Andy's guitar was mixed down, depriving us of what, on D&W, BS, ES, etc. had been the essence of the XTC sound. With less dwiddley-dee and more chunk-a-ronk we are reminded of what made us love this band twenty-odd years ago. Case in point - Playground: best album opener since Respectable Street. ---- Something else just occurred to me. This, for me, is the first album since Mummer where I don't find myself thinking of other artists. You know what I mean: "Ahh, sort of an Autumn Almanac bit there", "Oh, he's really doing a Caroline No here!", "Uhhh, the Move, right?". Ok, so I may have flashed briefly on Macca/Badfinger during My Brown Guitar but this is the exception blahblahblah.... And as for String (thanks, Palin), No Fucking Way. This sounds like XTC, and gloriously so. I like this album so much I'm going to buy it lunch. All naysayers are constipated, po-faced killjoys who really should get out more. S. p.s. Song most unlike gloomy descriptions in spoiler-posts: Wounded Horse. Brilliant!
------------------------------ Date: Sat, 27 May 2000 17:28:17 EDT From: KINGSTUNES@aol.com Subject: Purge your demo(n)s Message-ID: <27.622838c.266197f1@aol.com> I was quite taken with Gray Pakham's and Harrison Sherwoods comments in 6-137, and I wish to cast my vote with the naysaying of the naysayers. WS does not suffer from lacking Dave or Mattucks or anything you want to complain about. It stands as it's own work of art, as did AVI, and should be appreciated as such. It's really that simple. WS doesn't suffer from anything at all except our insufferable notions that it would have been better ONLY IF.... Lighten up, fer chrissakes! Please!!! As Harrison pointed out, the real crux of their art is the songs. Everything else is subservient to that. What on earth does having Van friggin' Halen doing a lead have to do with it? XTC is about songcraft and arranging. And this batch is as good as it gets! It's absolutely fabulous!! Let go, and you just might begin to see the light and have a good time, ya know? As for this demo mess, as has been pointed out, we are the ones to blame. I acquired a copy for the simple reason that I want as much of their material as I can get my hands on, and I knew that a lot of great tunes weren't going to make the cut, and I wanted something of them. And I would gladly give Andy some good hard earned money for them. But this is what I have discovered. I wish that I would not have heard them before the release. Now I have to wean myself from them so I can adjust to the album (which, fortunately, has not been as hard to do as I thought it would be!). I wish I could have had the impact of the music as it was released. I took that risk, and now I have paid for it. And I don't think I'll do it again. Hearing them after the fact would satisfy my anthology urges, but never again before. Look what's happened! All these ridiculous comparisons! To each and every one of you, especially those who are still hung up on the demos, I offer this suggestion to the problem as it stands: STOP LISTENING TO THE DEMOS! NOW! Put em' away, and don't listen to them again for a long while! That's what I'm doing, and I'm finding the true impact of this splendid recording is coming home to me! If you're crazy enough to sit and listen to both to make comparisons, you're destroying the beauty of the experience of WS and tormenting yourselves with woulda coulda shoulda. STOP! Listen, learn and love! And marvel at the fact that these minstrels, in their mid forties, could produce something like this and that we are here to enjoy it! OK? By the way, my color for this album so far is yellow. It makes me feel sunny, you know, like I'm all light or something! As the little girl (mentioned in one of the posts) said, happy songs! Sure, there some downer stuff, but the overall feeling is uplifting. I was just listening to TWATM in the car earlier, and I'm not ashamed to say I was in tears at the end over the beauty of it! Thank you, Mr. Andy fucking Partridge!!! By the way, if some of you haven't had the chance, crank it up! In the subliminal department - Interesting anagrams. COW? TWAT(M)? Andy can't be that clever! Or could he.... Tom (I'm gushing unabashedly!) Kingston
------------------------------ Date: Fri, 26 May 2000 23:40:10 -0700 From: "John Keel" <jbkev1@ev1.net> Subject: Long, but worth it (I hope) Message-ID: <00d301bfc7a6$693d8040$0d525d3f@sony.com> Hi Kids, Some more of my mad ramblings and responses . . . I agree with Drew about "It Didn't Hurt a Bit". I would love to hear a fully produced version of this song. Ed Kedzierski made some great comments praising Colin's bass playing being more of an integral part of XTC's sound than Dave Gregory's playing. I really have to agree. I'm listening to "Nonsuch" through headphones as I type this, and it's simply stunning what Colin can do. His bass on "The Smartest Monkeys" and "Omnibus" - just to name two - are breathtaking. I was shocked when I read the much-too-short interview with Colin in "Bass Player" magazine last year that he doesn't even read music or know any music theory. That seems impossible when you hear his mastery. I'm not one to waste time wondering or debating what "Wasp Star" would have sounded like with DG playing on it because we will NEVER know. But I would also never, ever deny the amazing contributions DG made to the band over the years. But, ultimately, put a gun to my head and I pick Colin. Sorry, Dave. I was reading the liner notes to my "Pet Sounds" CD today at work and I couldn't help but notice the similarity in Brian Wilson's total breakdown and Andy's, both incidents which lead to their end of touring and the beginning of brilliant studio work. I'm sorry I never got to see XTC play live, but when you consider the work they did in the studio without having to consider the constraints of reproducing the songs live (not unlike the Beatles when they stopped touring) and the fact that we get to hear the albums infinitely over the years versus maybe seeing them live once a year at best - I think we've been blessed with much richer music for it. What do you think? (This last bit was sent out a day or so ago, but I didn't see it posted and I kinda thought it was worth reading. I'm almost done . . . honest!) I loved hearing about Glen's experience with the "young people" in NC. I had a much smaller thing happen yesterday. There is a young woman who works in our office as a receptionist. She's 23 years old, really sweet and absolutely gorgeous. She also just found out she has a brain tumor, and not just a little one (I saw the MRI); it's pretty damn big and so she's up for major surgery coming up and an estimated long, difficult recovery. In spite of all this her spirits are great. Now, she sits down in a little "booth" by herself a lot and listens to a lot of CD's. Yesterday I gave her my copy of "Wasp Star" to listen to. I told her I wasn't sure if she'd like it, but I was curious. About fifteen minutes later I went down and heard "We're All Light" blasting out of her area. I stuck my head in and she said she loved it. In her words "there's a lot of happy songs on here". So, I'm giving her my copy (I still have my one from HMV on the way and the advance promo) and maybe the seed will spread out to more of her younger friends. ( In a side note, she told me again today how much she loves "Wasp Star". Ain't that great!? I think the good vibes on this album mean a lot to her with her impending surgery, recovery, etc. ) Lastly, I'm so in total agreement with Laura's comments on "The Wheel and the Maypole". The more I listen to this song, the more amazing it becomes. Once the "everything decays" section starts I get all giddy and by the time I hear Andy sing "was I so naive?" I'm just in some sort of euphoria. A truly splendid, perfect song. Oh, also I got an e-mail off-list from a guy at TVT (I assume) who was pretty upset with me over my "TVT SNAFU" post. I'll say here first, and to as soon as I finish, that my information that it was TVT's error in not getting the CD singles in the store in time came from the guy at Moby Disc. I didn't make any assumptions or give a personal opinion. Just possibly mis-information. Sorry for any hurt feelings! If you stayed with me, then, as always, but even more so this time, thanks for listening, John ********************************************* "Your heart is the big box of paints and others, the canvas we're dealt." Andy Partridge - "Wrapped in Grey"
------------------------------ Date: Sun, 28 May 2000 00:23:16 +0200 From: "Mark Strijbos" <mmello@knoware.nl> Subject: Picture Book Message-ID: <20000527221828.A59BAA6CE9@mail.knoware.nl> Dear Chalkers, A HTML version of the extra Japanese booklet "Picture Book - The Art And Soul Of XTC" is now online at my site. The booklet in question is filled with a lot of paintings by Andy (some really good ones too), handwritten lyrics and special liner notes from the both of them. Most certainly worth a visit! Surf to http://www.knoware.nl/users/mmello/ and follow the links yours in xtc, Mark S. @ the Little Lighthouse www.come.to/xtc
------------------------------ Date: Sat, 27 May 2000 22:44:42 -0700 From: "Radiosinmotion" <radiosinmotion@earthlink.net> Subject: Blastin' XTC & The Worst Songs From The Best Bands. Message-ID: <000d01bfc867$d29c2b60$0200a8c0@digitalpc> I was sitting in the parking lot while my wife went grocery shopping blasting XTC. God this album is so great. I have not been able to blast it so this was the first time for me. I feel so refreshed! "Were All Light" is one of the most optimistic songs I have ever heard. What is the only song you really hate from a group you really dig? My all time worse song that I truly hate and skip over every single time is "Silver" from "The Pixies" album "Doolittle."
------------------------------ Date: Sun, 28 May 2000 09:00:20 -0700 From: "John Keel" <jbkev1@ev1.net> Subject: xtc ON npr Message-ID: <007401bfc8bd$d4d0efa0$05525d3f@sony.com> Hi kids, So, I just got through taping the XTC interview on NPR, but, just as I did with the 103.1 interview, I missed the first few seconds. Typical situation. I'm sitting in front of the stereo so I can hit the button when the interview starts and since they don't announce what's coming up I start my tape everytime a story ends and if it isn't XTC I rewind. Well, they went to a commercial and I meant to hit the rewind button and hit something else and changed the station, then I couldn't remember what the station was! Of course by the time I found it the damn interview had started so I missed the very beginning, which isn't bad but it sure is fucking frustrating. Anyone who missed it can obtain a copy of the entire interview at www.npr.org . John ********************************************* "Yeah we all shine on like the moon and the stars and the sun." -- John Lennon "Instant Karma"
------------------------------ End of Chalkhills Digest #6-140 *******************************
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