Chalkhills Digest Volume 6, Issue 19
Date: Friday, 28 January 2000
Chalkhills Digest, Volume 6, Number 19
Friday, 28 January 2000
Today's Topics:
Uffington Horse
Re: Me, Myself & Irene
Before somebody beats me to it...
luna - the other satellite?
The Tangled Web We Weave
Re: White Horse Hill
KinksTC
Re: AOL not Andy On Line
The Cleaners Are Back!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Officer, one was sorta tall and slight and the other was...
Andy, Collin, Dave and Terry
sgt pepper etc. the wierdness continues.....
Wedding Songs & London Get Together
God Save The Village Green
Can Julian Cope?
Sgt. Moulding's Lonely Hearts Club Band
The Big Day
Eastenders as good as Hamlet?
HI!!!!
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---------------------------------------------------------------------- From: DougMash@aol.com Message-ID: <c.8d3cc8.25c20f0f@aol.com> Date: Thu, 27 Jan 2000 16:13:51 EST Subject: Uffington Horse Last Summer we took a week vacation in London. One day we took the bullet train (not sure it's officially a "bullet" but it had to be doing over 100 MPH) to Bath for the day. Swindon was the stop before Bath on the train we took & shortly before Swindon I was treated to a view of the Uffington Horse. It was a little far off, but exciting to see the real thing after years of seeing it on the ES cover. Actually got it on camcorder to bring back to show my friends. I was very tempted to jump off in Swindon & spend the day, but my wife and daughter had other ideas. Anyway, while I was excidedly getting video of the area surrounding the Swindon train station (I think the pub that used to have the "wall of fame" on it was right by the station), a girl asks me "why are you so excited about SWINDON?" (disdain for the town pretty evident) I explained to her about XTC & she says "Yeah, I think I remember...Plans for Nigel, right?...Wow, where are THEY now???" So much for our heroes being loved on their own turf!!! Doug Mashkow Long Island, NY
------------------------------ Message-Id: <s89044a9.091@tcwgroup.com> Date: Thu, 27 Jan 2000 13:13:51 -0800 From: "Dane Pereslete" <peresd@tcwgroup.com> Subject: Re: Me, Myself & Irene Helloooooooo! Hey Mitch or someone...help!!! Has there been any further news regarding the inclusion of "I'd Like That" in the new Farrelly brothers (There's Some- thing About Mary) movie starring Jim Carrey and Renee Zellweger? The reason I'm concerned is because I've read that Rolling Stone reports that Monsieurs Fagen and Becker (Steely Dan) have been hired to score the movie and that it will include such artists as Wilco, Brian Setzer, and Smash Mouth covering various SD tracks. Can anyone out there in Chalkhillsland confirm or deny? Thanks, Dane
------------------------------ From: Hbsherwood@aol.com Message-ID: <4d.10f8593.25c21286@aol.com> Date: Thu, 27 Jan 2000 16:28:38 EST Subject: Before somebody beats me to it... Yeah, yeah, I know.... Perhaps a clue to the state of Partridge's mind during the difficult period of 1981-82 can be gleaned from the little-known yet seminal work, "Shaving Brush Boogie," in which he parses his inner conflicts vis-a-vis his marriage in a startlingly confessional lyric. The raw intensity of the song, shocking in its conception, as searing in its way as a G.G. Allen performance, strips away all traces of the elegant pastoral facade he would later erect around his oeuvre, and exposes his very soul--both as an artist and as a man--for the judgment of all. Even at *this* early date, it is possible to discern the _leitmotiv_ of the central conflict that will wrack Partridge as an artist for the rest of his career: the Princess Margaret figure, so plainly a stand-in for an absent Dark Lady waiting in the wings, gains ascendancy and dominion over his soul even while a scene of unnerving passion unfolds in the flashback narrative of the central plot: I was laid out on the bed and my brand-new wife that's the one with the long curly hair, she said to me "Babe I'm going to give you a real experience with this here shaving brush" The poignancy of the foregoing line is heightened to unbearable melancholy when one pauses to consider that historico-biographical sources invariably show Marianne Partridge's hair as bobbed rather short--and utterly without a trace of a curl. Who, then, *is* the "brand-new wife"? A figment of sadomasochistic fantasy? A universal virgin/whore figure, dredged up from readings of Jung? An inverted stand-in for (dare we suggest it) Venus? The song is rife with the language of violation and humiliation: the ambulance driver (obviously meant to evoke Charon, the boatman of Hades) comments sarcastically on the shaving-brush dilemma: "I didn't join the Red Cross to take people like you to hospital!" [Note to American readers: In keeping with Partridge's West Country upbringing, he employs here a typically British expression, one that translates roughly to "take people like you to *the* hospital." Earlier commentators have stumbled on this point.] The nightmarish denouement in the hospital, a horrific scene of tongs and involuntary invasive surgery, plays out with all the inevitability of classic Greek drama, and we leave the song drained, purged, our psychosexual energy depleted, as the Dervish Partridge rubs our noses in his pain and passion. For who among us has not felt, with Partridge, the need to shriek helplessly at the Princess Margaret hidden deep within our own souls: "Open that fucking hospital, baby!" Harrison "Well, shit, *somebody* had to do it" Sherwood
------------------------------ Message-ID: <20000128002532.9791.qmail@web1901.mail.yahoo.com> Date: Thu, 27 Jan 2000 16:25:32 -0800 (PST) From: little mermaid <littlemermaid526@yahoo.com> Subject: luna - the other satellite? I came across an interview with the band Luna and they mentioned a woman by the name of Erica Wexler (in NYC) and how she went by the stage name "Luna". http://www.fuzzlogic.com/lunakafe/moon9/us9.htm (scroll to the end of the interview) Luna - Another Satellite ... could it be one and the same? Personally, I have never believed in coincidence. Ursula
------------------------------
From: "Mark Strijbos" <mmello@knoware.nl>
Date: Fri, 28 Jan 2000 01:12:05 +0100
Subject: The Tangled Web We Weave
Message-Id: <20000128000941.672CCA6CE2@mail.knoware.nl>
Dear Chalkers,
> I wonder if he (Andy) has seen the Guitargonauts site and what he
> thinks of that?
He _must_ have seen the recent article on Dave and his site in the
Swindon Advertizer. Now i wonder if that would have made him take
a peek. Or perhaps even a rethink about the Internet and what it
could do for a band like XTC.
IMHO the Net could be the perfect vehicle for _anything_ a brilliant
multi-talented mind like Andy could come up with. And it could also
be _the_ way to cut out the business middle men that turn music
into product. Now why doesn't he see that?
BTW... the esteemed David Oh said:
> I would have to say that Chips from the Chocolate Fireball is
> XTC's Sgt. Peppers
no way! Chips etc. is a compilation album of both their (vinyl)
albums so it doesn't qualify. Psonic Psunspot could be considered
their Sgt. Peppers i suppose, if only because 25 O'Clock sounds
more Revolvery to me (don't ask why)
yours in xtc,
Mark Strijbos at The Little Lighthouse
http://www.knoware.nl/users/mmello/
or http://come.to/xtc
------------------------------ Message-ID: <3890AB10.224B@bhip.infi.net> Date: Thu, 27 Jan 2000 20:31:14 +0000 From: Brian <mattone@bhip.infi.net> Subject: Re: White Horse Hill Tschalkgerz! >As a local, could you perhaps fill me in on its significance?(the Uffington Horse, BTW, for those who didn't >know, is the symbol on the cover of English Settlement; it's etched in a hillside near Swindon)< I like this concoction of a theory: it's to foretell the coming of one of the finest collections of music that will ever come out of the region sometime in the future - XTC's "English Settlement"! Talk about a paradox... ;-) -Brian Matthews
------------------------------ Message-ID: <3890F0A8.256@ksbe.edu> Date: Thu, 27 Jan 2000 15:29:31 -1000 From: "Jim Smart" <jismart@ksbe.edu> Organization: ksbe Subject: KinksTC >how about >a comparison between >a kinks album and xtc? One unique aspect of the Kinks is that every album has a theme or a concept. Whether its the music business (Lola), freaks (Misfits), or wistful nostalgia (Village Green Preservation Society), theres always a theme that weaves its way through a good chunk of the songs, often in unexpected ways that aren't immediately apparent. Every album is a concept album. Oranges and Lemons and Skylarking are the most like that in XTCs catalog. Skylarking is all about cycles, beginnings and endings, especially relating to what the recently unfairly slammed Paul Simon called "the arc of a love affair". O and L seems to go back and forth between leaders/politicos (note all the mayors, kings, presidents and such) and the parent/childbirth stuff. This is the most Kinks like album of them all, methinks. Strangely, I dont sense this in Nonsuch. Probably I'm being thick. Anyone? Apple Venus One seems to be concerned mostly with earthy sexy love nature stuff, but theres not a Kinks-like connection made there. Jim "state of confusion" Smart
------------------------------ Message-ID: <3890AD27.20B9@bhip.infi.net> Date: Thu, 27 Jan 2000 20:40:10 +0000 From: Brian <mattone@bhip.infi.net> Subject: Re: AOL not Andy On Line Tschalkgerz! Wes Long wrote: >Brian Matthews scribbled:< Scribbled? SCRIBBLED? What font you got your mail set to, fella? :-) >>Explaining, or TRYING to explain to anyone else why you like something may end up being futile, as it can never get past the subjectiveness of it all.<< >Well said, but I still contend that what I like is good and the rest of you have bad taste.< SUBJECTIVENESS ALERT! SUBJECTIVENESS ALERT! ALL HANDS, BRACE FOR COLLISION! >Oh, and the Beach Boys were a better band than Oingo Boingo. But how were you to know these things Brian, your Only A Lad.< You're not fooling me. You know enough about them to make that crack! :-) Good on yer! -Brian Matthews
------------------------------ Message-ID: <20000128011707.128.qmail@web1101.mail.yahoo.com> Date: Thu, 27 Jan 2000 17:17:07 -0800 (PST) From: travis schulz <xtcisadarngoodband@yahoo.com> Subject: The Cleaners Are Back!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Hi y'all! I'm on the Martin Newell news list and wanted to share some incredibly great news for Newell fans. Martin and the Cleaners From Venus are working on a new album! Should be out by autumn. This word from Paul (the mastermind of THE WILDMAN FROM WIVENHOE which I strongly suggest you check out!) and also confirmed by Joachim at Jarmusic in Germany. Life is good!
------------------------------ Message-ID: <001201bf6933$12325400$26b59fce@default> From: "Wes Hanks" <wes@iolvegas.com> Subject: Officer, one was sorta tall and slight and the other was... Date: Thu, 27 Jan 2000 17:56:57 -0800 ******No direct e-mail responses please I am writing from work!!!***** No, no, no, no kitten, that's not how we play around these parts. Locals only beach, dig? When you posit yer position or pose a question on ye olde list, one must stand at the ready with the proper accoutrements at hand, i.e, flame retardent suit and/or tube of lubricant and supply of birth control devices, to prepare for the private responses from your fellow travelers. </;-) Wes "Harrison, its 68 degrees here." Hanks
------------------------------ Message-ID: <002401bf6933$4f955ae0$0200a8c0@digitalpc> From: "Digitalmaster" <digitalmaster@earthlink.net> Subject: Andy, Collin, Dave and Terry Date: Thu, 27 Jan 2000 17:59:28 -0800 In regards to a message from Mark Strijbos: That would be totally disappointing if Dave's stuff is removed. I know Andy is an asshole (or so I hear) but really, they should get back and start working together (or are they secretly? Anyone here know?) I know it was an issue about Andy barely using Dave on the newer tracks, but they should patch it up. Everyone has a right to be an asshole sometimes, even I am sometimes. Andy just seems like a perfectionist and is probably someone who wants total control of what XTC as a group does, and I can respect that. To be honest, I am the same way. In politics, I am a total liberal, who believes everyone gets a fair vote. In music however, I know what sounds good, and what I want to put on my album. I am very controlling when recording music, or doing business, its just the way I chose to be. So, they need to patch it up. Here is my plea to Dave, Andy and Collin: Dave, go over to Andy's house and kick him in the ass and make some damn music together. Collin, is it me or are you just the most relaxed man in England? Andy, loosen up a little and bring Dave back (while your at it, call up Terry!) and make some music, go on tour and live happily ever after. Your getting older, as am I, so don't waist your time! All that aside, I will still love them regardless, I just wish they were back together. Mostly because the combination was so great and they fit together so well. Well, that is my millennium wish (well, one of them!) PS. Thanks for all the nice welcome messages.
------------------------------ Message-ID: <20000128042338.9628.qmail@web2104.mail.yahoo.com> Date: Thu, 27 Jan 2000 20:23:38 -0800 (PST) From: Tyler Hewitt <tahewitt@yahoo.com> Subject: sgt pepper etc. the wierdness continues..... RE: Instead of taking a whole album, i.e. "Black Sea" or "English Settlement" why not take individual songs from their entire catalog and match them in the same running order as Sgt.P. in order to most closely match that album. Not really motivated to do that, but I have noticed some eerie coincidences in xtc records: 1. if you play the section of the Dukes lp where the girl talks about the puffin backwards, you hear a voice saying "Dave is dead man, miss him, miss him". 2. On the cover of blAck sea, Andy appears like he's about to grab Dave around the midriff. Note his left hand-it looks like it's moving. He'a about to perform the Heimlich manoever on Dave 3. On the cover of Oranges & Lemons, Daves guitar is sort of spitting out these oranges and lemons just like a choking person would spit up food. 4. The peacock feather on Apple Venus 1 dosent look like a vaginal area so much as it does a uvula. 5. The cover of Skylarking-the two figures are blowing flutes-this is an obvious choking reference. 6. the sound that opens Summer's Cauldron, when played backewards, sounds like an ambulance. What does this all mean? I believe, AND THE CLUES BEAR IT OUT, that Dave didn't really quit the band. He died in 1983 or so, by choking to death (probably on a curry at his favorite Indian reataurant). He would have lived, had the ambulance not been held up by a train (see the cover of Big Express).Andy and Colin covered this all up by hiring a double to take dave's place. When it finally got too expensive to keep up the charade (remember, they were out of work for a long time), they cut him loose. However, they had been placing these death clues in their records all along for those who smoke way too much weed to find. Could this really happen? ? ? Just ask "Paul McCartney". How's that for an XTC/Beatles comparison? and all off the top of my head!
------------------------------ Message-ID: <20000128090831.19535.qmail@hotmail.com> From: "jonathan monnickendam" <monnickj@hotmail.com> Subject: Wedding Songs & London Get Together Date: Fri, 28 Jan 2000 01:08:30 PST Go for '10 feet tall', says it all. You might also want to try the Zombies' 'Walking in the Sun' which has lines like ' if only they knew the joy i share with you they'd be walking in the sun'; blissful and beautiful track from the box set (Zombie Heaven) which i play the most. On Tuesday evening, 1st February, myself and David Cammish will meet for a jar of two at the City Boot, near Moorgate station, London, to talk things xtc and otherwise. We shall be insatnly recognisable becuase we shall both be wearing our Captn C~nt Outfits and singing 'Pink Thing' at full volume. Or you could just e-mail me. jon
------------------------------ Message-ID: <000701bf6998$5067f940$e778aad2@johnboud> From: "John Boudreau" <aso1@mocha.ocn.ne.jp> Subject: God Save The Village Green Date: Fri, 28 Jan 2000 17:49:42 +0900 Steven Mahoney wrote : >of course I think of the kinks when I think of xtc >more than the fab four. I was a huge Kinks fan from the early days until 1979 , and I would have to say that I hear more Beatles in XTC's work . >how about >a comparison between >a kinks album and xtc? I will refrain from making comparisons . I * will * say that everybody on this list ought to own the singles " Waterloo Sunset " and " Autumn Almanac " ( available on various compilations ) , and the LP " The Kinks Are The Village Green Preservation Society " . TKATVGPS kinda set the band up as guardians of all that was good about England . In the aforementioned singles Ray Davies had celebrated the Englishness that he loved so much , and this album served to consolidate the theme . I have read that during the recording of this album Ray Davies " relaxed for a while and allowed everybody to have some input " ... I think it was this " combination of ideas " and Ray's anglocentricity that helped to create this Kinks masterwork . Sushiman John
------------------------------ From: JStrole@aol.com Message-ID: <6.16f1d96.25c2ffe1@aol.com> Date: Fri, 28 Jan 2000 09:21:21 EST Subject: Can Julian Cope? << As a local, could you perhaps fill me in on its significance?(the Uffington Horse >> Has anybody looked to see if Julian Cope mentions it in his book "Modern Antiquarian"?
------------------------------ Message-ID: <000501bf69ba$17113360$93763cc7@monkman.coastnet.com> From: "Martin & Jamie Monkman" <monkman@coastnet.com> Subject: Sgt. Moulding's Lonely Hearts Club Band Date: Fri, 28 Jan 2000 10:03:27 -0800 Sky Larking posed the challenge (Chalkhills #6-18): >Instead of taking a whole album, i.e. "Black Sea" or "English Settlement" >why not take individual songs from their entire catalog and match them in >the same running order as Sgt.P. in order to most closely match that album. Here goes, with all Colin songs: 01. Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band -- Life Begins at the Hop A great show opener, back when there were shows to open. 02. With A Little Help From My Friends -- Frivolous Tonight 03. Lucy In The Sky With Diamonds -- Grass (LSD or grass, take your pick) 04. Getting Better -- The Good Things 05. Fixing A Hole -- Fruit Nut 06. She's Leaving Home -- Runaways Although the parents in "She's Leaving Home" express similar sentiments as those in "Making Plans for Nigel"; one has to wonder if Nigel won't be a runaway, too. 07. Being For The Benefit Of Mr. Kite! -- My Bird Performs ... he said, with a smirk. 08. Within You Without You -- Deliver Us From the Elements 09. When I'm Sixty-Four -- Bungalow 10. Lovely Rita -- Love at First Sight This was the most difficult; I considered "Ten Feet Tall" as well. 11. Good Morning Good Morning -- Wake Up 12. Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band -- Life Begins at the Hop (reprise) 13. A Day In The Life -- Cynical Days with English Roundabout for the middle "Woke up, fell out of bed" section Martin The Monkman homepage: http://www.coastnet.com/~monkman
------------------------------ From: Robeach11@aol.com Message-ID: <31.83b0a0.25c353f5@aol.com> Date: Fri, 28 Jan 2000 15:20:05 EST Subject: The Big Day Thank you for all of your best wishes concerning my marriage. Things went very well! The ceremony was held outside by the ocean, while we honeymooned on Catalina Island. As for wedding music, we played both "I'd Like That" & "Love On A Farmboy's Wages", and a gaggle of Brian Wilson tunes. Glad to see mention of High Llamas & Stereolab. I have name-dropped them before on Chalkhills I feel that head Llama Sean O'Hagan's best songs are on "Hawaii". Never are his Wilson tendencies as obvious as here. However he could have trimmed the album down a bit. Maybe the Llama's best realized work is "Cold & Bouncy". While not as initially stunning as "Hawaii", it's much less meandering. The line dividing the Stereolab sound & the High Llamas sound seems to be evaporating judging by both bands latest releases. I would recommend either one, though. Too bad O'Hagan & Wilson never recorded anything together (they were real close!). Rob Carson, Ca
------------------------------ Message-ID: <003f01bf69d6$b665b5a0$f4b101d5@default> From: "David Seddon" <D.Seddon@btinternet.com> Subject: Eastenders as good as Hamlet? Date: Fri, 28 Jan 2000 21:28:17 -0000 Yet again, I find myself disagreeing with those who say that all music is equally strong and that there is no such thing as one piece being better than another. To my mind, the true test is time. There are other criteria, but this is the truest! If something is still popular after a number of years (I'm not going to attempt to define the exact number) despite changing fashions, then to me it clearly must have a quality that other pieces that fall by the wayside do not. If The Disco Duck is as good as Imagine, then presumably, the same people who think so, think that the scripts of Eastenders are as good as Shakespeare, or that Pam Ayers is as good as TS Eliot. They ought to believe this to be consistent! (I suspect that they do). OK, so let's egg the pudding further... Is a piece of music my 7 month old son bashes out of the piano at random as worthy as Andy Partridge's work? Since you argue that all art is subjective, you can't disagree if I say that it is. If you do, why and which criteria are you using to say so? Is the art of a doodling monkey as good as a Turner? State your reasons. Why are artists always trying to improve things on their next project? Perhaps they are deluded that they can create a masterpiece. Do they not realise that there can be no such thing? Their 10 minute attempt as a 5 year old child might be valued as much as a mature work they slaved over for decades (think of Mozart, and his earliest compositons vs The Requiem). All of the prizes, plaudits, national and international awards are rendered pointless - and worse...nonsensical! (the fact that some of them - like the grammies are - is no counter argument by the way, for the same reason that no footaball manager would wish his team to win the League Cup as opposed to the FA Cup). It may be an uncool and unfashionable thing to say on this artistically liberal list, but I think it's nonsense to say that there are no valid grounds for judging the worth of a piece of art. I may be in a minority here, but it won't stop me arguing the point. To agree with you leads me down the road that says there is no such thing as genius and that if I want a child to play music, he may as well learn from Meatloaf as Mozart. I'm sorry gang, but I think you're on a slippery slope...be careful where your liberal views lead you!! P.S. Do you hold the same views about moral actions as you do about art? In other words is there any limit to the extent of your liberalism? (note liberalism with a small 'l'...I would by no means attack Liberal politics!) Reality leaves a lot to the imagination -J.Lennon
------------------------------ From: galore@writemail.com Message-Id: <0001281813138L.15589@weba8.iname.net> Date: Fri, 28 Jan 2000 18:13:13 -0500 (EST) Subject: HI!!!! Hi My name is Gwen. Im new to the list. Not to Xtc Ive been listening for approxmently 5 years. Gwen
------------------------------ End of Chalkhills Digest #6-19 ******************************
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