Chalkhills, Number 128

                 Monday, 4 February 1991
Today's Topics:
                posies and dream producers
                    "The Loving" line
                        Liking XTC
            Dream Producers [Chalkhills #127]
                      The Early Edge
                     Mumbled Messages

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Date:     Fri, 1 Feb 91 22:19:34 EST
From: the element of laughter <woiccare@pebbles.sct.clarkson.edu>
Subject:  posies and dream producers

joe lynn sez:
>The Posies' sound is best described as acoustic/electric:  almost
>60s-ish-- almost (dare I say it?)-- Dukes-ish.  Reviews of _Dear 23_
>have compared the Posies to the Hollies, the Byrds, and yes-- even
>XTC.  Some of the lyrics have been described as Andy Partridge-esque.

go ahead and say it. i just listened to their first album (_failure_)
and noticed, for the first time, the strong similarity of their gui-
tar sound to either xtc or the dukes (so i was a bit amused when  i
read this tonight).

all i have is a dub of _failure_ so i can't give anymore info, other
than the memory telling me that it was on a small label out of seattle
or the northwest (that wasn't either sub pop or c/z - it might have
been pop llama, but i'm not sure).

alex stein talks about dream producers:
>Don Dixon and Mitch Easter:
>Clearly the best choice! Together and separately, they've produced <a whole
lot of jangle pop bands and marti jones>

eh...and have xtc go that direction? gack! no thank you...

>Robyn Hitchcock

except for the fact that robyn knows nil `bout production. i've heard an
interview where andy states that he wanted to produce an egyptians album
though. i transcribed that interview a few months ago.

>Phil Spector

double-gack!! `nuff said...

>Nick Lowe

this i could deal with...his latest album (_party of one_) is pretty good
too...

True, the self-proclaimed Jesus of Cool has faltered a lot over the past ten
years, but the man who produced all the early Elvis Costello albums can't be
discounted.  Not to mention Brinsley Schwartz, Rockpile, etc.

>Peter Buck

help!!

>Tommy Erderly (spelling?)

tommy erdelyi. aka tommy ramone. he could produce the ramones only cos he
was one.

woj

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Date: Fri, 1 Feb 91 21:19:13 PST
From: 6600kevc%ucsbuxa@hub.ucsb.edu (Kevin Carhart)
Subject: "The Loving" line

I was listening to O&L last night (which i don't listen to very often)
due to all the discussion of it here on Chalkhills.  And I thought I
noticed someone at the end of "The Loving," in a voice and level that
is drowned out and hard to hear, saying
   "Don't shoot me.... don't shoot me.... don't shoot me..."
Is this:
1) a reference to cupid's arrows?
2) weird?
3) a figment of my imagination?

 Kevin Carhart

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Date: Sun, 3 Feb 91 04:23:24 PST
From: barb@velvet.com  (Barbara Petersen)
Subject: Liking XTC

In Chalkhills #126, klm@cme.nist.gov (Ken Manheimer) writes:

> Oh well, it took me a while (years) to realize that i liked them at
> all in the first place, but when that happened it was like blinders
> removed.

That's odd.  My experience with XTC was *very* similar: I "sorta" liked them
for many years, but they were far from a favorite of mine.  Finally, a couple
of years back, over a period of about 3 months, I completely fell in love with
their music.  Suddenly, they had become one of my top ten all-time favorites,
and it *was* very much like "blinders removed".  It's never happened that way
for me with any other musicians, so now I'm curious -- is this just a strange
coincidence, or have others on the list had similar experiences with XTC?

--
Barbara Petersen
barb@velvet.com                            ..{uunet, decwrl}!sjsca4!velvet!barb
  "They've upset the beast box, they've opened the beast box, haven't they?"

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From: rpk@ai.mit.edu (Robert Krajewski)
Date: Mon, 4 Feb 91 09:31:07 EST
Subject: Dream Producers [Chalkhills #127]

How about:

The Bomb Squad (Shocklee & co.): PE's masterminds get to work with a
``real band''

Prince Paul: Rap's most eccentric producer.

Funny thing is, these days I can't think of any interesting rock
producers that XTC hasn't worked with, except for Eno, Lanois, or
maybe the Flood/Gareth Jones crowd.  Most of the really interesting
production is happening in rap, and the most interesting sounding
stuff on the indie rock side is pretty much self-produced.

And wouldn't it be nice for XTC just to produce themselves ?
Just get Steve Albini to engineer...

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From: schrey@prc.unisys.com
Subject: The Early Edge
Date: Mon, 4 Feb 91 11:10:13 EST

klm@cme.nist.gov (Ken Manheimer) writes:

> I salivate at the prospect of getting some XTC with some of their old
> sound!  It's not that i miss the heydey so much as i miss those raw,
> assaulting edges.
>
  I agree wholeheartedly.

> The middle period seemed to have even more exquisite lyricism than the
> early stuff but *without* sacrificing the guts, while the later stuff
> never, for me, quite gels, never becomes something real and immediate.
> Maybe i haven't given it enough of a chance, but i do feel like that
> raw edge is missing or dulled.

  I think it's sad but true that this happens to most bands who are around
  for more than a couple albums, and are talented and lyric-minded.
  A good example might be the Police.  If you compare the edge of Outlandos
  D'Amour and Regatta De Blanc with Synchronicity and Sting's solo work
  you can see the move away from early band rawness to we're-getting-good-
  at-this polish.  (This is not to say that the masterpieces that come out
  later are any less than that, but you can never really help but miss
  those early raw albums.)

  Sometimes it feels like I'm a fan of at least two bands named XTC as from
  week to week I move from playing White Music over and over to listening
  to Skylarking for the subtle points I missed earlier, meanwhile hopping
  from Black Sea to English Settlement to the Big Express, etc.

  It's hard for me at least to nail my favorite album, but when I want
  to rock give me This Is Pop? or Respectable Street anyday.  (Ask me in
  two weeks and things may be entirely different.)

        TIM
--
 Timothy M. Schreyer                         schrey@prc.unisys.com
 Center for Advanced Information Technology  (215) 648-2475
 Unisys, PO Box 517, Paoli, PA 19301         FAX: (215) 648-2288

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Date: Mon, 4 Feb 91 06:02:10 PST
From: wilson@psylo.enet.dec.com
Subject: Mumbled Messages

Hello everyone,

I have a fun topic that's been explored in bits and pieces but never
as a topic in itself; namely, how about those words that are spoken
or whispered in XTC songs, those little bits that often go unnoticed
except by the true listener?

What have you heard?

In "Senses Working Overtime" we already discussed the bit about
"England's Glory/A striking beauty!" a few issues back.

We briefly touched on the backward messages in the Dukes material.

I have a new one: in "Science Friction," just before the organ solo,
and just after the rhetorical question, "How do you Martians say
'I love you'?", someone says "It's" as if to suggest that Martians
have no words but communicate in the sounds not unlike that of
the funky party organ. Of course, this is all a joke, but it
never occurred to me until recently that this is a little
add-in. I just never heard it before.

Also, on that same LP, doesn't someone nasally inhale three
times at the start of "Newtown Animal (in a Furnished Cage)"?

And does Andy speak an obscenity at the end of "She's So
Square"?

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