Chalkhills, Number 140

                  Tuesday, 19 March 1991
Today's Topics:
                   new idea for a band
                Flames on Chalkhills?????
                     Re: FlounderHead
                           Go+
                        Rare items

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Date: Wed, 13 Mar 91 23:08:29 PST
From: 6600kevc%ucsbuxa@hub.ucsb.edu (Kevin Carhart)
Subject: new idea for a band

Why don't Paul McCartney, George Harrison, Ringo Starr, and...and..
Andy Partridge form a band?
Just think of McCartney/Partridge songs.
Just think.
Too bad George Martin won't be producing the new album.
Oh well, it seems as though most people want to be rid of the psychedelia
and the Beatles influences.  Hmmm..
---
New Elvis Costello album coming, new XTC album coming, and "Kill Uncle"
by Morrissey out.  This could be a Golden Age of Good Albums...
---
hmm, the silkscreen on my skylarking t-shirt is splintering and cracking.
Be warned..

Kevin
6600kevc@ucsbuxa.ucsb.edu

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Date: Thu, 14 Mar 91 08:37:05 EST
From: Elizabeth=Bonesteel%Eng%Banyan@thing.banyan.com
Subject: Flames on Chalkhills?????

Not that the reaction was necessarily unwaranted, but everywhere I look these
days my music lists are turning in to nm-list "how can you like that crap and
not this crap" nonsense.  I used to be so naive and trusting.  What a blow.
Why didn't my mother tell me it'd be like this?

Right after I got finished dancing around my cube from finding out Andy and
Colin were entering the studio.  (That has an interesting ring to it, doesn't
it; like "Andy and Colin are entering a monastery."  Sort of a ceremonial
cloistering.)  Gets you weird looks from your co-workers, especially if you
work out in the suburbs where (hypocritical music remark follows) everybody
thinks Nelson is landmark rock and roll.

And just to show that I'm a good sport, I'll go public and say I *like*
"Skylarking."  I like it a lot.  I like it with "Dear God."  I listen to it
REPEATEDLY.  I also like "White Music" better than "Go 2," and I think bits of
"Oranges and Lemons" are genius.

Go ahead, flame away.  I don't mind.  I have a really good therapist.

Smileys all around (but the musical opinions are mine indeed),

Liz

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Date: Thu, 14 Mar 1991 9:29:45 PST
From: John M. Relph <relph@presto.ig.com>
Subject: Re: FlounderHead

Rendell H Bird <rhb9805@usl.edu> has some Vitriol Verite' for us:

>>*Mummer*
>>Gold -- ?Horn charts?  on such an idyllic album?
>
>	"Gold" is not on _Mummer_.
>	"Gold" is the B-side to the "Great Fire" single.
>
>I don't care where it comes from.  It is on my CD which has MUMMER
>written on the spine. Therefore I included it in the list of songs
>off of _Mummer_.  I have only seen three XTC albums (as in LPs) in my
>entire life (_White Music_, _Go 2_, and _Drums and Wires_).

I do care.  And the liner notes for the _Mummer_ CD clearly state that
those songs are "additional tracks not on original LP" and that they
were "released as B sides."  When I use the word "album" I am talking
about the original album, not the later CD reissues with bonus tracks.
Clearly we are using the same word in different ways, thus resulting
in misunderstandings.

>>*Skylarking*
>	If anything is out of place on this album,
>	it's "Dear God", sewed on to the newborn in an act of post-partum
>	depression.
>
>Where are you getting these phrases?

Some dark recess of my twisted mind, clearly.

>  Are we talking about the American,
>Canadian, or, British versions of this CD?

The original UK album (and original US as well) did not have "Dear
God".  After "Dear God" got some airplay, Geffen decided to reissue
the album with "Dear God" instead of "Mermaid Smiled".  To restate the
above twisted sentence.

>>*Oranges and Lemons*
>>The Loving -- too idealistic, too upbeat. The remainder of the album is
>>              wonderfully twisted. This is my favorite XTC CD.
>
>	Wrong again, bucko.
>
>Are you saying my assessment of the song is wrong, or that my
>opinion is wrong (for picking this song as a least liked)?

I was using the phrase to indicate my disagreement with your opinion --
I should be more exact in my choice of words.

>>*Rag and Bone Buffet*
>>Over Rusty Water - 1.5 minutes of one chord?  XTC is usually more original
>>                   than that!
>
>	I love this song.  Play it again.  So why didn't you pick "Frost
>	Circus" off of _Mummer_ as its worst?
>
>Because it is a BONUS CUT!

I realize that, but since you had picked a previuosly bonus cut from
_Mummer_, and you picked "Over Rusty Water", I wondered why you didn't
pick "Frost Circus".  It seemed more consistent.

>	And Philip Glass has to be
>	admired for his sense of mathematic precision and awareness of phase
>	changes.  He's got a good piece or three.  Just skip his concerts.
>
>I prefer Gubaidulina, Schnittcke (sp), or Penderecki when I want
>modern classical (read: minimalism). They are just as fulfilling
>as Glass, with half the pretension.

Now I will definitely agree that Glass has become more pretentious as
his career has progressed.  I tend to enjoy his earlier simpler
material.  His more recent stuff is not to my taste.

>FlounderHead.

Nicest thing you've said to me all day.

>How does one get a copy of the _Rag and Bone_ postscript file?

Ask me.  I'll send you one.

	-- John

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Date: Thu, 14 Mar 91 14:49:30 EST
From: bab@bdrc.bd.com (Bruce A. Belanger)
Subject: Go+

I have recently obtained a copy of an XTC ep title "Go +" and I'm really
not digging it too much.  Does anyone out there have any background on
this "experiment"?  Is there a certain angle I should be listening to
it from?  I don't think I get it.

Bruce Belanger
bab@bdrc.bd.com

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Date: Tue, 19 Mar 1991 15:12:35 PST
From: John M. Relph <chalkhills-request@chalkhills.org>
Subject: Rare items

Hello friends,

  If you are looking for hard-to-find XTC CDs, Chalkhills may be able
to help you.  Lately we have seen the _King for a Day_ crown-shaped
CD-3 and _The Loving_ CD-3, amongst others.  If there is a CD you
would like us to procure for you, just send us a note here at

    <chalkhills-request@chalkhills.org>

P.S. Has anybody seen the previously unreleased Geffen XTC CDs in
stores?  They were due to be released today but we haven't seen hide
nor hair of them yet.

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