Chalkhills Digest Volume 1, Issue 300
Date: Monday, 8 November 1993
Chalkhills, Number 300
Monday, 8 November 1993
Today's Topics:
Re: Chalkhills #299
Re: Introduction
Re: Chalkhills #299
"Explode Together" CD
love/hate
Re: Chalkhills #299
Martin Newell
So Far, So Good!
Shark Attack
[][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][] From: mcbride@ruf.rice.edu (Doug McBride) Subject: Re: Chalkhills #299 Date: Thu, 4 Nov 1993 14:16:42 -0600 (CST) ] "Thomas V. DelRosario" <tomtom@eng.umd.edu> writes ] ] I have purchased a very strange import CD called Explode Together which ] is by far their worst release. It's no wonder that Explode Together ] hasn't been released officially in the U.S. It is the biggest ] disappointment that I have had concerning XTC. Yes! I have this too; does anyone know what the heck was going through XTC's collective noggin when they put out this little gem? Ack, ptui... -- Doug McBride (mcbride@rice.edu) "Look for my corpse in the color supplement!" -- A. Partridge
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Date: Thu, 4 Nov 93 12:29:33 PST
From: "John Relph" <relph@presto.ig.com>
Subject: Re: Introduction
"Thomas V. DelRosario" <tomtom@eng.umd.edu> introduces himself, and
then he says:
>
>I have purchased a very strange import CD called Explode Together which
>is by far their worst release. It's no wonder that Explode Together
>hasn't been released officially in the U.S. It is the biggest
>disappointment that I have had concerning XTC.
_Explode Together_ is actually a compilation of two releases: XTC's
_Go+_, an EP of remixes originally included free with the original UK
edition of the _Go 2_ LP, and Mr. Partridge's _Take Away / The Lure of
Salvage_ album. In these two releases, Andy Partridge took the tapes
of the most recent XTC albums, and, well, he deconstructed them. He
slowed them down, added effects, re-recorded vocals, guitars, whatever
he deemed necessary, and came up with these strange "dub experiments",
as the subtitle of _Explode Together_ so aptly names them. Each track
is taken from a song on either _Go 2_ or _Drums and Wires_, with the
exception of "Signal Ad (Commerciality)", which was taken from
"Refrigeration Blues", a _White Music_ outtake, "The Day They
Pulled The North Pole Down" which was taken from "Heatwave", and
"Cairo" which came from "Homo Safari".
I don't necessarily feel that these songs are exactly "enjoyable"
(except perhaps "Cairo"), but they are interesting in that they are
very early examples of "dub" techniques, and they also provide insight
into Andy's abilities behind the mixing desk. These techniques are
used in XTC songs in various ways, usually a bit more subtly, and this
CD provides what might be called an educational sidebar to the works
of XTC.
Or, you can just SELL IT.
-- John
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Date: Thu, 4 Nov 93 18:13:42 EST
From: ph297md@prism.gatech.edu
Subject: Re: Chalkhills #299
>From: "Thomas V. DelRosario" <tomtom@eng.umd.edu>
>
>I have purchased a very strange import CD called Explode Together which
>is by far their worst release. It's no wonder that Explode Together
>hasn't been released officially in the U.S. It is the biggest
>disappointment that I have had concerning XTC.
I must disagree. For those of you who don't have the CD, you may have
the same thing in the form of Go+ and The Lure of Salvage (I think. I don't
have the CD with me right now). In any case, I think that the CD is
one of the prime pieces of evidence for Andy's genius. Sure, it's quite
strange, but sublimely so. The fun part of listening to it (for me) is trying
to identify the song that was remixed, an easier task with some of the songs
than others.
So what do the rest of you think?
-Markus De Shon (ph297md@prism.gatech.edu)
"When I was little my grandfather asked me how old I was. I
said, `Five.' He said, `When I was your age, I was six.'"
-- Steven Wright
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From: hawkinsb@sage.cc.purdue.edu (Bret Hawkins)
Subject: "Explode Together" CD
Date: Thu, 4 Nov 93 20:28:24 EST
Hi Folks,
This is my first post to this group but I've been reading it for
a while now. I'm a big XTC fan and have all of the discs except Go 2, which
I plan to get shortly. I noticed in the last issue that someone else had
purchased "Explode Together" and was disappointed. I bought this disc a
couple of years ago as an import and have only listened to it a few, er,
couple of times. Most of the disc is just noise in my opinion and it
doesn't even sound like XTC. Does anyone have the story behind this disc?
I think it's a compilation of stuff from the late seventies and early
eighties. I would appreciate any insight you can give me on this disc.
Part II, I have a single for Dear God which contains some sort of
Homo Sapiens series on it as well. What is this? Has it been releases any-
where else? (I'm not sure it was Homo Sapiens, but it was something weird
like that...)
Thanks!
Bret
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Date: 05 Nov 1993 04:43:08 -0400 (EDT)
From: Brookes McKenzie <RMCKENZI@smith.smith.edu>
Subject: love/hate
re: "wake up" - my second favorite of the two colin songs i like (after
"english roundabout"). most of the time i favor andy unashamedly, but the
few colins that i like, i love.
however, "bungalow" is certainly _not_ one of them. the ridiculous cheesiness
of the song is mildly amusing as a concept, but to have to listen to it is
torturous.
re: "dear madam barnum" - combines two of the best things about xtc in general
and andy's songs in particular: insanely catchy rhythms/melodies, and clever
slightly tongue-in-cheek lyrics. plus this song has a well-done conceit -
consistent overarching metaphor that is applied throughout the [poem, usually,
but here] song - much like "mayor of simpleton" or "that's really super, super-
girl". _that_ i think is what makes it so great and so entirely non-boring
and so worth listening to (on repeat) millions of times in a row.
- brookes
[][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][] Subject: Re: Chalkhills #299 Date: Fri, 05 Nov 93 11:20:10 -0500 From: silva@mond1.ccrc.uga.edu KyLe sez: > Agreed! Like I said, this was the first post-Terry album where I love the drumming, except for an odd Skylarking passage. Your kidding me right? The work that the fellow from Mister Mister did on Orange and Lemons was splendid. JoE ---- "LooK Piglet, it's a ja-gu-lar." - WH Pooh
[][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][] Date: Sun, 7 Nov 93 01:11:35 GMT From: Toby Howard <toby@cs.man.ac.uk> Subject: Martin Newell I picked up the "Greatest Living Englishman" CD yesterday, with the limited edition (and hilarious!) live poetry CD. The sound/feel of the album itself is _very_ Andy/Dukes. You can tell it was recorded on Andy's 8-track digital in the shed at the bottom of the garden. The whole feel of the thing is a state-of-the-art "demo". And I mean that kindly. All I can say to Chalkhillians is: BUY THIS! And the CD sleeve says: "Featuring the new, improved Andy Partridge". According to the notes, Andy does one guitar solo and almost all drums/percussion, and some keyboard. Toby
[][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][] Date: Mon, 8 Nov 93 13:30:47 EST From: patty@gdb.org (Patty Haley) Subject: So Far, So Good! Hi everyone: I am referring to The Greatest Living Englishman, the new Martin Newell CD. I taped it last night and began listening to it in the car on the way to work this morning. Geez, I actually arrived at work smiling instead of scowling--no mean feat as I work in a slum, so even if I leave for work in a good mood (rare), I wind up pretty miserable by the time I park my car and pick my way through the debris to the office. Not this morning. You can tell that our man Partridge produced this-- it reminds me of an XTC/Dukes LP so far with a different singer. And that's no slur to Martin Newell. Anyway, I am looking forward to the end of the workday (as usual), so I can get back in the car and keep listening. And, I am one of the lucky few to get the bonus CD with Martin reading his poetry, although I haven't listened to it yet. So, I hope to write about this CD more in-depth after I've had a chance to listen to it more in-depth, but in the meantime, let me pass along my recommendation for this fine CD. Makes me want to get a hold of Martin's other works pronto. Good lyrics, good music, good stuff. -Patty
[][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][] Date: 8 Nov 1993 16:19:58 U From: "Venverloh Jeff" <venverloh_jeff@po.gis.prc.com> Subject: Shark Attack I picked up the latest _Big_Takeover_ rag mag, which was actually pretty old (can anyone 'splain to me why it takes a magazine all summer to get from NYC to DC?) at the local Tower. It features Part 2 of a fantastic interview with Andy (the old splitting-the-interview-in-2-parts marketing ploy). There's lots of good stuff if you can pick up a copy, but I thought that I would paraphrase the funniest bit here for fellow Chalkhillbillies: ******************************************************************* BT: A friend of mine asked me to ask this to you and I don't know what it means, but he wants to know: if you did and why you took a blow-up shark to Australia? Andy: Ha-ha! It wasn't a blow-up, it was just hollow rubber. It was the best blow-job that I could transport with me. I was in a Woolworth's in...Melbourne? I was in Melbourne, and I saw this rubber shark. And I thought, fuck, look at the mouth on that rubber shark! And I picked it up and it was really soft and spongy, and I thought, hey! So I tried it out, and it was great, so I took it around the whole tour of Australia and New Zealand and I bought a little box for it. Really foxed the customs men, cause they'd say "What's in the box, mate?" And I'd say, "Rubber shark" (general hilarity). "Okay, get it open, get it open" You'd open it up and there's a rubber shark. "Okay, fuck off, willya, mate?" So yeah, it was an interesting masturbatory device for awhile. Cause, you know, you can't go too careful with some of them diseases out there. BT: You gotta leave the wife at home and all. ANDY: Yeah, you know, and you don't want to go back with guilt, so at least you can go home and say "Darling, I've been fucking a rubber shark for the last two months!" S'great, you want to try it. Don't get the hard rubber, they're really painful. A soft, spongy rubber shark is the best blow-job you... BT: Lemme write this down: soft rubber... This bit is definately for CREEM, isn't it? ANDY: The whole suction process and the shape of the innards of the rubber shark is just phenominal. BT: We'll follow up your distaste for religion with this particular. ANDY: Yeah, right. And it was only like ninety cents. The best blow-job for the best price. BT: Is there anything we haven't covered that you'd like to talk about? ANDY: No, kind of the rubber shark is pretty good, there. Ah, there's all sorts of stuff. We'd better go, I think (laughs). It could get worse from this point on. ***************************************************************** By the way, the article is entitled _Act_Two:_The_Shark_Attack_...
[][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][] For all administrative issues, such as change of address, withdrawal from the list, fan club addresses, discography requests (last update 19 October), back issues, FAQ list, etc., send a message to the following address: <chalkhills-request@chalkhills.org> The Chalkhills archives are available at "http://chalkhills.org/". All views expressed in Chalkhills are those of the individual contributors only. Whips and semen, adulterous confessions...
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