Chalkhills Digest Volume 1, Issue 382
Date: Thursday, 29 September 1994
Chalkhills Digest, Number 382
Thursday, 29 September 1994
Today's Topics:
After Grass and Before Acid...
Re: Chalkhills Digest #381
Re: XTC pronounciation
XTC acoustic and "Take Away"
sound of the 60s
survey sez...
Long reply Favorite song/Best example/Least favorite song
I mean, "This World Over" is basically a Police song.
one of the millions
XTC acoustic medley
XTC is still great! I think Nonsvch is groovy!
Stephen Duffy/SIlver Moon D
intro Dirk Paul Flach
Ultradiscs
various ramblings
Re:Rumour Comfirmed
Re: Chalkhills Digest #381 : Skylarking reissue?/
dear god-homo safari cd ep for sale
Re: Chalkhills Digest #381
that survey/live sam
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---------------------------------------------------------------------- From: Tim Szeliga <tim@snow.nohrsc.nws.gov> Subject: After Grass and Before Acid... Date: Mon, 26 Sep 94 15:09:32 CDT > Where to start? XTC was one of my original adolescent bands, and no matter > where else my musical explorations have taken me over the past fifteen > years, they have remained a constant. Thus, I would boldly conclude that > some or all of these groups might be of interest to other XTC fans: > > Love, the Beach Boys, the Beatles (an obscure group from England), the > Nazz, Syd Barrett/Pink Floyd, the Kinks, The Byrds, The Zombies (especially > Colin Blunstone's early solo stuff if you can find it!!), the Incredible > String Band, 13th Floor Elevators, the Creation, the Misunderstood, and the > always interesting West Coast Pop Art Experimental Group. Almost > invariably, the best stuff from all of these bands was made between 1966 > and 1968. At least I think so. I like to think the Beatles hit their peak during those two years after they discovered grass, but before they discovered acid. Note the inclusion of Syd and Roky in the list above, acid casualties both. (For Brian Wilson, read "after grass and before coke".) The Kinks albums of that period: Percy, Lola, Arthur, Face To Face, WATVGPS (before it degenerated into Preservation Parts I, II,...) Second the votes on Love (Four Sail/Forever Changes) and ISB (U and "The 5000 Spirits (or the Layers of the Onion)") being my favorites. A version of Love is currently gigging with a version of Spirit, I missed them by one week when I visited San Diego this summer (but caught Adrian Belew). Just for the record, The Incredible String Band played at Woodstock in 69. I picked up a Woodstock '94 paper that had the absolutely most beautiful photograph of the absolutely most beautiful Licorice MacKechnie, who sang a ~very~ high, thin soprano with ISB. And also for the record, The Fugs (It Crawled Into My Hand....Honest!) played Woodstock Aug 13-14 with Allan Ginsburg, but they were at the smaller concert down the road. Ob XTC comment: I think the flaming between the Partridgians and the Colonialists (or Colonics, depending on your bias) is getting out of hand. "Andy can do no wrong and Colin plays bass worse than Andy's cousin Danny." "Andy is too prolific and releases material of "uneven quality". He would be much more highly regarded if he held about a third of his output back. However no two people can agree on which third."
------------------------------ Date: Mon, 26 Sep 1994 17:10:17 -0400 (EDT) From: Tobin Leo Munsat <tobin@phoenix.Princeton.EDU> Subject: Re: Chalkhills Digest #381 > *How* could the same man who wrote "Rehumanize Yourself" write "If > Ever I Lose My Faith in You"?? I think Stewart wrote "Rehumanize Yourself" > That having been said, I don't like much of Andy Summers' post-Police > work, either... On the other hand, I'm a HUGE Stewart Copeland fan. See!
------------------------------ From: CurtissH@aol.com Date: Mon, 26 Sep 94 17:50:24 EDT Subject: Re: XTC pronounciation Chris J Shellito asked: > How is XTC pronounced? Like the three letters that make up the name. Eks--tee--see. It's supposed to sound like the word ecstacy, I think, but in the end, it will always just be three letters from the alphabet. Welcome to Chalkhills, BTW. Curtiss Hammock, Atlanta, GA USA
------------------------------
Date: Mon, 26 Sep 1994 15:49:29 -0700 (PDT)
From: Francis Owen McDonnell <fmcdonne@reed.edu>
Subject: XTC acoustic and "Take Away"
1) The XTC acoustic stuff you heard was from the radio show tour
after the release of _Oranges and Lemons_. Two shows have been compiled
on a Japanese import that goes by the title, "Kings for a Day" (I think
one of the shows is from Boston and the other is from NYC?).
Unfortunatly, the quality of this CD is awful; only for die-hards. You'd
probably be better off trying to get taped versions from people in those
cities rather than spend $20 on a bad disk (like I did).
2)As I am sure most of you know, Mr. Partridge's "Take Away" and
"The Law of Salvage(?)" are available, along with the "Go+" ep on one
disk, entitled _Explode Together_. Very wierd ("Dance with me, Germany"
being a great remix). Not standard listening fare by anyone's
imagination; industrial remixes before they became popular (Mr. Reznor
might learn a few things from this).
------------------------------ Date: Tue, 27 Sep 1994 11:29:17 +1200 From: james.dignan@stonebow.otago.ac.nz (James Dignan) Subject: sound of the 60s Jon Flynn asks: >Anyone have any other recommendations for 60's gems worth chasing up by an >>XTC/Dukes of Stratosphear fan? The Kinks, as I have previously stated, share a lot of the "Englishness" of XTC. Also, One name that should be added to Michael De Bernardi's suggestion list is the Hollies - a group which the Dukes give a stylish affectionate nod to in "Vanishing Girl". James
------------------------------
Date: Mon, 26 Sep 1994 15:57:10 -0500 (CDT)
From: Christopher G Kasic <kasic001@maroon.tc.umn.edu>
Subject: survey sez...
Chalkhillians:
Boy, does this survey bring lurkers out of the woodwork. I prefer
"browsers". Anyways, a few comments:
---------tim@snow.nohrsc.nws.gov writes:------------
> I've noticed for years that many British lyricists are intentionally
> "clever", mixing wordplay with jarring images that demand attention.
> Consider Elvis Costello, Ray Davies, Andy Partridge, Colin Moulding,
> etc.
Don't forget the Housemartins/Beautiful South. Ironically, most
of these mentioned above make the jarring images work with
deceptively smooth, sometimes even calming music. The lion's
share of American pop likes jarring images with jarring music,
unfortunately.
> Americans, on the whole, in the mass, the fifteen million who have to
> hear and like your song to get one million to actually buy it, they don't
> reward lyrical complexity or originality. If you manage to string cliches
> in a tuneful way, like in "If you Love Somebody...", yes you can reach
> them, and after you have their attention, maybe get them to listen to
> some of your other, more interesting work.
It's tough to reward lyrical complexity or originality to a
group of millions, period, because everyone's idea of
"originality" is different, depending on what they've heard
before. It's much simpler with smaller groups who may have more
in common.
---------------------------------------------------
My answers to the survey:
1) Desert Island Song: "Across this Antheap" (fine, so it's a little
stray)
2) Song to Recommend: "Senses Working Overtime"
3) Lemon: "Books are Burning" (Sting could do a cover of this and go
platinum)
These answers reflect an incomplete set of XTC work. I'll probably
change them once my XTC collection grows.
--chris
------------------------------
Date: Tue, 27 Sep 1994 00:25:39 -0800
From: ergosum@crl.com (Larry Cummings)
Subject: Long reply Favorite song/Best example/Least favorite song
Hello all,
I have been lurking on and off for two months and just crammed the
last four Chalkhills into my rather tired head. At any rate I thought I
should at least reply to the survey and offer a few other candid opinions.
My favorite XTC song, despite the truly amazing last three albums
from the band I would have to say it's still No punks in our house. on
English Settlement. I was just starting to get interested in music that
wasn't being performed in big arenas. For you younger (no disrespect
intended) listeners out there I know it must be hard to imagine but in the
pre MTV music world any band that was inventive and unorthodox usually
broke up because they couldn't sell or dropped dead because the only reason
they were unorthodox was because they had no sense of reality left (drugs
will do that to you please rent the great rock and roll swindle). As a
musician (or so I fancied myself to be then) I was impressed with their
skills and as a typical rebellious person (as I am rather patheticaly still
trying to be) I was always impressed with the aggresive artistic courage of
their early work. Particularly the way they could not be classified as just
punk or just new wave. This song I think speaks to what they perceived
their audience to be (or at least how I came to be in their audience) both
musically in the dramatic difference between the bridge and the verse
"moods" and lyrically especially the way Andy sort of Arrrghss between the
two (the "insect headed worker wife" line always cracked me up as well).
For me they were the first band that really pulled off the "I am smarter
than the people that are keeping me down but I don't care enough about them
to fight them on their ground." motif with such accurate intent. English
settlement was for me the first succesful album I have ever bought that
brings together so many different musical influences at once but still
retains an artistic singularity. At that time this was real real refreshing
(How do you describe the musical wastland that invented punk wich went on
to invent new wave and ultimately brought us so many great bands in the
last ten years?). If you really want a good dose of what I mean go listen
to say a Kansas album from that period or consider that Boston Don't Look
Back was all over the radio next time you put on anyting on or before
Settlement. I also thought the green leather was a nice touch. How I miss
the album cover art of that great old vynyl medium.
Anyway if I was going to play someone a representative song by the
boys I don't think I could pick just one. Let's face it they have been
through some pretty extreme artistic areas. I would probably start with
Senses working OT just because it was one of their most (cringe) "sellable"
songs and hey they might recognise it wich helps quite alot. By the way the
reason a rock and roll band get's going at all is to make money by doing
what they hope is better than whatever everyone else is doing (sex and
drugs inclusive). The police were just as artisticly impressive in those
days as XTC, they just put more stuff out that they hoped would sell
whereas XTC put more stuff out just to show they were doing it better than
anyone else. If your sure one of these two views is correct or better start
your own band! Excuse me. I got a bit off track there. I also like Senses
working OT because if someone like's that song I can flip the LP over (yes
I still have that one only on vinyl) and play No thugs for them.
As for my least favorite song I would have to say "Dear God". Now
before you start throwing things at me I must confess that while I tolerate
many things in music and lyrics I detest it when a band takes a silly
didachtic anthem about politics religion or sex (three subjects so closely
related in many ways but invariable used by bands to sell records without
saying anything) and puts it on a major release just because they think it
will be more profitable. Dear God struck me this way because the song
seemed to be against "inventing" greater purpose for your life yet this was
exactly how the song contributed to an otherwise great album (they put it
on the US releas when it got so much attention as a B-side). Years later
when I finally heard Mermaid I figured Todd had all the boys so stoned they
didn't really think about the switch. Actually any criticism I could have
is half hearted as I firmly believe in allowing a band a lot of clemency in
order for them to remain commercially viable and therefore put out more
records. To be fair I should say the fact that I really just don't like
that one song (and the circumstances that got it on the album) but love the
rest of the album didn't help.
As for other bands that strike me as similar to XTC
in their inventiveness and musical prowess -Phish
in their exotic use of melody and interesting phrasing and artistic
stylings the Judybats.
But hey what the hell do I know.
Looking for the next Chalkhills
Larry
===================================================================
The whole idea behind pratical politics is to keep the populace
alarmed (and hence clamorous to be led to safety) by mencaing
it with an endless series of hobgoblins, all of them imaginary.
-H. L. Mencken
===================================================================
------------------------------ Date: Tue, 27 Sep 1994 03:30:14 -0400 (EDT) From: Ian Williams <ecstasy@isisa.oit.unc.edu> Subject: I mean, "This World Over" is basically a Police song. It's no surprise to me that people are mentioning the Police so much in the XTC mailing list; for me, both bands represent the essence of New Age pop - glorious chord changes with very little extraneous crap. I believe that artists, especially musically, have to be given credit contextually. Sting's recent "Fields of Gold" may be awful, but "Every Little Thing She Does Is Magic" made me want to learn how to play bass in eighth grade. Likewise, I consider "Nonsuch" to be an album that never fires on all pistons, yet I give Andy credit for all that he has done for me aurally over the last twelve years. Rock critics and even fans have such a "what have you done for me lately" kind of historical revisionism that feeds right into the awful rock cliches about how everyone wrote their best songs on their first album... Often I've thought that there should be Creative Licenses that eventually expire, renewable only by a jury of clueful music fans, a process that would probably rid the world of future Billy Joel, Paul McCartney and Steve Winwood albums. Fortunately, Andy keeps thoughts like that in check for me. Favorite song? "Poor Skeleton Steps Out," for I believe it once saved my life; I posted that story months ago, so I shan't bore you with it again! Lemon? Something about "Great Fire" always bugged me, I dunno why. And not to follow the party line, but "Leisure" is annoying too, though they are both better songs than anything on the Top 10 this week, with the possible exception of Sheryl Crow's "All I Wanna Do," which has a wicked lap guitar. So people are unsubscribing from the list because of increased traffic? Let 'em drift, man - what would they do if there were actually a new album to talk about? -Ian
------------------------------ From: Valdan@aol.com Date: Tue, 27 Sep 94 03:41:54 EDT Subject: one of the millions Hi everyone! This is my first post to Chalkhills, having recently discovered it. The boys first graced my adolescent ears around 1981. Here I am, all grown up and they're one of the few bands that aged gracefully and stayed relevent to me. I hear XTC and I go to jello... With that said, I'd like to add my bit about "Faves, evangelicals and lemons" 1) Current favorite is "Wrapped in Grey", it seems to point out the fact that you don't have to be a rock star or an "Artist" with a capital "a" to seek beauty and mystery in the world (its out there for everyone folks). 2) 50,000,000 Chalkhillians can't be wrong! "Senses.." is my pick for the song to hook the unconverted. 3) It's hard to pick a lemon...I've had more than one of their tunes turn around and grow on me. I guess (gulp) "All Along the Watchtower" has seen its share mad dashes to lift the stylus. Now I've gotta go and see if I still feel that way! Also... I missed the whole conversation about Blur. At the risk of raising someone's ire, I must say that I came across this group a few years back (the album "Leasure") and have been hooked ever since. While, yes, they owe something to XTC, they also have some Bowie, Kinks, Sid Barrett, Cars(in a good way), Stranglers, Stone Roses, Magazine, The The....you get my drift. Bottom line is that three albums later, they're still putting together a wildly eclectic brand of pop. More Later Daniel Martin Santa Cruz, Ca
------------------------------ Date: Tue, 27 Sep 1994 10:44:15 -0500 (CDT) From: neidorf shawn marie <neidorf@uxa.cso.uiuc.edu> Subject: XTC acoustic medley You wrote that you heard an acoustic XTC medley at the Oktoberfest in Chgo. My guess is that it's from the "On XRT: Live From the Archives Vol. I" disc. If you're not from Chgo., XRT (93.1 FM) is a great station that plays a lot of XTC. They put out a benefit album last Christmas that included what I think you're talking about. (I have it, so I know it exists.) Indeed, there's a medley of "Senses Working Over Time," "Grass," and "Love on a Farmboy's Wages" done sans production in a studio interview last year. If you call XRT, they might know where you can find a copy--they were keeping track last year since no one could find the CD. Also, any Poi Dog Pondering fans out there? Rumor was they were supposed to have a new album out this Sept. So far, I haven't heard much. I know they put out some instrumental thing, but I haven't found that either. If you're an XTC fan and haven't heard PDP, CHECK IT OUT. They're a little more world-beatish, but the lyrics are usually pretty good and the music itself is mildly intoxicating. By the way, does anyone ever get trapped in, say, a grocery store and hear the Moody Blues and think of XTC's vocal sound? Am I completely alone in this? Shawn
------------------------------ Date: Tue, 27 Sep 94 11:54:38 EDT From: zugzwang <PDRESSL@CMS.CC.WAYNE.EDU> Subject: XTC is still great! I think Nonsvch is groovy! I do not agree with those who argue that XTC has seen its prime and passed it. While the latest albums are surely different from the first ones, they are not better or worse, IMNSHAISBO. That XTC can reinvent itself time after time and still put out the incredible stuff that they do is a credit to the band. I agree that we will "never see another (insert any album title here)" but that's a good thing. The new stuff, i.e. War Dance, is hardly jazzbo and pretentious. It's just different. (ugh, I sound like an Arby's commercial.) BTW, I'm glad we have the little survey/quiz/whatever thing going on. I've started to like "Senses" a lot better lately... And the question of what music to play for non-XTCers is a very valid one. IMNSHAISBO = in my not so humble as it should be opinion -pete
------------------------------ Date: 27 Sep 1994 13:09:10 U From: "Wesley Wilson" <Wesley_Wilson@iegate.mitre.org> Subject: Stephen Duffy/SIlver Moon D In the last issue of Chalkhills, someone mentioned Stephen Duffy. The first album I heard was "& Love for All", b/c Andy produced about 1/2 of it; the other was produced by (surprise!) John Leckie. This is an excellent CD, but sadly like all of the S. Duffy and The Lilac Time, it is out of print in the U.S. Search your used CD stores; the disc is worth having. Stephen is an EXCELLENT songwriter and performer. You can get his latest (1993), "Music in Colours" on CD (out of England). He's also due to release a new album soon; it probably won't be released in the U.S. I don't know if Stephen Duffy is involved with the band Barenaked Ladies; I do know that he has contributed writing and vocals to St. Etienne's "Tiger Bay" and Velvet Crush's "Teenage Symphonies to God" (neither of which I have heard yet; I can't afford it!) Oh, and I received some flyers from Silver Moon Digital (sorry, I don't have their phone number or address handy), a mail order CD company in Oklahoma City, OK. They're planning on carrying the Vol. 2 XTC BBC disc (anyone know what's on it?), the goldplated Skylarking, and a rerelease of Skylarking out of Japan with "Mermaid Smiled" instead of "Dear God." Silver Moon also has the Martin Newell CD "Greatest Living." They seem to make it a point to carry a lot of XTC. Wes
------------------------------ Date: Tue, 27 Sep 1994 20:12:01 +0100 From: d.flach@topos.ruu.nl (Dirk Paul Flach) Subject: intro Dirk Paul Flach Hi all, my name is Dirk Paul Flach, I'm living in Amsterdam, The Netherlands and I'm a new member of the mailing list for the discussion of the music and recordings of XTC. I would describe myself as a moderate fan of XTC. I don't have all the records XTC made, but I have a fair amount of it: starting with White Music and ending with Nonsuch. However, there are some of them missing inbetween. Basicly, I started to like XTC because of the records my brother had. In The Netherlands, XTC has never been that popular, so I like to make use of this Internet opportunity to talk about XTC with other souls. I am especially interested in transcriptions of their music, since I'm a bit of a musician myself. Looking forward to talk to you, Dirk Paul Flach Amsterdam, The Netherlands
------------------------------
Date: Tue, 27 Sep 1994 09:49:44 -0600
From: keeks@maroon.tc.umn.edu (Tom Keekley)
Subject: Ultradiscs
I very well may be the ONLY person on this list to bridge this chasm=
--------------> my favorite band is Rush! (actually, both bands (Rush &=
XTC) excel in thier own form of songwriting and are *excellent* musicians .=
. ) Anyhoo . . . the reason I'm bringing this up is because I own two=
ultradisc releases from the Rush catalog and in both cases the clarity was=
remarkable and the levels were boosted so the music in general has more=
dynamic range. To be honest, unless you listen in a good environment or are=
a discriminating listener, the difference may not matter. Skylarking will=
certainly sound much better in this version, especially stuff like Summers=
Cauldron, Grass, Sacrificial Bonfire, etc. . .
.
.
...
. .
Tom Keekley - Minneapolis, Earth
------------------------------ Date: Tue, 27 Sep 1994 23:08:24 -0400 From: y kant woj type <woj@romulus.rutgers.edu> Organization: fegmaniax anonymous Subject: various ramblings hey chalkhillians, two things: 1) i've been listening to _through the hill_ a lot lately and like it well enough. i'm a little disappointed that andy didn't more strongly affect harold budd's style but the guitar work that he did provide is gorgeous: very full and deep. this is an excellent album to go to sleep to or to wake up to. it's not bad for late-night e-mail either. 2) i found a copy of "the difappointed," a five song promo cd ep that virgin released 'round the time of _nonesuch_. the tracks are "making plans for nigel," "generals and majors," "senses working overtime," and "the smartest monkeys." i'm not a xtc collector but i figured there'd be folks here who're interested in taking it off my hand. i found it for $5 so i'll sell it for $5 plus postage. first reply gets it. 3) to that new subscriber in italy: anyone who recognizes the greatness of _the big express_ is welcome here! ;) woj
------------------------------ Date: 28 Sep 94 12:00:39 EDT From: John.J.Pinto@Dartmouth.EDU (John J. Pinto) Subject: Re:Rumour Comfirmed Dave Gregory did three dates in Japan (Tokyo 9/11,9/12, ?) playing keyboards and guitar in Martin Newell's band. Andy was recruited as well but declined. Source at scene reports highlight was a version of "Julie Profumo" featuring a breathtaking 12 string Rickenbacher solo by Dave. Other news is not good.... Don't hold your hopes high. The writing for the new album is going very slowly. The relationship with Virgin was descibed as being contractural only.
------------------------------
Subject: Re: Chalkhills Digest #381 : Skylarking reissue?/
Date: Wed, 28 Sep 1994 13:55:22 -0400 (EDT)
From: "Karl J Knack" <knackkar@student.msu.edu>
In response to the question of whether or not the Mobile Fidelity reissues
on CD sound much better than standard issue, I have a personal incident to
relate.
I bought a used copy of Elton John's "Madman Across the Water" disc on MF
last spring, since it was cheaper than the recent Polygram reissues. I
have to say that the sound was very poor compared to the Polygram re-
mastters (but much better than the MCA issues). I don't believe the
version of "Skylarking" out now on Geffen is very punchy, but I would be
cautious about spending almost 30 bucks on the forthcoming issue.
By the way - I think that Elton's first five or six albums would be of
great interest to those who have enjoyed the most recent XTC album
(of course, it's probably well known that Gus Dudgeon was producer
on Elton's essential material), and those who have never heard these
recordings are in for quite a suprise.
More by the way - in the interest of those looking for '60's gems to
supplement their Dukes fetish, consider these:
Zombies: Odyssey and Oracle
The Byrds: discs 1 & 2 of the box
The Monkees: disc 3 of the box
The Hollies: discs 2 & 3 of the box
Giles, Giles and Fripp (if you can find it)
Thanks,
Karl J. Knack
------------------------------ From: tanael@husc.harvard.edu Date: Wed, 28 Sep 94 23:29:27 -0400 Subject: dear god-homo safari cd ep for sale hi there! ive got a copy of the dear god cd ep with all 6 homo safari tracks that id like to sell. email me with any offers if youre interested. thanks! tony
------------------------------ Date: Wed, 28 Sep 94 15:25 EST From: Jeffrey Langr <0005392548@mcimail.com> Subject: Re: Chalkhills Digest #381 Mr. Jerry Kranitz - Take Away/The Lure of Salvage has been released in a few forms. The original (I think it is; it's the one I've got), has a plain cardboard-like cover with a lurid picture on each side, and was released some time around Drums and Wires. It's the same idea as Go + which was released with a few copies of GO 2. Both pre-date the Clash's overrated experiments with dub on Sandinista, and prove to be more interesting anyway. Basically Andy played around with the Drums and Wires (or GO 2) tapes in the studio; what's real surprising is that Virgin let him release these. I saw Take Away a few years later issued with a glossier white sleeve (still with the pictures) but never bought it. Both Go+ and Take Away/The Lure of Salvage were re-released on Virgin CD as XTC Explode Together, which came out at the same time as Rag 'n' Bone Buffet. It's still interesting after more than a dozen years but I can't really find a good reason to listen to the whole thing. Favorite XTC songs: too many to choose from. Then She Appeared, Yacht Dance, Tissue Tigers, Let's Make a Den, You're the Wish you Are I Had, Ladybird, Helicopter, etc. Someone played "Helicopter" for me about 1980 and it was the best thing I'd ever heard at that point. XTC ruled from then on and I shelled out bucks for anything XTC I could get my hands on. Least favorites: President Kill, The Farting Monkeys, Big Day I hope to God that the next XTC album doesn't sound anything like O&L or Nonsuch or Skylarking. The layered vocals and preachy politically correct ballads are getting old. While I like a few songs on each, I really don't listen to them anymore; the stuff all starts to melt away. I could recite just about any XTC song up through Skylarking but I don't even recall all the names of the tracks on the later albums. Methinks the boys are getting too soft...
------------------------------ From: OLIVER@slais.ubc.ca Organization: SLAIS, UBC Date: 29 Sep 94 16:01:17 GM+5 Subject: that survey/live sam If it's not too late: Ultimate XTC song: I would have to agree that Senses Working Overtime is probably the best overall track XTC have ever done. It just all comes together beautifully; the song, the production, the performance. It's just a really exciting record. Best song to hook someone on XTC with: The ones that seem to work are Dear God and Mayor of Simpleton, as well as Senses. I can't think of anything more alienating too all but a very small portion of music listeners than playing White Music. Worst XTC song: I never count the first two albums when thinking about this as I don't feel they were the same band then. 10 albums on, there's no excuse for "Bungalow" or "Cynical Days." Andy's weakest song of the last 14 years or so is probably "Discque Bleu," but that never came out as a real XTC record. I also dislike "Blue Overall" intensely, and I agree with the recent post about how boring "Human Alchemy" is. Sam Phillips is playing in Vancouver on Monday. Has anyone on the list seen her? Is she any good live? She seemed dreadfully boring on Conan O'Brien.
------------------------------ End of Chalkhills Digest #382 *****************************
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