Chalkhills Digest Volume 1, Issue 424
Date: Sunday, 26 March 1995
Chalkhills Digest, Number 424
Sunday, 26 March 1995
Today's Topics:
Re: Downloadable Different Deck
chords to "Collideascope"
jeszt komm die flut
Fretless in Gaza
Ladybird
Dukes sources
Dukes = ?
Re: Help! "Leisure" lyrics!
Re: Chalkhills Digest #423
Diamond Blue?
Re: Chalkhills Digest #423
The butcher who backed into the meatgrinder
Re: CTD's cover of PPH
Re: The Ducks of Stratosphear
Just a little more Lilac Time
Worst to First - Sacrificial Bonfire - Thanks!
Re: Chalkhills Digest #423
more Tubes / GO 2 cover
Shriekback Discography
CH in OZ...
Birds/chicks
Least favourite bands
Administrivia:
* Try to always keep the length of the lines in your message to 75
characters or less. The standard width of a terminal screen is
80 characters, but when a reply includes your message, the length
of lines can grow, so leave a little room for further discussion.
To UNSUBSCRIBE from Chalkhills, send a message to:
<chalkhills-request@chalkhills.org>
For all other administrative issues, send a message to:
<chalkhills-request@chalkhills.org>
Chalkhills Archives not available using FTP.
World Wide Web: "http://chalkhills.org/"
The views expressed herein are those of the individual authors.
Don't waste time, go on and taste them all!
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Date: Wed, 22 Mar 95 10:49:51 PST
From: John Relph <relph@presto.ig.com>
Subject: Re: Downloadable Different Deck
Paul_Myers@mail.magic.ca asks:
>Is there a downloadable discography also?
Yes.
Use anonymous FTP at "ftp://net.bio.net/pub/music/chalkhills/Discography"
or use WWW at "http://chalkhills.org/discog.html".
>While I'm posting, could someone explain exactly what the book Eleven
>Different Animals is all about and does anyone either have a copy for
>trade/sale or a copy that could be photocopied? Also, anyone have an extra
>deck of Nonsuch playing cards?
Damn, I saw a deck of playing cards at a record show a couple of
weekends ago. Didn't get it. _Eleven Different Animals_ is
simplified guitar charts of 11 XTC songs, complete with introduction
and other goo.
By the way, I will be in Oxford, England, during the month of April.
Any Chalkhillians care to try to meet? Please send me private e-mail.
Thanks,
-- John
------------------------------
From: hotspur@mcs.com (Michael Faulkner)
Subject: chords to "Collideascope"
Date: Wed, 22 Mar 1995 13:12:07 -0600 (CST)
This is my first post to the charts section, and I'm
a shitty guitarist (I play piano well, but all I *own*
at the moment is a guitar, so...), but here are the
chords to "Collideascope" on the Dukes' second album.
opening notes: ( + denotes higher octave)
+e b g e g b +e b g b(flat) a g
The verse chords are all played in a similar way. There
are two ways to notate them, and I'll opt for the easier
(ie, C/E to donate a C chord with a root of E rather than
Em aug 5). They are played with a regular E minor pattern,
but one walks up the b string by half steps (frets).
Here they are:
Em C/E C#dim/E Em7 (no 5)
(The pattern is the same for both of the next chords)
F#m D/F# D#dim/F# F#m7 (no 5)
Bm G/B G#dim/B Bm7 (no 5)
F#sus4 F#(major now!-That kooky Andy!)
Asus4 A
Chorus:
D G D G D G A A#dim (2X)
Hope you can figure them out from this...don't know my
guitarspeak that well. Anyway, I'll post some more
when I find the time....suggestions/comments to
Michael Faulkner, hotspur@mcs.com
------------------------------
Date: Wed, 22 Mar 95 15:03:12 EST
From: Jeff Rosedale <rosedale@columbia.edu>
Subject: jeszt komm die flut
Forgive my bad german- it's as close as I can remember from Gabriel's
alter-ego Here Comes the Flood.
The Flood is represented here by the deluge of postings to Chalkhills,
in which I have found it irresistable to join.
Backtracking to the beginning of XTCtime as I have known it-
paradoxically they came at me through someone from Los Angeles at the
time of the Great Punk Wars. Shortly before I broke my nose
slam-dancing (one of life's rare but great embarrassments), I first
heard a Virgin Atlantic copy of Drums and Wires, played much too fast
on a dying cheapo turntable with 8 watt speakers cranked as far as they
could go. I was in love. The fadeout from Helicopter into Nigel,
accelerated and distorted by the poor system,had a primitive ratchet
effect on my consciousness.
Cut to a slack-jawed campus in Rochester in 1981. English Settlement
plays in the background of a cash-bar extravaganza. Oddly I had heard
Senses Working Overtime and disliked it- somewhat swoopy and strange
voice quality. But hearing the whole album in the background of
something else positively brainwashed me forever and ever. Even that
first time, I felt as if I had heard the entire album before
(extinguish candles here). Of course the "whole" album at that time
was the trashy Epic version.
Short time passes and I am trying to convert deadheads and blasting the
Rotary at top notch over Linda Rhondstat. Sound system slightly
improved, poor quality but greatly increased wattage. Stocking up on
7, 10, 12 inch vinyl disks from near the end of the alphabet. A great
voyage of musical discovery.
Shoot past the present, past heavy theatrical curtainage into reverie.
Andy swoops down onto a stage slowly, straddling a crescent moon stage
prop singing Chalkhills and Children. It's the end of the first XTC
show in fifteen years. My head has been spinning ever since the band
exlpoded into "Merely a Man" to open the show two hours earlier. Some
of the music has been taped, there are all sorts of effects,but I don't
care about corruption of an art form- it's a new form, performance art,
and it causes broad band tingling across the entire sensory spectrum.
I'm gripping my program and t-shirt tightly, imagining what they will
look like as I trot them out again twenty years later. Dave Gregory
solos spin silvery through twelve string strands of memory. Colin sang
I Remember the Sun, Grass, Dying, Find the Fox, and that amazing new
song I can't remember the name of. Andy sang about a million songs.
I've got that strange mixture of post-concert hoarseness and limb
fatigue, but it's all in the name of History.
Tell me, chalk hill climbers, what is your vision of XTC live? It
needn't be realistic...
Analyze the songs too much, do we?! What else are we supposed to do,
twiddling our thumbs in anticipation of new releases? Mr. P bakes his
cakes in layers and shouldn't be surprised if we taste them all, each
in slightly different shades...
Admittedly
--Jeff
------------------------------ Date: 22 Mar 1995 16:23:24 U From: "Russell Shaddox" <Russell_Shaddox@quickmail.cis.yale.edu> Subject: Fretless in Gaza Byron Wright (bkwright@garnet.acns.fsu.edu) wrote: > Of course, if his wang IS fretted, I just don't want to know. What does Andy's computer have anything to do with this? BarryR7704@aol.com wrote: > Btw, that stuff about Kurt Schwitters was garbage. This sailed straight over my head the first two times I read it. Then I fell out of my chair. You and Andy should get together with puns like that! Here's another Englishism out of the much-maligned ES song "Leisure," where the narrator is discussing his unemployment-prompted preoccupation with video games where he can score goals "with the gentlest twitch": "I've forgotten how to use my legs to invade the pitch." This (also) sailed straight over my head (getting the trend here?) when I first got the album. I thought "invading the pitch" was some sort of wacky move in the game of cricket. Then I went to Ireland and learned more about rugby. The "pitch" is the rugby field, as in: "I've forgotten how to use my legs to go running out onto the rugby pitch." This also explained for me the line in Genesis "Mad Man Moon": "But a gaol can give you a goal, and a goal can find you a role on a muddy pitch in Newcastle," etc. Duh, now I get it, says I, as half the songs I loved for years suddenly get explained to me. See ya Russell Shaddox Forever caught in desert lands, one has to learn to disbelieve the sea -Genesis
------------------------------ From: treefrog@netcom.com (Edward of Sim) Subject: Ladybird Date: Wed, 22 Mar 1995 13:25:20 -0800 (PST) whee@morgan.com (Gerald Wheeler) sez: > Just to add my two cents worth to the debate, I've always viewed "My Bird > Performs" to be a simple analog to Andy's earlier composition "Ladybird." > I bet if you asked Andy and Colin when the songs were written, you would > find that the two songs were the fruits of artistic sparing. Example: > "Shall I compare thee to a [type of bird], thou art more fair and > temperate..." Except that a Ladybird is a beetle, what Americans call a Ladybug. It's not a bird at all. peace Edward -- Edward of Sim treefrog@netcom.com I had dreams so bad I threw my pillow away. -TD
------------------------------
From: mt4s@uva.pcmail.virginia.edu
Date: Wed, 22 Mar 1995 17:10:27 -0500
Subject: Dukes sources
Dear Chalkhillers,
I've been lurking happily for a few weeks, taking in a lot of
good info and insight about one of my favorite bands. I jumped on
the bandwagon around English Settlement time, and of course went
back to get all that came before (though I must admit the albums
from Black Sea to the present get 98% of the playtime). I wasn't
sure when I would jump in and post to the digest--I didn't have
much to say about Andy's pink thing--until the talk about sources
for the Dukes came up. Irresistible. I applaud the opinions
offered so far. "Pale and Precious" is certainly the Beach Boys
and IMHO one of Andy's most beautiful melodies--almost a shame to
waste it on a parody. And a big thanks to whomever tied "Bike Ride
to the Moon" to Syd Barret. THAT'S IT! As there is even a song
"Bike" with similar harmonies on the first Floyd record, I can't
believe I didn't catch on earlier. The Floyd brings me to the
first of my offerings. "You're A Good Man Albert Brown" brings to
mind "Corporal Clegg" from one of the early PF records (But non-
Syd, I think). The subject matter is very close and the melody--
while different--has that same maddeningly catchy way about it. As
was mentioned, "The Mole from the Ministry" is certainly
Beatlesque, but, as was also mentioned, the brilliance of all these
songs is that they don't rip-off too much. Yes it's Sgt. Pepper
era, and I think it combines Lucy and the Walrus with a large dose
of A Day in the Life (compare the section after "Then somebody
spoke and I went into a dream..." with the end of the mole). My
final two offerings are both Beatle-related. Vanishing girl sounds
like it would be very at home on Rubber Soul. Some may disagree
with that one, but this one I'm sure of: "Braniac's Daughter" is
soooo perfectly solo McCartney a la Uncle Albert/Admiral Halsey.
I've gone on too long, but I should also say it's great to find
such a literate and unhysterical group of enthusiasts.
--Mark
------------------------------ Date: Wed, 22 Mar 1995 18:02:47 -0500 (EST) From: Tobin Munsat <tobin@phoenix.Princeton.EDU> Subject: Dukes = ? > "Your Gold Dress" is an homage to Syd Barrett era Pink Floyd as is "Bike > Ride To The Moon." Especially the high pitched vocal harmony. ...etc... > Craig Vreeken, Sacramento, CA Also "Shiny Cage" goes to the point of direct mimicry of "I'm Only Sleeping" (from Revolver). This sounds like a perfect subject for the FAQ: the most tangible influence on each of the Dukes' songs. Any volunteers? -Tobin.
------------------------------ From: JMons@aol.com Date: Wed, 22 Mar 1995 18:38:35 -0500 Subject: Re: Help! "Leisure" lyrics! Greetings, all: I continue to thrill in the on-line XTC banter of all and sundry, and in devouring the Chalkhills archives. One thing that continues to elude me, however, is what is sung at the very end of ES's "Leisure" (it is NOT included on any lyric sheets I've seen). It sounds like the line begins "Lazy (bum?), look into the sun..," but I cannot be sure. Anyone have any insight/thoughts on this? And speaking of lyrics, has anyone gotten a chance to check out the booklet that comes with the Japanese pressing of Beeswax? Wow. Whoever wrote down THOSE lyrics couldn't have ever heard any of the songs included on the disk, to wit: "Punch and Judy did it truly and were married in a haste/In the maybe using the baby as a kind of roll mans pastry." You get the idea. Finally, are there any Philadelphia-area gatherings of XTC and like-minded music aficianados that anyone knows about? I would LOVE the chance to banter in-person about the topics that get covered in here. Jon
------------------------------
From: hotspur@mcs.com (Michael Faulkner)
Subject: Re: Chalkhills Digest #423
Date: Wed, 22 Mar 1995 18:57:03 -0600 (CST)
More Dukes' influences (IMHO):
"You're my drug" - The Byrds ("Eight miles high" era)
"Shiny Cage" - the most obvious....right up to lifting the bass
bridge from the Beatles' "I'm only sleeping"
"Little Lighthouse" - There's a song by SPIRIT that I've forgotten
the name of (haven't heard it in quite
a while) that has the same guitar tremelo
effect used in the same manner.
Less "obvious" influences: Klaatu, definitely, though they were *so*
beatles - influenced that you could say they and the Dukes shared
influences...though Klaatu's album with "Loneliest of Creatures"
branches out and is brilliant. For those interested in Klaatu
check the archives...there was a long thread about them many,
many issues ago.
The song that gets me, that I can't find *any* recognizable
influences for is "The Affiliated"...anybody have any ideas?
Mike
hotspur@mcs.com
------------------------------ From: XDEVANS@CCVAX.FULLERTON.EDU Date: Wed, 22 Mar 1995 19:23:31 -0800 (PST) Subject: Diamond Blue? I'm pretty new to this post and have a question--hope this hasn't been covered to recently: In "Skylarking" (my favorite album, the one that introduced me to XTC, within 6 months I'd bought all of the others, etc. etc.) on "Dear God" (the first song I'd heard etc. etc.) Andy Partridge signs "Did you make disease/and the Diamond Blue?" What the heck is "Diamond Blue?" Doesn't sound good. Thanks! Doug Evans (if you send your answers to me I'll post them to the list)
------------------------------ From: Craig Dickson <cd@crl.com> Subject: Re: Chalkhills Digest #423 Date: Wed, 22 Mar 1995 20:16:59 -0800 (PST) |From: patty@gdb.org (Patty Haley) | |First of all, I can't |see how someone's opinion can be "wrong." Facts can be proven, opinions |can't be. Determining what is "right" on this issue is really quite simple: ask Colin what he intended the song to be about. Neither you nor I have done this, so we don't really know what the truth is, but there very definitely is a "right" answer to this. Hence your opinion, and mine, can be "right" or "wrong". This isn't a question of taste. |And, if you'll look at what I wrote again, you'll see that we |are saying the same thing, at least about the "things many people think |important", as I mention "what others collect or call valuable." I was disagreeing with your reference to "a woman who's keeping him sexually satisfied". I don't see that in the song at all. |When I disagree with someone, |such as Jon's opinion that the first songs on albums are weak, I didn't think |of him as being wrong, even though I disagreed heartily. Let's please all |be careful of the way we disagree with someone--opinions aren't "wrong," |they're just different Certainly, there is no absolute truth to matters of preference, such as which songs are the best or the worst. But that's not what we're talking about here. We're discussing what Colin meant in "My Bird Performs". Neither you nor I know with certainty what the truth is in this case, but nevertheless it is a question of fact, not of preference, and therefore there is a "right" answer even if nobody knows for sure what it is. |From: CVreeken@aol.com |Subject: Dukes = ? | |Here's what I think: |"Your Gold Dress" is an homage to Syd Barrett era Pink Floyd as is "Bike |Ride To The Moon." Especially the high pitched vocal harmony. Good catch! I recognized "Bike Ride", but it hadn't occurred to me that "Your Gold Dress" was also a Floyd pastiche. I guess it does sound a bit like some of the songs on side 1 of 'Piper at the Gates of Dawn'. |"Mole In The Ministry" = '67 Beatles, a la "Strawberry Fields Forever" and |"I Am The Walrus," while "Kalidoscope" mines a later John Lennon solo |material vein. I agree. I recognized the late-period Lennon vocal style right away when I first heard "Collideascope". |"Pale And Precious" = Pet Sounds era Beach Boys, a cross between "God Only |Knows," "Caroline No," and "Good Vibrations" Yes. |"25 O'Clock" = "I Had Too Much To Dream Last Night" by the Electric Prunes. Interesting. I've always loved "I Had Too Much To Dream Last Night", but I hadn't caught the similarity to "25 O'Clock". There is a definite resemblance, but "25" is very organ-based, whereas the Prunes song is totally guitar-oriented, which I think the Dukes would have honored if they meant to pay it homage. Maybe they were mixing "IHTMTDLT" with some other song? |The genius of the Dukes is evoking the sound of these groups without |resorting to blatent mimicry. Most of the others remind me of something, |but I can't quite put my finger on it. Isn't that annoying? Some of them I can identify pretty easily. "You're My Drug" is definitely a re-creation of the jazzy 12-string Rickenbacker lead guitar sound of mid-period Byrds, e.g. "Eight Miles High" or "I See You". "You're a Good Man, Albert Brown" seems like a Small Faces singalong. "Vanishing Girl" reminds me of the Hollies. There are two '60s bands that I'm not familiar with whom I would have expected the Dukes to pay homage to: the Incredible String Band (because they were one of the primary English psychedelic bands) and Hapshash and the Coloured Coat (whose cover art style is gently mocked on the cover of 'Psonic Psunspot'). Unfortunately, since I've never heard anything by either group, I have no way of knowing whether their styles are in evidence on the Dukes' records. |From: "David Harris" <harris~d@glaxo.com> | |One question: Was XTC in the movie Urgh, A Music War? Yes; they played "Respectable Street". Craig
------------------------------ Date: Wed, 22 Mar 95 23:33:30 EST From: Melissa Reaves <MREAVES@KENTVM.KENT.EDU> Subject: The butcher who backed into the meatgrinder She got a little behind in her work. Hello my prolific friends! I've had to print and read later the last several Chuckholes they were coming so fast and furious I had no room in my mailbox, but now I'm caught up and I have a few things to say. To start with, going back a bit to the thread about what bands XTC fans like (and dislike), I think XTC fans have to like all different stuff in part because XTC themselves are uncategorizable. They're just intelligent. It's not like Pearl Jam where if you're a big fan you're guaranteed to like Stone Temple Pilots because who can tell them apart anyway? XTC simply refuse to be pigeonholed so why should their fans? For the record, not that you asked, here are some of my own eclectic likes: New Wave: XTC, Split Enz/Crowded House, The Smiths, The B-52's, The Cure Folksy Females: The Chenille Sisters, Loreena McKennitt, The Cranberries, Sinead O'Connor, Christine Lavin Rock: Rush, Pink Floyd, Genesis (ALL eras), The Who, The Stones And I was going to create a category of "constants" that, from my observations, just about everybody on all different lists seemed to revere, but then someone started slamming Sting and I can only call them "demi-constants": The Police/Sting, Bowie, Gabriel, The Beatles, Eno. Glad to see lots of Split Enz/Crowded House fans standing up to be counted. I've been a Split Enz fan even longer than I have XTC, but it was only very recently that I warmed up to Crowded House thanks to a friend from this very list (HI!) and now I don't know how I ever got along without them. Question: Anyone out there heard the Loud Family? My dear husband, yes the one who doesn't like XTC, showed me this blurb from Stereo Review on _The Tape of Only Linda_ by them calling them "the closest we Yanks have ever come to a homegrown XTC". He says he thinks I'd really like them. I hate it when he's right, so could someone let me know whay they think? I had to laugh when someone mentioned "Travels in Nihilon" as one of their very favorites as I had named it, along with "Roads Girdle the Globe" as my two least favorite XTC tunes to Patty's survey. To each our own. Keeps us from growing stale. I put them in a category along with Reign of Blows, Complicated Game, Human Alchemy and Lord Deliver Us from the Elements which I find just too dark, dank and dense to want to unpack, although I must admit that when I do take the time to unpack them I do not go unrewarded. The themes and the lyrics are good and all, but the music puts me off. That's as close as I can come to slamming Our Boys. That's it for now. I shall return. You have been warned. No time for a summer friend No time for the love you send Seasons changed and so did I You need not wonder why. (No it's not XTC but it's what's in my head right now and Dignan gets away with it all the time!) --Melissa
------------------------------ From: Louis Barfe <plc005@cent1.lancs.ac.uk> Subject: Re: CTD's cover of PPH Date: Thu, 23 Mar 1995 00:28:53 +0000 (GMT) I don't know if anyone's familiar with the story about NIck Lowe's '(What's So Funny 'Bout) Peace, Love and Understanding'? Said song was covered by (bleurgggghhhh) Curtis Stigers for the soundtrack of 'The Bodyguard'. Film goes supernova. Soundtrack rakes it in. Nick the Knife gets $1m in royalties, just for having written that (frankly rather fine) song in 1973 or so. I can only hope that 'Dumb and Dumber' has similar success in the UK to that which it enjoyed in America, as a Nick Lowe style windfall might prove very handy to the penurious Partridge. I can't think of anyone who deserves a fat pile of cash (and lifelong financial security too?) more than AP. Maybe he could split it 3 ways. They could all live on a wedge like that for some years to come. Incidentally, has anyone bought the soundtrack elpee? I got a review copy sent to me. The tracks that really stand out are Deee-Lite's cover of 'You Sexy Thing' and The Proclaimers doing 'Get Ready'. I'm being deadly serious. The Lupins' track is good too.
------------------------------
From: nrsll@westminster.ac.uk
Date: Thu, 23 Mar 1995 16:37:04 +0100
Subject: Re: The Ducks of Stratosphear
On the subject of which bands influenced the Dukes of Stratosphear, a
piece in Making Music at the time of the release of Psonic Psunspot
listed them as follows;{I think they got them from a press release
written by the chaps themselves}
Vanishing Girl: The Hollies
Have you Seen Jackie: Pink Floyd
Little Lighthouse: "All those west coast groups influenced by the Rolling
Stones, but especially Moby Grape"
You're a Good Man Albert Brown: The Small Faces
Collideascope: John Lennon
Braniac's Daughter: Paul McCartney
You're My Drug: The Byrds
Shiny Cage: Revolver-era Beatles
The Affiliated: The Kinks and Unit 4 + 2
Pale and Precious: The Beach Boys
I have to say, I don't see the similarities in some of these,
but there you go.
And yes, I did get into psychedelia through the Ducks. In my
defence, there wasn't much chance of discovering Syd Barret or The
Chambers Brothers if you only had access to record shops in Ayr. If
you've got any particular recommendations of psychedelia I should
check out, I'd be grateful.
Cheerio,
Phil
PS. I've just read that Vivian Stanshall (Bonzo Dog Band etc) etc
died a few days ago. Aaaregh. How totally depressing.
------------------------------ Date: Fri, 24 Mar 1995 00:07:13 -0600 From: gmerritt@mail.utexas.edu (Greg Merritt) Subject: Just a little more Lilac Time > Greg Merritt in Chalkhills #421 opines that The Lilac Time's albums get > worse (as if they were bad to begin with!) with order of release. I'd like to clarify that in fact I am a big fan of all their albums. (When I say they get worse as they go along I don't ever really mean they hit rock bottom at some point... Why else would I have all of their material???) So if it wasn't clear before, I, too, highly recommend them to anyone subscribing to this list. And for that matter you should all go out and buy everything you can find with "Crowded House" and "Squeeze" on it, if you haven't already. I agree with all who have written glorious things about them. Thanks! - - Greg
------------------------------ From: john%elsouth@ncren.net Subject: Worst to First - Sacrificial Bonfire - Thanks! Date: Fri, 24 Mar 95 7:49:53 EST That thread about songs that you didn't like only to come to love them helped me to find the song Sacrificial Bonfire. The swirling, climaxing strings at the end are simply fabulous. Thanks Todd! I also noticed crackling fire noises buried under the mix. What a wonderful find that song is. Thanks to all that pointed it out. - John White CIS Manager Electrical South Inc. john%elsouth@concert.net "Why, I can feel your pulse from here!" - W.S. Burroughs.
------------------------------ From: IERANO_J@DD.PALMER.EDU Date: Fri, 24 Mar 1995 09:45:29 -0500 (CDT) Subject: Re: Chalkhills Digest #423 Thanks James Dignan for your setting the record straight on the artistic qualities of The Big Express cover. This man is not running low on soul coal. Pass the oats, please... Joe Ierano
------------------------------
Date: Fri, 24 Mar 95 12:00:34 EST
From: stacy@trc.com (Robert Stacy)
Subject: more Tubes / GO 2 cover
Yow, Tubes thread is back; it's deja toob all over again. In
Chalkhills #421, James Kosmicki related:
> Also, a bit about the Tubes. Their hipness quotient suffered a
> serious blow that they never recovered from when they appeared in the
> movie Xanadu.
Ow, is that right, James? Never knew this. The only thing I can point
to on their behalf that might partially ameliorate the loss of face
accompanying such an imprudent career move was their appearance on the
"Fishin' Musician" segment of SCTV, during which they embarked on a
bass trip with John Candy, all of them sporting the band's COMPLETION
BACKWARD uniform of suits and ties. Later, they lip-synched to "Sushi
Girl," interspersed with occasional one-shots of Candy grooving along.
Harmless fun for all.
----------
The first time I went looking for an XTC album, the only one I could
find was GO 2. As my eyes took in all the words, I immediately knew I
was going to like these guys. It was gratifying to see, in later
years, that cassette and CD releases of the album had been
appropriately re-edited ("This is a COMPACT DISC COVER . . .").
----------
Gene, er, expressed regrets about THE BIG EXPRESS's title:
> A seafaring name would have been more appropriate, in my op.
I always thought THE BASTARD SON OF HARD BLUE RAYHEAD had a certain
lilt to it, myself. Too bad they didn't get to stick with it.
(And thanks to James Dignan for the info on the Great Western Railway's
significance to Swindon. Would the abovementioned working title have
related in any way to the railroad motif?)
--RSt
------------------------------
From: m.mccormick2@genie.geis.com
Date: Sat, 25 Mar 95 05:40:00 UTC
Subject: Shriekback Discography
Here is a message from Phil in the UK, who is puting together a Shriekback
FAQ / Discography / Web Page, also loves XTC, but is unable to get
Chalkhills. I think I mentioned him here once before. He has a list of
questions below I thought some of y'all could maybe help him with. <Mike>
--- Forwarded message follows ---
From: ee92pmh@brunel.ac.uk (7IHd)
Subject: Re: Shriekback info please.
Date: 16 Mar 1995 18:41:05 -0000
Heres the story:
I've been compiling a discography, and it's probably now fairly close
to "complete" (or as near to complete as it's going to get), so I'll
be rewriting it in neater format and adding a few useful bits of info,
and probably I'll post it on the 'net in around 2-3 weeks time for
people to comment on & clear up a few grey areas, then I'll make it
available by ftp.
I'll probably dedicate a web page to the discography too. In the
meantime, theres always http://mosaic.mcom.com/people/jwz/shriekback/
- that contains some useful stuff, e.g. lyrics, though as far as the
discography goes, mine is going to piss all over it, just wait and see...
Word is that a new EP and album will be released this year, but as yet
there's been no "official" word on the mailing list. (That is to say,
the band's snail-mailing list, which I'm on but I don't have the address
for). Meanwhile, the band is gigging around London at the moment, the
only date I know of is April 28th at the Garage, but there's bound to
be others.
The following are the unanswered questions which are delaying the final
release of the discography, so if anyone can help, please email me:
(1) Has anyone got UK 7" and CD-single copies of Gang Of Four's "Cadillac",
and if so can I have the details?
(2) Has anyone got Happyhead's "Fabulous" CD-single, tracks are (Extended
Mix) / (Altered States Version) / (Techno Version) / (Return), and if
so can I have details please? (NB - there are 2 versions of this, I
have the other one).
(3) Robert Fripp's League Of Gentlemen - has anyone got any singles?
Or anything other than the LP, for that matter?
(4) Carl Marsh's "Here Comes The Crush" CD-single was rumoured to be
released on both 3" and 5" formats, can anyone confirm or deny?
(PS: If anyone has either of his singles on CD, or the album on LP,
and is willing to sell, please send an email).
(5) Was Shriekback's "Mothloop" ever a single? Details?
(6) Has anyone got a US 7" of "Nemesis" and if so, can I have the details?
In particular, does it have the free live 7" as for the UK copy?
(7) Can anyone confirm or deny the existance of the following:
Hand On My Heart (US 12") <normal & 12" mixes of H.O.M.H. & Nerve>
Nemesis (US 12") <normal, 12" & arch deviant mixes>
Fish Below The Ice (US 12") <normal, 12" & plankton enriched muxes>
(8) Shriekback's Peel Sessions EP, was such a thing ever released? The
information I have to date leads me to believe not, even though I've
seen it listed in books.
(9) "The Best Of Shriekback" from april 1990, on Island (CID 9960). Has
anyone actually heard of this? If you have a copy I really desparately
need the details. (Not to be confused with the other 4 best-ofs...)
Cheers for everyones help so far on the discography, I really appreciate it.
_
|_)|_ *|
| | )|| http://http2.brunel.ac.uk:8080/~ee92pmh
========
------------------------------ From: AngryYngMn@aol.com Date: Sat, 25 Mar 1995 14:38:30 -0500 Subject: CH in OZ... >>>From: AngryYngMn@aol.com >>>give XTC a run for their money. CH is an Australian band that has been >> >><cringe> yeah, and U2 is English... seriously though, CH is now based in >>Australia most of the time, and the band's membership is jointly Oz/NZ, but >>they still think of themselves primarily as a NZ band. I stand corrected. But they're still cool. :) "We can choose what we choose to believe" : CH -aym
------------------------------ From: AngryYngMn@aol.com Date: Sat, 25 Mar 1995 14:39:51 -0500 Subject: Birds/chicks Regarding this thread... Anyone know the brit quasi-thrash group Ned's Atomic Dustbin? All of their songs sound the same, but I like them anyway, especially when I'm in a pissy mood driving home from work. But I digress. For the video for the song (and top-10 US College radio hit) "Not Sleeping Around," the producer asked the band what they wanted in the video. Being single, horny, and from England, the lead singer replied "lots of pretty birds!" The day for the video shoot arrived, and the band was told to go to a local aviary. (you get it yet?) The band was ready to walk out of the session when they were told by their agent that they'd better go thru with it. Sure enuf, the video was basically a live performance with lots of crazy camera angles, and an aviary full of exotic birds flying around the band. And no women. See how confusing it could be? Even tho American english is more innate to me, I have always loved the Queen's English, as it may be the most colorful dialect in the world. -aym "A different kind of tinsel decorates my tree." - xTc
------------------------------
Date: Sat, 25 Mar 1995 17:08:59 -0500 (EST)
From: CANEVIT@UTKVX.UTCC.UTK.EDU
Subject: Least favourite bands
Hey, gang!
I was the one who posted a few weeks ago asking about people's
least favorite bands. I'd like people to know that I was doing so out
of a desire to see whether we shared any typical dislikes along with what
seem to be our typical likes (at least, for a while there it seemed as
though we tended to admire the Beatles, Jellyfish, Elvis Costello and some
others). Well, it quickly became a divisive issue, and one that I don't
really want to pursue any further. While I own a copy of the Principia
Discordia, I'm not really that eristic a kind of guy!
What I'd like to see instead is people trying to explain *what*
they like or dislike about music, particularly XTC's music vis a vis that
of other bands. My best friend and I have radically different tastes,
and we've never been able to succinctly explain what the differences are.
I'd have to say that the main things that typify what I like in a band's
music are: lots of instruments, lots of musical genres, more than a single
melody in a song, (usually) more than a single singer and songwriter, and
lyrics that continue to strike me as clever even several years after
hearing a song for the first time. The Beatles (particularly after they
stopped touring), XTC, Jellyfish, Squeeze, and the English Beat strike me
as fulfilling all these conditions. Elvis Costello to his credit fulfills
almost all of them all by his lonesome (I should add that I am unfamiliar
with the second half of his catalog).
So, those are some of the quantifiable things I like to like in my
favorite music. But there's something else that I have never been able to
explain in words--my favorite bands tend to have a "rightness" about their
music. The Beatles, to my mind, always sound "right." Ignoring most of Go2
and Drums and Wires, XTC almost always sounds right. The English Beat have
a small catalog but sound more right than did their offspring General
Public. Squeeze, after an initial unlistenable album, produced a horde of
"right" songs and then started to trail off into mediocrity. Jellyfish's
second album had a better ratio of right-to-not-right sounding songs.
I should add that the essence of this "rightness" is not simply a
matter of whether I like a song or not. There are bands that sound right to
me but whom I don't tend to listen to much (a lot of Steely Dan, for
instance, and much of the Police). Instead, I think that this rightness is
usually the *cause* of whether I like a song. There's just this sense I get
from some bands that the people in the band know what they're doing, and
that a whole slew of creative impulses are coming together 'correctly'. In
the case of other bands, I don't get this sense, or I get the sense that
the band is only accidentally getting this "right" on occasion. This is how
I feel about REM--when they sound right, they amaze me, but mostly they
don't. Colin's music is similarly hit and miss for me.
Part of the 'rightness' of an individual song comes down to
listening conditions. I might hear a song several times before I realize
that it really does come together pretty well (the Spin Doctors' hits off
that break-through album come to mind), but at the same time, several
listenings to an *album* will still leave me wondering why the rest of the
disk sounds like mediocre filler (again, Pocketfull of Kryptonite comes to
mind). So, rightness is not just a matter of repeated exposure.
Anyway, I am wondering how many people might have a feel for what I
am saying (and I realize I'm not going to get 100% agreement in my specific
examples from anybody), and, more importantly, if anybody can help me
analyze this sense of "rightness" to something more easily expressible.
Please feel free to email if you think that this is getting too far away
from our regularly scheduled program.
insert appropriate line from "Funk Pop A Roll" here,
Craig E. Canevit (canevit@utkvx.utk.edu)
------------------------------ End of Chalkhills Digest #424 *****************************
Go back to Volume 1.
27 March 1995 / Feedback