Chalkhills Digest Volume 13, Issue 10
Date: Wednesday, 28 February 2007

         Chalkhills Digest, Volume 13, Number 10

               Wednesday, 28 February 2007

Topics:

              Is the Duke's Future in Space?
                 Re; Is Chalkhills next?
                     Deep Frozen XTC
                 The Truth about Autotune
                        FW on ebay
                    Dictionary Corner
   "Respectable Street" is the MySpace song of the week

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All that fancy play-talk.

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Date: Tue, 20 Feb 2007 09:34:18 -0600
From: "Cory Berry" <coryb@stratacom-hsv.com>
Subject: Is the Duke's Future in Space?
Message-ID: <004f01c75504$979c46e0$035fa8c0@Jack>

Ade wrote:

".and living in giant inflatable marshmallow pumpkin shaped snowdomes with
perspex swans and chairs made out of haystacks with wigs on the top made out
of spaghetti. In space."

Damn, that sounds like the perfect cover to the next Dukes release!!!

Cory

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Date: Wed, 21 Feb 2007 11:39:26 -0800
From: Steve <ste7phen@yahoo.com>
Subject: Re; Is Chalkhills next?
Message-ID: <45DC9FEE.8010106@yahoo.com>

Chalkhills wrote:

> Administrivia:
>
>     R.I.P. Elephant-Talk, 1991-2007.  Is Chalkhills next?

Perhaps if Chalkhills is sustained entirely by the hope that XTC as a
band will get back together soon... or by following Andy's musical
projects after Monstrance.

There are however other interests that get expressed here. Common
musical interests shared by XTC fans is an example ...and Todd has
certainly been adding fuel to the fire.

I don't think Chalkhills is "next."

Another Steve

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Date: Thu, 22 Feb 2007 01:54:09 +0100 (CET)
From: Gary Nicholson <member@snurge.fsnet.co.uk>
Subject: Deep Frozen XTC
Message-ID: <21694001.31771172105649323.JavaMail.www@wwinf3203>

XTC paid tribute to bands they loved via The Dukes of Stratosphear.

Now that the former are temporarily permafrosted, perhaps we could
make a new XTC album on Chalkhills - between us. Doesn't matter what
era. I've already had some kind advertising space (thanks again John
Relph) for my XTC White Music-ish song, 'Ellis Island' on MySpace
(Chalkhills passim). Can we have some more? Instead of a covers album,
one which features original songs which could have been made by
XTC. Just trying to think positive. Maybe this has been mentioned
before, in which case, apologies.

Oh - and I'm not the man to organise it. I refuse to read manuals and
am therefore only barely able to breathe.

Love from the chalkhills of Winchester, UK.

Gary

------------------------------

Date: Thu, 22 Feb 2007 09:31:44 -0800 (PST)
From: Steven LeBeau <stevenlebeau@yahoo.com>
Subject: The Truth about Autotune
Message-ID: <847275.35311.qm@web50313.mail.yahoo.com>

> Is this the same machine that Cher used, and Kid Rock
> to warble their voices?

It's the same technology, but the one everybody uses is a software
plugin, not the original hardware box.

> How far off can you be and still have it compensate
> for your pitchy singing?

I've pitched stuff up or down a complete whole tone and it still
sounded natural, and I'm sure the new version of Autotune (and other
such programs) can now shift things even farther.

>It is the reason performances are no
>longer captured...they are totally manufactured and
>phony....ask Britney Spears, Tim McGraw, Justin
>Timberlake, Ashley Simpson, just to name a few.)

Actually, Autotune facilitates the capturing of a complete
performance, since now a great one-off vocal take can be used even if
there are one or two bum notes.

>Ah, I do miss the old days when you knew the person
>could actually sing and weren't relying on total
>trickery.

Studio trickery's been around as long as there have been studios. A
record is mostly trickery: you're simulating the space of a room with
reverbs and delays, compressing the bass and vocals (and probably
everything else) to give the illusion of better dynamic control,
punching in, punching in some more... Hell, even analog tape is an
effect, making EVERYTHING sound a lot better.

>  At least with an XTC project, we knew they
>sang it all, they might have corrected mistakes with
>a few punch ins but it wasn't all cut and paste and
>then artifically tuning it.

Not true--vocal tuning's been around a long time before autotune came
out in the late 90s: it's been around as long as there have been
harmonizers and varispeed recording, and it was VERY popular to do
this with samplers in the 80s and early 90s. There's an excellent
chance that Todd Rundgren and Paul Fox used these techniques on
Collin and (especially) Andy. Autotune is just the scapegoat.

-Steven LeBeau
Got Pop? Music (ASCAP)

-----
"Art should never try to be popular. The public should try to make
itself artistic" - Oscar Wilde

------------------------------

Date: Fri, 23 Feb 2007 05:05:31 -0800 (PST)
From: Kzincat <kzincat98@yahoo.com>
Subject: FW on ebay
Message-ID: <290117.55828.qm@web90515.mail.mud.yahoo.com>

I can't believe it got that pricey...

http://tinyurl.com/2now8f

I think someone would appreciate the Ape packaging for
just a little bit more cost.

Dave in Detroit

***************************************************
"It is not *who* is right, but *what* is right, that is of importance."
    -- Thomas Huxley

------------------------------

Date: Sat, 24 Feb 2007 22:50:52 +0000 (GMT)
From: Dom Lawson <britishsteel666@yahoo.co.uk>
Subject: Dictionary Corner
Message-ID: <20070224225052.5707.qmail@web27114.mail.ukl.yahoo.com>

Greetings, brethren.

XTC tunes pop up in the most unexpected places, don't they? How about
this one...'A Dictionary Of Modern Marriage' is one of 90 tracks on
Lemon Jelly bloke Fred Deakin's new "mix" CD 'The
Triptych'...basically, it's a 3-disc mix marathon, wherein Mr. Deakin
blends and purees a startlingly broad and eclectic selection of tunes,
featuring everything from old school hip hop, classic house and techno
numbers, daft jazz-funk stuff, banjo instrumentals, James c**ting Last
and lashings of late '70s new wave behaviour...our boys appear, albeit
briefly, on Disc Two, sandwiched between (and mixed with) Todd
Rundgren's 'Torch Song' and 'Real Hip Hop' by Das EFX. Most bizarre,
but undeniably fantastic. The whole 4-hour caper is an absolute treat
and I can't recommend it highly enough. Name me another album that
features Siouxsie & The Banshees, P Funk Allstars, The Rutles, Pete
Seeger, Thin Lizzy, The Selecter, Living Colour, Bernard Cribbins,
Mama Cass, Rick James, Grand Funk Railroad and Michel Houellebecq? Go
on, bitch. Name one. Bet you can't.

It's available from all respected online music retailers! It really is!

You're welcome.

Dom

NP: FRED DEAKIN - The Triptych (Disc Two!!! Just like the man said!!!)

------------------------------

Date: Mon, 26 Feb 2007 03:57:50 -0800 (PST)
From: Todd Bernhardt <beat_town@yahoo.com>
Subject: "Respectable Street" is the MySpace song of the week
Message-ID: <559664.39055.qm@web32003.mail.mud.yahoo.com>

Hi:

Over at the XTCfans MySpace site (http://www.myspace.com/xtcfans), the
song of the week is "Respectable Street."

If you want to know who the "curtain twitchers" are, and who plays the
role of Yin to Andy's "Yangeccch," check out the XTCfans blog site at
http://blog.myspace.com/xtcfans.

All part of decency's jigsaw, I suppose...
-Todd

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End of Chalkhills Digest #13-10
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