Chalkhills Digest Volume 5, Issue 247
Date: Friday, 13 August 1999
Chalkhills Digest, Volume 5, Number 247
Friday, 13 August 1999
Today's Topics:
lions and tigers and the Bears, oh my!
Re: Bears
Random Hold
My elevated nobodies can beat up your elevated nobodies
Hair!/GNR/GBV/TVT
YAZBEK New Date!
Weird Al
Re: XTC's Homespun
Cobain and greatness
The Bears and Belew
Re: The Business of Art
Never more the "N" word
maybe I'm just another stupid American...
Music recommendations
GBV and Nirvana
The Bears are coming back
Nirvana & Melodies
re: "Homespun"
'Working Class'
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---------------------------------------------------------------------- From: WESnLES@aol.com Message-ID: <72ae39c8.24e4775f@aol.com> Date: Thu, 12 Aug 1999 15:15:43 EDT Subject: lions and tigers and the Bears, oh my! Chris....CCooli9575@aol.com...wrote about the Bears: Got both albums. Love 'em. Even more than Belew's solo material, of which I only have Young Lions myself. Highly recommended. They remind me of a much more cheerful and quirky Badfinger, in that all four of them write(the drummer less than the others, though)and sing very well. Well Chris, the Bears albums are very good indeed, but if you want to compare 'em to Belew's solo schtuff you need to compare 'em to his GREAT solo schtuff. Young Lions is one of, if not THE weakest of Belew's solo work....try Lone Rhino or Twang Bar King(both classics in my book).....or even his last studio release Op Zop Too Wah, which was the best thing he's done in some time(still reading from the book of Wes) wesLONG
------------------------------ Message-ID: <37B3205E.4D568798@aur.alcatel.com> Date: Thu, 12 Aug 1999 15:28:30 -0400 From: Dempsey Elks <elksdw@aur.alcatel.com> Organization: Alcatel Network Systems, Inc Raleigh, NC Subject: Re: Bears I saw Adrian Belew on June 15 at "The Cats Cradle" in Chapel Hill N.C. and he said that there are plans to reunite the Bears and a new King Crimson recording should start around the end of the year. I really liked the Bears music. Adrian's show was sort of a demonstration/Q&A program, where he played material from about five different projects he is working on, and took questions from the audience. I convinced a friend of mine to ask if he had plans to make a record with Andy Partridge, to which he replied that no plans had been made but that he had visited with Andy at his home in Swindon and he thought Mr. Partridge was a very nice fellow and a great song writer. I think it would be very cool if Adrian and Andy could do a similar tour, just the two of them. .... It could happen. Dempsey -- Dempsey Elks Alcatel USA Raleigh N.C. elksdw@aur.alcatel.com
------------------------------ From: wardst@nytimes.com Message-ID: <852567CB.006C43C0.00@notesgate.nytimes.com> Date: Thu, 12 Aug 1999 15:57:56 -0400 Subject: Random Hold Hi, I'm looking for info on the English band Random Hold, a group central to the XTC story. They only recorded three albums in the late 70s and early 80s and counted David Rhodes (of Peter Gabriel fame) and drummer Peter Phipps (of Big Express fame) as members. Does anyone know if any of their stuff is on CD? Also, I'm looking for a biography of the band. Does anyone know about any articles on the Net anywhere on the band? Thanks for the help, Steven
------------------------------ Message-ID: <19990812204720.17175.rocketmail@web130.yahoomail.com> Date: Thu, 12 Aug 1999 13:47:20 -0700 (PDT) From: Tyler Hewitt <tahewitt@yahoo.com> Subject: My elevated nobodies can beat up your elevated nobodies RE: It seems to me that America has produced some truly great people (Lincoln, Ford, Frank Lloyd Wright, Gershwin, the Wright Bros etc etc etc), yet it seems that such is it's need for heroes that it too often elevates nobodies to positions of importance. ------- Yeah, that never happens in Britain: The Sex Pistols Prince Charles Benny Hill All wonderfull, talented, beautiful, morally upstanding types, and Hey-they're British!
------------------------------ Date: Thu, 12 Aug 1999 15:52:21 -0500 (CDT) From: Marshall Needleman Armintor <mojo@is.rice.edu> Subject: Hair!/GNR/GBV/TVT Message-ID: <Pine.GSO.3.96.990812154021.20171D-100000@is.rice.edu> <<Sorry to draw this out, but one thing we have Nirvana to thank for is effectively killing the success of all those hair-metal bands. Come to think of it, in the fall of '91 I was in a local band that covered "Territorial Pissings" from Nevermind even before the album exploded commercially; they were just another cool new alternative/punk band to cover at the time. They didn't help Nonsuch's sales, much, though...>> Y'know, I keep hearing this take more and more in the media these days, from interviews with bands like Poison, White Lion, Motley Crue, etc. complaining about how fashions suddenly changed, they were on the outs, and although it has some merit, um, I think it's a little off. :) Not entirely, let me explain. The thing that made all those hair-farmer pop-metal bands irrelevant was Guns 'n' Roses, who were a good three years ahead of Cobain and Co. Everybody forgets about them, but they were not only huge, they made rock 'n' roll a line of work for unappealing criminals and sleazeballs once again, twenty years after the Stones did it. Also Metallica, in a way, who were mega-ascendant at the same time as Nirvana. I fondly remember this interview Cobain did shortly after Nevermind came out...it was in a little promo "new music" mag Pepsi slathered college campuses with. The interviewer asked Cobain what DGC (a sister label to G'n'R, on Geffen, I might add) should do with the new record, with its considerably cleaned-up sound and decidedly commercial leanings. Cobain shrugged. "I dunno. Throw it at a bunch of kids who like Guns 'n' Rose, I suppose. They might like it." Well, guess what happened? Nirvana was indeed the final nail in the coffin of hair-metal's commercial viability, but I feel its support had been eroding long before Kurt and the boys came along, because of hard-rock/heavy-metal own internally fostered image-crisis. Plus, G'n'R DID rock like nobody's business. And now, we return you to more XTC stuff. marshall ps/ I want everybody to immediately go out and buy Guided By Voices' record _Do The Collapse_. It's a brilliant condensation of the things they do well wrapped up in a big shiny package of Rock...yes, you would be better off starting with _Alien Lanes_ or _Under the Bushes Under the Stars_, but do it because they need to push this thing up the charts, like right now. Plus they're labelmates now w/Andy & Colin, so show some solidarity, I promise you won't be sorry. Hell, buy two: you'll need a copy for your car, driving around with the windows open on a hot summer day, broadcasting "Surgical Focus" at top volume.
------------------------------ Message-Id: <199908122148.OAA06689@sgi.com> Date: Thu, 12 Aug 1999 15:50:25 -0600 Subject: YAZBEK New Date! From: "Jillian Jenkins" <jillian@war.com> Hi there YAZBEK fans! Yazbek will be performing live 9/16 in New York City at the Knitting Factory. He comes on at 10:00PM. Show your support and check out Yazbek. Jillian Jenkins What Are Records?
------------------------------ Message-Id: <199908122230.SAA30591@nantucket.net> Date: Thu, 12 Aug 1999 18:06:12 -0400 Subject: Weird Al From: "Diamond" <arnos@nantucket.net> Hello, Hello, Hello. Kevin Hear, I have a request. Can all the people on this site who have been mentioning bands that are like XTC please e-mail me these names again? I can't remember them all, and i want to check them out. Prefab Sprout is the only one I remember. Thanks, guys. Also, about Nirvana I first found out about nirvana through Weird Al. I heard "Smells like Nirvana" Before I ever heard "SLTS" (Remember, I'm only 15) And I must say, when I first heard that song, I thought the music was "AWSOME!!" Now, this was at a time when my favorite bands were Ace Of Base, Kriss Kross, and MC Hammer, so you can tell what my tastes were like, but I still think that that song has some good qualaties too it. But what I was missing at that young age was knowledge about other qualitites of music. You see, I think there are a few really important things in music. Lyrics, Melody, Harmony and energy. All my favorite bands have these qualaties. XTC is, so far, the best combonation of these qualities that I have found. But nirvana has anawful mixture. It has a lot of energy, which is great, but it lacks Melody and Harmony (and no one can understand the lyrics, so...) Now this exess of energy makes Nirvana very redaly available, but it has no lasting effect. It gets o;d really quickly. It's like the difference between Sugar and Carbohyderates. Sugar will get you excited, but it wares off too quickly. XTC is a big ol' bowl of pasta, carbo's, carbo's, carbo's. I never get tired of It. I already have lost interest in SLTS, but I still can't get enogh of Garden of Earthly Delights (The first song I ever heard by XTC) well, that's my two cents, thanks for listening. Kevin Diamond
------------------------------ Date: Thu, 12 Aug 1999 18:21:32 -0500 (CDT) Message-Id: <1.5.4.16.19990812181710.459f85a4@unlinfo.unl.edu> From: Dave Hughes <dhughes@unlinfo.unl.edu> Subject: Re: XTC's Homespun At 10:27 AM 8/12/99 -0700, Paul wrote: >I just checked the Cooking Vinyl website. All reference to the release of >the Greenman single have been removed, but this paragraph has appeared in >its place: > >>>Upcoming releases from Cooking Vinyl include brand new albums from Michael >Nesmith (Sept 20), Chuck Prophet (Sept 27), The Wedding Present's "Singles >95-97" (Sept 27), and the XTC "demo" collection, "Homespun" (Sept 27)...<< So, no "Greenman" single, huh? BTW, I may have missed it, but is TVT goin to release Homespun, too, or will I have to order this as an import? * -------------------------------------------- Dave Hughes Host of "Late in the Evening" Nebraska Public Radio * --------------------------------------------
------------------------------ Message-ID: <000201bee4e3$8a677e20$0d2aa8c0@me.myoffice.com> From: "Steven Paul" <spaul@armstronglaw.com> Subject: Cobain and greatness Date: Thu, 12 Aug 1999 16:54:30 +0100 I don't profess at all to be an expert on this matter, but it occurs to me that the great and influential bands are made up of great and influential musicians. The whole band may be greater than the sum of its parts (insert example here), but bands break up, sustain losses like Nirvana, adapt and change with times and personallities. I think the mark of a great band is what happens after the tragedy -- the death of a singer/song writer, drummer or other member, or the break-up of a successful union. I guess what I am saying is, if Nirvana was the most influential rock band of the 90's - where are they now? What's happened to the rest of the band while Kurt rocks with the dearly departed?
------------------------------ Message-Id: <v03007800b3d920ed9238@[165.247.2.123]> Date: Thu, 12 Aug 1999 20:13:42 -0500 From: Mitch Friedman <mitchf@mindspring.com> Subject: The Bears and Belew www.murple.com/adrianbelew This is the link that will take you to the very comprehensive Adrian Belew site. Everything you'd ever want to know . . . but allow me to save you some time and tell you that Adrian just finished a brief solo tour on which he played samples of tracks that will be featured on upcoming projects. One of these is a brand new Bears album that has been recorded (10 songs I believe). He played one of the new songs and it was great stuff. He's also got a few solo projects coming out and is about to start work on a new King Crimson album. Check out this site! Mitch Now for some XTC content: Can we please discuss XTC here?
------------------------------ Message-Id: <s7b30cec.003@tcwgroup.com> Date: Thu, 12 Aug 1999 18:04:46 -0700 From: "Dane Pereslete" <peresd@tcwgroup.com> Subject: Re: The Business of Art OK...try to be brief, dammit! Part of the reason that I infrequently post is that I don't possess the faculty to coherently focus my chain of thought and concisely convey my reasoning as well as some on this list...the other part is that I'm too self conscious of exposing myself to the world as the complete dolt that I truly am. OOPS, too late! (ok, enough of the lame attempt at getting sympathy...let's go!) Because I am trying to hurriedly write this at work, this will be a stream of consciousness ramble in an attempt to explain what I was feeling and where I was really going (so poorly) in my last post, so feel free to scroll down now!! Here are some of the thoughts and visions that rattled around my brain after reading that Sting article, most of which was inspired by the movies or fiction I have read that has permanently warped my mind over time. I kept getting this memory of a recurring scene/theme in the movie Blade Runner (which, as an L.A. resident I can say is scarily becoming prophecy every day) of the blimp circling overhead, broadcasting an incessant stream of advertising at full volume... I saw the image of all-powerful Zaibatsus as portrayed in William Gibson's series of "sprawl" novels that controlled portions of the world and your life that you knew about, and some portions that you were blissfully unaware of.... I saw how the internet/media is injecting a constant and nearly subliminal hum of advertising into our collective stream of consciousness, just enough below the surface to not be overly bothersome to most, but when you pause to think about it, you are surprised to suddenly become aware of how powerful and pervasive it is - not just in our culture (us yanks) but this world over... And I thought, where does the Artist stop and the Corporation take over? Now, having brought up those mental images...work with me here...this is what Duncan Kimball had to say about Sting's music biz (all lovingly pasted out-of-context): >it is an integral part of the capitalist system. It is a product. Why is >Sting taking money from Compaq more "uncool" than Sting taking money from >Polygram? It's not an issue of being uncool - it just seemed to me that this deal has overtones of a sort of deal-with-the-devil to it. Maybe it's a little paranoid, but it seems that this is maybe the purest example yet of the marriage of art and commerce, and how it will live and thrive, and someday it will be so commonplace that we may never remember a time when things were otherwise...we're already raising a generation that thinks that "Start Me Up" was written by Microsoft... >Collusively? Puh-leease! Collusion implies secrecy. This was in the Wall St >Journal, was it not? Nothing very secrective about his website. Pretty >up-front if you ask me. Again, I'm admittedly no wordsmith; collusively is a poor choice, I'll give you that. I was somehow trying to impart that eerie devil-deal feeling. (maybe subconsciously I _was_ trying to incite riot with that one) >This is the system we have. It works the way it works. You >can use it and deal with it, and try to improve it, or not. Your >choice. But don't pretend to me that turning an honest buck is some sort of >fall from ideological grace. Sting made a business deal. He didn't cheat >anyone, he didn't rob or exploit anyone, as far as I can see. What IS the >problem? There's potential for the artist to be cheated/robbed/exploited, just ask Andy. At what point does the artist stop creating for self and start creating solely for the sponsor and the continued support of same? Our boys have been struggling with this issue nearly their entire career, having to please Virgin's ideas of what XTC truly was. Who knows, they may still be experiencing some degree of that right now with the recent whirlwind US/Japan appearances they endured this year for TVT. For all of the stiff upper lip displayed by Colin and Andy, just talking to them you got the impression that they were still tired and to at least some extent upset about having to do the publicity thing instead of pushing ahead with construction of the new studio and getting right back into recording. (oh well... brevity was surely just heaved out the window now, wasn't it?) >This is just plain hypocrisy, Dane. When someone we LIKE gets a record >contract with a multinational entertainment conglomerate, we cheer. I don't think I would cheer if our boys got that contract. It would be Virgin all over again. The conglomerate is what they are getting away from. They weighed options and traded the potential for huge profit for more artistic freedom. No, perhaps that's wrong. It's much simpler. They just want to continue pursuing the thing they love and be able to eat at the same time. Andy's been very frank about what he wants. He wants to be able to live doing the thing his heart wants - making music. He's not out to be "filthy stinking rich" (these days, anyway), he just wants his fair share to be able to live comfortably and in good health - most likely the same sentiment of the majority of those who subscribe to this list. > When >oil companies shell out some tiny fraction of their galactic extortion >proceeds into art exhibitions or ... (pauses to suppress gag reflex) >... opera ... the Arty Smarties swoon and laud them as Good Corporate >Citizens. True enough, I sadly feel that us here on this side of the Atlantic don't support the arts _civically_ to the same degree as Europeans, so, corporations step in to fill the need. Perhaps this is a false perception, but it's there none-the-less, so it seems artists have to seek funding ever more aggressively. I just wish every one of us could be lauded as "good citizens" in our support of the arts. I try to support as much as I can, but, hey! I've got a kid to feed also. It's this conflict that brings up all of my long-dormant Catholic guilt. >When was popular music ever anything other than a form of commerce? Way back when it was art. Some think that popular music can still be art. We all sort the wheat from the chaff, as it were, for what we like. We have our own ear to alert us to that which is lovingly and laboriously created, and that which is calculatingly created solely to make money. What we like can be art. What we don't like can be art. Our like or dislike doesn't alter its status. Either incarnation can still be called art. Art is art even if it's composer John Cage crouched under his piano beating it to death with a Stanley 16 oz. claw hammer or Dieter Meier sitting on a town square bench sorting metal pieces into plastic bags for a week or even the Backstreet Boys working out the background vox on their latest single. You or I may not necessarily appreciate it, but it's still tangible - it's out there and it exists. have I made anything clearer? <sigh> I'm still not really sure where the fuck I was really going with this......so.....HOW ABOUT THAT BAND CALLED XTC?!?!...Yeah, I've heard they're fucking brilliant, I have!!..... *------------------------------------------------------- Logging in from beautiful Glendale, CA USA "Waiting for AV2" daneperes@aol.com -or- bramage64@aol.com *-------------------------------------------------------
------------------------------ From: "Don Rogalski" <tonikuo@ms10.hinet.net> Subject: Never more the "N" word Date: Fri, 13 Aug 1999 12:00:11 +0800 Message-ID: <000001bee540$57164ee0$09f81ea3@user> David Seddon, you dissed that "N" band (and by extension the whole dismal, media-overblown "Seattle scene") with such eloquence that I just may be quoting you the next time a sorry-assed grunge refugee in his (gotta be "his" and not "hers"?) late twenties looks at my unfortunately rather portly figure, figures I'm in my early thirties (which I am), and asks me where I was when Kurt died. > 5. "One of the most influential in rock and roll history" ... >I can't see it. Seems to me that anyone who's been interesting >since was not much influenced by Nirvana, whereas they >were influenced by loads of bands before them. In short >they made cul-de-sac music, terminus music...music that drew >together what went before and brought it to a (thankfully) > crashing halt. I'm a some time purveyor of the Salman Rushdie doctrine, namely "calling rubbish rubbish". Unfortunately, the "N" band have been so over-hyped by the media that we're talking about them now. Sad, that. >It seems to me that America has produced some truly great >people... yet it seems that such is it's need for heroes that it >too often elevates nobodies to positions of importance. I'm Canadian, but I won't sit and gloat at your very pointed and accurate assessment of American culture, in that it makes for a dynamism that, erm... we Canadians are lacking, for better AND for worse. One can't deny that the "N" band struck a chord with America's suburban teenagers, but I would argue that, given the nature of teenagers in the 1990's, they were the equivalent of the Monkees in the 1960's in terms of how they were embraced. Sure, both bands had one or two good songs, but then after a few years they were quickly dropped for more substantial musical fare. Don R
------------------------------ Message-ID: <19990813063150.3148.qmail@hotmail.com> From: "Megan Heller" <hellerm@hotmail.com> Subject: maybe I'm just another stupid American... Date: Thu, 12 Aug 1999 23:31:18 PDT I never thought I would be the one to play the indignant patriot, but I really couldn't let this bashing of American listening habits slide... >From Dave Seddan-- >1. Is this book, which you quote from, purely American biased? I'll take >a few of the quotes here and ponder them: I will say that he was quoting from a website, www.allmusic.com. I have no idea whether the reviewers are American or not, or a mix. >In the UK, alternative music was not consigned to speciality >sections! well, it wasn't consigned to specialty sections in every store in the US-- the review was probably reviewing to a larger chain like Tower Records. Tower doesn't tend to have alternative sections over here now (at least, not the ones I went to in DC), just import sections. Interestingly enough, the Tower Records on Piccadilly Circus does have some kind of indie section, which surprised me when I saw it. >As I said in a previous post, if this is true, it just shows the >unimaginative, boring mindset of average American music buyers and >makers. oh please. (I tried to come up with a better response to that comment, but as an American I am much too boring.) >I visited the USA in 1990. No one there had heard of The Happy Mondays, >yet they'd been big for a couple of years over here. I will point out that Happy Mondays gained some success here the following year. I always thought there were some cultural barriers separating Happy Mondays from the US-- the whole Manchester/Hacienda/ rave culture thing just didn't hit here the same way. Very different mindset. >3. The reviewer himself says at the end that they just combined a lot of >other sounds. Did they go on from that, or rather could they have done had >Cobain lived? I doubt it! hm, I would disagree on that one. I thought their sound showed a lot of honing, maturity, and growth from "Nevermind" to "In Utero", and I think it could have continued to grow-- it's hard to say, since we know Kurt was a suicidal, heroin-addled wanker. Still, I would doubt you'd hear any difference from album to album with Nirvana since you don't like them. When I really dislike a band's style, everything they do sounds the same to me. >to my ears even (dare one utter this word!) Oasis >are more interesting than Nirvana, even if they are similarly derivative >and self-obsessed (and not a little uncouth). Their lyrics are crap, their >tunes are borrowed, but at least they have tunes, at least you could hum >something in the lift. oh, speaking of bands I *really* hate... I'm sorry, but I can't believe that Oasis are better than Nirvana just because they're hummable. I've gotten "Copacabana" stuck in my head before; this doesn't mean I like Barry Manilow better than something like Kraftwerk or Underworld. I don't even find Oasis to be "similarly derivative" when it comes to Nirvana. Oasis barely filtered their Beatles influence; Nirvana at least came from a wider background, and put a new spin on things. Can you name a single previous band which Nirvana mimicked as much as Oasis did the Beatles? >4. I'm not saying (and we've had this debate before) that melody is the >only important thing in music, but it is one of three or four >prerequisites. Again, a matter of taste. Musicians like Add N to X and Pan sonic (both are basically electronic noise, and I enjoy it) might disagree. Actually, a lot of Eastern musicians might disagree, at that. >5. "One of the most influential in rock and roll history" ... I can't see >it. Seems to me that anyone who's been interesting since was not much >influenced by Nirvana yeah, but there are plenty influenced by them. I don't necessarily find them interesting, either (since a great deal of the new music I listen to is electronic), but they're there. >6. I can understand why Americans may value him (tho' I think it's bogus >and hollow...as in what I said about JFK), but I cannot for the life of me >see why any European would be taken in by this hype. Boy, *that's* insulting! >It seems to me that America >has produced some truly great people (Lincoln, Ford, Frank Lloyd Wright, >Gershwin, the Wright Bros etc etc etc), wow, and we appreciate you granting us that. >yet it seems that such is it's need >for heroes that it too often elevates nobodies to positions of >importance. >Us Europeans could name many! Cobain is one of the latest. This doesn't >tend to happen so much in Europe. People can be big for a few years, but >if they're not substantailly good, they soon fall off their pedestal and >are even mocked. This may be crueller, but it is more honest. please. two words-- Princess Di. Don't try to tell me how some people mock her-- people mock the so-called heroes over here, too. It happens everywhere. >I still don't see what was new or interesting about Nirvana. well, a lot of people do. Oh well. They don't need to have been an influence on you or me to be influential in a broader scope. I'll mention in the midst of this that I barely even listen to any American music. I was always impressed by the diversity I saw in the English popular chart as compared to the American charts, and I still am. It cannot be denied, however, that a great deal of American culture is happily gobbled up by much of the European public. I'm not going to go on anymore, because I'll just get pissy and start screaming something about how we won the war... (and to think I was talking to someone early today about how unhappy I've been with the US lately...) megan.
------------------------------ From: "Damian Wise (Foulger)" <damian@imclaser.com> Date: Fri, 13 Aug 1999 08:14:07 -0500 Subject: Music recommendations Message-Id: <19990813081553.6abd0a2f.in@ceo.ceolasers.com> While reading the latest Chalkhills I've been listening to 'A Day in the Night', the latest by The Lilac Time and I have to recommend it to you cultured folks. If you lean on the more tuneful, lyrical, acoustic, later-XTC-style side of XTC's music you may well enjoy it. It took me a few listens, but now I love it, which is always a good sign for me; if I like something immediately it soon looses it's shine. The Lilac Time are on Cooking Vinyl and you can listen to some of the tracks, but be warned, they probably won't catch you straight away. The depth of harmonies and quality of the song writing is impeccable. Happy listening, Dames tWd P.s. Jason Garcia (our very own) rocks and you should listen to his stuff too (http://www.mp3.com/householdnames). 'Real' is an adjective and 'Really' is an adverb.
------------------------------ Message-Id: <199908131405.HAA17685@sparrow.prod.itd.earthlink.net> Date: Fri, 13 Aug 1999 09:01:46 -0600 Subject: GBV and Nirvana From: "Bob O'Bannon" <batchain@earthlink.net> >> Guided By Voices have been around for years and years, but chances are you >< have probably never heard of them - and it is hard to see why. . . why no big-time success? Thanks for posting this review of "Do the Collapse," but if the writer has to ask why GBV has had no "big-time success," he/she obviously doesn't know a thing about the band. GBV has prided themselves on utilizing the lowest quality production values possible, so that their records sound like they were recorded on a Panasonic jam box set up in their living room. This obviously has everything to do with their lack of "success." >> Nirvana pulled at all together, creating a sound that >> was both fiery and melodic. . . . The band's legacy stands as one of >> the most influential in rock & roll history. I love the All Music Guide, but this claim is greatly exaggerated. The ones who deserve the credit for influencing rock history are the early punk bands -- Clash, Sex Pistols, Jam, Ramones, Buzzcocks, and maybe even XTC. These are the bands who opened the floodgates of originality and paved the way for the U2s, REMs, Smiths, Smashing Pumpkins and Nirvanas of the 80s and 90s. To give the credit to Nirvana is getting the wagon before the horse. Bob
------------------------------ Date: Fri, 13 Aug 1999 10:06:13 -0400 (EDT) Message-Id: <l03130300b3d999d5b3dc@[128.122.161.41]> From: Chris Van Valen <crv1@is2.nyu.edu> Subject: The Bears are coming back Hi calcium carbonates The Bears (with Mr. Belew producing) have completed a new album recorded over several months during 1998. If any of you are interested in it, a track from this upcoming release (don't know when, Belew's a pretty busy guy) they are available on Adrian's new album "Coming Attractions" which is available for ordering on his website. Also available is the Irresponsibles' "when Pigs Fly" which is very heavily inspired by XTC. Info available at http://www.murple.com/adrianbelew/ laters, cv If you have an unpleasant nature and dislike people this is no obstacle to work. - J.G. Bennett And it's potato, potato, potato. - Mike Keneally
------------------------------ From: unna@worldmailer.com Date: 13 Aug 1999 07:31:26 -0700 Message-ID: <19990813143126.27914.cpmta@c008.sfo.cp.net> Subject: Nirvana & Melodies I believe that drummer Dave G. was the real force behind the success of Nirvana. True = Cobain destroyed any melody that a song might have offered because he was too busy being super-cool. Take a listen to any Foo Fighters album and see where the melody was.
------------------------------ Message-ID: <37B45938.15AC@schoollink.net> Date: Fri, 13 Aug 1999 10:43:20 -0700 From: Dan Phipps <phipps@schoollink.net> Organization: CIC Subject: re: "Homespun" Hi all! Recently was "XTC-atic" to find out that our boys are once again being promoted to the hilt by having even more of their stuff released with this new thing coming our called "Homespun" -- a demos collection! I contacted Cooking Vinyl and asked them if this news was indeed "official" and have decided to include it here for anyone who might possibly doubt! Read on, McDuff! -- > In message <37B3722E.6961@schoollink.net>, Dan Phipps > <phipps@schoollink.net> writes > >Hello CV!! > > > >Please tell me whether or not this > >is just hearsay or is it actually > >OFFICIAL??? > > > >re: > >> Upcoming releases from Cooking Vinyl > >> include brand new albums from <snip> > >> and the XTC "demo" collection, "Homespun" > >> (Sept 27)...<snip> > > > >If this news re: XTC is true, I'm already > >starting to salivate like Pavlov's dogs!!! > > > >Awaiting anxiously for some official word... > > >Hi, > yes it's definitely true. Good news, eh ? > Please let me know if you'd like to order it, but you can do this > directly on our website, if you like. > Kind regards, > Joerg Haeske- Direct sales manager > Web - www.cookingvinyl.com It's indeed a great time to be an XTC fan, innit? :-D Let's all go out now and show continued support for our boys by eagerly snatching this one up!!! Also, I got the latest edition of Goldmine, the CD and Record Collector's magazine today in the mail and in an advert they had under a company called "Music Machine" they had listed the following -- LP -- XTC: Due soon -- new British limited edition vinyl 2-LP "Homespun (Apple Venus 1 -- Part 2)" featured the "Apple Venus" 11-song LP + a 2nd LP of demo versions of those same 11 tracks! Also available on limited 2-CD set..........$25.00 CD -- XTC: Due soon -- new Japanese "Apple Venus, Vol. 1 Singles EP" features the A- & B-sides of their 3- CD maxi-singles, "Green Man," "I'd Like That" and "Easter Theatre"!..........$26.00 So there you have it, XTC-people!! Buy 'em up while you can!!! BTW, this "Music Machine" company has a website (in case anyone's interested -- and why shouldn't you be? This is XTC we're raving on about here!!!) at: http://musicmachine.com Check 'em out! Pretty cool... Let's hear it for XTC!!!! :-D Anxiously awaiting "Homespun"...and eventually AV2!! -- ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ /Dan and Ginger Phipps <phipps@schoollink.net> "Everywhere you look, you release parts of your senses." (Jon Anderson) ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
------------------------------ Message-ID: <006301bee575$b4d45060$061017d4@smj> From: "Stephen Jackson" <smj@zen.co.uk> Subject: 'Working Class' Date: Fri, 13 Aug 1999 11:22:10 +0100 Someone wrote: >This is the very reason I am barfed-out by wankers like Manic Street >Preachers, who assume some laughable pose of politically right-on-ness >simply becasue they've read a bit of Marx and happen to be "working >class", whatever that is these days. So fucking what? When they start >giving their records out free, I'll start listening; until then, they can >shut the fuck up. You obviously have little knowledge of the band. The last thing the Manic Street Preachers are 'politically-right on '...such a generalisation is almost laughable...Yes they're 'working-class'....SE Wales..lived through the Miners Strike yadda yadda. But then I'm 'working class' too, a concept often not well-comprehended by non-Brits, and as you are not sure what that means 'these days' then I suggest, until you do, you take your own advice. Steve. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Two steps forward, six steps back.
------------------------------ End of Chalkhills Digest #5-247 *******************************
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