Chalkhills Digest Volume 6, Issue 129
Date: Sunday, 21 May 2000

         Chalkhills Digest, Volume 6, Number 129

                   Sunday, 21 May 2000

Topics:

                   Interview with Andy
               Neta Dance and Glen Phillips
                  Misc. Babble about TVT
                    4:20 and XTC in LA
                       Robert Elms
                   EI EI OWEN and TERRY
            XTC/WS in Amazon.com Sunday Insert
                        HMV orders
  Britney 3.5, WS 3........Smacks of Collusion to Me!!!
                     Wasp Star Review
                 Yazbek and Sugarplastic
                         Finally!
                        XTC on NPR

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Another year's gone by, the world's grown older.

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

Date: Thu, 18 May 2000 15:36:49 -0400
From: "Todd Bernhardt" <todd.bernhardt@enterworks.com>
Subject: Interview with Andy
Message-ID: <39244651.12FE509E@enterworks.com>
Organization: Enterworks, Inc.

Hi:

As described in Chalkhills Digest #6-125, I recently got a chance to
interview Chuck Sabo, Andy and Colin about the new album, among other
things -- topics discussed with Andy ranged from studio construction, to
digital editing, to tattoos as a means of enforcing chastity, to the
importance of masturbation as a strength-training (*ahem*) tool.

The Chuck interview is already on Chalkhills. If you'd like to dip into
the wit, insight and ribaldry of Andy Partridge, check out:

http://chalkhills.org/articles/TBAndy000521.html

As usual, thanks to John Relph, without whom, etc.
-Todd

P.S. -- Remember, you can find the Chuck Sabo interview at:
        http://chalkhills.org/articles/TBChuck000519.html

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

Date: Sun, 21 May 2000 02:05:50 -0400
From: Ben Gott/Loquacious Music <gott@tmbg.org>
Subject: Neta Dance and Glen Phillips
Message-ID: <B54CF4FB.25B3%gott@tmbg.org>

Gang,

I've just returned from an EXCELLENT Glen Phillips concert, but I wanted to
give you all my broad thoughts on the Neta Dance Company's "The Orchid
Show," a preview of which I saw this afternoon.

If you live in the City (that is, New York), and you're around from June
15-18, you *must* go see this show.  Fuck videos, fuck interviews -- this is
the way XTC's music is meant to be enjoyed and appreciated.  Neta
Pulvermacher told me that Andy and Colin have not yet seen the show, but I
know that they will both appreciate it immensely.  If you go to the Neta
Dance company website (http://www.netacompany.org), you can learn about the
show, because I'm not going to give anything away on the list.  Suffice to
say, however, that it was one of the most entertaining, thought-provoking
pieces of dance I have ever seen, and it made me look at XTC's music in a
completely different light.  There were a few points during the show where I
broke out in full-body goosebumps...now how often does that happen?

I can't praise "The Orchid Show" enough, really.  Go see it.

The Glen Phillips (formerly of Toad the Wet Sprocket) show was great,
too...He played an hour and a half acoustic set of his solo songs, Toad
songs, and covers by Richard Thompson, The The, Neutral Milk Hotel, and
others.  I got a picture with him afterwards, and we talked about XTC fans
and their rabidity vs. Toad fans and their rabidity...(Glen is an XTC fan,
if you didn't know.)  Unfortunately, he had scheduled this show the day that
at least one area college let out, so he asked the audience (seriously) if
anyone had a guest room or a fold-out couch where he and his wife could
sleep...If I hadn't had an hour and a half drive home, and if it hadn't been
12:30am by the time I left, I would've offered up my house...Oh, well!  (But
what would my mom have said when she woke up?  Perhaps Glen would've
serenaded her with an acapella rendition of "All I Want"?)

-Ben

+-----------------------------------------------------------------+
      Benjamin Gott . Loquacious Music . Brunswick, ME 04011
AIM: Plan4Nigel . Tel: (860) 435-9726 . http://listen.to/loquacious
  You can feel it all over / You can feel it all over, people...
+-----------------------------------------------------------------+

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

Date: Sun, 21 May 2000 01:06:14 -0700
From: "Radiosinmotion" <radiosinmotion@earthlink.net>
Subject: Misc. Babble about TVT
Message-ID: <005a01bfc2fb$6f553c20$0200a8c0@digitalpc>

Good point Mr. Hedges.  I was merely mentioning that they could have done
more but I guess we will see how good they do when it comes down to the
success of the album.  So in this, we agree.

However, there is nothing wrong about stating my concerns about a label who
is promoting a group that is obviously one of our favorite groups.  I don't
have this big vendetta against TVT at all.  But I am opinionated and I just
had some basic criticism for the label, that's all.

As for the AV1 tour, I did not know they did a promotion tour so that sheds
some new light on the subject.  Hopefully they will still do a tour after
the album is out for a while.

Desmond Decker > Good
Madness > Good
Specials > Good
Tippa Irie > Good
Mighty Diamonds > Good
Patra > Very Very Bad!

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

Date: Sun, 21 May 2000 01:41:24 -0700
From: "Drew MacDonald" <drewmacdonald@mediaone.net>
Subject: 4:20 and XTC in LA
Message-ID: <002301bfc300$59c0ff20$ac841818@we.mediaone.net>

> 420 is a general slang word for smoking weed...it can be used in many
> ways....term comes from a dragnet episode....Joe Friday.....a 420 in
> progress....people smoking marijuana....LOL

Okay, this may sound insane, but I always ascribed the significance of
"4:20" to the fact that, for many years, watchmakers and clockmakers
traditionally set the hands of the clocks on their street display signs to
that time. This factoid served as an important plot point in an unimportant
mystery novel I read as a child, though I can't recall if the book ever
explained how this custom originally came about. And it's not like there are
many modern-day "clockmaker" shops (at least here in LA) for me to go
confirm this story.

> Regarding Michael Jolly's writings on XTC in Entertainment Today (in the
> Los Angeles area)....
> Michael and I worked together for a spell in a Burbank music store (the
> one owned by R. Branson). He's a great guy. And his musical tastes
> are impeccable. Many a shift we'd discuss the many merits of XTC.
> I know for the "Apple Venus Vol.1" article he interviewed Andy via
> phone, and I assume the same for his latest piece on "Wasp Star".

Nope, it was an actual face-to-face sit-down interview with both Andy and
Colin in a local hotel when they were in town a couple of weeks ago. That
interview, along with a reproduction of the cover photo of Messrs. Partridge
and Moulding, is now viewable at http://www.ent-today.com

Drew

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

Date: Sun, 21 May 2000 07:06:42 EDT
From: Qprduggan@aol.com
Subject: Robert Elms
Message-ID: <a3.6450303.26591d42@aol.com>

Belinda wrote:

"And I reply YES HE IS still all those things!!!!!!  I
simply can't stand him, he is so ignorant sometimes!
But one thing he is good at is loving London and
finding fascinating guests who teach other Londoners
lots about this best town in the world.  And so I have
to swallow and listen because I love London more than I
hate Robert Elms.

You continued: "Congrats on the freebie though."
Hasn't bloody arrived yet.
AND CHELSEA HAVE WON HOOOORRRRRAAAAAAAYYYYYYYYY"

Dear God....say it ain't so Belinda you don't support THEM do you.?????? and
i thought you had such good taste. after that shambles of a game i had no
choice but to get hammered and watch Big Country with a mush in shepherds
bush. roll on monday....

Well at least Mr Elms is a fellow QPR fanatic so i'll just about forgive his
XTC/Genesis comments.

Liam Duggan

waiting for XTC to get a no.1 and QPR to win some damn thing...it might be a
while...

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

Date: Sun, 21 May 2000 11:00:25 +0900
From: "John Boudreau" <aso1@mocha.ocn.ne.jp>
Subject: EI EI OWEN and TERRY
Message-ID: <000401bfc304$feb19680$675791d2@oemcomputer>

All ,

Got two e-mails from Ian Gregory this week , mostly regarding Terry Chambers
. Thought I would forward the info contained on to the list since Terry is
still so loved here .

>John,

>Terry Chambers is back in Swindon visiting his father who is not
>too well.

>I am going to see him tomorrow evening and will re- aquaint him with the
>Slingerland snare drum which he used on ALL the XTC records he made and
>played on every live gig he did !

>It has been in my attic for the years - I used it once but found it had to
>be hit very hard to make it sound any good. It is a mid seventies 14" x
>6.5" ( steel ) >and as you can imagine is in a bit of a state - I had to
>replace the hoops because they were corroded by years of Chambers sweat
( yuch ! ).
>I could not find Slingerland examples so they are probably Taiwanese,
>however it now looks pretty good.

>Also found a pair of "Terry Chambers - X.T.C." hickory drumsticks still
>sealed in their original polythene bag - hope he appreciates them cos I
>nearly gave them to a devoted fan a few weeks ago.

>I will let you know how it went !

And this one came the following day :

>By the way, I met Terry on Wednesday. He was on good form, and is over
>here with his son who is also a drummer. The Slingerland is going back to
>Aus.......Terry didnt even touch it.....I think he has moved on and has no
>real interest in drumming, but Kyle his son is dead keen, and sounded
>pretty good on the "demo" he played for us.

Sushiman

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

Date: Sun, 21 May 2000 10:59:20 -0600
From: John Wilkens <jwilkens@earthlink.net>
Subject: XTC/WS in Amazon.com Sunday Insert
Message-ID: <392815E8.5AE83AF1@earthlink.net>

Will XTC surprises never cease?

I was randomly flipping through the Amazon.com Summer 2000 (a slick
newspaper insert in Sunday's Denver Post) detailing hundreds of products
we can't live without (and must rush to order online) when much to my
amazement I spied the cover of Wasp Star staring back at me!

The other CDs listed (scattered throughout the supplement) were by Don
Henley, Stevie Ray Vaughan, Ani DiFranco, Macy Gray, Mission Impossible
2 Soundtrack, Pete Seeger, Billboard Latin Music Awards, Ella
Fitzgerald, Snoop Dogg, Jazz for Dads, New Age Journeys, Matchbox 20,
and Relaxing Classical.

Kudos to the TVT press department (or the XTC fan at Amazon.com) for the
exposure!

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

Date: Sun, 21 May 2000 12:43:51 -0400
From: "Cheryl" <mcgregoc@mindspring.com>
Subject: HMV orders
Message-ID: <000101bfc343$bfb50540$2d01f7a5@mcgregocmindspring.com>

Hey,

Does anyone know if the bonus single coming with the HMV orders is the same
as the promotion from TVT records?  The one in the plastic "clam shell"
case?

Cheryl

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

Date: Sun, 21 May 2000 11:50:28 -0500
From: "Joe Funk" <twosheds@mindspring.com>
Subject: Britney 3.5, WS 3........Smacks of Collusion to Me!!!
Message-ID: <001001bfc344$ac0d2bc0$7721fea9@user>

Greetings Chalklings!!!

I haven't seen the new Rolling Stone, ..just read what was posted here about
the reviews.  I am SO fed up with the music industry, and this latest
example makes me want to PULL MY OWN HEAD OFF!!!  How can any
writer/reviewer in their right mind rate anything by BS (and it is BS!!)
over our boys, without getting a nice little KICK-BACK!  The system  has
always been corrupt...... this is just insane...........

On to nicer things!
Had a couple of WS encounters over the last few days.  Friday, I called the
local 'XTC' radio station, KGSR 107.1, to request either "Stupidly Happy" or
"ITMWML".  The DJ asked my name and where I worked at, and said they would
play it during their "What do you want for lunch" segment..  Cool!  Well,
they played "ITMWML", and said this goes out to "Joe"...  No last name..
Oh well......
And yesterday I was in a local record store searching for an old Surfer
music compilation (I had to re-learn some old songs to play at a gig last
night..........  Surf Music!!! Well, until my songs get any recognition, I
gotta do what I gotta do!). Anyway, the compilation section is right next to
the XYZ section, and I overheard a couple complaining that the new XTC
wasn't in stock.  I turned to them with Uffington Horse displayed keenly on
my head (Thanks, Phil!), and explained to them that it wouldn't be available
till Tuesday, but that I've had a promo copy for a month...and it is
AWESOME!  They were a tad disappointed, because they were old time XTC fans,
and had read an excellent review in the Austin American-Statesman.  I
jokingly offered to let them listen to it out in my car (where it has been
stuck in the cd player for a while), and told them about Chalkhills, to
which they were very interested. They said they would be back first thing
Tuesday, and went their merry way, while I continued my heartless search for
"Pipeline"..........

And so as WS is nigh, the spoiler period is almost over....

By the way:
>Jim "and why does he switch from the horse imagery to the boat imagery on
>the bridge?" Smart

You can lead a Horse to water....But you can't make him think.

Joe "Nice Hat!!...But lose the head" Funk

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

Date: Sun, 21 May 2000 19:44:59 +0100
From: "David Seddon" <D.Seddon@btinternet.com>
Subject: Wasp Star Review
Message-ID: <000d01bfc354$abd38ae0$2607073e@default>

Some initial thoughts on Wasp Star:

Playground

A very good, guitar based opener which reminds me a little of Taxman (the
opener to Revolver) in the tone both of the music and the lyric's lament of
something we all have to face.  It has a very typical Partridge middle 8.
Not many other rock composers bother with middle 8s these days and if they
do they're half-hearted but our Andy makes an art form out of them.  At
first I thought that this might be a future single, but I think that it's
more likely just a strong album track.

Stupidly Happy

Well obviously this is the riff that Keith missed but aside from the Stones,
I think that the Travelling Wilburys and various other bands would have
liked to get a hold of this.  It's definitely single material, but have
Cooking Vinyl goofed by putting it out free in England on front of the Uncut
mag?  Although it is repetitive, I have heard it a dozen times or more now
and I'm not bored with it yet.  A summer hit?  I suppose that those on the
list who said about a month ago that they thought that the album was bit
unoriginal were referring to this, but hell, our boys don't have to break
barriers all of the time do they?  What's wrong with a bit of good
old-fashioned pop?  I mean, it's hardly The Spice Girls is it?  Come on,
give our guys a break!

PS, Is "coming unscrewed" another masturbatory reference?

In Another Life

On this album, Colin comes up with two songs that are his most likely
A-sides for ages (King for a Day being the last, to my way of thinking).
This one is full of his quirky englishness and shows brief snatches of his
flirtation with 20s and 30s music and Hollywood personas (we had Noel Coward
on the last album).  You could quite imagine the Kinks covering this one.
It's references and moods are right down their street.

My Brown Guitar

I love the opening and closing bars to this.  Even so, I think that the
album sags just slightly on this track and the next one...nothing too major
because they're both good tracks, but a lot of good albums begin with three
stunners then sag ever so slightly.  This is a bit of a rambling piece a-la
the Beatles in 1968, and it seems to have a mind of its own.  It has a lot
of shy, cheeky, sexy, effortless charm, yet it is in essence a nonsense song
in the tradition of Bungalow Bill, You Know My Name and What's the New Mary
Jane.  Indeed it is quite easy to imagine this dong (that's a mistype but
since it's Freudian, I'll leave it in) as a left over from The White Album
sessions, but that's intended as no criticism from me, since that glorious
selection of songs is my favourite album of all time.

Boarded Up

This has a great bluesy feel which I love, though I think some might think
it the weakest of Colin's offerings here.  The melody is good and the
harmonium and tapped guitar very resonant, empty and still...just like an
empty music venue.  I like the sparsity of it.  In its purely English angst
and its railing against the so called progress of modern life, it wouldn't
have been surprising if Roy Harper had popped up with this one.

I'm The Man...

Now the album really gets back into the groove of pure jollity, for despite
the subject matter, as in The Disappointed and Mayor of Simpleton, Andy
manages to take the focus of a rather negative lyrical-comment about his
life and turn it into something rather upbeat and cheery.  This is, of
course, a great choice for a single and when you think of some of the rather
deplorable choices and exclusions we've had in this area recently, that
deserves praise.  Both of the other above mentioned songs were equally radio
friendly but bombed in the good ole UK (don't know how they fared over the
pond...what's the singles history of XTC over there?  Someone like to tell
us?) so don't get your hopes up folks. I mean the average record buyer seem
to like Britney Spears!!!
There's a groovy guitar intro (a bit of Hendrix, perhaps?), a vaguely Brian
May guitar solo, some great harmonies and a great fade out.  Even the title
is memorable and it deserves to be a top ten hit, but recent history says it
may get to about number 60.

We're all Light

Wow!  Cor Blimey!  Gordon Bennett!  Andy treats us to his best dance riff
since... well, probably Helicopter.  If they ever go live again (in a
parallel universe) then this would have us all bopping around in the aisles.
A summery, happy, calypsoey feel with a modern percussion treatment.  I love
it and the words are cool.  In any fair world this would be a huge number
one hit and shoot the boys to fame, but ah shucks, you know it won't happen.
Nevertheless, this is surely their most likely big hit since Senses WO.  One
could envisage it with an extra techno-fied dance mix thrown in as an extra
CD-single track for no other reason that our boys wanted to prove that they
could create such a beast.  Whether this thought horrifies you or not,
clubbers ( of which I am certainly not one) would love it.  I have bopped
around the room with my 10 month old son in my arms to this and if a double
left-legged bugger like me likes to dance to this then, there you go.  Also,
the theramin is groovy baby!

Standing in for Joe

Great bubblegum pop indeed.  The other possible Colin single.  On the first
listening I was reminded of groups like Pilot - hey don't say that you don't
recall January (sick and tired you've been hanging on me) and (ho ho ho
it's) Magic.  Dust off your platform shoes, grab those old flares (mine
could give me a hernia now) and go and sing and sway wuth your mates.  It's
party time!

Wounded Horse

A strong piece of
angst-fuelled-but-hey-I'm-not-going-to-let-that-woman-finish-me-off blues in
the great tradition of such songs.  We don't get the dog, but so what, we
get a horse instead.  There's a touch of the Beatles (White Album again),
Stones (Beggar's Banquet...incidentally IMHO their best album, but that's
for another post) and Neil Young in there, but essentially this is just a
classic piece of blues that many artists would like to have written.
And now for the biggest Wasp Star mystery so far.  How come some people have
had the bottle to knock this?  Come on reveal yourselves again!  This is
what rock and roll is supposed to be all about.  It was built on this sort
of stuff.  If you don't like it, do you really understand the roots of rock?
It's brilliantly sung and played and in that line about "biting off my own
tongue," it is full of as much pain as Lennon himself could muster.  Hands
off!  This is one of the best songs on the album.  The man puts his balls on
the line so I mean, what do you want...blood?

You and the Clouds

Oh no!  Cor Blimey!  Gordon Sumner!  Well in direct comparison to the
previous track, rock ceratinly wasn't built on this sort of stuff.  Perhaps
jazz was, but to be fair to the outright Sting-obsessed amongst us, the
title is a bit like one of his and perhaps it's in his line of
pinch-a-latin-riff and turn it into rock.  But these are but minor points,
since other comparisons could no doubt be found.  Whether this is Sting-like
overall or not I leave to the judgements of others.
What I do feel however, is that this is easily the weakest track on the
album.  When I first heard it, I thought it the boys' worst since the awful
President Kill, but I've mellowed slightly from that viewpoint.  I still
think that for Andy it's weak, forced and contorted in a rather ugly way.  I
mean he sounds like he's got a bad dose of constipation for a lot of this.
Hardly the background sounds to a romantic ballad.  Apparently, Dave and
Colin weren't keen on it being on the album and I have to agree with them.
It's not as if Andy was short of cracking material.  The majestic Ship
Trapped in the Ice or the sexy Wonder Annual would have made this album
nearly perfect for me.  Still, I guess some on the list will like this song
and I'm fully expecting criticism for my opinion on it.  Fire away...we
can't always agree, and I'm sorry but I'm never going to think that this is
beautiful.

Church Of Women

This is much more like it.  A song that only AP could have written.  It's a
hymn of praise to women that is as warmly felt as Lennon's Woman.  It's a
great song that I expect we'll be talking about for a long time and may
cause as much loving analysis as HF or ET did on the last album.   There's a
great bit of flugel horn and with its slow, hymn-like, vaguely chugging
rhythm, it is the nearest we get to HF on the album.  The ending perfectly
encapsulates the feel that Andy wished to create.  With the handclapping and
harmonised singing, it sounds like a meeting at one of those American gospel
churches.  Of all the songs here this is the one that would have best fitted
onto AV1.  Every time that you hear it there's something new, so I'll
probably have another listen in a minute.  As for the much discussed guitar
solo...I like it: it's laid back, understated and meandering.  It suits the
mood.
Andy shows us the stylistic breadth of his guitar playing on this album.  He
had to, to fill the void left by Dave.

The Wheel and The Maypole

Stunningly good.  A many-coursed medieval feast of a song.  I'm absolutely
gobsmacked by this.  It must be the best final track on an album that the
boys have ever done and I think that it will end up being in my top 10 XTC
songs.  It's essentially 2 great songs rolled into one.  The harmonies, bass
playing, drumming and dramatic pauses/changes of tempo are a delight and
quite enough to send all of us, not just any musicians amongst us, into an
orgasmic state.  When Andy sings "and what made me think we're any better"
and then rolls into the chorus it's just heaven.  This is the sort of song
that should be played very loud indeed as everyone slurps as much cider as
possible on a really hot summer's day. It's another one that's worth a damn
good bop.  Personally, I love the Maypole section especially, but the whole
thing is epic and yet totally off-the-cuff and unpompous in best XTC style.
A lot of people thought the same about ET on the last album, but I found
that flawed ... good but not brilliant.  I always felt that it was slightly
forced and the joins between the two sections didn't appear to be seemless
to me.  This continues the Earth loving theme, but despite everything has no
such structural problems.  It is a truly magnificent piece of music and I
adore those medieval sounds that Andy loves...scratchy violas, oboe's that
sound like crumhorns etc .  On top of that there's some brilliant drumming
and a, stripped down reprise of The Wheel that's like a hypnotic round.
You cannot imagine that anyone else in the world could have created this,
but then again what would Robin Williams of The Incredible String Band have
given to have written it?  It would have been the best song they ever did.
You would possibly have to seriously doubt the humanity of anyone who didn't
feel euphoric after hearing this song a few times.

Overall, this is XTC most commercial album bar none.  On the strength of
that it will sell well, but don't get your hopes up too high.  Still, you
never know.  In a fair world this would contain 3 or 4 hit singles and I
think that it is stronger than Vo1.  For one thing, Colin holds up his end
(and indeed puts it firmly, if clandestinely, away on SIFJ) much better than
last time.  I don't think that there's anything quite as beautiful as
Harvest Festival on the album, but there are several close calls. By my
reckoning there's only one track to exercise your pause-button finger on.
It's a real return to the XTC that most folk on the list know and love, and
I suspect that in time I may come to rank it in their top 3 or 4.  It won't
take first place, because there aren't as many classically well-composed and
arranged songs as on Nonsuch. Having said that, if you imagine for a moment
that The Beatles had got back together and made this album, is there any
doubt that people would rave about it or that it would sell zillions?

If you define pop just in terms of fun, then this is definitely XTCs best
album yet.

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

Date: Mon, 22 May 2000 10:28:47 EST
From: "Vzzz bx" <vzbx@hotmail.com>
Subject: Yazbek and Sugarplastic
Message-ID: <20000522002847.58754.qmail@hotmail.com>

Last week I bought albums by these people.  Thoughts:

Sugarplastic, 'Radio Jejune':  Fantastic.  Some of the best melodic
composition I've heard in my life.  Can't stop listening to it.  Better than
'Bang...'.

Yazbek, 'Tock':  Again, really really good album.  The only thing that's
breaking the 'Radio Jejune' cycle.  My partner heard five seconds of One
Layer Deeper and said, 'If that's not XTC I'm a monkey's arse'.  Hmm.

I know the discography says WS is due out in Australia today, but has anyone
seen it in shops yet, perchance?  I'm too anxious to wait for CDNow.
Thanks!

Adam D

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

Date: Sun, 21 May 2000 21:46:42 -0400
From: "Diamond" <arnos@nantucket.net>
Subject: Finally!
Message-ID: <200005220148.VAA17369@nantucket.net>

Finally, I've blazed through all of those chalkhills... hoo-boy... well, any
comments I had to make on anything in the last couple of digests I made
directly to the people who posted them, as to not fill chalkhills with old
news and such. I'd just like to thank John Voorhees for putting my band and
solo artist music on the Chalkheads page. There's a lot of good stuff, like
Ben Gott's songs, and Agent Square. Those are just two of my favs that I had
already heard... I haven't listened to the other artists on there yet, cause
my computer doesn't support the streaming radio format that MP3.com has or
something... so eventualyl I'm gonna go throuhg and d/l them all... once I
get that cable modem my 'rents have been promising me.

In the last 20 chalkhills that I read in the last, oh, 4 days, there have
been SO many "Great Lost Bands" that I can't recall even one right now...
did anybody happen to make a comprehensive list of some of the
recommendations? If not, I'll just go back and pick out the ones that I
found most interesting.

I thought I might plug two upcoming albums of mine... first, my real band,
French Electric, is making an album for a school-related project, and it
will be done by the end of June... we have a couple of albums available on
MP3.com, but they aren't true Albums, they're just little excursions... this
real 16 song CD will be manufactured by yours truely, and I'd like to offer
it FREE to any chalkhillers here who might be interested... although if you
don't mind spending money on it, I'd prefer you payed for it... but anyone
who doesn't have the funds to take a bet on some unheard artist like me,
just let me know, and I'll send you a free copy. To reiterate, the band is
called FRENCH ELECTRIC, or album is called THE DYNAMICS OF CHANGE, and we've
got kind of an interesting slew of songs... some recall heavy synthesized
David Bowie songs (Social Drinkers), others a dark version of TMBG (My
Padded Cell), We've got a littel lounge-ish tune about falling in love with
a Nazi (Fascist Dictator), a couple of spooky little numbers (In Your
Oubliette, Sound Bites) the later of which is about someone who gets a song
stuck in their head for life, and goes insane... *ahem*... We've also got a
beatles homage about prank phone calls, some love songs (Sweet Battle
Ground; Need You Like The Sun) and some lack-of-love songs (my salute to
nerds [like me] who have friends who are girls, but never seem to have a
girlfrind: Sexy Night) and Much, Much more... it's kind of scary, kind of
funny, kind of touching. And the cover is pretty cool looking, so if you
don't like the music, you can just hang the cover on your wall as some
attractive modern art. So, let me know if you are interesed.

Well, I wrote more about that album then I thought I was gonna, so I'll just
quickly plug my solo CD, released only over MP3.com (no freebies on this
one, unless you REAAAALY want it, and I might think about burning you a
copy) It's called "500 Ways of Dying" and is a concept album on which all
the songs are about, well, death. Two things: a) I realize that is not
Gramattically correct, but... oh well... and b) I know there are some
similar-titled albums by some rap stars (like Six Million Ways to Die or
something) but... i think mine is better... by the way, my solo name is
Bass-Cleff (yes, with two F's)

you can hear songs from both of this albums on my web sites, or on the
Chalkheads website.

Did I type too much on this? I hope not. Please don't get mad at me... I'm
only a little kid...

I get my licence in a week! I can't wait to drive around blasting Wasp Star
from the speakers!

Kevin Diamond

P.S. I told someone about the album, and they're gonna by the album souly
based on how much they dig the title "Wasp Star". So all of you who didn't
like it, it one over one potential new fan!\

My Band Pages
http://artists.mp3s.com/artists/79/the_french_electric_all-st.html
http://artists.mp3s.com/artists/84/bass-cleff.html
http://artists.mp3s.com/artists/85/starving_artists.html
--
"No one in the world ever get's what they want, and that is beautiful.
Everybody dies frustrated and sad, and that is beautiful"
           -John Linnell (of They Might Be Giants) / "Don't Let's Start"

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

Date: Sun, 21 May 2000 19:50:38 -0700
From: "John Keel" <jbkev1@ev1.net>
Subject: XTC on NPR
Message-ID: <021501bfc398$841e8060$10525d3f@sony.com>

Hi kids,

So, I must have missed the XTC interview because it wasn't in the second
hour?  Did anyone hear it and is it worth ordering a tape from them?  Do
tell.

L.A. FANS - Don't forget to e-mail me off-list if you would like to all
gather for "A Testimonial Dinner" somewhere to celebrate the new record.
>From the few replys I've received it sounds like a weekend night might be
best.  Whadda ya think?

JK

*********************************************
"The world is not my home, I'm just a-passin' through."
Tom Waits

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

End of Chalkhills Digest #6-129
*******************************

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22 May 2000 / Feedback