Chalkhills Digest Volume 6, Issue 164
Date: Saturday, 10 June 2000

         Chalkhills Digest, Volume 6, Number 164

                  Saturday, 10 June 2000

Topics:

               CD vs. Vinyl Final Argument.
                     Re: album title
                 Chalkhills and Children
            Listening Party With The Samples.
                     negative lyrics
                      CD's VS Vinyl
                  The Wrights of Spring
                XTC sighting (Listening?)
                      Falkner, etc.
                    AT, CM , RT and DM
                       grunt grunt
                      New Old Stuff
                    Death By Nostalgia
      Andrew Lloyd Weber's not Crap (no XTC content)
                   high holy puke alert
              folding laundry, sorting socks
                      Getting Closer
             Re: Next week's listening party
        RE:Where's 06 Language/lungs? (XTC LIVE!)
          Summer time, and the skyarking's easy

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It's another another product / From Shaking Skin House.

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

Date: Fri, 9 Jun 2000 22:14:20 -0400 (EDT)
From: Radios In Motion <radiosinmotion@iwon.com>
Subject: CD vs. Vinyl Final Argument.
Message-ID: <384017155.960603260721.JavaMail.root@web192-iw>

I could not find the specific post again, but someone put a link to an
article "Whatever Happened to Dynamic Range on Compact Discs?" regarding the
whole CD vs. Vinyl argument.  The problem I had, as an audio engineer for
close to 15 years, reading this page was that the person writing it was
trying to lead the argument he was making into another direction.  The truth
behind his argument, which I have heard so many times, is that he is scared
he is going to be put out of business by home studios.  So what does he do?
He brings up this argument to support how good of an engineer he is and how
bad everyone else who has a home studio is.  This is not an uncommon
argument as far as marketing is concerned.

Think about it; in order for a many companies, or politicians for that
matter, to get your business, they insult other companies and sum up their
argument (i.e. commercial) that they are the better choice.  Why eat at
Burger King?  "Because McDonalds suck and we taste better-" This is clearly
what he is doing with that article.  Please do not mistaken the article to
mean that vinyl is somehow superior because its not.  Sit down and listen to
the radio or your new-mastered CD's.  Tell me that Upsy Daisy (though the
mastering was not that good!) does not sound better than the old stuff!  The
fact of the matter is that sound quality is getting better with CD's and
will get better in years to come with the advent of such technologies as the
SACD.

All that aside, that is not to say that I don't partially agree with him.
Now, anyone with $500 can buy a CD burner, audio software and some blank
CD's and think they are audio engineers.  Most however tend to suck but
think they sound really good.  What this does to the market I'm in, is
overcrowd it with a bunch of fools who charge $10 to do mastering.  The
problem with that is people tend to get confused about where to go so they
end up building their own studio and next thing you know, everyone is trying
to become an audio/studio engineer.

Back to the guy's argument:  It's a lie to use one argument to serve your
own needs.  Regardless of what people say, me included, anyone can learn to
manipulate audio and become an "audio engineer."   All it takes is time.
It's all in the ear and how your brain perceives audio frequencies I guess.
For example, I would love to be able to draw or paint.  I know people who
are so good at drawings that I am amazed by every piece of worked I see them
do.  However, when I try to draw, my work comes out looking like the
drawings in the hallway in front of the special ed. Classroom in elementary
school.  I truly suck.  But when it comes to audio, I am better than many
engineers I have heard.  Why?  Its not that I have more education than them.
It's just that I am good at knowing how things should sound and how they
shouldn't sound.  I have a "natural talent" as many painters have a natural
talent when it comes to painting or drawing.

To sum things up, the truth that many engineers won't say is that we don't
want people starting home studio's because we will lose money and we need to
support my families.  The truth of the matter is though, that you can easily
start a studio and if you have the patience, you can become pretty good at
doing it.  In fact, how I got into this industry was through dissatisfaction
of the prices people charged for studio work.  The persons article was just
to save his business so be careful and don't always believe what you read.
However, on the other side of things, there are too many people out there
that think they are audio engineers and just becuase they have Sound Forge
XP and a Sound Blaster Live Sound card, that does not mean you are an expert
with audio!

You are your own judge.  CD's either sound better to you or they don't.  No
matter what mathematics or frequencies are brought into an argument,
personal opinions will always win.

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

I am in fact a great engineer.  If you ever need something mastered, let me
know.  I will gladly do 30 seconds of a song for free so you can see how
good my ear really is...  My rates are $100 for a sit-in or $50 an hour if
we do business through mail the mail and I garanetee all my work.

 --------------------------------------------------------------
INSERT SHORT SUMMERY HERE:
- CD's sound better than records or tapes (if mastered right).
- Vinyl sounds better than cassettes (including the clicks and pops.  I love
the sound vinyl   makes actually!)
- MP3's sound as good as CD's (VBR 100%).
- Apples taste like Onions (they do, really)
- Don't start home studios because I will make less money.
- Don't let people tell you not to start home studios because you can do it
if you want! (just don't compete with me)
- Support my business and your music will sound great!
- XTC is a damn good group!
- Be like your ancestors, or be different.  It doesn't matter.
 ---------------------------------------------------------------

Sorry for promoting myself and taking up half of a digest for this...

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

Date: Fri, 9 Jun 2000 22:15:18 EDT
From: CapnEndo@aol.com
Subject: Re: album title
Message-ID: <92.5e3f18e.2672feb6@aol.com>

In a message dated 06/09/2000 1:10:54 PM Eastern Daylight Time,
<owner-chalkhills@chalkhills.org> writes:

> How about:
>  THE CHEEKY BUILDERS (almost a bubblegum title, n'est pas?)
>  PARACHUTE
>  PHONEY ROSES
>  THE WHOLE HEARD
>  LET'S MULTIPLY!!! (like another one of Andy's faux-dance crazes)
>
>  ~~Rob

how 'bout

-Evolutionary bean feast

-Universe of atoms

-Axis Mundi

-With idiot grin

<signature>     Tom </;o)    </signature>

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

Date: Sat, 10 Jun 2000 14:37:28 +1000
From: "Clifford Smith" <dracon@worldreform.net>
Subject: Chalkhills and Children
Message-ID: <000f01bfd295$a13924a0$290ffea9@dracon>

Dear Chalkhillians,
I don't know if you've noticed this, but I think the song Chalkhills and
Children is very Beach Boysish. Has anyone else noticed this? I don't know
enough about the Beach Boys to pin point the exact period in their career
where they sounded like Chalkhills and Children, but listening to the tune
reminded me of the Beach Boys. I could be wrong folks, I'm not the Beach
Boys expert, that's my dad :-)
Just some thoughts.
Cheers,
Clifford Smith

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

Date: Sat, 10 Jun 2000 01:10:06 -0400 (EDT)
From: Radios In Motion <radiosinmotion@iwon.com>
Subject: Listening Party With The Samples.
Message-ID: <383410980.960613806077.JavaMail.root@web192-iw>

First, to address the listening parties, the reason I never show up is
because I hate chat rooms.  When I first got on the web way back in 94, I
quickly learned that chatting sucked.  I know many web users love chat rooms
so please dont take offence as this is not Cuba ok?!  I just think chat
rooms are boring...

All that aside, I want all the Southern Cali subscribers to meet in person
some day.  I know John has been trying to do that, but I guess its been hard
getting everyone together.  If we do get together someday, I will be there
(hence the "we").

The Samples: A damn good overlooked band.  Picture "Canary In a Coalmine"
meets "Every Breath You Take."  Though I hate comparing the group to the
Police, that is the feel I get from listening to them.  Don't know where to
start, try getting their self titled debut.  I have been a fan since around
91 I think and they have not put out anything bad yet.

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

Date: Fri, 9 Jun 2000 23:31:37 -0600
From: Michael De Bernardi <debernardi@cybermesa.com>
Subject: negative lyrics
Message-ID: <p04310100b5677fd353e6@[209.194.200.63]>

diamond wrote:

>My vote for least-favorite Wasp Star Lyric: "No, nothing's not wrong"
>from Stupidly Happy. It's so throwaway. It doesn't really fit with the
>song, cause it translates to Yes, Something's wrong. and the song is
>about being so happy that nothing can go wrong. My guess is he
>orrginally wrote "No nothing is wrong" or something, and thought it
>sounded too plain, so he threw the double-negative in there. I love that
>song, though. Great stuff.

by my read, this sentence is a triple negative, and therefore, a
negative.  thus, "nothing's wrong".  put a line through the "no" and
the "not", as they cancel each other out, and you are left with
"nothing's wrong".  it took me a few listens to consider the line,
but that makes it successful in and of itself.  i would rarely
consider andy sloppy with his lyrics (except some of we're all light).

have we confirmed that colin's "there might be flying pigs" is a
reference to his flirtation with pink floyd?

i have noticed that there is a twelve-plus second delay between the
end of boarded up and the beginning of ITMWML that i can't help but
think was put there specifically to jar the listener with that
swooping guitar intro.  on my first listen, as boarded up faded out
and the delay went ooon and ooon, i kept turning up the volume
wondering what was going on.  my wife and i were soon blasted from
the car by guitars.

michael

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

Date: Sat, 10 Jun 2000 03:49:14 EDT
From: Blueruins@aol.com
Subject: CD's VS Vinyl
Message-ID: <74.1612c2.26734cfa@aol.com>

OK
    Sorry to put everyone through that fruitless debate.  I had no idea it
was old territory.  I feel your pain!  This was my first time through the
issue and I'm already sick of it.
    I'm attempting to ignore the fact that I imagined someone once posted
that "Go2" was the best album ever recorded.  Must get more sleep.

Brett Reeves
"Ancient Chinese secret, huh?"

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

Date: Sat, 10 Jun 2000 08:51:33 +0100
From: "John Gray" <JT.Gray@BTInternet.com>
Subject: The Wrights of Spring
Message-ID: <008a01bfd2b0$b33c1700$4c3263c3@oemcomputer>

Saints3Den@aol.com wrote in #158:

1)What is the one word, which, if correctly spelled, is pronounced
wrong?

  2)Which word is always spelled correctly?

  3)Which word is always misspelled?

  4)What is the longest word in the english language?

  5)Which three words are always pronounced right?

My attempt at answers: 1) wrong  2) correctly 3) misspelled 4) language
5) write, right and rite
********************************************************************

Which frivolity reminds me of a schoolteacher of mine who used to tell a
fellow pupil; 'Right, Wright, write 'rite' right. Right?'

JG

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

Date: Sat, 10 Jun 2000 09:06:54 -0400
From: "Brian" <mattone@bhip.infi.net>
Subject: XTC sighting (Listening?)
Message-ID: <00b301bfd2dc$c10f32a0$8be49cd1@Brian>

Tschalkgerz!

I was on my way home from a caricaturing gig last night (Friday), turned on
the radio to my usual 'alternative' station, and caught the tail end of
ITMWML, where Andy sings "I'm the man!".
At first, I freaked, because I thought for a second I had my headphones on
and the CD was going, but since I had just started the car and hadn't put
them on - nor started the CD player - there's no way... so based on what
time of night it was (just after 9 PM) I thought it might be one of the '9
o'clock News' entries the DJ does, but since there was no fuss about who and
what at the end of it, they may have been playing the song, period.
That'd be nice!

-Brian Matthews

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

Date: Sat, 10 Jun 2000 10:54:08 -0400
From: Ben Gott/Loquacious Music <gott@tmbg.org>
Subject: Falkner, etc.
Message-ID: <B567CECF.27F7%gott@tmbg.org>

Goobers,

Long time, no posting!  Hmmmm!  Now that the Chalkhills are filling my
mailbox, though, I thought I'd add to the fray...

You already know what I think of "Wasp Star," so I won't repeat myself.
However, someone commented that it's the perfect "summer album," and I
couldn't agree more.  "You and the Clouds..." is a top down, Pacific Coast
Highway, wind-in-the-hair kinda thang.  You know.

Someone help me:  the last guitar chord on the fourth track of Jason
Falkner's "Author Unknown" CD sounds like it came *directly* from an XTC
song...But I can't figure out which song!  So go pull out your copies of
"Author," and enlighten me!  (I'm not sure of the name of the song, but it's
the one with the "Oh my God / Don't show me heaven" chorus.  A beaut.)

Also -- I've been on a Randy Newman kick lately.  In fact, I just ordered
the 4-CD box set that Rhino put out two years ago, and "Bad Love" hasn't
left my CD player.  Anyone else on the list listen to Randy Newman?  Do we
know if Partsy listens to Randy Newman?  It seems that they share a
similar...cynicism...toward society and toward religion.  If you don't have
"Bad Love," I'd urge you to get it...The songwriting is excellent, and Mitch
Froom and Tchad Blake's production fits Newman perfectly.  (By the way --
did anyone notice that Tchad Blake produced Pearl Jam's latest album?)

Stupidly happy,
-Ben

+-----------------------------------------------------------------+
      Benjamin Gott . Loquacious Music . Salisbury, CT 06068
AIM: Plan4Nigel . Tel: (860) 435-9726 . http://listen.to/loquacious
 Don't you know we're all light? / Yeah, I read that someplace...
+-----------------------------------------------------------------+

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

Date: Sat, 10 Jun 2000 23:26:21 +0900
From: "John Boudreau" <aso1@mocha.ocn.ne.jp>
Subject: AT, CM , RT and DM
Message-ID: <001101bfd2e8$041083a0$795791d2@oemcomputer>

Chris Vreeland wrote :

> Andy Partridge's solos are beginning to compare favorably to Richard
>Thompson's. My new fantasy is that the two of them would write and record
>together.

In a post of a couple of weeks ago I suggested that Andy and Colin get
Richard Thompson and Dave Mattacks in on the next XTC album . Can you
imagine ? Phew ! A marriage made in heaven I would say . DM and CM together
one of IF not THE best rhythm sections in rock , guiding the AP/RT guitar
machine down unexplored roads of musical mayhem - wow ! Wonder if Andy and
Colin have ever considered such a collaboration ?

Joseph Easter :

>I have been listening to the past and in retrospect, the drumming does
>seem uninspired (WS) compared to Nonsuch. Damn, that album rocks.

PP and Chuck Sabo both do an admirable job on Wasp Star , but they are no
match for Dave Mattacks . I am not just referring to technical ability . DM
is a TONE SPECIALIST . When it comes to percussive tone coloring, there are
few drummers better than Dave Mattacks. I is standard operating procedure
for Dave to use a
different snare drum and cymbal set-up on each song of an album . He loves
to pick the tone colors ; he picks the cymbals and snare drum to suit each
track. . On Richard Thompson's MOCK TUDOR he used two completely different
sounding drum sets : one a vintage circa 1952 Leedy and Ludwig 4 piece set
with a big booming 24 inch bass drum ; and a smaller Yamaha kit . I happen
to know he has a huge vintage drum collection , and EVERYTHING gets used . I
was fortunate enough to have the opportunity to purchase a couple of his
snare drums , one of which was used on one of my fave tracks from the
Fairport Convention album JEWEL IN THE CROWN . The drum ( a rare Leedy and
Ludwig  piccolo ) was still tuned up exactly as it sounded on the album .
Can't tell you what a thrill it was for me to sit down in my humble tatami
mat music room and play along to that song with the Master's old drum ...

Andy and Colin , call DM and offer him as much as you can afford to do the
next album . Also , give him the freedom to work the same magic he did on
NONSUCH .

Sushiman

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

Date: Sat, 10 Jun 2000 12:43:06 +0000
From: Scott Barnard <gforsche@videotron.ca>
Subject: grunt grunt
Message-ID: <"000501bfd2d9$6d19b240$1c1cc918"@oemcomputer.videotron.ca>

While I would usually be the last one to play P.C. police, I do feel that
Mr. Easter has some 'splainin' to do.

First we get "Joe's piece", rightly condemned by Debora Brown, and now this:

<bibulous working class mopes>

If I wasn't otherwise occupied with the WWF and a six-pack of cold ones, I'd
go over there right now and kick yer ass, Easter.

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

Date: Sat, 10 Jun 2000 12:22:44 CDT
From: "vee tube" <veetube@hotmail.com>
Subject: New Old Stuff
Message-ID: <20000610172245.61614.qmail@hotmail.com>

    And now my fine dirt walking friends,
          allow me to present...

      Why talk when you can listen?

            C.O.W (demo) MP3

                  AND!

       Why listen when you can talk?

      'How Frivolous came to be' MP3
       (Warning! This one's 11 Meg)

         http://www.idrive.com/fabx

                Have fun!

                 }---:)

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

Date: Sat, 10 Jun 2000 12:40:18 -0400
From: Jeff Eason <eason@mountaintimes.com>
Subject: Death By Nostalgia
Message-ID: <3.0.6.32.20000610124018.007c7630@mountaintimes.com>

Fellow Chalk Villians,

A note to Kevin Diamond: Jeez Louise! Some people haven't seen the movie
Dogma quite yet and you've gone and spoiled one of the great surprises of
the ending. OK, I'll play along...God is played by Alanis Morrisette.
Rosebud is actually the guy's sled! Dorothy was just dreaming and never
really left Kansas. Bruce Willis' character is dead the WHOLE TIME in Sixth
Sense. Matt Damon gets away with murder as the Talented Mr. Ripley. I'll
spoil more endings for y'all when I get the time.

A note to Ken Herne: You are absolutely correct Sir about the state of
American FM radio. I call it "Death by Nostalgia". I was in New Haven,
Conn. last week for a wedding. As it was, it happened to be Reunion Week at
Yale. Some buddies and I crashed a reunion dance on the quad given by the
Class of '95. The theme of the bash was  The Safety Dance! All these kids
around 25 years of age were trying to boogie to some of the sorriest crap
the early 80's ever spat out. Men in Hats, Men at Work, Go-Go's, Bangles,
Joan Jett, ad nauseum. There was some great music made in that era but it
is effectively being buried by the K-Tel 2CD version of what the guys in
suits remember.

For the record...The really cool stuff from the 80's was made by XTC, the
dB's, NRBQ, Kate Bush, Tom Waits, The Jazz Butcher, Frank Zappa, and a few
others that I can't think of right now.

So call your local DJ and request something from WASP STAR before they
throw their copy in the dumpster! I like that the youngsters seem to be
connecting with Stupidly Happy. I trust their young ears and will be
bugging the radio stations in my area to play it until the folks around
here are humming it in the grocery store!

Yours in XTC,

Jeff "The Chalk Hillbilly from Appalachia" Eason

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

Date: Sat, 10 Jun 2000 11:59:38 -0700 (PDT)
From: Molly Fanton <mfanton99@yahoo.com>
Subject: Andrew Lloyd Weber's not Crap (no XTC content)
Message-ID: <20000610185938.7402.qmail@web1304.mail.yahoo.com>

Someone mentioned:
<<worst crap ever made' sounds to me like you've
been exposed to too much Andrew Lloyd Webber...>>

Personally I like his musicals.  I'm going to take
Dom's advice and speak my mind here, if you people
don't like it well then you know what you can do.
I think the people who hate DLW's musicals don't know
a darn thing.  I'm getting sick of people dissing his
stuff.  I love musicals like Jesus Christ Superstar,
Evita, Cats and Joesph and the Amazing Technicolor
Dreamcoat.  Some of you must think I have no tastes
whatsoever, well I beg to differ.
I do have to agree his newer stuff isn't that great
like Whistle Down the Wind, but his older works is
great.
If you don't like what I say, well blame Dom, because
I'm just telling you ALW haters out there to f*ck off.
:P

Molly

=====
Molly's Pages: http://www.angelfire.com/mn/mollyfa99/index.html
My Tribute to Talk Talk & .O.Rang:
http://www.angelfire.com/mn/mollyfa99/talktalkorang.html

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

Date: Sat, 10 Jun 2000 12:56:24 -0700
From: "Wes Hanks" <wes@iolvegas.com>
Subject: high holy puke alert
Message-ID: <000d01bfd315$fa440940$2cb59fce@default>

Gag warning

I opened the paper and who do I see staring back at me with showgirls at
each elbow and dressed as Elvis circa 1974? Richard Branson!

Sir Slimy is seriously looking at buying/building a resort hotel in my fair
city.

For the visual epicac, gaze, if you dare at:

http://www.lvrj.com/lvrj_home/2000/Jun-09-Fri-2000/business/13742525.html

Wes "crackers and ginger ale" Hanks

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

Date: Sat, 10 Jun 2000 12:45:23 -0700
From: "Wes Hanks" <wes@iolvegas.com>
Subject: folding laundry, sorting socks
Message-ID: <000701bfd314$6f0d1c00$2cb59fce@default>

and yes, I deliberatly omitted MBG from my last post, as no one needs to be
told what the theme of that ditty be.

Wes "thats how we refer to it" Hanks

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

Date: Sat, 10 Jun 2000 23:30:54 +0200
From: "Mark Strijbos" <mmello@knoware.nl>
Subject: Getting Closer
Message-ID: <20000610212557.E3320A6CEB@mail.knoware.nl>

Dear Chalkers,

I'm starting to get worried as it seems you're all closing in on me:

> Everybody knows that, far from feigning a liking for XTC solely to
> attract women, Mark actually pretends to like XTC solely to shield
> a thriving online pornography business

like i said: close, but no cigar! Do i really have to draw a picture???
Think again: which crime would be almost perfectly shielded by an
all-consuming passion for all things related to XTC ?

yours in xtc,

Mark S. aka the Lying Dutchman

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

Date: Sat, 10 Jun 2000 14:07:55 -0700 (PDT)
From: John Relph <relph@mando.engr.sgi.com>
Subject: Re: Next week's listening party
Message-ID: <10006101407.ZM52794@mando.engr.sgi.com>

Molly Fanton <mfanton99@yahoo.com> wrote:
>
>Well, there were only four of us in Talk City last
>night for the Wasp Star listening party.  I don't know
>if I should be disappointed or just plain sad that
>nobody came.  I hope more of you come to the listening
>party next week.

Did I mention that I attended the Wasp Star listening party at the
planetarium at DeAnza College the night the album was released?  Many
thanks to Andy Kreyche for putting together a fun night of music,
video, slides, and of course, planetarium projection fun!  The
impromptu "planetarium video" to go with "Another Satellite" was in
many ways the highlight of the evening.

But there were only about 12 or 13 of us in attendance.  I don't know
if I should have been The Difappointed or just sad that there weren't
more people there.  Instead, I didn't sweat it.  I had fun, that's
what counts.

	-- John

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

Date: Sat, 10 Jun 2000 17:04:12 CDT
From: "vee tube" <veetube@hotmail.com>
Subject: RE:Where's 06 Language/lungs? (XTC LIVE!)
Message-ID: <20000610220412.61657.qmail@hotmail.com>

                 HhMmmm...

  ...good Q. Seems I've exceeded the limits of
    my infinite drive. So here's the deal...

   XTC LIVE! The Fab Foursome in Philly MP3s
             are available at,

   http://www.idrive.com/xtfab (tracks 1-5 and 7-14)
                        /fabx  (tracks 06,15,16)

      Drag & drop to recreate the entire show.

   Vee (yes I know,my favorite indie store(you know,the
one that tacks my special orders onto their regular
shipments and doesn't charge $4.99 s&h) just HATES IT!
       when I buy stuff from them) Tube!OUT!

P.S. The recording underground is alive and well. Anyone
  need Soundforge 4.5? (off post please!) You'll need
  winrar (cnet.com) to open it.

                  }---:)

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

Date: Sat, 10 Jun 2000 19:01:06 -0400
From: Diamond <arnos@nantucket.net>
Subject: Summer time, and the skyarking's easy
Message-ID: <3942C8B1.D39FAD63@nantucket.net>
Organization: Zoomastigina Records

It's almost summer! Time to break out Skylarking more and more! I did
for the first time in a while the other day, and I listened to it today
while riding my bike to work! God Dam Right, It's a Beautiful Day today.
(I've also been listening to the Eels. And Moby. Play is awesome. I
wonder if Andy would like it?)
_________________________

>One thing to note about the Square World reference: I would have to say,
>that that line refers to people who are "square."  As you know, Andy is a
>four-eyed fool, like myself, and in the context of the lyrics, to me,
>remind me of the bullies getting the girls. They are show-offs.  So for
>me, Andy's girl was over-taken by a bully, just like mine was.

I thought he was saying  " 'Big Square' world". Isn't Big Square a
playground game? Where there's four boxes in one large box, and you
throw a ball at people, or something? I can't remeber. And I know what
it's like to have a girl taken from you. Except for me, it wasn't a
bully, but my best friend... yowch... but I wrote a good song about it,
so it wasn't all bad! B-sides, I'm only 16. There are many more ducks in
the pond. So to speak.
__________________________________

>2. That SO MUCH praise is given to Colin's songs. Come on guys - his
>stuff is personal, but it certainly isn't terrific music. His stuff never
>gets released (maybe for a reason?) and, really now, couldn't an amateur
>songwriter have written the "Standing in for Joe" lyrics (not to mention
>just about every other one of his songs on the past few discs.) Just read
>the lyrics out loud. They sound like the came from a child's poetry
>class. When you put his basic patterns up against complex stuff like
>"Maypole" and "Greenman," it just doesn't compare. Does anyone really buy
>these albums for his work instead of Andy's?

Something bugged me about this. You have your right to not like Colins
stuff (personally, I adore it. I think it's really rather solid). But,
the "an ameture songwriter" thing... what's your point? What exactly is
an "ameture songwriter"? What's a "Professional Songwriter"? Neither
andy nor Colin ever studied or got their degrees in "songwriting" (or
anything else, for that matter...). The only thing I think of when I
think of "Profesional Songwriters" are the people who are paid to write
songs for Brittany Spears and the Backstreet Boys. Are you saying they
are better songwriters then Colin? And I also think, on an opinon level
hear, that colin's lyrics have a beautiy in their simplicity. Andy loves
to do his play on words things, but colin really seems to just be
writing his feelings, and that makes the words seem more real. I
personally would most definitely buy a Colin Moulding solo album,
because I think his songs are just as good, if on another level, then
Colin's.
________________________________

Also, someone pointed out the "I'll be your Burton if you'll be my Liz"
sounded like it was by Andy... um, yeah... I'd Like That maybe?  I'm
jcurious as to which song was written first. Anyone know?

Personally, I don't think that Apple Venus 1 and 2 should be combined
onto one CD, but rather be released as a three CD set whith AV1 the
first CD, AV2 the second CD, and whatever remnents of Fuzzy Warbles they
can get together that Virgin won't claim as their own, especially the
songs that didn't make either apples that everyone seems to like so
much. Bumper Cars and Ship Trapped In The Ice and the like. That would
be nice. Maybe call it "One Bad Apple," Like as in the phrase "One Bad
Apple can spoil the bunch", but also like "That's one bad motha..." as
in bad=good. Yeah. That'd be cool.

Kevin "Life is a container to prepare you for your coffin" Diamond
www.mp3.com/frenchelectric
www.mp3.com/bass-cleff

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End of Chalkhills Digest #6-164
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11 June 2000 / Feedback