XTC C/D S/D

...and then the long wait until Mummer was released in September 1983

Mummer was the first one I was eagerly waiting for too. I entered via Drums and Wires, liked parts of it but didn't love it. Missed out on Black Sea (I was broke and not buying much new music in 1980.) But then in 1982 I fell hard for English Settlement, backtracked and bought everything I could get my hands on.

are you guys just reading off the youtube comments?

if lump was, i didn't get it. i was just quoting the lyrics.

Plus a whole bunch of 7" singles that I didn't keep track of.

I hunted down a stack of XTC 45s to collect the b-sides before I knew that Beeswax existed (which itself was pretty hard to find). Nice to have for the picture sleeves, though. "No Thugs In Our House" folds out into a little finger puppet theater (or rather, it would if I chose to destroy it, which I will not).
http://www.shopvinylrevolutions.com/v/vspfiles/photos/VR838-2T.jpg

Cool! I remember that one.

i've got that!

are you guys just reading off the youtube comments?

if lump was, i didn't get it. i was just quoting the lyrics.

Nope, I wasn't.

I had forgotten about Spiral and The Good Things, both are pretty good, would add those to the list of great extraneous XTC tunes.

i've always loved "washaway", a colin b-side from the big express.

all of those big express b-sides were good. "Red Brick Dream" was my favorite; love that low-key wishywashy stuff

For real, that song is so dreamy. Blue Overall and Washaway are super strong, too. That whizzy guitar and barroom piano combo in Washaway is a delight.

Also I think Washaway might be a better everyday story of a small town than the song with that title.

I've been listening to all their b-sides in chrono order today and aside from the fact that there's barely a weak track , one that jumped out at me which hasn't been mentioned: "Chain Of Command". What an amazing, high energy earworm!

that and limelight go perfectly together.

yesterday and thursday I played all the virgin albums. got me through the final two days of a month of hell, and was just lovely.

"Chain Of Command". What an amazing, high energy earworm!

Sometimes it's my favorite thing on Drums and Wires! And you don't often hear songs about the metabolic process.

Bassline for Limelight is all time.

One of the interesting things about XTC is the fans they attract. Not that you can always say "if you like band A you'll like band B", but for XTC it's incredibly unpredictable! I know XTC fans who abhor punk and other noisier genres and only love ultra-melodic acts, other XTC fans who used them as a jumping off point to everything underground from the 70s and 80s and further still fans for whom XTC is their token alternative act. It's like XTC is the locus of many tastes.

utterly otm. in the past I've tried following the tastes of xtc fans to discover xtc-like music, and apart from a few obvious matches (yazbek, sugarplastic) there's rarely anything in common from fan to fan. i think it's because xtc fans are better defined by their personal approach to music than any genre breakdown.

does "personal approach to music" mean extreme nerdity?

lol yes, probably

it's hard to define but it has to do with open-mindedness, perseverance with material, etc. (but probably not even that specific tbh)

most of my favorite people love xtc, so there's that

yes

Just come across this site that appears to have a buttload of XTC goodness, outside of Warbles/Jules Verne etc.

Also some interesting Talking Heads too (Fear Of Music monitor mixes!!)

http://mywalloftapes.blogspot.co.uk/

Whoa, that stuff looks cool, have you sampled any yet?

who the fuck is that guy, random taper dude that hangs out with Brian Wilson and Andy Partridge?!

I'm grabbing a few bits now, did you read his spiel at the bottom? If it's true it's pretty heavy.

whoah

Listening to the Black Sea Live to 2-Track Demos, pretty good! Decent quality, maybe a little heavy on the NR but no complaints.

Also, if you do t0rrents, some guy is putting the XTC content on d3m0n0id.

Oh man, a lovely track called 'Pearl' that I've never seen/heard before, just Andy solo kinda like a precedent to later albums.

A great, lightspeed version of 'Don't Lose Your Temper'!

And a rather unfortunate instrumental called 'Ban The Bomb' that sounds like The Wurzels

If anybody is going after these, ignore the 4 track David Lord/Big Express mixes, they are just premasters of the album versions, but the other collection of BE work in progress mixes are really worth grabbing, mixes are pretty interesting so far.

Black Sea demos is what I went for first too, but it's taking forever to download. In the meantime, I'm watching this -- wish it was a better dupe, but the band is just ripping:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OKXqyI8Ec8I

Onto the Go2 outtakes now, a really skronky and great Barry tune called 'Sargasso Sea' that is head and shoulders above 'Super Tuff' and 'My Weapon', what *were* they thinking by putting those on the record instead of his other tracks?

Oops, 'Sargasso Bar' not sea

This pic is in a folder with the Go2 Outtakes.

http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7233/7362951000_61be17ac41_z.jpg
45tapes by mz_ui, on Flickr

Ulp...

Didn't Andy Partridge work on some crap with the dude from the Verve Pipe (of "the Freshmen" fame)? I seem to remember hearing that about 10+ years ago and getting sick to my stomach.

are you sure you aren't thinking of the Apples in Stereo dude

Listening to the Black Sea Live to 2-Track Demos, pretty good! Decent quality, maybe a little heavy on the NR but no complaints.

Is the NR on the blog links, or just on the torrent uploads?

On the torrent uploads it would seem.

are you sure you aren't thinking of the Apples in Stereo dude

http://wxrt.radio.com/2011/07/01/playlist-cover-me-part-2/5/

wtf

can't really imagine what Andy would see in such a "collaboration"

hard for me to believe that the verve pipe clown would see andy partridge as his hero

I guess both of us need to suspend our disbelief

some factual errors btw ("Blue Array?" rmde)

Listened to a few Go 2 era tracks. Did the guy who torrented these really do the world a service by adding this noise reduction? The original Rapidshare downloads are taking an age to be downloaded, while the NR'd torrent sets took minutes.

I know, I guess I'm going to have to pull them all down from the original site.

Paul, I asked the chap if he would consider uploading his next batch without NR and he kindly agreed, so lets see.

That's great, it's good how he's split the tracks up etc, but the noise reduction thing had me completely baffled.

Wow, I just googled the guy that runs the blog, crazy!