XTC : Classic or Dud.

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I'll take Big Express over Skylarking too

MaresNest, Saturday, 5 July 2014 08:35 (ten years ago) link

i say this every time xtc are mentioned on ilx but my phase 2 fave must always be nonsuch. agree on skylarking being overrated. have never listened to mummer OR the big express straight through (unlike every other xtc album); should rectify that really

which was retweeted by (imago), Saturday, 5 July 2014 08:40 (ten years ago) link

XTC feels like 4 phases to me
Herky jerky (short but distinct)
Guitar pop (short but IMO apex)
Studiohead (biggest volume of recordings)
Late phase (longest phase chronologically)

With drums wires and nonsuch having one foot on either side of their particular borders

how will the milf survive? (Jon Lewis), Saturday, 5 July 2014 18:52 (ten years ago) link

The Big Express runs out of steam on Side B (did you see what I did there), however.

Boston Bun is also an electronic music artist (King Boy Pato), Sunday, 6 July 2014 10:19 (ten years ago) link

No way! "Train Running Low on Soul Coal" is the bizzomb.

a lot of really bad records changed my life (staggerlee), Monday, 7 July 2014 01:43 (ten years ago) link

agree Big Express underrated! The production was a deal-breaker for me when I first heard it-- but then I first heard it immediately after hearing Skylarking. The songs themselves, collectively speaking, are as good as on most other XTC records. Hard to believe the same person who wrote "Fruit Nut" also wrote "Wake Up", and "I Bought Myself a Liarbird" and "You're the Wish You Are I Had" are some of my favorite Partridge songs.

Dominique, Tuesday, 8 July 2014 01:58 (ten years ago) link

Drums and Wires is my favorite. The middle to latter half of the album is the one that really made me like the band. Skylarking has always been really good but not as good as Drums and Wires.

Could stand to explore the rest of their discography more. Definitely love "King for a Day"

,max,, Tuesday, 8 July 2014 02:24 (ten years ago) link

Definitely love "King for a Day"

There was a #1 vote for "International Player's Anthem" in the Outkast poll and someone called that perverse. Much as I love all the phases of XTC, I am mildly ashamed that my absolute favorite song of theirs is a Tears for Fears ripoff.

Vinnie, Tuesday, 8 July 2014 13:21 (ten years ago) link

(Needless to say, in the above context at least, Andy Partridge is kinda dud)

Josh in Chicago, Tuesday, 8 July 2014 13:43 (ten years ago) link

Oy, never heard about that. I live in my nice multicultural diverse bubble in Boston and forget that well-meaning people can still make gaffes like these. I believe his explanation and try not to hold it against him. I once offended a lesbian couple by asking them about their reproductive options, so it happens.

Gerald McBoing-Boing, Tuesday, 8 July 2014 13:58 (ten years ago) link

Eesh, not cool, Andy!

when you call my name it's like a prickly pear (Crabbits), Tuesday, 8 July 2014 14:06 (ten years ago) link

I had the biggest case of hero worship for him when I first discovered XTC, just through the lushness of his songs. I had a job of not doing very much and sat around on the internet reading every article, interview, with XTC, that I could, and by the later years I could see why they grew apart. Andy just seems like a diva – I wish I could think of a better term. He explained that Dave's diabetes "added insulin to injury" and I thought, man, I'd quit working with the guy if he said dumb shit like that, too.

when you call my name it's like a prickly pear (Crabbits), Tuesday, 8 July 2014 14:11 (ten years ago) link

N-e-way would also like to rep for Black Sea, and also to ask why the heck is Rochard Branson all over this video>

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LCW6Kte2o1A&feature=kp

when you call my name it's like a prickly pear (Crabbits), Tuesday, 8 July 2014 14:17 (ten years ago) link

Didn't know about that Andy twitter thing. I'm kind of baffled that he seemed to genuinely have no idea how/that what he tweeted was offensive.

Montgomery Burns' Jazz (Tarfumes The Escape Goat), Tuesday, 8 July 2014 14:26 (ten years ago) link

It seems the world is not full of people who are cool with saying "yeah I fucked up there."

when you call my name it's like a prickly pear (Crabbits), Tuesday, 8 July 2014 14:28 (ten years ago) link

Jewish Beatles thing is ... unfortunate. But as a Jew I forgive you, Andy. A guy who clearly lets his love of puns run away with him sometimes. (I shudder to think at what Black Beatles puns would have produced)

Οὖτις, Tuesday, 8 July 2014 15:27 (ten years ago) link

Anyone else been getting ads for "Apple Venus" on Youtube? At first I thought it must be a targeted ad, but I don't have anything remotely resembling XTC in my viewing history. Incredibly odd that they're advertising a decade-and-a-half-old album like it's a new release.

a lot of really bad records changed my life (staggerlee), Wednesday, 9 July 2014 02:42 (ten years ago) link

Re, Branson, the band were filming a documentary about making 'Towers of London' at The Manor, Branson was around because megalomania,, and they did the vid for "Generals and Majors" during a break.

Re Twitter: What's funny during a laff session with pals at a club with beer and that, is not usually funny if you then go up to a mic at a comedy club and say 'hey listen to these we're crying down here..'

and obviously if its not as funny as You think it is, what's left? Whatever undertow the 'material' has...

Mark G, Wednesday, 9 July 2014 06:46 (ten years ago) link

I've been wracking my brain all week trying to remember where I read a great piece on XTC lately. I think I found it:

http://backseatmafia.com/2014/06/28/a-buyers-guide-to-xtc/

Fastnbulbous, Wednesday, 9 July 2014 11:27 (ten years ago) link

"Big Express" is allright but it feels like a second-tier, transitional work. It's clearly a throwback attempt to their earlier approach with the clattering, convulsive rhythms (inc their final dub rhythm on "This World Over", if I'm not mistaken), the shouty yelping, and the all-electric clangor, and that stuff is welded onto their no-touring/all-studio band approach of more complex, multilayered arrangements and textures and the result is not terrible but it's cluttered and just kind of oppressive in a way that I don't really enjoy revisiting all that often. All of their pastoral, gentler impulses have been excised and replaced with this grimy, industrial focus (that goes for the lyrics as well as the music) and it's a bit relentless - I feel like I'm covered in sweat and soot after listening to the whole thing. It's kind of retrograde in that it's the last gasp of their earliest stylistic impulses, it feels like a middle aged man squeezing into his teenage clothes and bursting at the seams, not the most attractive picture. That said, there are plenty of good tunes on it and loads of interesting details but as a whole it's by no means my favorite.

Οὖτις, Wednesday, 9 July 2014 15:50 (ten years ago) link

From above article:

After the slightly limp offering that was the disappointing Mummer, XTC took a long hard look at themselves and decided to make the most of their Britishness and particularly their Swindonian origins. Swindon is an industrial town, therefore their next album had to reflect this and as such The Big Express is the most mechanical sounding of all XTC’s albums.

The Big Express is a considerably louder and more potent album than Mummer and saw XTC taking risks with stuff like Linn drum machines and backing singers. Once again the singles are the best tracks on it, with “Wake Up” being a jumpy call-to-arms and “This World Over” being the softest and most comfortable listen on the album. In addition to these two strong additions to XTC’s catalogue of near-miss singles, there’s also “All You Pretty Girls”, one of my all time favourite XTC songs and the highpoint of the album. That’s not to say that the rest of the album is filler, as there are some gloriously rhythmic moments to be found when you ride The Big Express, such as the oddly upbeat “Shake Your Donkey Up” and the description defying “Seagulls Screaming Kiss Her Kiss Her”.

The things is that the use of the Linn drum machine created a rigid and occasionally unforgiving sound, which is slightly at odds with the organic and fresh sounds that XTC usually produce. The tracks that are easiest on the ears are those that Pete Phipps drummed on while Dave Gregory spent hours screaming in frustration at the drum machine he had been left to programme. That said XTC made a better job of assimilating this knew technology into their music than many other acts.

At the end of the day The Big Express is a curio in XTC’s history. It wasn’t an artistic failure as such and a lot of the songs work very well, however after this album their music improved immeasurably, leaving The Big Express sitting rather glumly with Mummer as the XTC albums in my collection that don’t get played very often.

Through the early 80s, it was obvious that XTC were on the cusp of something unique and really rather special. At a time when horrible synthetic sounds and empty gestures held sway, they provided something that was emotionally genuine and grounded in human nature. 1986 saw the band at a crossroads though. Commercially they’d just about fallen off the map and they were about as far away from critics darlings The Smiths and commercial behemoths U2 as it was possible to get within a guitar band format. They needed something significant to reverse their fortunes.

Fastnbulbous, Wednesday, 9 July 2014 16:34 (ten years ago) link

Didn't the Dukes of the Stratosphear stuff sell way better than Mummer?

when you call my name it's like a prickly pear (Crabbits), Wednesday, 9 July 2014 16:41 (ten years ago) link

yeah

btw random question - is there anywhere that collects all of the various non-album B-sides from Skylarking on? I'm realizing there's a bunch of random tracks I don't have (and that weren't on Fuzzy Warbles) which kinda bugs me, completist that I am

Οὖτις, Wednesday, 9 July 2014 16:43 (ten years ago) link

I am apparently lacking all of these:

Happy Families
The World is Full of Angry Young Men
Always Winter, Never Christmas
Rip Van Ruben
Down a Peg
Didn't Hurt a Bit
Terrorism
Find the Fox
Troubles
Spiral
Say It
Where Did The Ordinary People Go?

Οὖτις, Wednesday, 9 July 2014 16:49 (ten years ago) link

first two are on 'rag and bone buffet'

Mark G, Wednesday, 9 July 2014 17:46 (ten years ago) link

eh I just converted a bunch of youtubez

Οὖτις, Wednesday, 9 July 2014 17:49 (ten years ago) link

all these Moulding-penned b-sides are making me wonder how a Fuzzy Warbles w his participation would have turned out

Οὖτις, Wednesday, 9 July 2014 18:26 (ten years ago) link

Didn't Hurt a Bit is great

Οὖτις, Wednesday, 9 July 2014 18:29 (ten years ago) link

played cricket yesterday with a guy who worked at Virgin in the 80s and he said that the Dukes project was born out of a label mandate to just write a goddamn pop album (which they'd been doing along, albeit with not especially considerable chart success)

of course, the resulting pop album was a smash hit in 1968, after it travelled back in Colin's time-machine shed

which was retweeted by (imago), Wednesday, 9 July 2014 18:38 (ten years ago) link

Οὖτις OTM

a lot of really bad records changed my life (staggerlee), Thursday, 10 July 2014 00:57 (ten years ago) link

"Terrorism," "Find the Fox," "The Troubles" and "Didn't Hurt a Bit" are all on the Coat of Many Cupboards box. ("Terrorism" is also great.)

A couple of years ago on the Ape House label website, Andy said they were compiling a follow-up to Rag and Bone Buffet to gather all the remaining stray tracks, but I haven't heard anything since.

Hideous Lump, Thursday, 10 July 2014 03:43 (ten years ago) link

I recently compiled a digital complete singles compilation - very tasty until you get to "Nonsuch" as they no longer made fully formed b-sides or even had interesting outtakes. Well, they had the latter but Andy horded them until "Fuzzy Warbles" came out.

Gerald McBoing-Boing, Thursday, 10 July 2014 03:53 (ten years ago) link

three months pass...

Mercy! Just got this CD/Blu Ray of Drums and Wires, there's like seven sessions worth of demos and rehearsal versions and worktapes, mental.

- a 5.1 Mix of the album in 96/24 LPCM.
- original mix, and a new album mix by Steven Wilson, both in high resolution 96/24 LPCM stereo
- new stereo and 5.1* mixes of 11 additional tracks from the period, originally released as singles or bonus tracks
- exclusive instrumental versions of all new mixes in 96/24 LPCM stereo
- exclusive Andy Partridge home demos and Colin Moulding work tapes for songs written for the album
- 5 separate sessions marking the complete evolution of the album & associated recordings.
- promo videos for Making Plans for Nigel and Life Begins at the Hop

11 bonus tracks remixed into stereo and 5.1:

1. Life Begins at the Hop*
2. Homo Safari
(A+B side to Life Begins at the Hop single, UK release April 1979)
3. Chain of Command
4. Limelight
(A+B side to free single included with initial pressing of Drums and Wires, UK release August 1979)
5. Bushman President
6. Pulsing Pulsing
(B-sides to Making Plans for Nigel single, UK release Sep 1979)
7. Wait Til Your Boat Goes Down
8. Ten Feet Tall – electric version
(A+B side to Wait Til Your Boat Goes Down single, UK release March 1980)
9. Officer Blue
(Drums and Wires out-take – B-side to Respectable Street single, UK release March 1981)
10. Over Rusty Water
(Drums and Wires out-take – B-side to No Thugs in Our House single, UK release May 1982)
11. Sleepyheads
(Drums and Wires out-take, first released on Coat of Many Cupboards box set, UK release 2002)
* (Life Begins at the Hop is the original stereo master due to multitrack tapes being unavailable, the 5.1 version is a Penteo upmix)

MaresNest, Sunday, 26 October 2014 08:45 (ten years ago) link

As a mega fan, I'm still not sure I want this much. I love the demos but 5 Sessions?? You'll have to report back after you've gone through it all as to what's critical vs merely interesting.

Gerald McBoing-Boing, Sunday, 26 October 2014 14:45 (ten years ago) link

Had a very quick go around the 2014 mix and on first listen it's pretty strong, of course the original record sounds just fine. Oh, also the instrumental version of Complicated Game, quite something actually!

MaresNest, Sunday, 26 October 2014 14:57 (ten years ago) link

four weeks pass...

Came cross this today, XTC by way of Bagpuss.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PyB-iaC5Xzc

Rita, Sue and Peter Gabriel Two (MaresNest), Tuesday, 25 November 2014 11:40 (nine years ago) link

I wonder if the demo/rehearsal tapes on the "Drums and Wires" blu-ray are the ones from the place they used to use in Swindon?

If so, a mate of mine might be interested, hmmm...

Mark G, Tuesday, 25 November 2014 12:10 (nine years ago) link

There are recordings from a demo studio in Swindon and from the rehearsal space they used iirc.

Rita, Sue and Peter Gabriel Two (MaresNest), Tuesday, 25 November 2014 12:39 (nine years ago) link

Ah, so it will be the sessions he helped out on, then.

Mark G, Tuesday, 25 November 2014 12:53 (nine years ago) link

Swindon Town Hall & Toot's Garage it says Mark, only Steve Warren is thanked in the notes, he was their sound guy.

Rita, Sue and Peter Gabriel Two (MaresNest), Tuesday, 25 November 2014 13:18 (nine years ago) link

Town hall it was.

There were a few bods there, yep. The demo version of Nigel has already been out..

Mark G, Wednesday, 26 November 2014 07:50 (nine years ago) link

http://www.kindakinks.net/misc/articles/almanac.html

Οὖτις, Thursday, 27 November 2014 03:30 (nine years ago) link

I remember that issue of Musician, there were a bunch of songwriters all touting their favorite song. Robyn Hitchcock wrote about "Visions of Johanna". I can't remember any of the others...

a drug by the name of WORLD WITHOUT END (Jon Lewis), Thursday, 27 November 2014 04:52 (nine years ago) link

two months pass...

Listening to Go 2, man forget how wound up these dudes were

kurt kobaïan (upper mississippi sh@kedown), Thursday, 29 January 2015 17:21 (nine years ago) link

Search Youtube for XTC Live on Chorus (1978.) Great footage, it's pretty much the wound-uppest thing ever.

Losing swag by the second (Dan Peterson), Thursday, 29 January 2015 17:42 (nine years ago) link

It will always amaze me how the bulk of the early wound-up XTC material was written by a guy addicted to benzodiazepines, and that when he came off the stuff their music got much less twitchy.

You’re being too simplistic and you’re insulting my poor heart (Turrican), Thursday, 29 January 2015 18:01 (nine years ago) link

Listening to Go 2, man forget how wound up these dudes were.

White Music possibly even more wound up.

kwhitehead, Thursday, 29 January 2015 18:14 (nine years ago) link

Let's not forget Take Away/The Lure of Salvage

Mark G, Thursday, 29 January 2015 18:17 (nine years ago) link

Yeah, they were definitely a smoking live band. Bootlegs from the touring era (esp. around the time of Black Sea) show a really tight, powerful live unit.

Having said that, I love it that even though the music became more "produced" and less wound-up in their later years, Partridge never shied away from dissonant chords and unique chord progressions. Even if the music is more thought-out and more "produced", there's still an exciting sense that the songs at their core are written by a guy just blundering around without any idea of what chords he's playing or how it all works out theoretically. From what I've heard, Dave Gregory was the chap in XTC that used to take Partridge's songs and notate them up in an analytical "wow, how does this work?" kind of way.

You’re being too simplistic and you’re insulting my poor heart (Turrican), Thursday, 29 January 2015 18:28 (nine years ago) link


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