XTC : Classic or Dud.

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.

http://articles.chicagotribune.com/2012-06-15/entertainment/ct-ae-0617-twitter-backlash-partridge-20120615_1_tweet-twitter-aflac

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

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.

Eesh, not cool, Andy!

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.

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

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.

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

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)

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.

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...

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/

"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.

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.

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

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

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?

first two are on 'rag and bone buffet'

eh I just converted a bunch of youtubez

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

Didn't Hurt a Bit is great

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

Οὖτις OTM

"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.

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.

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)

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.

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!

Came cross this today, XTC by way of Bagpuss.

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

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...

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

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

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

Town hall it was.

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

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

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...

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

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

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.

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

White Music possibly even more wound up.

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

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.

eh give Andy some credit

I give Andy Partridge credit for being a fantastic songwriter!

even though Partridge kinda disowns the early period of the band I think the songs on White Music are pretty well constructed - not exactly a lot of Zolo pop out there like it is there?

I mean the only band out there like it that I can think of is early P-Model. I remember hearing that XTC did a tour with P-Model way back in the day but I couldn't find any record of such a thing. So I asked Partridge himself on Twitter, he didn't answer the question, but he did say he that this song by P-Model was great:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lT1LclWLtjE

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.

I used to have a tape of a 1980 show (radio broadcast from Cleveland, iirc) and yeah, they were amazing. Also, supposedly, they were among the loudest bands of their era; like, KISS-loud, but in clubs/small theaters.

would you guys say that XTC sort of invented math rock?

Rush