XTC : Classic or Dud.

when I listen to Nonsuch I usually skip 'Peter Pumpkinhead' and 'Books Are Burning' (easily done, since the band helpfully made them the first and last track respectively) (dropping those two makes the album 10 minutes shorter overall, which definitely helps) I like everything else, though. I love the synth-clarinets on 'War Dance', the song would probably be a bit dull without them.

I really like 'Omnibus', although maybe it could have done without the "make your Shakespeare hard and make your oyster pearl" lyric!

All I can stand on "Books Are Burning" are the two solos.

Rundgren shits all over Another Satellite in the Maron podcast, like a man bursting with WRONG

xxxx-post:

It was only a matter of time before Partridge picked up on it, to be honest. He's quite fond of setting the record straight on Twitter - I've enjoyed his "THE CORRECTOR" series!

oh I love Andy, the occasional misstep aside he is a lot of fun on twitter

It still amazes me that the starting point for 'Books Are Burning' was apparently 'I Get Around' by The Beach Boys! I can kinda hear it in the chord progression, but I wouldn't have known unless Partridge had pointed it out.

Partridge going into overload on Twitter now!

can't really blame him

@xtcfans

lol

he's being p reasonable considering

TR is a great arranger. Really talented, we were lucky to work with him. He is a mediocre engineer at best.

seems accurate

xp. aye, a pretty measured twitter rant

I tried to smooth over the waters and say nice things to be grown up but if the gloves are off, then they are off.

yo yo yo yo YO gangsta andy partridge in tha hizzouse straight from THE EASSIDE (of swindon)

now I hear this biatch todd gunsten talkin smack about tha xtc krew (shoutout to my homeboy c-money) about some remastering and shit well biatch I am gonna REMASTER YO ASS when I pop a glock up in yo area

homeboy yo gonna be saying "DEAR GOD GANGSTA ANDY I'M SORRY FOR BEING A BIATCH AND RUNNING MY BIATCH MOUTH"

^ hahahaha!!

never change

damn this is gettin' good

https://storify.com/scatterkeir/andy-partridge-responds-to-todd-rundgren

He is a mediocre engineer at best.

And yet somehow, miraculously, he gave XTC by far the best drum sound they ever had (or would ever have) on any of their records.

Hmm. Not quite sure I agree with that. The combination of Terry Chambers and Hugh Padgham was godlike.

Oh, I think the drums (and everything else) on Black Sea are fantastic, but Prairie Prince's ringing snare seals it for me.

Public beef by obscure musicians over 30 year old album that hardly anyone has heard. The internet really has created an interesting world.

Andy copping Trump's style here lol: https://twitter.com/xtcfans/status/712581780398809088

lmao

it was a more subdued, pastoral Sad

something something president kill

I love Todd and think he was a big key to making Skylarking as great as it was but wtf at him dissing "Another Satellite"...my favorite song on the whole LP.

He's been slagging it off for years!

I'm in Wiltshire! Hooray for being in XTC country

Coming soon, Skylarking in 5.1 with some not yet named unreleased bits and (I'd expect) a new stereo remix and all the trimmings common to these reissues, happy days.

lolz Todd is such a dip

Neat, Andy is doing an AMA on Reddit this Sunday.

https://twitter.com/xtcfans/status/722797454819627009

that'll be great I'm sure

This is happening 2day so eye'm bumping this 4 anybody that may have 4gotten.

For some reason, Prince's delivery of the word "Controversy" reminds me of Partridge's delivery of the words "Respectable Street."

Well both evenly stress every syllable

Hopefully it's not just a queue of 40 something Canadians saying 'Hey, did you ever listen to my demo?'

Yeah, hopefully it's not a series 'o' questions that people have heard the answer 2 a million times be4. Eye'm guessing that Partridge himself would want 2 avoid that kind of thing.

So far the questions seem 2 be a little on the dull side. Eye think some 'o' u need to register and liven this thing up a little!

missed out on the AMA (was at a movie), but i'm glad that someone brought up 'I Bought Myself a Liarbird' and the guitar used on it & the tone. Andy sez:

It's my Ibanez Artist, in open-E tuning, with quite a lot of chorus and compression. It's the open-E tuning that makes it ring the most. I'm hitting the strings really hard, and they're doing that kind of gnurling against the frets, which is aggravated by the chorusing.

lol @ "gnurling"

i didnt know there was a video of andy walking of stage in paris in 1982. happens at 15:55

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yK56TC-UhOM

*off

Monkees do new Dukesque Partridge tune. Makes me miss XTC all the more

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n_D6XNpYxdU

wow, that is the precise definition of Partridge in bubblegum psyche mode

Man, I really hope that one day Partridge will get into the idea of making solo records... before he's too fucking old and knackered to do so, preferably.

The Monkees are still making records, so...

...Partridge should be doing what he does best, too! Exactly!

But he says he's got writer's block or summat and usually only produces bits of songs.