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 (nine 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 (nine years ago) link
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
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
eh give Andy some credit
― Οὖτις, Thursday, 29 January 2015 18:30 (nine years ago) link
I give Andy Partridge credit for being a fantastic songwriter!
― You’re being too simplistic and you’re insulting my poor heart (Turrican), Thursday, 29 January 2015 18:52 (nine years ago) link
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?
― Abstinence Hawk (frogbs), Thursday, 29 January 2015 18:55 (nine years ago) link
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
― Abstinence Hawk (frogbs), Thursday, 29 January 2015 18:59 (nine years ago) link
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.
― Montgomery Burns' Jazz (Tarfumes The Escape Goat), Thursday, 29 January 2015 19:10 (nine years ago) link
would you guys say that XTC sort of invented math rock?
― Poliopolice, Thursday, 29 January 2015 19:16 (nine years ago) link
Rush
― Οὖτις, Thursday, 29 January 2015 19:17 (nine years ago) link
or some other prog band
Crimson, rush, remain in light era TH, beefheart, + ny minimalists. Definitely not XTC
― a drug by the name of WORLD WITHOUT END (Jon Lewis), Thursday, 29 January 2015 19:23 (nine years ago) link
Yeah, that makes sense that it came out of prog, but I can't resist calling their stuff (esp before 1983) mathy. I mean, listen to those guitar lines. Who else sounds like that?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bTUA4dMzqn0
― Poliopolice, Thursday, 29 January 2015 19:26 (nine years ago) link
Don't sleep on Bill Nelson's Red Noise, their one album is almost more- early XTC-than-XTC:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ROD91OW01p0
― Gerald McBoing-Boing, Thursday, 29 January 2015 19:36 (nine years ago) link
^^^ yeah, was just gonna post that one. Pretty sure Nelson was listening to Partridge.
― Losing swag by the second (Dan Peterson), Thursday, 29 January 2015 19:41 (nine years ago) link
I wonder if Beefheart worked it's way into the melting pot too.
― Nekomizu don't work (MaresNest), Thursday, 29 January 2015 19:47 (nine years ago) link
iirc, XTC (or maybe just Andy?) had a track on a Beefheart tribute record.
― Montgomery Burns' Jazz (Tarfumes The Escape Goat), Thursday, 29 January 2015 19:51 (nine years ago) link
I think it was Andy & Colin
― Nekomizu don't work (MaresNest), Thursday, 29 January 2015 20:07 (nine years ago) link
But not Dave, unsurprisingly
https://twitter.com/xtcfans/status/446213024832307200
― Nekomizu don't work (MaresNest), Thursday, 29 January 2015 20:11 (nine years ago) link
Speaking of Dave, his website is a treasure trove of guitar nerdery (though it hasn't been updated in a while):http://www.guitargonauts.info/
― Montgomery Burns' Jazz (Tarfumes The Escape Goat), Thursday, 29 January 2015 20:16 (nine years ago) link
Andy definitely into Beefheart from early on. It's funny charting when he was exposed to stuff - iirc he said somewhere that he didn't hear any of the Kinks' late 60s albums until the late 80s? Beach Boys were also a later discovery for him.
― Οὖτις, Thursday, 29 January 2015 20:17 (nine years ago) link
I don't know how that could be true given the Dukes albums.
― Poliopolice, Thursday, 29 January 2015 20:20 (nine years ago) link
as far as the Kinks go I think the implication was he knew the singles but not the albums
― Οὖτις, Thursday, 29 January 2015 20:21 (nine years ago) link
Yeah I mean he listed 'Autumn Almanac' as his all time favorite song and I doubt that happened to him in the late 80s
― a drug by the name of WORLD WITHOUT END (Jon Lewis), Thursday, 29 January 2015 20:23 (nine years ago) link
found it:http://chalkhills.org/articles/XTCFans20090614.html
Somebody once said to me about this song, "Oh, weren't you just copying Ray Davies' 'Last of the Steam-Powered Trains'?" No, because I hadn't at that point heard that song. The only Kinks songs that I'd heard on the radio as a youngster were singles, and I didn't hear any Kinks albums until the late '80s or so.
Around then, [laughs] Dave went and bought Holly, for either birthday or Christmas, a couple of Kinks albums, with a note saying, "These are probably the best albums you'll ever hear in your life." I thought, "That's a weird thing to buy a young kid!" But of course I'd borrow them and play them. I don't think I heard Village Green Preservation Society until the '90s! I don't remember hearing it, anyway. I remember hearing certain tracks off of it, but not that one.
― Οὖτις, Thursday, 29 January 2015 20:27 (nine years ago) link
June 1st 2016!?
http://www.amazon.com/Revolution-Shed-Inside-Songs-XTC/dp/1908279788/
― MaresNest, Wednesday, 4 March 2015 17:15 (nine years ago) link
ooh, this looks interesting.
― Poliopolice, Wednesday, 4 March 2015 17:15 (nine years ago) link
Also, that is str8 up the worst picture of AP
I'm guessing that it's an expanded version of the 'XTC Fans' interviews (that can be found on Chalkhills)
― MaresNest, Wednesday, 4 March 2015 17:16 (nine years ago) link
lol @ pic
― Οὖτις, Wednesday, 4 March 2015 17:27 (nine years ago) link
Eh, I'll stick with the excellent "Song Stories".
― Gerald McBoing-Boing, Wednesday, 4 March 2015 19:55 (nine years ago) link
The lack of shoes imo really seals it
― Master of Treacle, Wednesday, 4 March 2015 21:48 (nine years ago) link
somehow xtc songs have never seemed that enigmatic to me. I would be new interested in the technical aspects of them
― Poliopolice, Wednesday, 4 March 2015 22:39 (nine years ago) link
XTC @xtcfans 41m41 minutes agoThe ORANGES AND LEMONS 5.1 discs are being 'authored' {composed/built} as we speak. Not long now folks.
― MaresNest, Wednesday, 8 July 2015 19:37 (eight years ago) link
CD:
1. Garden of Earthly Delights 2. The Mayor of Simpleton 3. King for a Day 4. Here Comes President Kill Again 5. The Loving 6. Poor Skeleton Steps Out 7. One of the Millions 8. Scarecrow People 9. Merely a Man 10. Cynical Days 11. Across This Antheap 12. Hold Me My Daddy 13. Pink Thing 14. Miniature Sun 15. Chalkhills and Children
Blu-Ray (Region 0, NTSC):
Presented in LPCM Audio - Album mixed in 5.1 Surround - New Stereo Album mix - Original Stereo Album mix + Blu-Ray extra material including: new stereo album instrumental mixes, multiple demo sessions, rehearsals, mixes & promo films for the singles.
― MaresNest, Monday, 10 August 2015 12:48 (eight years ago) link
* Two separate sets of demo and work tape sessions showing the evolution of the album and associated recordings; one set of pre-recording rehearsals, promos and ID links for radio stations and record companies; a collection of single mixes and XTC's version of Captain Beefheart’s Ella Guru.
* Promo films for The Mayor of Simpleton (3 versions), King for a Day and a Road to Oranges & Lemons, a rarely seen home-made film by the band explaining the album (and themselves!) to Geffen Records USA.
― MaresNest, Monday, 10 August 2015 12:49 (eight years ago) link
People can say what they like about Andy Partridge, he sure as hell knows how to treat his back catalogue with the care and attention it deserves.
― You’re being too simplistic and you’re insulting my poor heart (Turrican), Monday, 10 August 2015 16:14 (eight years ago) link