The "XTC are really really good" thread

[Brundle-Fly]

Funnily enough, Partridge didn't want Your Dictionary on the album because he thought it soured the mood. He'd written it years earlier about his supposedly vindictive ex-wife and he'd since mellowed his feelings towards her. I think he was eventually persuaded by Colin to add it. Not a favourite of mine but I still think the album is on the whole, excellent, but a million miles away from their early stuff.

[mrpupkin]

I fucking LOVE Apple Venus Vol 1, it's probably my favourite XTC album - although admittedly I listen to a homemade abridged version omitting Your Dictionary and the Colin Moulding songs, all of which detract. The rest though, PHWOOAR.

[Nowhere Man]

Your Dictionary seems to be a mixed bag for some, but I have to say I absolutely love it. It's so Andy Partridge as a song, and I think it gives the Apple Venus record just that bit more bite to it. Which I think is the only flaw about the record, in that it can be a bit too twee sometimes (mostly the Colin songs)

Yet funnily enough it's that same twee-ness that I love in certain doses. It's that Kinks style of music hall that means I adore Colin's stuff, but also sometimes need to listen to something a bit more razory and edgy. Which is why he compliments Andy so well.   

[The Culture Bunker]

It seemed to me Colin spent the 90s mainly writing songs about sheds and suchlike, which I didn't really think much of when I first got into XTC 20 years ago, but as I plod through my 40s, begin to appreciate a bit more.

[Video Game Fan 2000]

River of Orchids and Your Dictionary being songs on the same record barely seems real to me.

[Head Gardener]

it's crackers how searching the band on FB actually throws up a warning now!

[PaulTMA]

(no multitracks found btw, just a new pressing w/ original cover)



https://twitter.com/apehouseXTC/status/1493190062426755073

[Rich Uncle Skeleton]

ace! great cover, always found that photo strangely unnerving.

[Brundle-Fly]

Filling the gaps regarding what we might have had.

http://wilfullyobscure.blogspot.com/2019/12/xtc-mummer-demos-rough-takes-and.html

[Rich Uncle Skeleton]

I wonder if they're prepared to just wait it out however long it takes for the missing multitracks to show, whether it's two or ten years, or if there'll be a cut off where they admit defeat. Would be gutted to never hear instrumental versions of English Settlement/Mummer/The Big Express but I'll still gladly take the original mixes with all the extras.

[Rich Uncle Skeleton]

EXTC started playing live again last night, might try and give their next swindon gig a go before they start adding the previously threatened new material into the set.

caved and going to see them in Bristol in a couple of weeks with some mates. few drinks and I'm sure I'll enjoy the hell out of it!


found a copy of Beeswax on LP today, nice to finally physically own Tissue Tigers and (the good mix of) Heaven Is Paved With Broken Glass. will always be two of Partridge's best, the latter especially.

[daf]

Got the second Partridge EP today - bit of an expensive way to assemble an album (8 songs so far), but at least it's something.



As is all too common these days, the CD and vinyl (in particular) sounds really dull and flat though - no dynamics (thanks to the sodding loudness wars, I expect!)

Attention deaf musicians! : Stop compressing everything up the wazoo! We all have a volume knob - allow us to use the bloody thing!

[Head Gardener]

released 30 years ago today!

[Rich Uncle Skeleton]

brilliant album! remember playing that so often on the bus to work when I was living abroad for a bit. homesick and miserable but that album was so bloody great. weird feeling to miss!

one of the stranger memories I have of seeing TC+I (which was a seated gig) was a group of women deciding to stand in this little space to the left of the stage out of the way to dance. and took it upon themselves to sing backing vocals! every time I hear The Smartest Monkeys I think of them dancing in a way I can only compare to this and singing "Smaaaartest Moooonkeeeeys"

[PaulTMA]

New EP good?  Looks like I forgot to order it

[Brundle-Fly]

Yes, it's just great to hear AP having fun again albeit as a former gun for hire.

[Brundle-Fly]

brilliant album! remember playing that so often on the bus to work when I was living abroad for a bit. homesick and miserable but that album was so bloody great. weird feeling to miss!

If you listened from The Ballad Of Peter Pumpkinhead to Books Are Burning you could almost cover fifty miles of the bus journey too, if you worked out in the sticks.

[Artie Fufkin]

caved and going to see them in Bristol in a couple of weeks with some mates. few drinks and I'm sure I'll enjoy the hell out of it!

Oooooh. EXTC are playing down the road from me. Have ya seen 'em yet?

[Rich Uncle Skeleton]

I did on Monday as it happens! it was perfectly fine.

[Artie Fufkin]

Oooooh. EXTC are playing down the road from me. Have ya seen 'em yet?

It's been cancelled *sadface*

[Rich Uncle Skeleton]

:( ah nuts

[non capisco]

Rich Uncle Skeleton as quoted in the Gig 'Whores thread re: EX-TC.

tried writing a reply to this 3 times now that doesn't sound predominantly negative before you go and see them but I'll just say for now they weren't shit..like I said in the XTC thread they were fine. so yeah, I hope you enjoy it, report back to the XTC thread when you're done!

Pleased to report I had an absolute blast watching Terry and the lads. Went on my own because shock horror I couldn't find any takers for an XTC tribute band amongst my gaggle but by a couple of songs into the set I was singing my heart out with a bunch of fellow die hards, happy as a pig in shit to hear this stuff live. I mean, the singer is no Andy (thought he sounded a lot like Colin on the Colin songs though) but just to finally hear these songs I've grown obsessed with since I fell in love with the band about five years ago played live was a fierce thrill. I found myself tearing up during Mayor of Simpleton, melt that I am.

Air drummed the fill towards the end of Generals and Majors as did the guy stood next to me and we both looked at each other and grinned. It's these little pockets of joy in life that keep stoking the furnace.

[Artie Fufkin]

^Well jel, as the kids say. Glad you had an ace time^

[daf]

Third Partridge EP up for preorder :

My Failed Christmas Career - Volume 1



1. Let There Be Snow
2. Through This Winter World
3. Cool Yule
4. Unwrap You At Christmas

You know how it is... You wait years for a decent new Christmas song to come along to brighten the festivities and then, sooner than you can say 'ho-ho-ho,' along comes Andy Partridge with a quartet of instant classics...
 
And if the 'failed' part of the songwriter EP series wasn't already starting to look just a little bit odd after the first two volumes topped the vinyl charts in the UK, one of this EP's offerings was, the composer admits, recorded by The Monkees... - presented here in its original form with lead vocals by Andy's daughter Holly
 
So, while you're busy assembling ingredients for the Christmas pudding, here's the ideal soundtrack to play on repeat... songs of snow, sleighs, Yuletide cool and the unwrapping of that special present, all delivered in that inimitable, partridge in a pear tree, style...

Vinyl  |  CD  |  Vinyl & CD bundle

[PaulTMA]

Just remembered i'm supposed to be buying these.  Fuck this one until it's 50p tbh

[daf]

Yeah, I'd hang on - there's also a piss-taking charge of £6 or £9 for postage (no other options) - which presumably is where Burning Shed are taking their cut.

So far i've spent over £60 for 12 demos - Which I'll no doubt buy all over again when these inevitably get collected up into some 'failed career' box set in a few years time!

[Brundle-Fly]

Yeah, I'd hang on - there's also a piss-taking charge of £6 or £9 for postage (no other options) - which presumably is where Burning Shed are taking their cut.

So far i've spent over £60 for 12 demos - Which I'll no doubt buy all over again when these inevitably get collected up into some 'failed career' box set in a few years time!

I guess it's pretty much the only way he's making any money these days? Streaming revenue is crap and no lucrative live concerts on the horizon. The money XTC have been offered to reform over the years would've sorted his pension out and some. If only the lovely, Thanks For Christmas was a hit in 1983 too. Xmas comps-a-go go. It's a shit business.

[Rich Uncle Skeleton]

Heard Thanks For Christmas come on the Christmas playlist at a Beefeater once. Bit weird hearing it out in the wild! I love Countdown To Christmas Party Time a hell of a lot more, pretty heavy rotation for me at that time of year.

[Rich Uncle Skeleton]

if anyone's interested, the XTC tribute band Fossil Fools, ballyhooed by names such as David Gregory and Stewart Lee, are doing their final two gigs. London Water Rats 29th October and Swindon Victoria 25th November.

Not usually one for tribute bands but they're apparently really great and it's not like we're getting the real thing back!

[Rich Uncle Skeleton]

not sure what happened to the Apple Venus 5.1 set (thought Steven Wilson had started remixing it?) but apparently the tapes for The Big Express turned up and that's coming next year!