What neXTC?

(xtc still seem to be best shot at who = ilx's secret bonding love btw -> yes there are hatas here and there, but the fans fall across the widest gulfs otherwise

so that's me then and I've never made an effort to be anything ;)

mark s told me once in the pub that he never owned a complete discog of any artist ever so basically he is saying I'm a ''real'' punk without actually saying so. But since he's also said that ''real'' punk aren't in fact punks then he can't be one.

''Just how much dubious / exploitative product are you prepare to swallow from your favourite band / artist before you eventually gag on your own completist obsessiveness?''

haven't you asked this b4?

I always see that beefheart boxset but i don't know really, especially since trout mask isn't beefheart's best record (its lick my decals of course) (an Ilxor told me he is making a CD comp of that set and that would prob be enough for me)

Yeah, I know Mark.

In my heart of hearts I knew I was selling out when I nicked that pair of socks from C&A in 1978, despite the fact that my old pair still had several bits of material left on them.

That was just the start of a downhill spiral into the bourgeois decadence of wanting to own "stuff" which led in turn to me wanting to live in a house with real floorbooards and a roof with no holes in that I could keep that "stuff" in without it getting wet or nicked or trampled on by the pigs when they popped 'round for a friendly chat; then to wanting a car that wasn't held together with elastic bands, string and bits of chewing gum; and finally reduced me to < sob > working for a living so I can buy even more things < hangs head in shame >.

I did ask how long people were prepared to keep buying material by a musician / artist they used to love before they accepted that musician / artist wasn't ever going to do anything that good again; but I think that's different.

I don't doubt XTC can produce many more great albums - which if anything makes it even more annoying that they keep on serving up warmed-up left-overs.

"I always see that beefheart boxset but i don't know really, especially since trout mask isn't beefheart's best record (its lick my decals of course) (an Ilxor told me he is making a CD comp of that set and that would prob be enough for me)

That's probably the best way to be honest Julio. The first disc is pretty much all essential. The second and fifth could be condensed a bit. Two and three (the TMT outtakes) are pretty much for obsesives.

I do recommend you e-mail Rhino and help to harrass them about that 2CD version of Decals (complete with outtakes, instrumental versions, etc. etc.) which they were supposed to be working on 3 years ago but seem to have lost interest in!

I am not bloody Mondeo man! I'm Astraman and don't you forget it!

will do.

He can't be a punk then - there were so many punk bands whose entire discography consisted of one single that it would be impossible to avoid owning the complete recorded works of any number of bands!

The back door? We were punks Mark, we couldn't afford luxuries like back doors! We used to dream of owning a back door of our own.... < drifts off into poorly remembered and badly re-written parody of an extremely old Monty Python sketch >

Two steps back.

I've been listening to Apple Versus v1 a bunch. "Easter Theatre" is amazing.

(I guess I should just check Chalkhills...)

yo and dont forget to buy tha apple box yo because that shiznit got two downloadable songz on that in "spiral" and "say it" yo yo yo

and them punk asses at pitchfork totally be dissin mah "spiral" song. well i hope those niggaz be knowing that me and c-money might be comin down and drive-by shootin these pitchfork niggaz yo yo yo

The "Wonderfalls" theme was good, though. I think you can only get it on the DVD of the TV show (or on the 'net obviously).

AP: I’m not one of those people that sits down and thinks, “Okay, we’ve got to do an album, I better write 10 songs.” For me, it’s a process of you just keep writing. You don’t think about writing an album, you just write. And then when you get like three albums’ worth of material, if you can boil it down and pick out the best stuff, or traditionally it was always picked between the band. - Jesus Christ, what’s in this hot chocolate? Charles Aznavour semen, it’s really gloopy! – Traditionally this material was always picked by, it was a democratic process, dammit! We’d bring up all this stuff, or I’d bring up material, Colin would bring up material, and we’d say, “Okay, we’ve got 40 songs here, we kind of need about 14” or whatever. And then everyone would vote for what they wanted to do. And the record company would say, “Well, we insist you record this one and this one,” and so on. And sometimes some of my favorites got voted out. Which was a bit distressing, you know. Sometimes I’d have to have a little tantrum, “I really want to do this fellas, I really want to – “ and of course it’s difficult because you don’t want to be seen to be throwing off songs of Colin’s, because he doesn’t write so many, and I kind of maybe feel sorry for him. And he gets a higher proportion of what he writes on! “Oh look, he’s only written six, well you’d better let him have three on then.”

But no, what happened was they were usually democratically picked, and sometimes some of my favorites just fell through the gaps. And with things for example like “Wonder Annual,” I was really kind of upset that we didn’t record that. But nobody voted for it. And so, things like that, I get to kind of redress the balance, because the demo recordings from my shed or backroom or bedroom or wherever they’re recorded, kitchen, wherever they were done, actually get some sort of airing. And people actually tell me occasionally, “Oh, I prefer it to the proper recorded version, the one you did in your garden shed.” Or, “This is the best track on that album, and you never put it on that album.” That sort of stuff. So I guess people like stuff in all forms. ...

On the unreleased songs he wrote through the late '80s and early '90s:

AP: Actually, the whole stretch, funny enough, between Oranges & Lemons and Nonsuch as well, I think that was probably the most material I ever came up with. I mean there are so many different Nonsuch’s you could make up from all the other tracks. Things were sort of falling to bits, I could see they were falling to bits on the horizon. I guess fretting about it or whatever. I mean my marriage was kind of going kaflooey while I was making Oranges & Lemons, so a lot of the stuff for Nonsuch I think my – I put a lot of my fears and worries into the songwriting. And also a court case with an ex-manager, and stuff – I had to suppress a lot of the fears and concerns about that. So, I think it’s good battery for songwriting. It’s good fuel, you know? They needn’t come out about those subjects, but the anxiety seems to trigger good stuff.

On the Fuzzy Warbles albums

AP: Some of the recordings I don’t have access to, because they were on eight-track cassette, and I’ve sold my eight-track cassette machine. And I can’t remix any of them or discover if there’s anything on these tapes. I don’t want to hire one of those crappy machiens to be bothered to do it, so I think I have enough material without the missing eight-track cassette years.

I do find stuff that I’d forgotten about, or dig things out and you think, “ooh, why the hell was that rejected? That’s not bad.” Or sometimes I can pull it out and I can see, “Oh, yeah, I see that I was the one that didn’t want to do that one because I thought it was too similar to … whatever.” Because I do have a terrible fear of repeating myself. It’s not something to fear when you’re Philip Glass, I suppose – “REPEATING YOURSELF REPEATING YOURSELF REPEATING YOURSELF REPEATING YOURSELF, REPEATING YOURSELF REPEATING YOURSELF REPEATING YOURSELF.”

On how much time he spends on his APE label:

AP: It’s a tricky one to allot hours in the day to, because some days it will take up most of my day chasing ‘round stuff, and then other days I’m not doing anything connected with it. So I guess maybe half my time.

CD: And then you still make music in the shed?

AP: Well yeah, but I’m in a funny place right now, because I’m kind of contemplating giving up music for myself. As in, do I, am I repeating myself? Or have I done it all? Is there no more notes left in this saxophone, type thing. So I’m in a funny place mentally where I’m considering stopping making music. But dammit, I still get ideas.

CD: But why "give up" - why not just take a rest?

AP: “Resting between engagements,” as they say in the acting world. “I’m resting, dear boy. Resting between engagements.” But I’ve kind of, over the last year I’ve seriously been considering stopping. As in, have I done it all? I mean I haven’t been, haven’t had the kind of stellar Elton John-type fame, but I realized very quickly that I wasn’t interested in that. And I haven’t had the stellar riches, either. And I realized very quickly that I could have done with some of it!

"spiral" and "say it" are both fukken crankin mah nigga. and if anyone gots a problem with dat i dont think they be havin a problem with those off tha hook raps, they be havin a problem with tha xtc krew.

and yeah "yo niggaz, where da wonderfalls be at" was off that hook, yo. then those niggaz cancel tha wonderfalls show. why? because those suits dont want to be havin shows with gangsta themez, yo. its too real, man, too real. yo.

also nigga you must be talkin to some other andy partridge because i aint stopping thuggin and buggin and gangstaing on yo asses just yet. i aint resting, i can beat up any fag nigga and i got tha bling, bitch. yo yo yo.

c-money is ready to drop ya, because you ain't got no life.

the reason why i left yo ass. and i wuz da one that had to make y'all muthafuckaz talk to each other when all that shit wuz going down 10 years ago with that "punk ass" rundgren bitch at the helm saving yo asses' careers.

of course if yo dont remember bitch yo left tha krew because you were bitchin like a ho on "suck mah apple penis" about havin to do tha strings yo while me and c-money were doin tha shootin up

why did i make yo ass do that? because yo never were a gangsta like me and c-money yo yo ass was just be followin and hangin on tha xtc krew for twenty years in da hood. and for all dat twenty years ridin with tha xtc krew you still never be fuckin even one ho bitch.

and bitch, i had that punk ass rundgren bitch under control yo with mah pimp ass uzi ready to bust that niggaz head off and c-money was down with dat yo yo yo

i still got dat pimpin uzi and mah other gunz bitch so yo better not come to tha wesside swindon if yo want be livin, bitch. yo yo yo.

now im gonna pop a cap in yo punk ass coz that what yo get for messin with tha xtc krew

respect!

bitch, i am tha real deal andy partridge and i am gangsta 4 life

i'm down with my posse in holl-e-wood. i'm over muthafuckin swindon. i gots a real life, muthafucka. i fucked aimee mann. and you fucked.. oh dat's right.. HAHAHAHAHAH

Cutty, they are avaliable for download from XTC's website if you purchased Apple Box. However, I heard people that didn't have Apple Box were able to download them anyway...

a) duh
b) MC R.E. appears to have invigorated the franchise!

(me, I think it's not as funny when he's dominating an XTC thread as opposed to running drivebys on incidental mentions)

I'd heard most of the Warbles material from an obsessed friend, and the demos are great. I actually do prefer a lot of them to the studio versions. But he needs to stop releasing demos of existing tunes. I think in Andy's mind he gets to show what the songs are like without any interference from meddling human beings like producers or other musicians.

I hold out hope that they can come up with a record as good as Apple Venus Vol 1 again, though. That thing makes me all misty-eyed.

I echo the love for Colin's basslines, that man is a genius.

The Orpheus record that finally came out with Peter Blegvad is great, too. If there's interest I'll YSI.

This was one of four tracks that were floating around for many years before they finished the record recently. You may have heard it if you're a crazed fan but it's a fantastic track.

...and it's fucking dreadful.

Back in the day, one of our band used to do demo studio work for XTC, and had a tape of him and some mates backing Col on his 'possible' songs. None of them were used, and apparently Col gave them carte blanche to use them if they wanted to. So we listened to them. And passed.

I guess I should have kept a copy for 'interest', but nothing 'gold' was lost, put it that way.