The Official XTC Thread
 

I can't believe there is no thread on this band yet!

Actually, the truth is I couldn't search for one, because you can't search for titles of only 3 letters.

Anyway, great band. Very clever music. Skylarking is one of the finest pop albums of the 80s that I've heard. Their new wave stuff owns too.

Any XTC love?

I wonder if we could move this to the indie section. Maybe it'd get more attention there.

C'mon, guys. No XTC love? What about Urban? He's from Swindon, isn't he?

I own Skylarking, but I haven't gotten around to listening to it yet.

One of my absolute favourite bands (with a well-earned place in my lastFM top 8). From what I've heard of them (5 records' worth of material) they just seem to effortlessly dish out some terrific melodies. Albums-wise it's all about English Settlement and Black Sea for me.

One of the first bands I ever knew about, my dad is a big fan.

Black Sea is probably my favorite album by them.

XTC are great. Skylarking is a masterpiece and one of my favorite rock albums. I'm not sure I'd consider it pop, though.

XTC is a very cool band and I agree that Skylarking is a pop masterpiece although Black Sea is probably my favourite. It actually took me a while to warm up to their sound but it was worth the effort.

Skylarking isn't pop. It's pop/rock and alternative pop/rock, but not purely pop.

Well I use the term 'pop' loosely here to mean any kind of music to which the pop template has been applied - in Skylarking's case, applying pop to new-wave/baroque/psychedelia/rock/whatever. If we look at it this way, there's not that much music which is pure pop, but you can apply the pop template to many kinds of music.

Anyway, enough splitting hairs over genres... let's talk about the awesomeness of XTC.

Surely. Favorite songs?

Mine are: All You Pretty Girls, Another Satellite, Are You Receiving Me?, Ball and Chain, Big Day, Chalkhills and Children, Dear God, Earn Enough for Us, Generals and Majors, Grass, Great Fire, Love on a Farmboy's Wages, Making Plans for Nigel, No Thugs in Our House, Respectable Street, Science Friction, Senses Working Overtime, Statue of Liberty, Summer's Cauldron, The Ballad of Peter Pumpkinhead, The Mayor of Simpleton, The Meeting Place, This Is Pop?, This World Over, Wait Till Your Boat Goes Down, and Wrapped in Grey.

I beg to differ. Purely a Chamber pop album of the highest quality.

XTC are a magnificent band who's music has stood the test of time. I would recommend Chalkhills And Children by Chris Twomey if anyone wants to read a bio. Very good indeed.

http://astra-used-books.co.uk/images...20Children.jpg

I had the pleasure of seeing them perform on September 19, 1980 at Festival Hall, Brisbane. Support was Magazine. Nice double. Drums And Wire was an influential album for me personally. Though very much a New Wave power pop band on their first albums, Drums And Wires was the album that exposed just how good songwriters Partridge and, to a lessor degree, Moulding would become. Lyrically clever with catchy pop hooks and as time went on smart production. Future albums such as Black Sea, English Settlement and Skylarking are magnificent pop albums and worthy of being in any serious collection. Most other releases are generally fine albums especially for the aficionado, such as my self.

Skylarking is definitely not chamber pop. For reference, the following are chamber pop artists: Belle & Sebastian, Cardinal, The High Llamas, Lambchop, Eric Matthews, and Tindersticks.

Way to go, champ. :clap:

I am not too sure why you are being sarcastic to me. I gave an opinion with out any intention of sarcasm. Why are you being sarcastic to me? I guess I should harden up but to be brutal it is rubbish like this that puts me off contributing as I find this type of flaming annoying and immature. Learn some manners. I suspect that my musical listening at just on 50 years gives me a right to an opinion and IN MY OPINION it is a chamber pop album. I also own every single XTC album and have seen them live and that is why I have formulated that opinion. Through experience. Gain it! It is a useful commodity.
I am very easy to get along so lets keep it that way.


As to the Artists that you have mentioned, I have every album by Belle & Sebastian and agree, I have recently reviewed the latest Tinderticks album on Music Banters album reviews thread. Just perhaps you would like to find it and make an intelligent contribution. As to Lambchop I have a couple of albums and do not consider them Chamber Pop but if you, in the interests of intelligent discussion would like to point me in the direction of the albums that they have released that in your opinion are Chamber Pop, and in fact to allow us to discuss on a correct and proper level, link me to them, I will listen to them with out prejudice and give you an intelligent and non belligerent opinion.

So age=musical knowledge?

Maybe your crustaceous brain needs a reminder on just what chamber pop truly is:

Drawing heavily from the lush, orchestrated work of performers including Brian Wilson, Burt Bacharach, and Lee Hazlewood, Chamber Pop arose largely as a reaction to the lo-fi aesthetic dominant throughout much of the 1990s alternative music community. Inspired in part by the lounge-music revival but with a complete absence of irony or kitsch, chamber pop placed a renewed emphasis on melody and production, as artists layered their baroque, ornate songs with richly textured orchestral strings and horns, all the while virtually denying the very existence of grunge, electronica, and other concurrent musical movements.

That being said, everything I've heard by Lambchop I'd consider chamber pop, except Decline of Country & Western Civilization. Unfortunately, I don't really have any links to them.

Also, loosen up please. I'm just messing around. Why does everything have to be done in an intelligent manner on a music forum? That's what school/work is for (and the reason why they are no fun).

No. But after a life time of listening to music in all of it's many forms I believe that my opinion is valid and at least deserves an intelligent reply as to why you may differ from said opinion.

This crustaceous old brain needs no cut and paste history lesson to form an opinion. I have no issue with you differing to my interpretation. I have an issue with petty insults because you disagree.


Best learn how to contribute. ;)
I have discovered that it is a big plus on Music Banter.

I need to loosen up? Was it not you being sarcastic to me?
I do take my music seriously and prefer intelligence but it can be fun without the petty insults. I do have a sense of humour and I promise you I am easy to get along with. I will say no more. In fact I regret replying to your initial post. I did not join this forum to be involved in childish spats. Peace.

One of the U.K's most underated bands. 'English Settlement ' is the schizz.

I seem to be going against the grain here a bit because personally I think they lost something after English Settlement.

I don't know if it's anything to do with them becoming a studio band after Andy Partridge's breakdown or taking a more mellower direction but I never really warmed to albums like Skylarking or Nonsuch in the way I did to the earlier ones.

Don't get me wrong I think there are some great songs on their post 1982 albums , I just find those later albums tend to drag on a bit when I listen to them , which to be honest isn't very often.

Andy Partridge also made a solo album in 1981 called Take Away / The Lure Of Salvage which is well worth seeking out.

I could'nt get into Skylarking either. Do you think the Trevor Horn production stifled them a little?

Todd Rundgren ?

Maybe he was a bit overpowering but I suspect thats the reason they chose him.

My turn to feck up lol. I thought it was Trevor Horn!

I had that years back. Another piece of vinyl that has sadly disappeared. If memory serves me I was always reminded of those B-Side tracks that XTC threw up to surprise the unwary punter.

Anyone for Chips from the Chocolate Fireball? I love it.

I still have to plump for the obvious:

Making Plans For Nigel and Sgt Rock as superlative examples of XTC.

Making Plans For Nigel:


A MASSIVE part of my childhood:

The way I understand it, they ended up resenting what Rundgren did with the production. It's one of those cases where 99% of the fanbase and critics said it was their finest work, but the authors spent the whole time casting aspersions on it.

Personally I love the album.

From what i've read it was more to do with there being a huge personality clash between Rundgren & Partridge and with them always at each others throats rather than what Rundgren actually did on the album.

Partridge is quite complimentary about Rundgren's work on that album these days.

I ask myself should I put my finger to the left, no
I ask myself should I put my finger to the right, no
I say it really doesn't matter where I put my finger
Someone else will come along and move it
And it's always been the same
It's just a complicated game

:love:

oh, and

My microbes and I
We can't wait to lay down and die
Realize that we must be spent
Like the cells that dissolve when a brainwave is sent

I was playing the album Black Sea this morning. Damn, it has held up extremely well. They need more fans dammit!

Honestly I'd say my favorite album by them is Oranges & Lemons...I don't know why, and I'm probably in the minority here.

There are far too many people out there who've never heard of them; I haven't met anyone who's heard even Making Plans For Nigel. That said, everyone I've introduced them to now loves them, so I've done my fair share of spreading the word :D

This thread deserves a bump for appreciation of Living Through Another Cuba. Why is this track so over looked? It's an absolute masterpiece, without a doubt my favorite on Black Sea.

Xtc
 

If you like this band there's a great UK import Double CD called the Fossil pack with alot of great tracks on it. Check it out :dj:

XTC is, without a doubt, in the absolute top tier of my personal pantheon of great groups. They totally mirror my own sensibilities and attitudes towards the world. Not only does their music hold up, but some songs, like "Generals and Majors," actually seem to resonate more with age. Favorite track is very tough, but I'd say it's somewhere in between "Senses Working Overtime" and "Making Plans for Nigel" and actually there are a buttload more. "Dear God" is especially great, too. I mean, there is no more devastating a line than: Dear God, did you make mankind after we made you?

Anywho, I'd second the Fossil recommendation, its a solid introduction to the band

Has anyone stumbled upon this site before? Right now I'm listening to a sweet version of Living in Another Cuba and as soon as my net connection stops being an ass, I'll grab everything else on offer.

Seen it , plundered every last MP3 off it :D

I don't think it's your connection. Every song took me 40-60 minutes to download.

Real shame they weren't as big as they deserved to be.Drums And Wires and Skylarking are superb albums.

Xtc
 

Formed in 1972, XTC were a band that never gained much great commercial success, but the critics absolutely adored these guys. Hell, even that Pinhead Robert Christgau dolls out A's for their 80s work.

Probably most well known for their singles "Making Plans for Nigel" and "Senses Working Overtime"

But I myself discovered them when I heard the Crash Test Dummies cover XTC's "The Ballad of Peter Pumpkinhead".



And then there's their Acid Rock/Psycedelic albums from the mid 80s. But that's another story.

Skylarking is a good ass album.

Allmusic *****
Blender ****
Piero Scaruffi (7.5/10)
PopMatters (favourable)
Q ****
Robert Christgau (A-)
Rolling Stone (favourable)
Adrian Denning (9.5/10)
Uncut (very positive)

Ye, I'd say it was a pretty good album.

I never really got into xtc but, Andy Partridge's son is a comic genius.