bllklly@uwmacc.UUCP (08/31/84)
Is anyone else an Xtc fan? They're an enigmatic band from an
unfashionable rural area of Britain. Their music is best described as
"quirky pop", a term they hate. They wander between rock and pop, playing
a lot with bizarre rhythms. They combine the melodic and dissonant in a
way I think is great. Their earlier records featured a lot more distorted
guitar, so they've been lumped in with punk/new wave, but no label really
fits right. Best album in my opinion is Black Sea (one of their rockin'est
albums), English Settlement is similar and maybe more popular with critics.
Most recent album is Mummer, featuring some great acoustic songs (Love on a
Farmboy's Wages). Songs you might have heard on FM before all the stations
were sterilized: Generals & Majors, Taking Care of Nigel, Respectable
Street. They don't tour, which lends to their obscurity--can't accuse
these guys of putting image before music!
--
Bill Kelly
{allegra, ihnp4, seismo}!uwvax!uwmacc!bllklly
1210 West Dayton St/U Wisconsin Madison/Mad WI 53706hsut@ecn-ee.UUCP (09/04/84)
#R:uwmacc:-24800:ecn-ee:17400004:000:345
ecn-ee!hsut Sep 3 11:36:00 1984
I'm glad someone else out there has heard of XTC, whom I
consider to be one of the most exciting bands from England recently
(i.e. in the past 6 or 7 years). The XTC fan population here at
West Lafayette, Indiana numbers about two...
Bill H.
pur-ee!hsutkds@intelca.UUCP (Ken Shoemaker) (09/04/84)
Re: xtc: love 'em, and they still get a fair amount of air play out here,
although I don't think they have come up with anything new recently...
Their sound does span quite a wide range from plaintive in
"Five Senses Working Overtime" to upbeat and kinda electronic
in "Sgt. Rock" to very mellow and acoustic in "Love on a Farm
Boy's Wages." Pigeon-holing them into new wave is really a mistake,
but they certainly don't fit most anywhere else. I really don't
understand why they haven't been picked up more generally.
Now does anyone else out there go for "The Art of Noise?" Just picked
up their latest album (Who's Afraid of...) after hearing "Close
to the Edit" on the radio recently. A very interesting offering, and
an appropriately named group, I might add. Although "Close" is the
most melodic cut, the whole album is kinda fun. And how about
the group "Haysi Fantayzee?" As far as I know, they have only
put out a single album, which is available here only as an import. It is
available on a "domestic" release in Canada (so what would that make it?)
Then there is the Bay area group "The Uptones." They opened for
the Go-Gos at the Greek in Berkeley a little bit back (which somehow
didn't seem appropriate.) I don't know, but do they strike anyone
else like a sort of domestic "Clash?"
--
I've got one, two, three, four, five senses working overtime,
trying to take this all in!
Ken Shoemaker, Intel, Santa Clara, Ca.
{pur-ee,hplabs,amd,scgvaxd,dual,idi,omsvax}!intelca!kds
---the above views are personal. They may not represent those of Intel.ag5@pucc-i (Henry C. Mensch) (09/06/84)
<. . . driving the loser patrol . . . >
Re: The Art of Noise . . . I saw the video for "Close to the Edit"
on a video monitor in a Bloomingdale's at Garden State Plaza last
month, and immediately ran to the Sam Goody's (in the same mall)
to get the album. Good clean fun.
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Henry C. Mensch | Purdue University Computing Center
{decvax|ucbvax|allegra|seismo|harpo|teklabs|ihnp4}!pur-ee!pucc-i!ag5
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"Oh brave new world that has such people in it!"dvw@hopd3.UUCP (D. V. Wilkerson) (09/09/84)
XTC is my current favorite band. I saw them live in 1980 or '81 just after "Generals and Majors" was released here. Good show. They stopped touring about a year and a half ago after Andy Partridge collapsed on stage from exhaustion. He then declared that the band would no longer tour. Pity. For newcomers, I recommend the "English Settlement" double-album set if you can find it. Diane Wilkerson ..!hopd3!dvw
rch@brunix.UUCP (Rich Yampell) (09/18/84)
If the subject is 'Great bands nobody knows' then it stands to reason that if you submit a list of such bands, there will be some folks who don't know them. A list of names, therefore, provides very little information. I am interested in hearing about some of these bands, but I want to know what makes them great. Since I don't know anybody on this net at this point, I'm not likely to automatically trust someone's taste. What kind of music do they play? What kinds of instruments/vocals do they use? What would you recommend as a good album to introduce someone to them?