I fell hard for XTC in the year 2021. White Music, Go 2, Drums and Wires, Black Sea, English Settlement, Mummer, and Skylarking are all NOT CRAP x10000.

I'm still flabbergasted that XTC have managed to be adored by both punks and prog rock dorks. Todd Rundgren and maybe Peter Hammill are the only other ones to share that distinction as well.

Also the kind of band where their B-sides are essential listening. Anyone else fuck with "Instant Tunes", "Officer Blue", "Pulsing Pulsing", and "Desert Island"?

I hit their catalog (up to the Apple Venus albums) pretty hard 15-ish years ago. Now I really only revisit the '79-'86 period.

Mixed feelings about Andy Partridge as a person, including that he kind of took over and made it his band in his mind and insists on writing/controlling their legacy. I don't really care to see the Showtime doc where he tries to convince everyone that their albums with studio musicians are superior to the former. That couldn't be more wrong, as Moulding, Gregory, and Chambers were an unfuckwithable unit. And despite their competency in the studio, live clips of them from the early '80s are as good as live rock bands get.

Not Crap, even when your heroes are kind of assholes.

chexmixbreath wrote: Thu Sep 30, 2021 2:41 pm Also the kind of band where their B-sides are essential listening. Anyone else fuck with "Instant Tunes", "Officer Blue", "Pulsing Pulsing", and "Desert Island"?

Oh yes.. B-sides (Heaven is Paved with Broken Glass, Tissue Tigers, etc.) and the side projects are usually fun, if not flat out great (Dukes of Stratosphear).

Drums & Wires, Black Sea and English Settlement are basically perfect.

After that a lot of good songs sprinkled around, but 100% not crap.

Andy P is a turd and I don't care. One of favorite Rob Warmowski stories was at Sirs practice over the course of like a year, he would talk about how he was arguing with someone on twitter about XTC and the way that Andy had handled things. he assumed it was like the head of their fanclub or something. then like a year later he updates the story, "it turns out it IS andy patridge!"

Rob remained a huge fan.

the songs are too good.

miss you, Rob.

Drums and Wires and Black Sea have bangers cover to cover.

Very NOT CRAP.

akosinski wrote: Thu Sep 30, 2021 3:20 pm he would talk about how he was arguing with someone on twitter about XTC and the way that Andy had handled things. he assumed it was like the head of their fanclub or something. then like a year later he updates the story, "it turns out it IS andy patridge!"

Hilarious, and not at all shocking. And Rob was certainly smart enough to put him in his place, if Partridge cared to listen..

Andy is an insane genius in many ways, of course, but I remember reading an interview with him when he talked about taking a stuffed shark with him on tour to fuck. After that I realized I probably shouldn't read anymore Andy interviews!

The other 3 seem very down to earth and cool from what I can tell. And Gregory is a hell of a guitarist.

Not Crap!

Black Sea is just about a perfect album. English Settlement is great too.

Lots of gems before and after too, earlier can get a little herky jerky new wave and later stuff too college rock for my taste.

Dukes of Stratosphear is excellent.

Some of the best drum recordings/performances ever! Andy's book on songwriting is fantastic.

I played the instruments on this "Pink Thing" cover a la Pinkerton

I love this band. English settlement especially! Interestingly - recorded by Hugh Padgham, who recorded a lot of Phil Collins (and The Police to boot)

Not crap, I love their early work, but I'm not big on Skylarking.

I have the Coat of Many Cupboards box set, it's worth it just for the live tracks. Also, Andy has detailed notes about all of the songs.

XTC - Explode Together: The Dub Experiments 78-80 - Only became of aware of this album 5 years ago or so. Songs from the first 3 albums cut up and dubbed, sometimes entirely new vocals. Nice if you want something from that era, but weirder.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Explode_T ... ents_78-80