Pop Muzik

September 13, 2023 6:53 AM

There once was a band called XTC. This is their story. This Is Pop [1h13m, 2017].
posted by hippybear (41 comments total)

They're so very very good and twee and British. If you've never listened to them, Black Sea and English Settlement are just fantastically crafted pop all the way through. Try it.
posted by outgrown_hobnail at 6:57 AM on September 13, 2023 [4 favorites]

If the first communication the aliens receive from Earth is "Dear God", then I think we've got a good chance of them letting us live.
posted by Etrigan at 7:04 AM on September 13, 2023 [5 favorites]

My youtube algorithm has been flooding my feed with XTC related content for a week or so -- I had wondered if Andy had died or something. Thankfully no. In fact there are a number of wonderful interviews and I found out there are even XTC cons. who knew?
Anyway, loves me some XTC. Black Sea is my fave, but all of them make it into my rotation at some time each year. Thanks for this post!
posted by OHenryPacey at 7:19 AM on September 13, 2023 [1 favorite]

just saw it last week. Very much enjoyed it. Though there is one serious flaw. It's not longer.
posted by philip-random at 7:59 AM on September 13, 2023 [5 favorites]

Didn't know about that, thanks @hippybear. Drums and Wires came out at the perfect time for me to have my mind expanded and it's held a special place for me ever since.
posted by SNACKeR at 8:14 AM on September 13, 2023 [1 favorite]

Still looking for that Peter Pumpkinhead image.

(The image at 4:10-4:11. You'll need to hit play to see it.)
posted by sevenless at 8:16 AM on September 13, 2023

Wrapped in Grey is their best song, and one of my top three of all time by any artist.
posted by tommasz at 8:27 AM on September 13, 2023 [2 favorites]

XTC is possibly my favorite band of all time, with the possible exception of The Dukes of Stratosphere. Add me to the list of people who watched and enjoyed this video recently.

But there's a weird thing about them, that it can take a few listens for me to grok their songs. I bought their first album when it was new, and I was disappointed. But a week later this amazing riff was running through my head. What was that!?! It's like their eccentric choices make them hard to penetrate, but when you get it it is so amazing.

Some songs never grabbed me, but the ones that do just keeping rising in my estimation. And there are so many gems. My absolute favorite song is off the late album "Apple Venus Volume 1", which is not available on Spotify. It is a perfect pop love song, but put together like an interlocking puzzle. "I'd Like That".
posted by bitslayer at 8:34 AM on September 13, 2023 [5 favorites]

The Big Express is, I think, a great XTC album that for some reason seems to be overlooked.
posted by slkinsey at 8:36 AM on September 13, 2023 [3 favorites]

"that for some reason seems to be overlooked."

That is their whole career.
"...and I don't know how to write a big hit song" from The Mayor of Simpleton
posted by bitslayer at 8:40 AM on September 13, 2023 [4 favorites]

I couldn't begin to tell you how obsessed I was with XTC back in the day, early 1980s. They were the perfect combination of finely crafted pop music and pure energy.

Also, regarding Skylarking, if you haven't heard the "polarity corrected" reissue, then you're really missing out.

> Andy Partridge ... took it to award-winning mastering engineer John Dent, who noticed something that had never previously been spotted. Somewhere, possibly in the transfer from the multi-channel tape to the stereo master, a polarity had been reversed. This is not the same thing as a reversed left/right channel which puts a stereo picture out of phase & makes the sound unlistenable, but a much more difficult to pin down event that can be triggered by something as simple as a badly wired plug in the overall system which, nonetheless, removes some of the punch & presence from a finished recording. ... Now, some 28 years after its initial recording & release, Skylarking finally appears on CD as it was originally intended to sound & in the packaging as initially envisaged.
posted by smcdow at 8:49 AM on September 13, 2023 [4 favorites]

Barry Andrews went on to form Shriekback, along with Dave Allen (GO4). During their time with Y Records, they made some fantastic records. But they abandoned Y Records mid-contract (and in the middle of recording an album) to move to Arista, which for me was the beginning of the end of Shriekback.

Y Records, which owned the tapes for the work-in-progress Jamscience album, released the demos as a big fuckyou to Shriekback. It was Y Records last release before going out of business.

The result? My favorite obscure album of all time.
posted by smcdow at 8:58 AM on September 13, 2023 [5 favorites]

“Love on a Farm Boy’s Wages” from Mummer is one of my favorite songs of theirs. The intro is an instant calm, mood changer for me.
posted by vvitchtoria at 9:00 AM on September 13, 2023 [6 favorites]

They're my favourite band ever, and Harvest Festival is the very peak of Andy's writing.
posted by scruss at 9:12 AM on September 13, 2023 [5 favorites]

I started college in 1986 and as a college dj I most certainly overplayed "Dear God."

This is a tight, funny, insightful not-rockumentary; not unlike an XTC song, that.

Thanks for posting!
posted by chavenet at 9:15 AM on September 13, 2023 [2 favorites]

some recent XTC adjacent stuff:

The 3 Clubmen - Aviatrix

The 3 Clubmen announce full EP : new collaboration of Andy Partridge and friends hits genius level
posted by philip-random at 9:23 AM on September 13, 2023 [1 favorite]

I enjoyed this but it was a bit weird how they fast-forwarded through the second half of their career: nothing about their years-long strike against Virgin (one of the most interesting aspects of the band's story), or the reasons behind Dave's departure, or what finally split up the remaining duo.

XTC was my favorite band for a while, and we've both moved on but they're still very special. I'll back up slkinsey in opining that The Big Express in particular deserves more attention than it usually gets.
posted by dfan at 9:26 AM on September 13, 2023 [1 favorite]

@smcdow That's a very cool release. I'll be giving it many listens.
posted by SNACKeR at 10:06 AM on September 13, 2023 [1 favorite]

In the early 90s, my best friend introduced me to a young woman saying “You should meet Kris, she’s a big XTC fan too.”

Next month is our 25th wedding anniversary.
posted by Horace Rumpole at 10:08 AM on September 13, 2023 [12 favorites]

I don't listen to them as much as I used to, but XTC means more to me than any other band still. I genuinely enjoy all of their albums, agree that The Big Express is overlooked, and think that Black Sea is one of the best albums of all time.
posted by mollweide at 10:09 AM on September 13, 2023 [1 favorite]

I can't pick a favorite song or album, but as others have mentioned "Dear God" was a revelation at the time and "We're All Light" makes me.. ahem.. Stupidly Happy.
posted by elkevelvet at 10:20 AM on September 13, 2023 [1 favorite]

Still looking for that Peter Pumpkinhead image.

Google Image Search turned up this, which is very close to the head on the right, but not identical. Maybe it was redrawn?
posted by The Tensor at 10:49 AM on September 13, 2023

XTC is possibly my favorite band of all time, with the possible exception of The Dukes of Stratosphere.

I am also in this very, very narrow category. It's always fun to explain to people that your favorite album, which they've definitely never heard of, was part of a side project from a band they've also never heard of. I swear I'm not trying to out-hipster you! Just please listen to this!
posted by The Tensor at 10:54 AM on September 13, 2023 [5 favorites]

Woweee, Speaking of Skylarking, when I took a look at the video, this was on the Y.T. sidebar. Fascinating.
posted by smcdow at 10:54 AM on September 13, 2023 [1 favorite]

Your favorite band does not suck.
posted by y2karl at 11:21 AM on September 13, 2023 [3 favorites]

Woweee, Speaking of Skylarking, when I took a look at the video, this was on the Y.T. sidebar. Fascinating.

My head is full of XTC quotes I can't source today, but I remember seeing an interview with Andy in the last decade or so where he sort of seemed to want to bury the hatchet with Rundgren, who he'd previously badmouthed, by referring to the recording of Skylarking as "two fuhrers in one bunker".

I also remember Andy saying (maybe it's somewhere in This Is Pop) words to the effect that it's almost unheard of in pop music for a band to spend their whole career getting better and better, more ambitious and more complex, right up their last album, then stop. "...and we're the other one." So there's no lack of ego there...
posted by The Tensor at 11:34 AM on September 13, 2023 [5 favorites]

Meanwhile, in one shot of a marquee in the movie the opening act for XTC is Wazmo Nariz.
I was paying close attention to music in the 1980s, and I had never heard that name.
Which is really too bad (for me) because Wazmo fuckin ROCKS
posted by chavenet at 11:37 AM on September 13, 2023

The Dukes of Stratosphear, "25 O'Clock".
posted by kirkaracha at 12:10 PM on September 13, 2023 [2 favorites]

Andy Partridge & John Leckie discuss Dukes of Stratosphear in 2009

in depth and wandering all over the place
posted by philip-random at 12:16 PM on September 13, 2023 [1 favorite]

I also remember Andy saying (maybe it's somewhere in This Is Pop) words to the effect that it's almost unheard of in pop music for a band to spend their whole career getting better and better, more ambitious and more complex, right up their last album, then stop. "...and we're the other one." So there's no lack of ego there...

Ah, it is in This Is Pop, here. Look at that smirk!
posted by The Tensor at 12:23 PM on September 13, 2023 [1 favorite]

Need to watch this. XTC is my co-favorite band (competing with The Beatles and The Cure), and Skylarking is pretty much my favorite album of all time.

I "discovered" XTC when "Dear God" was on MTV's 120 Minutes and it was like being hit by a thunderbolt. Can I just note how hard it was for a teen in the mid-80s, small town midwest, to suss out a band's discography and track down their catalog? Cause it was super hard. But I did it. And I was pretty much the only committed XTC fan in my high school.

It's a damn shame that their final two albums haven't made their way to streaming. I feel like there are a few weak cuts, but "The Man who Murdered Love," "I'd Like That," "We're All Light," "Stupidly Happy," and "You and the Clouds Will Still be Beautiful" are some of their best. (And "Your Dictionary" is quite the spiteful pop.)

If you haven't heard Andy Partridge's contribution to the Monkees' "Good Times" album, you need to find "You Bring the Summer." It's as good as anything on the Dukes' EP or LP. I would love to hear it in Andy's voice.

Andy's Failed Songwriting Career EPs are also worth picking up if you are itching for a fix of new XTC. I hope he's out with more soon.
posted by jzb at 12:34 PM on September 13, 2023 [1 favorite]

I started college in 1986 and as a college dj I most certainly overplayed "Dear God."

The first pressing of Skylarking left "Dear God" off the album- it was US college radio DJs that made it a huge success. So thanks :-)

Its B-side, rejected from Skylarking, was an odd, angry little atheist song of Andy's called Dear God, which Virgin disliked for the "whiny American kid" singing the first verse. Andy himself describes it as "a petulant failure", but American college radio had started playing the import single and Geffen, bombarded with enquiries about a song of which they knew nothing, recalled the album and re-pressed it with Dear God reinstated.

Andy: "Mail started to arrive and it was half 'you've voiced what I've been thinking for years' and half 'you're going to roast in Hell'." A Florida radio station even received a bomb-threat and a disaffected student held up a high-school secretary at knife-point in New York State, demanding that Dear God be played over the school public address system. Dear God helped Skylarking sell a quarter of a million copies, and XTC entered 1987 having found a whole new audience of American college kids
posted by oneirodynia at 12:39 PM on September 13, 2023 [4 favorites]

I enjoyed this interview with Andy.
posted by aesop at 1:54 PM on September 13, 2023

The album Nonsuch takes me back and pushes me into the future, too. It came out when I was last single, and Dear Madam Barnum is what I will be whistling as I leave work for the final time.
posted by Calvin and the Duplicators at 4:35 PM on September 13, 2023 [2 favorites]

I'm having a hard time with this tread, in that I could favorite every comment and add my own two cents to each and everyone. Thanks, hippybear, I mean that. Let us just say that Dear Madam Barnum had a particular resonance with me my senior year of college, when one of my good friends and roommate was certainly resigning as clown.
posted by mollweide at 5:00 PM on September 13, 2023 [2 favorites]

I’m finding it extremely difficult to come up with a favorite XTC song. Maaaybe if I tried I could pick a favorite from each album.

However, this is one of my favorite TV moments. Not only does the song match perfectly with the emotion of the scene, but it just floored me to hear an XTC song in a (sadly soon to be cancelled) network TV show.

Also in short-lived TV, Wonderfalls, with an Andy Partridge-penned theme song
posted by DiscourseMarker at 5:15 PM on September 13, 2023 [4 favorites]

Horace Rumpole, you've been married to She Who Must be Obeyed for 25 years?! Outstanding!
posted by evilDoug at 8:04 PM on September 13, 2023 [1 favorite]

Hadn't really listened to XTC before now; enjoyed the documentary; have discovered that Easter Theatre is a five-star song late this Friday night. Thank you!!!!
posted by Panthalassa at 7:39 AM on September 15, 2023 [2 favorites]

OMG OMG I have been looking for this documentary for years... I guess I stopped trying. So excited to finally watch it!

I too absolutely adore XTC, but weirdly it only happened about 5 years ago. I randomly heard The Meeting Place, which I was familiar with from back in the day but not much more. Something made me look deeper into their work, and seriously I listened to almost nothing else for the next two years. I still have their songs in my head all the time, and the other day Jump came up on my playlist and I just had to take a moment and tell everyone I know how beautiful this song is.

It makes me so sad to think they are so overlooked and really seeming bitter about it.
posted by maggiemaggie at 5:25 PM on September 15, 2023 [1 favorite]

I enjoyed this interview yt with Andy.

it's a thorough and enjoyable interview, as good as anything I've come across lately. Your link is to part one. There are two more parts*, the whole thing totalling over five hours. Andy Partridge is, of course, a great talker but Gregg Bendian is very much his match, not to mention an accomplished musician himself.

* I stumbled into part three first and was immediately hooked with their back and forth on Charles Dickens, Rush, Stanley Kubrick etc (overrated or underrated and extrapolating from there). Great stuff.
posted by philip-random at 11:00 PM on September 15, 2023 [1 favorite]

Many sun rotations ago, I visited a friend who put the album "Nonsuch" on repeat the entire weekend.... He was trying to learn the chords for "Ballad of Peter Pumpkinhead" on guitar.

I am pretty certain he did not, in fact, learn the chords - he did however open my ears to the carefully and meticulously crafted songs and music by XTC.

XTC is one of my all-time-favourite bands since then. What a band, such great music!
posted by Rabarberofficer at 3:08 PM on September 24, 2023