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Best Live Band That’s Best Known for Not Playing Live: XTC

Apr 162008

Pushing all the right buttons

It’s too bad that XTC is best known for, among other things, being that once-promising New Wave band with a leader whose severe stage fright caused them to stop performing live, ultimately killing the band’s commercial chances and artistic growth more than any series of Malevolent and Incompetent Managers. From the band’s second album, Go 2, through Mummer (and even the intent of The Big Express) released one of my favorite strings of albums of any band. Those albums still mean a lot to me on many levels, and at their core I’ve always loved their ability to cram super-pop ideas into heavy, sometimes fractured rhythms. The Beatles met Beefheart or Steve Reich or any number of avant musicians.

Just as I was first getting into the band, after seeing the videos for songs like “Making Plans for Nigel” and “Life Begins at the Hop” on the syndicated New Wave video show Rockworld I saw an ad for the band’s upcoming appearance at Emerald City, in Cherry Hill, NJ. The ad featured that Drums and Wires logo, which was reason enough to dig deeper on this band. I briefly considered what it would be like to get into that show, but I was an innocent 16 years old, too young and too naive to attempt getting into this club illegally (you had to be 18 to get into a bar in New Jersey at this time). I probably spent that night staying up late in hopes of catching an XTC video on Rockworld.

Emerald City was primarily a disco

About 3 days later, I won tickets on Philadelphia’s WMMR to see some blues-rock band called The Nighthawks…the next night at Emerald City. I knew these guys weren’t XTC, but I wasn’t going to miss my chance to get into a club and see a rock band up close while I was still under age. I thought fast, and my very cool, prematurely gray high school English teacher agreed to escort me to the show. This was all cool with my Mom. I got in without problem. The Nighthawks were pretty bad – and they definitely weren’t XTC. Damn, you mean to tell me I could have gone to see XTC with my teacher a few nights earlier? Here’s the live sound of XTC that was cooking around that time, a taste of what I missed.

“Life Begins at the Hop”
“Real by Reel”
“When You’re Near Me I Have Difficulty”
“Complicated Game”

More bootleg live tunes and thoughts follow.
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S.U.P.E.R.M.A.X.

Posted by Mr. Moderator

Apr 162008

There’s a fine line between groundbreaking German disco and…whatever the hell this is.

Battle Royale: Best Gimmick-Free Beard in Rock

Posted by Mr. Moderator

Apr 152008

Levon’s beard, second from left.

I say Levon Helm. Well groomed without looking fussed over. Variegated tones. The beard’s best feature may be its fantastic mustache-to-beard definition. Unlike some of the fine, gimmick-free beards that Eric Clapton, for example, has sported, Helm’s beard did not filter or otherwise aid or interfere with his singing.

Next, a look at Levon’s beard in its prime – in action! – getting a run for its money from Richard Manuel‘s pre-hobo beard.
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Quest for the Holy Grail of XTC Archival Material Gets One Step Closer!

Posted by Mr. Moderator

Apr 152008

Yes! YouTube comes through with the next best thing to my #1 behind-the-scenes peek, which would be the making of XTC‘s English Settlement. Here’s the band in the first of a 10-part series of YouTubes on the making of “Towers of London”, or as I’ve read, the re-making of “Towers of London”, the released version of which had already been recorded. Nevertheless, I invite XTC and studio nerds to unite!

You know you want more!
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You Know What Day It Is!

Posted by Mr. Moderator

Apr 152008

This one goes out to all us workin’ folk! And all us benefitting from the revenues us workin’ folk generate! And especially all us workin’ to help us workin’ folk meet The Taxman‘s yearly call. I’ll tell you what, Townsman Hrrundivbakshi, more than anyone, this one’s for you!

Understudies

Posted by sammymaudlin

Apr 142008

Tim Armstrong’s recent snub of our own beloved Mr. Moderator got me to thinking about how much I dislike Rancid. I don’t like the Rancid for lots of reasons but their blatant SoCal Clash routine is reason number one. I explored Rancid one afternoon while bemoaning that there would never be any new Clash music. I knew that they got compared to The Clash and figured that some B-Rate band heavily influenced by The Clash might be better than nothing. I downloaded Out Come the Wolves from eMusic.

What I found was not a band influenced but a band obsessed: Pupkin-Clash. Disturbing. It was as if they were hoping The Clash would break a leg so they could take the stage.
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iPod Fatigue…or Revenge of the Nerds!

Posted by 2000 Man

Apr 142008

Just wait, kid. Next week you’ll hate it!

I heard something the other day about poor Generation iPod that kind of cracked me up. Until the mega gig iPods came out, most people I knew had what I would consider a handful of CDs or LPs and that was their music collection. Truth be told, they watch a lot more TV these days, and there’s nothing wrong with that. But now they’re trying to understand this new phenomenon that people with even 50 GB of music are somehow getting bored with their music.

I’d just laugh and figure that the music/media industry hasn’t known what listeners want for 20 years or more anyway usually, but then I ran into this exchange. I don’t think I actually own 25,000 songs. That used to require a truly dedicated music nerd many years to accomplish. But in these days of bittorrent it makes a situation like the first response to actually happen.

Here are a few details of my playlists that have helped me better enjoy my large collection:

1. 100 random songs than have been added in last 120 days that I’ve never played.
2. 100 songs that I’ve never played yet.

Why would anyone do such a thing? That’s like buying 9 or 10 albums and not even being interested in them enough to listen to in 4 months! I realize that this stuff was probably stolen, but why steal what you don’t even want or won’t even use?

I’ve filled another cabinet!

Most of all, I think we’re winning. Sort of. If the geeky afflicion of not having enough music (c’mon – if you’v got a spouse they’ve probably asked at least once, “When will you have enough music?”) actually creeps out into the public at large we may actually see radio station playlists change. Right?

They could change, right?

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