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XTC - Senses Working Overtime

#21
corinpills said:
Ah, good, an XTC thread. That gives me a rare opportunity to look cool (trust me, it doesn't come up that often). I now direct you to my tour diaries form my band's UK tour last year where you can read about my XTC-rific adventures playing in Swindon. It starts with Colin Moulding sending us a letter and ends with Andy Partridge's daughter knowing the words to our songs and me speaking to the man himself on a payphone outside the club.

Go to the link below and look for tour diaries.

Go, read it. I don't have much to brag about, I have to be find something to be proud of.

http://www.pillsrock.com
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corinpills,

I really enjoyed your diary entry. Thank you for that.
I would imagine it was quite a series of thrills to have received a letter from Colin, meeting the famous Holly (of “…Up on Poppy”) and then having spoken with Andy. Congratulations!!
 
#23
Are Guitar Pro files any good to you? I create customs for Rocksmith and have made the following XTC tracks. Here are the Rocksmith files and the GP5 files I used to create them:

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Dropbox - Making Plans For Nigel
Dropbox - Senses Working Overtime
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It's been a while since I created them, but I think all came from Ultimate-Guitar. I may have edited them subsequently, but I can't remember.
 
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#27
Checking in!

If you guys haven't seen it, I recommend watching XTC At The Manor on Youtube which shows behind the scenes music production of Towers of London. XTC Play at Home and Nonsuch: A Gus Dudgeon film are also good though Nonsuch is a little rough with the handycam.

I'm trying to figure out Love on a Farmboy's Wages...there's a part @ 1:05 with "love on a farmboy's...". I think my ear needs tuning, I want to play this low but I think Colin is up an octave?

Great bass playing from Colin Moulding throughout their catalog, it's always so pretty and groovy to me. I frequently burn one and put XTC stuff on either my turntable or Youtube ;)


Edit: ha alright I figured it out, you are tricky Mr Moulding
 
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#30
I have not long ago received my signed copy of Complicated Game, written by Andy Partridge all about how he went about writing a lot of XTCs songs. I haven't had a chance to get my teeth into it yet, only read the foreward.
 
#32
I know this thread is quite old... but just thought I would add: XTC is one of my all time favorite artists. They should have made it much bigger, but quit touring really early in their career. I am only about 3 months into learning bass, and just discovered Guitar Pro 7 a couple of weeks ago. So far, I have located about 7 or 8 XTC tunes in the GP format, and am actually making progress on "Ten Feet Tall," and "Senses Working Overtime." For any other newbies out there, GP7 is an amazing piece of software that allows you to slow down and loop sections until you figure it out. (you can also customize all the instrument tracks) Most of Colin's work intimidates me at this point, but with a little practice, its quite a thrill for me to start playing along. I only wish this software existed about 30 years ago, when I had more time to screw around!
 
#33
corinpills said:
Ah, good, an XTC thread. That gives me a rare opportunity to look cool (trust me, it doesn't come up that often). I now direct you to my tour diaries form my band's UK tour last year where you can read about my XTC-rific adventures playing in Swindon. It starts with Colin Moulding sending us a letter and ends with Andy Partridge's daughter knowing the words to our songs and me speaking to the man himself on a payphone outside the club.

Go to the link below and look for tour diaries.

Go, read it. I don't have much to brag about, I have to be find something to be proud of.

The Pills - amphetamine pop - power pop - Boston rock
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Your post was from several years ago... but since I am just starting out on bass and recently discovered this forum, I am just now catching up. Dude, you are my hero! Great little diary entry from the Swindon show. I share your XTC enthusiasm, and the fact you played their hometown and impressed Andy's kid is awesome. (And with the communications to both Colin and Andy, I would have been thrilled) But beyond that, your Pills video from back in the day sounded incredible! I love the energy and catchy vocals. And also checked out your newer work (Little Crumbles) as well on your other site. Really impressive! I am getting started late in this game in my mid 50s, but I am always amazed and inspired at the level of talent that is out there and people creating stuff that can live on beyond when we are all gone. Rock on!
 
#34
Thanks, Man! Much appreciated. It's a good time to be an XTC fan with the recent documentary. Here's another tune from my latest album that I think is very XTC-inspired (maybe Skylarkng period). I wrote it with Tanya Donelly from the band Belly (and Throwing Muses and the Breeders before that. It's got my 1964 Hofner Senator bass that is autographed by Klaus Voorman, recorded to tape through my modded altec 436 compressor - that's the same type they used at EMI on Paul's bass a lot. Anyway, you'll recognize the tone:
 
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#35
Excellent tune- very XTC'ish! And as you mentioned, your bass sound on this definitely has a Beatles vibe. "In Appropriate Fashion" is a lot of fun as well- shades of Elvis Costello. I recently stumbled onto the music of Big Star a few months ago. I was in Memphis for about 3 years during their heyday, but only about 10 years old at the time. But from reading you bio, just noticed you played on a record a while back with their drummer. Glad you were able to overcome setbacks and keep creating. I would love to see your band live if you ever do a tour down south to Texas!
 
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#37
wal4string said:
Any Good?
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The first 3 notes are B A# G#. Sometimes he hits all of them, other times he slides from B to A#. Same thing when it changes to E D# C#.

If I were to nitpick a little more, sections like the one starting on bar 30 would have some rests between the notes. And bars like 34, 71, etc.. which have a "slide down", the E string should be used for more range of movement.

Edit: Section starting at bar 85 also needs a little help going back down.
tab.jpg
 
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