XTC

[bmusic]

I'm a big fan, Partridge's songwriting skills are terrifc. And I also love Colin Moulding's melodic bass parts. Even did a playthrough a couple of years ago.

Wow! That is both inspiring and daunting. Mad respect, man.

 

[ctmullins]

I’m a big XTC fan too. Mid-period to the end.

But yeah, @Bob_Ross , I don’t see that it’s stylistically similar to either late-period prog rock or new wave at all.

To my ears it’s very similar to Beatles music.

 

[bmusic]

XTC is one my favorite bands from the 80's, and I must admit that it's a pleasant surprise to read that amount of love from you american guys.

It's also my first and most frustrating rock concert experience: I was 12 years old, my mother let me go and see them live in Paris, it was the first rock concert I was allowed to go to because I was just old enough and my older brother was going with me. They started to play the first song, I think it was "Generals and Majors" or "Respectable Streets", it sounded great, I was amazed, when the singer went off stage because he was sick. And they cancelled the show just like that in the middle of the first song! I believe they never played live after that :-(

Anyway, one of the best bands of that area, I still listen to them quite often. Also great inspirational bass lines. Together with Elvis Costello and the Attractions (Bruce Thomas on bass), Joe Jackson (Graham Maby on bass), and Bow Wow Wow (Leigh Gorman on bass).

Can you believe I never heard about King Crimson? I have to listen to them now…

Frustrating, yes—but also, you got to witness a piece of rock history! A concert is a concert, but this is a little bit like you saw the Beatles get yanked off the rooftop after 6 songs.

 

[Acoop]

Better than The Beatles.

 

[gtirard]

Frustrating, yes—but also, you got to witness a piece of rock history! A concert is a concert, but this is a little bit like you saw the Beatles yet yanked off the rooftop after 6 songs.

True, but at that time I wasn't aware that I was witnessing a piece of history. I was 12, I had never seen a concert before, and I had seen my older brothers coming back home super excited after they had seen other rock concerts, so I was first ecstatic when it started, shortly followed by an immense deception.

By the way, 2 years later I had another by "historical misunderstanding": in 1982 I saw the concert of The Cure for the album Pornography. Mythical concert, but at that time, I was a fan of The Cure's early albums, and I didn't know Faith and Pornography, so I didn't like the concert at all, because they only played song from these 2 albums. I didn't know any song, I didn't like them (much too dark for my taste at that time), and I was super frustrated that they didn't play any old classic, not even "A forest".

Now that I know and love Pornography, I wish I could use a time machine and see that concert again.

 

[bmusic]

OP, I think there’s a certain period of XTC that is texturally similar to Talking Heads and The Police. Those open arrangements uncluttered by classic rock convention, the slashing guitars, the general timbre of the vocals and the fearless intelligence of it all.

Yes, huge fan here. A friend made me a mix tape when I was 18 that included some XTC, Oingo Boingo, I forget what else. I was struck by how they could be so challenging to listen to at times, and then also be so deliciously, poptastically catchy, often within the same song. (“Senses Working Overtime” and “Great Fire” were both on that tape.) And when I say “catchy”, I mean Paul McCartney/Brian Wilson-level catchy. Melodies from heaven.

I didn’t really come back round to them till I was moving out of my college dorm and someone down the hall was playing Oranges and Lemons. I got that CD, went off to grad school and took the deep dive.

I was a Skylarking guy for a long time. Then I fell in love with Drums and Wires. (I have the amazing 5.1 mix of that one.) I’m apparently an oddball who puts Mummer on a pedestal—love that record. But these days, if I had to pick a favorite, it’s Black Sea.

And yeah, you can’t discuss XTC on a bass chatty site without mentioning Colin. It’s probably no accident that XTC was the band I was obsessed with (along with EC and the Attractions) when I was learning to play (and love) the bass. He also wrote some of my favorite songs, and as I followed their career, “My Bird Performs” was the last XTC song that got stuck in my ear and refused to leave.

 

[woodyng2]

I'm a big fan, Partridge's songwriting skills are terrifc. And I also love Colin Moulding's melodic bass parts. Even did a playthrough a couple of years ago.

Verrry Nice! Your Pedullae sound fabulous!

 

[Bob_Ross]

the fearless intelligence of it all.

Oh, indeed! I would wager ^^^that's the thing all my aquaintances were keying into in XTC's music when they assumed I was a fan.

 

[Lugan]

Better than The Beatles.

I came here to say exactly this. I think XTC were/are one of the most under-appreciated bands of any era. Skylarking is one of my favorite 2-3 recordings of all time and the other albums for years on either side of it are close.

I never understood the high esteem people place on The Beatles. Many songs were great, but together on their albums listened end to end, they were inconsistent and often didn't flow when put together. YMMV, of course.

Back to XTC Skylarking, that album to me is pure perfection because every song is complex but musical while flowing from one song to the next for the whole album.

 

[Michedelic]

Can you believe I never heard about King Crimson? I have to listen to them now…

You have a daunting task ahead of you my friend…do it wisely.
There are so many eras and personalities of that band, all radically different, but it’s still the same band. If you hear music from one line-up, it may have no relation to that from another decade, but don’t let that put you off from others. You will find your favorite time period, hopefully all of them, they all have their own merits. And…you could arrange groups of the vast number of the various players/members throughout the years, have them play KC music(this has actually been done), but it will not be Crimson unless Robert Fripp is involved.
As cliche as it might be, you start here, first track, first release. Ironically, the rest of the album has little to do with it musically, yet there are strains of this on every subsequent album and in every line-up, regardless of their era and style…

 

[P. Aaron]

I've always liked Dear God or any song that focuses on organized religion, and I still like the album it was released on.

XTC must'a listened to these guys:

 

[Michedelic]

Andy summarizes four decades of rock in less than 20 seconds, and he pretty much nails it on the head…

 

[muggsy]

I totally get it. For years I liked XTC but it was just the few songs that occasionally got played on alternative (whatever that means) radio. Over the past few years, much of their catalog has been re-released in deluxe editions with 5.1 mixes by Steven Wilson, instrumental mixes, extra tracks, etc. The 5.1 mixes are amazing, but the instrumental mixes just floored me. You can hear everything. Drums and Wires, Oranges and Lemons, and Nonsuch are my faves. Also check out the Dukes of Stratosphear, their ode to 60s psychedelia.

 

[Matt O]

I wrote this yesterday in another forum where someone had mentioned XTC (the English band...Andy Partridge, Colin Moulding, Dave Gregory et al) but since that was an Off Topic post in a non-music forum, I figure the question/concept might get more traction here.

XTC is a weird band in my personal listening history...through no fault of their own, I certainly think their music is clever and exquisitely well-crafted and catchy etc. ...but more because of how different it is from all the other music that I've liked but that has prompted other people to recommend XTC to me.

This phenomenon first started back in the very early 1980s when I was still an undergraduate at music school.

Preface: During my teenage years I was mostly listening to archetypal 1970s British prog-rock (e.g., Yes, King Crimson, Gentle Giant) and nascent jazz-rock fusion (e.g., Mahavishnu Orchestra, Return To Forever, Weather Report). Plus lots of Beatles, Rolling Stones, Led Zeppelin, Pink Floyd... and some Classical music, and some "normal" Jazz, and some musical theater.

But by the early 1980s though I was getting really into certain pop/New Wave/post-punk bands...definitely not all of them though; there were only some that seemed to incoprorate (sometimes subliminally) the depth and sophistication I had enjoyed from the prog and fusion bands within their seemingly stripped down pop songs...e.g., The Police, Talking Heads, Peter Gabriel, Romeo Void, The Fixx, Missing Persons, Tears For Fears, Japan, Thomas Dolby, the Adrian Belew-era of King Crimson, etc.

Anyhow, circa 1980 nearly all my college buddies had similar musical tastes and personal listening histories: They all started with prog-rock and fusion, then gravitated to this Police/Talking Heads-type pop.

And so -- here's the part that to this day I don't get -- all my college buddies who had similar tastes and personal listening histories all said "Oh, you also must love XTC!"

:shrugs:

Well, I didn't "love" XTC at the time. (I probably still don't, though I do respect them immensely.) The thing I genuinely don't get is how XTC fits into the aesthetic I just described. I don't hear any connection between XTC's music and Police/Talking Heads-by-way-of-1970s-prog-rock-or-jazz-fusion.

And yet it wasn't just my undergraduate buddies who thought I would like XTC: Folks throughout my life, even recently, once they hear about the music I grew up with, assume that I must also like XTC!

It's inexplicable. And uncanny.

Anyone else experience this? And/or, anyone understand what it is that so many of my aquaintances hear in XTC's music that makes them think I would love it?

Interesting question, Bob. I think the assumption your friends were making probably has to do with what most people’s non-mainstream record collections looked like at the time. Police, Elvis Costello, Talking Heads, XTC, Pretenders, Cure, Joy Division, Gang of 4, Wire, Clash, Pistols, etc. would be the de rigueur vinyl of the day. I’m not surprised someone would assume you also liked or loved XTC if you were also into any of the other bands listed above.

One thing I don’t totally get from your post, and I’m not trying to say I think you’re wrong, is the connection you feel between The Police (etc) and prog or fusion. To me, bands of that era were intentionally distancing from that kind of stuff. I do hear a lot of reggae, rocksteady, and ska influence mixed with pop and punk in bands of that time, especially the Brits. But, that’s only my personal opinion. Maybe your friends were making connections between bands like XTC and the Police based on things other than prog and fusion. They were both young, current, non-mainstream bands. Anyway, you like what you like, no biggie.

Here’s a recording of an XTC show I was at (they were opening for The Police!) at the Michigan Theater in my hometown of Ann Arbor, Michigan on 1/22/80. In two days, it will be 44 years ago. That makes me feel kind of old. I’m 57 now, I was 13 then. I went alone because I was the lone weirdo punk at my junior high school. I walked from home to the theater and back, about 2 miles. I remember freezing my ass off because I was dressed like a miniature Paul Simonon. XTC and the Police were quite different from each other that night, but somehow very similar. Maybe because it was all so fresh to me. I remember thinking XTC were weirder, more aggressive, and I liked them a little better than the Police that night. The police were polished by this point, ready for the mainstream. They were still great, though. But, that’s just my opinion. Enjoy:

 

[Michedelic]

I never understood the high esteem people place on The Beatles. Many songs were great, but together on their albums listened end to end, they were inconsistent and often didn't flow when put together. YMMV, of course.

I’m no obsessive Beatle cult member like those over at this thread…
https://www.talkbass.com/threads/all-things-must-beat-share-anything-beatles.1348948/
In fact, I think this new song is a total fraud.

But I did experience them in real time, although, because I was so young when they first hit, they were just fad of the week for me instead of being some sort of epiphany/life changer like for others. In fact, when I started playing, they were kind of old-fashioned, as it was the moment of Hendrix, Cream, Steppenwolf, etc.
However…
They created this little world we live in, and changed the world at large. They set a multitude of examples, and practically did everything first, and whatever they did that wasn’t original, they drew from obscure sources but used their clout to bring it to a wider audience. They set new standards for songwriting and recording techniques. They made it possible for a band like XTC to exist, and plenty of times Andy and Colin have borrowed motifs from them, not as plagiarism but in loving tribute. Even those two had a similar ratio of crap/ho-hum songs to the epic ones.

 

[jerry]

I've always considered XTC a pop band in the best sense of the word.

 

[Michedelic]

I've always considered XTC a pop band in the best sense of the word.

What they said…

 

[Michedelic]

 

[JimmyM]

I have never worried about what people think I should like vs what I actually do like. As a result, I can’t relate to the question(s). But I do like some XTC.

 

[IPA]

Things didn't used to need to sound the same to be connected. New wave, college rock, even alt rock. Lots of diversity in sounds and themes. Things seem to get way more pigeonholed and categorized now where the relation no longer makes immediate sense.