xtc - a good time had by all those fans at the hop

REQUIRED LESSONS IN ENTERTAINMENT.....

after two miserable decades of American pop culture. Its obvious we are incapable of creating anything with any lasting endearment. We have to keep re-inventing the wheel at every turn. We have no Hollywood which to speak of, that is to say, its nothing like it once was.

We have no pop scene. The one we have is filled with excessive no shows lining up to jump head first into a cemetary plot..... this week its Lindsy Lohan and Britney Spears...... last decade we had Kurt Kobain..... last week it was Anna Nicole Smith. Everyone wants to be a victim . And then the ones who carry on their legacies line up to victimize the victims once they have taken a full dirt nap......

But thats America.

XTC could never ever become American pop stars. First of all they fail the criteria on all accounts. They are not from this country, they are all alive, and are talented and have been around for years and are completely brilliant.

So sorry boys, but you do not qualify to become American entertainment. You simply aren't disposable enough.

Andy Partridge and Colin Moulding know how to belt out solid tunes and make them entertaining. They jumped on Virgin records and Richard Branson knows how to take a chance.... its a winning combination. Plus XTC are upbeat and smart with their lyrics and arrangements so they are always doing something interesting.

This video should be watched for educational purposes. Its fun to watch. Mostly because its seriously UNAMERICAN.

Ted Cantu writes for the fascube network, lives in walled lake, MI and does sereral podcasts. This entry was created on feb 22, 07, at 11:07 pm

LIFE BEGINS AT THE HOP.... BOYS AND GIRLS - XTC

XTC - Peter Pumpkinhead Defined

"MY OGGGHHHHH MY DON'T IT MAKE YOU WANNA CRY!!???"

This video has a strong JFK thing about it. I never saw this when it came out. I was off running around having adventures instead of being glued to the tube watching life zip by. In many respects this video is painful to watch. Not because of the murder of JFK.... but becuase it tries too hard to center around this theme.

After Andy Partridge spoke out in the book XTC I gotta wonder who really pulled the strings in the creative look of this piece. The band was always butting heads with creative people and record company execs EVERY STEP OF THE WAY.

There is never any mention of JFK on the album NoneSuch.... which is odd how this comes about. If you want a clue about what this song is REALLY about check this out.....

lekkermeisje78757 (1 week ago)
The truth is, the only one who'll ever really know what this song is about is Andy Partridge. I recall seeing him on 120 Minutes about the time that this came out and he told this long story about his children carving a Jack-O-Lantern and how it rotted and he wanted to immortalize it. :-)It doesn't matter--I'm a huge XTC fan and I've been really enjoying seeing their old videos and (especially) live performances here. I wish I could have seen them.

This review is a little closer to what I think the song is really about... more or less. I too had a character who literally had a pumpkin for a head... who .. takes on the Roman Catholic church and gets... crucified of all things.. I even drew illustrations for it -- and then later abandoned the entire thing altogether. This thing really stuck close to me for years.

Although I admire this song deeply I feel the song is a bit long and could have been shortened up a bit. I crawled through the entire XTC catalog and often got very lost in it.

Cantu writes for the fascube network - This entry was published on Feb. 20, at 10:50 pm.

XTC - THE BALLAD OF PETER PUMPKINHEAD

DUKES OF STRATOSPHERE - CLIPS FROM THE CHOCOLATE FIREBALL

"I'm the bad thoughts inside your head..... and you won't catch me..." Chides, the Mole IN THE MINISTRY... MAN !!!!

MAN !!!!!

Can you DIG the coolness OF THIS CLIP?

Why can't more music have more thought put into it like this today? Is that too much to ask......???? I don't want to go on ANOTHER dreary comparrison to a drollish band like Nickleback so I will save it for another time.

"CHIPS FROM THE CHOCOLATE FIREBALL" is a CD worth owning. If you can't get it anywhere you should download anything you can from the Dukes of Stratosphere. This was XTC's alter ego and for years I had no idea they even did this project. I remember this when it was on vinyl. This was also before the second album came out so this goes back a few years around the "Skylarking" album...... which is another album you should run out and get !!

Yes, it drips with Beatlemania and screams "Magical Mystery Tour" but it also screams XTC. It also is done a tad bit better than the Beatles, "MMT".... at least musically. The Beatles film was great visually from what I remember and it was handled with powerful vivid colored visuals that left a profound statement on my artistic sensibilities..... to the point where it almost defined them. And you certainly cannot say that about Nickleback.... at least, not if your speaking intelligently and coherrantly.
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Ted Cantu is the creator of http://www.beautyloungestore.com he has contributed to several blogs and podcasts such as…..http://911copywriters.podomatic.com. He served as a top rated art director for Interactive Web Marketing groups in Chicago and New York City.

DUKES OF STRATOSPHERE - XTC - MOLE FROM THE MINISTRY

XTC - SHINING GEM OF 89

This release was a true sparkling gem of its time. It emerged in its own time and place. The fans who understood XTC immediately understood it and embraced it.

The ones who didn't are still confused by it. They are the ones who readily bought Vanilla Ice .... maybe it was the need to feel popular or of the minute or included. Nobody likes to be an outisder after all.

The rest of this album didn't have a commercial appeal of this track. "Oranges and Lemons" a line taken from the much earlier release, "Skylarking", (produced by Todd Rundgren). XTC would find commercial success with some very blatant radio free friendly tracks that literally screamed, PLAY ME. But for the most part they are established as an art rock band.

Despite Andy Partridge's shyness this band actually played on David Letterman in the summer of 1989. They played, King for Day... and the Mayor of Simpleton.
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cantu fascube 2006

XTC - THE MAYOR OF SIMPLETON

SPOOKEY RUBEN - THESE DAYS ARE MUSICAL

This guy goes past anything Beck has done..... first of all it is a little more easier to listen to. Beck is angry about something in a lot of his songs but I don't have time to figure out what it is exactly. I want to like him..... but i don't play his stuff very often.

Ruben's music is different. I am curious to what he is singing about and I will replay his music over again becuase it is enjoyable. The videos are odd but then again, this is an odd performer.

The guitar parts are surprisingly musical. There is a fluidity to his song narrative. Which is becoming stylisticaly rare in pop music lately. Usually out of frustration the band will throw in some cranky guitar stomping in the middle of the song because it seems to lack creative direction on where it can go.... remember he song, "Hes Kissing Christian" by THAT DOG.... that sort of thing.. just CRUNCH, BANG. BOOM. etc.

This stuff doesn't do that. Ruben seems to have creative control over all of his work too which is refreshing to see. In one hand its like allowing the inmates to run the asylum. On the other hand it is nice to see it happen. The end has a musical XTC feel to it... think Andy Partridge.

Spookey is on TVT Records.
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Ted Cantu Fascube, Fashion Culture Beauty Network 2006

SPOOKEY RUBEN - THESE DAYS ARE OLD

SPOOKEY RUBEN - WHAT I NEED IS A WHOLE LOT MORE !!!!

" what you want -- what you get !!!....... what i want is a whole lot more"

This is off the album, "Modes of Transportation" Note that he is transposed over the face of John Travolta in the Boy in the PLastic Bubble. I found this life saving gem at the right time while I was living in Chicago. I had just broken up from a bizarre love thing with an infamous songstress and this CD sort of saved my sanity. Artistically speaking.

Needless to say I was also glad to be out of the Detroit radio market so I welcomed any kind of new sounds that didn't reflect Stone Temple Pilots. My method of madness back then was to walk into a record store, in this case, Reckless Records in Chicago and just buy music based on the album art, (while disregarding the price tag). This is not a very cost effective or scientific way to choose music but in my case it paid off.

Spookey, (who got his name from wearing scary heavy metal t shirts) is well versed in pop music. He sounds like XTC meets a tornado meets a perfect storm. Incredible effort. This soon became the soundtrack for a very turbnulent time in my adult years.

If I had to do it all over again. Id scrap the relationship and get straight to the music. I adored this stuff. In this time period I was finding the levels that went well beyond Beck and commercial radio. Wendy Mc Donald is an amazing tune.
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fascube cantu 2006

SPOOKEY RUBEN - WENDY MCDONALD

XTC - PEPPERED WITH POP BRILLIANCE

PERFECT.

I don't hand out many titles of that nature when it comes to pop music. I hardly hand them out even in Andy Partridge's case. But as an XTC this song goes past what is expected and delivers the song exactly as it should be. Better than I fantasized about. Its more electric then I could have dreamed of.

Frenetic. Mad. Disasterous. Ecstatic and Frenzied.

The office shots, screaming into a plastic toy telephone and appearing on multiple tv monitors..... all the shots equally vying for your attention.

ARE YOU RECIEVING ME?

YES... i SHOULD HOPE SO !

Of course too much exposure to this type of psychotic pop frenzied music could be dangerous to ones health, (irregular heart beats and copulous beer consumption). Not to mentioned a bruised imagination.

While I am on the subject of XTC let me ask you if you ever heard of these louts?

www.dukesofsimpleton.com

A tribute band to XTC. Spreading imagination to soul dead world.
THanks to an era of Bush and Post-Hope.... we need all the encouragement we can get.
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Ted Cantu IS THE FASCUBE NETWORK 2006

XTC - ARE YOU RECIEVING ME !?!?