UK New Wave At It’s Best- XTC

Posted by Brian Lund in Let's Talk Music and tagged with

I love music.  It is one of the best things this world has to offer.  From time to time, I would like to highlight some bands you may never have heard of, or some bands you have heard of, but never took the time to listen to.  So here is my first attempt.

I like all types of music, but it wasn’t always that way.  I grew up in Huntington Beach, California, and back in the late 70′s and early 80′s, if it wasn’t “punk” it wasn’t shit!  True, I did manage to listen to some more “new wave” type of bands, but generally speaking, if the band memebers did not have cropped hair, torn jeans, and more importantly, an “F-you” attitude, I didn’t want to know about them.  This was the reason that I never paid much attention to XTC, when they were burning hot from 78-82.  What a mistake that was.

About a year ago, I purchased the DVD, The Old Grey Whistle Test, Vol I, basically becuase it had a clip of my all time favorite band, The Damned. As I went through the DVD, I was captivated by a performance by XTC, on their song, Statue of Liberty, which you can see below……

Not only was it a good song, but the performance was awesome.  What attitude!  Andy Partridge, the lead singer, was so full of youthful exuberance, he could hardly push out the lyrics fast enough in the second verse.  I started going back through their catalog (via Rhapsody), and couldn’t believe how much good music I had missed.   Even more amazing was that this music I was discovering sounded as if it was new, not 25+ years old (and it sounded as relevant as anything being played today).  Check out this clip of the song No Thugs In Our House, and tell me it is not great.

I strongly suggest you check out anything XTC.  Some of my favorite songs are….

Senses Working Overtime

Generals and Majors

Statue of Liberty

Respectable Street

No Thugs In Our House

Making Plans For Nigel

Mayor of Simpleton

Trust me, you won’t be dissappointed with anything XTC has put out.  You can check out their official site here.

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  • http://www.riskandreturn.net Lance Paddock

    I would also recommend if you haven’t explored it yet their alter ego, The Dukes of Stratosphear. Amazing reinvention of sixties psychedelia.

    • http://bclund.com/ bclund

      Thanks for the suggestion Lance, I will check it out.

  • http://flagonofrice.wordpress.com J Bob

    Nice, I have Skylarking and English Settlement on my computer and haven’t listened to them in the longest time. Now seems like a great time to revisit them. Thanks.

  • Per Aronsson

    Hi, great that you have discovered XTC. Best band ever, in my humble opinion. But the link is not correct. XTC had that online adress before, but not anymore. The correct link is to Andy Partridges APE-label:

    http://www.ape.uk.net/

    Via that link you also find a fan forum. Everybody is welcome to join!

    • http://bclund.com/ bclund

      Hey thanks for catching that, I have updated the link.

      And thanks for reading Per.