Trivia: the music group XTC were the following: (a) a cute 80s band, (b) a loud punk rock group in the late 70s, (c) responsible for the most beautiful pop record since "Pet Sounds", (d) a scraggly-haired mess of dub technicians, or (e) avant 'orc-pop' for the late 90s.
Of course it's all of the above. Why else would I ask? This following article means to prepare you, my loving readers, for the onslaught of XTC HYPE. Within the next month something quite amazing is going to happen: a new XTC record, the first one in 7 years, called "Apple Venus Volume One." This is decidedly a BIG DEAL, because even if you personally haven't heard XTC, I guarantee that at least one third of your favorite groups worship at their altars. With this resurgence of XTC interest comes the interesting side effect that finally, after all these (20!) years, to like this band is HIP. Big time.
Why the name sounds familiar: a very big 80s event was the piece of music called "Dear God," you know, the agnostic's reasonings as to why this God can't exist that he's talking to in a very witty monologue: "Did you make mankind / or did we make you..." 'Rock Radio' got a little scared, but those crazy college stations, fearless victors of Negativland, played it nonstop. Funny thing is, that B-side was their worst output from that era, which culminated in the gargantuan monster of a pop masterpiece, the season-themed "Skylarking." (In the next Evil Record Man episode, watch as ERM puts 'Dear God' in the middle of Skylarking a few months after it is released, disrupting the flow of the record! Tune in!) But I'm getting ahead of myself: XTC has a history; they started off as a crazy loud and frenetic punk group in England's burgeoning scene for that kind of stuff, late 70s. They had classic loud songs with awful videos: "Are You Receiving Me?", "Making Plans for Nigel", "Generals and Majors." But something was up with them: while their peers were content bashing out three chord riffs and singing about girls, XTC (most notably their frontman Andy Partridge) had 'quirks,' which is instant death in the popularity biz: their music got more complex over time, evolving from the absolutely stupid (but amazing) "Go 2" to the instant classic "English Settlement" (with acoustic guitars! gasp!) to the screwed up Korg instrumentals on "Mummer", on to the serene and downright pretty Skylarking and beyond. But they lost a lot of fans on the way: who could keep up? No one who listened to punk in 1978 wanted to admit they liked "Mayor of Simpleton" in 1988. (Even though I was 2 in 1978, I'd like to think I would.)
So, out now on their new label (TVT in America, Cooking Vinyl in the UK) comes Transistor Blast, a four CD box set of live stuff. (Oh yeah, XTC hasn't played live since Andy had a nervous breakdown on stage during the English Settlement tour) If you're not an XTC fan right now, don't bother with it-but it is a end-to-end document of their short-lived live career, culminating in the fourth disc, an absolutely intense concert from 1980 that would put any "only hippie bands play good shows" naysayers to shame. The rest is some great live in the studio stuff, but don't be fooled: the last thing XTC is and will ever be is a live band: they've made their mark in the studio. Without them, the musical campus we roam these days would be much less varied; thousands of musicians, from the ultra-popular to the indie claim XTC as their major influence. While many of these groups are certainly flash-in-the-pan types, XTC's influence extends well past that and roots even in the present day. Transistor Blast is a packaged statement of that influence, but I'd definitely suggest you look elsewhere for an introduction.