XTC – Ten Feet Tall
On this, their 3rd, record – Drums & Wires – XTC’s sound changed significantly. Gone were the herky-jerky organ parts of Barry Andrews’ – replaced by Dave Gregory’s guitar coloring that would compliment Colin & Andy’s songs for decades. This Colin-penned, & sung, track is far different from the rest of those on the record. An acoustic guitar-propelled piece that points to what they would be exploring two albums later on English Settlement. Colin tends to be the McCartney of the band – with the more mellifluous voice and of course jaunty & interesting bass lines. Lots of tasty guitar bits on this track. This is the album that started my XTC fandom – it remains a favorite and this song is a standout on it.
Ramones – 53rd & 3rd
Garage punk? Sex, drugs and rock & roll of a different sort here. I used to joke about how similar Ramones songs sounded – I had one of their early albums on 8-track and would chunk through the 4 “programs” demonstrating the difficulty of determining the differences in the songs. I was doing them a great disservice. This song chugs along at a slightly slower pace than one might expect from them, drums up in the mix. A gritty sound matching the lyrics with a most excellent razor blade of a bridge. Great stuff.
XTC – Being much more familiar with the latter half of the XTC catalogue, this song struck me as almost proto-XTC. That is, a relatively sparse, mostly acoustic offering with harmonies and interesting guitar noodling which is almost demo-like in its production. One would imagine in later years this might be a much ‘bigger song’. None(such)theless, it has the quirky meanderings you want in your XTC with a generous sampling of about 10 different guitar stylings which keeps things interesting.
Ramones-
Well, if the XTC song was proto, this one is even moreso proto. You can’t get much more straight ahead than this. I could see how a hardcore Ramones fan would love this (I’m guessing) early cut from them as a harbinger of things to come. Though, I am hard-pressed to listen to this and not think of a high school rock band playing together. I chuckled a bit at the 1:46 mark with what appears to be either an extended rest or an attempt at a fake ending.
Sorry, I’ve got nothing! it seems I like the cover songs of XTC more than I like XTC, but I didnt know they were XTC cover songs at the time. As for the Ramones, I was never really a big fan. Like Ed said, the songs all sound similiar to me. However I do like “Beat on the Brat”
Ramones – I was waiting for this one to turn into one long CAN jam. Perhaps also taking cues from Lou reed and the Velvets.
XTC – I go round and round about regarding my favourite XTC LP (Drums/Black Sea/English Settlement), but this is my favourite track. Colin was the hit machine!
Ten Feet Tall: I have heard this one before and so happy it landed on my doorstep this week. The mix; simple yet very well done; soft rounded perfection with everything sitting in its place in such a way you just want to hug the music around you and slowly turn it up (no ear fatigue anywhere in the forecast), cool reverb work too (e.g. the slow/subtle reverb fader ride up at 2:02 to 2:10) ; kudos to the producer. The song: Love the harmonies; also love the guitar work; chord tones and patterns, great licks parsed with sweet riffs (other interesting subtle filler trinkets added throughout). Enjoyed the journey artistically and technically.
53rd and 3rd: Loved this one sitting next to Ten Feet Tall because it is an example that shows that you absolutely don’t need ANY technical perfection to make a great song. Ramones deliver the magic in the Song itself. The arrangement starts fading out at 2:00 and would be destined to be a droner despite this short length (at least to my ears) if not for the “I’m no sissy” bridge kicking in just in the knick of time and the very cool ultra long pregnant pause at 1:45. Ramones are just cool and this garage band sounding gritty street life romp delivers.
XTC. “Ten Feet Tall.” I happen to have a friend who’s rather into this British unit, so I have heard this number before. Lovely tune — languidly jaunty melodic pop thrown pleasingly off-stride by a tottering little guitar solo and some of Sir Andy’s post-punky vocalisms. A simple sentiment, perfectly delivered.
Addendum: Oh-ho, i see from reading the other comments that the singer I identified as Andy is not actually Andy but Colin sounding, to my ears, exactly like Andy. Well, then. all other comments remain as originally submitted.
XTC – Ten Feet Tall
On this, their 3rd, record – Drums & Wires – XTC’s sound changed significantly. Gone were the herky-jerky organ parts of Barry Andrews’ – replaced by Dave Gregory’s guitar coloring that would compliment Colin & Andy’s songs for decades. This Colin-penned, & sung, track is far different from the rest of those on the record. An acoustic guitar-propelled piece that points to what they would be exploring two albums later on English Settlement. Colin tends to be the McCartney of the band – with the more mellifluous voice and of course jaunty & interesting bass lines. Lots of tasty guitar bits on this track. This is the album that started my XTC fandom – it remains a favorite and this song is a standout on it.
Ramones – 53rd & 3rd
Garage punk? Sex, drugs and rock & roll of a different sort here. I used to joke about how similar Ramones songs sounded – I had one of their early albums on 8-track and would chunk through the 4 “programs” demonstrating the difficulty of determining the differences in the songs. I was doing them a great disservice. This song chugs along at a slightly slower pace than one might expect from them, drums up in the mix. A gritty sound matching the lyrics with a most excellent razor blade of a bridge. Great stuff.
XTC – Being much more familiar with the latter half of the XTC catalogue, this song struck me as almost proto-XTC. That is, a relatively sparse, mostly acoustic offering with harmonies and interesting guitar noodling which is almost demo-like in its production. One would imagine in later years this might be a much ‘bigger song’. None(such)theless, it has the quirky meanderings you want in your XTC with a generous sampling of about 10 different guitar stylings which keeps things interesting.
Ramones-
Well, if the XTC song was proto, this one is even moreso proto. You can’t get much more straight ahead than this. I could see how a hardcore Ramones fan would love this (I’m guessing) early cut from them as a harbinger of things to come. Though, I am hard-pressed to listen to this and not think of a high school rock band playing together. I chuckled a bit at the 1:46 mark with what appears to be either an extended rest or an attempt at a fake ending.
Sorry, I’ve got nothing! it seems I like the cover songs of XTC more than I like XTC, but I didnt know they were XTC cover songs at the time. As for the Ramones, I was never really a big fan. Like Ed said, the songs all sound similiar to me. However I do like “Beat on the Brat”
Ramones – I was waiting for this one to turn into one long CAN jam. Perhaps also taking cues from Lou reed and the Velvets.
XTC – I go round and round about regarding my favourite XTC LP (Drums/Black Sea/English Settlement), but this is my favourite track. Colin was the hit machine!
Ten Feet Tall: I have heard this one before and so happy it landed on my doorstep this week. The mix; simple yet very well done; soft rounded perfection with everything sitting in its place in such a way you just want to hug the music around you and slowly turn it up (no ear fatigue anywhere in the forecast), cool reverb work too (e.g. the slow/subtle reverb fader ride up at 2:02 to 2:10) ; kudos to the producer. The song: Love the harmonies; also love the guitar work; chord tones and patterns, great licks parsed with sweet riffs (other interesting subtle filler trinkets added throughout). Enjoyed the journey artistically and technically.
53rd and 3rd: Loved this one sitting next to Ten Feet Tall because it is an example that shows that you absolutely don’t need ANY technical perfection to make a great song. Ramones deliver the magic in the Song itself. The arrangement starts fading out at 2:00 and would be destined to be a droner despite this short length (at least to my ears) if not for the “I’m no sissy” bridge kicking in just in the knick of time and the very cool ultra long pregnant pause at 1:45. Ramones are just cool and this garage band sounding gritty street life romp delivers.
XTC. “Ten Feet Tall.” I happen to have a friend who’s rather into this British unit, so I have heard this number before. Lovely tune — languidly jaunty melodic pop thrown pleasingly off-stride by a tottering little guitar solo and some of Sir Andy’s post-punky vocalisms. A simple sentiment, perfectly delivered.
Addendum: Oh-ho, i see from reading the other comments that the singer I identified as Andy is not actually Andy but Colin sounding, to my ears, exactly like Andy. Well, then. all other comments remain as originally submitted.