Conjunction Junction – Andy Partridge Edition

Hey there folks. I’ve been off the blog for a week or so, you know, post-election celebrations, post-Prop-8 commiserations, etc. But mainly, I’ve been writing for a living. And among the projects that I’m working on is a big book about a big music producer. And for one of the chapters in that, I had the pleasure of speaking with all three members of XTC, who had one of their best albums produced by said producer. More on that later.

My conversation with XTC’s Andy Partridge, an early musical hero of mine, was convivial and detailed. I was pleased, and frustrated, to note that he has the same singular lack of focus, and ability to digress in conversation, that I do. Needless to say a splendid time was had by all.

Among these digressions, out of the blue, Andy started telling me how likes to run band names together, to create new hybrid names – a game that those of you he read my blog regularly (and thank you for that) will recognize as Conjunction Junction (see earlier entries in my Archives). In mid-conversation,  Andy grabbed his book and shared a few of his own. “I’m always making these lists,” he told me. So I asked him if I could share a short sampling of his current hybrids.

Here, then, is the Andy Partridge Edition of Conjunction Junction. Our first ever Celebrity Edition!

Andy’s List.
Alanis Morrissey
Bing Crosby Stills Nash & Will Young
Paul Weller-Fitzgerald
Fleet Samantha Foxes
Mahavishnu Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark
Chaka Can
Richard Claydermantronix
Gwar.E.M.
Randy Neu! Man
“And my new favourite…”

Steely Dana (“Dana was a really anodyne Irish kind of cabaret / folk singer from the seventies.”)

“The idea,” says Andy, “is to put somebody quite reasonable with somebody really awful and you make this kind of musical hybrid that you’d never want to see.”

Thank you for that takeaway Mr. Partridge. Perhaps we’ll be hearing from other musical celebrities in the future.

Another Place To Read My Stuff…Crawdaddy.

Just thought I’d give you a heads up that I’ve been writing stuff for Crawdaddy online, which is related to the great Crawdaddy magazine founded by Paul Williams (not the P. Williams who wrote “You And Me Against The World” FYI).  Their main page is HERE.

A couple of weeks back, I had the cover feature story about SLOAN.

This week, I contributed a piece about an obscure XTC side project called Explode Together for Crawdaddy’s Crate Digger feature, which spotlights under appreciated albums from the past. I have a few more coming in the next month, so check in with them often.

I posted a JPEG teaser of the XTC piece (below)…but here’s a link to read the whole thing.

Wilco Gets The Colbert Bump

Don’t know if you saw Wilco last night on the Colbert Report. Blew my mind. They did a new song that sounded a bit like Bowie’s “Heroes” but ultimately just sounded like Wilco. Which is a good thing. I love this song not just because they sing that Wilco loves you (and later that Colbert loves you too) but also for the little Obama HOPE card stuck on lead guitarist Nels Cline’s amp.

http://www.colbertnation.com/the-colbert-report-videos/189726/october-30-2008/exclusive-wilco-song

If this embedded video (courtesy Comedy Central’s website) doesn’t work, go to Comedy Central and check it out (I couldn’t embed the actual one for some reason)