So is anybody here into Shonen Knife?

Yeah, I was actually playing Hybrid Vigor. I got a turntable as an early Christmas gift over the weekend and was listening to some stuff that I don’t have on CD anymore.

Doo-Dad is great but I still have a soft spot for “It Came From Nashville.” It took me forever to get used to Steve Earle’s version of “Devil’s Right Hand,” even though he wrote it. Webb’s version boogies.

Have you seen any of his film shorts? Night Flight used to run “Webb Wilder, Private Eye” all the time, and “Horror Hayride” is a hoot in all sorts of awesome ways.

Their earliest material (the stuff that made their name in the UK) was largely ignored in the US. However over the course of the eighties they built up a substantial college radio audience as their popularity dropped off in their homeland. By the end of the 1980s, they managed some commercial radio play in the US (“Mayor of Simpleton” was a number one modern rock radio hit in 1989–keep in mind that there were about a dozen modern rock radio stations in the US at the time, though–and scored another number one with “Ballad of Peter Pumpkinhead” in 1992). Even then, XTC never sold much; college radio was still largely a glass celling back then, and modern rock radioplay didn’t correlate well to actual sales at that point, not like it would after grunge became popular.

And when grunge hit, among the many affects it had was pretty much wiping out the Anglophilic tendencies that had dominated college and modern rock radio up to that point (the latter format in particular was wedded to a Cure/Depeche Mode/Morrissey axis by the time Nirvana came around). As such, by the mid 90s a number of previous stalwarts of the formats were consigned to the dustbin and as such aren’t mentioned much today–XTC included.

ok, i’ll have to google it. i hope i dont regret it.

As for XTC, I think their albums or singles might have been doing a little better in America at the time at the tail end of the ’80s, but nobody over here seems to know about them today. I think it was a college radio thing; name recognition for Americans under 40 is fairly low.

And yeah, Ballad of Peter Pumpkinhead was a ’92 XTC original.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fossil_Fuel:_The_XTC_Singles_1977-92

Wilfredo: Wire is still a great band. Their 2008 album, Object 47, wasn’t necessarily their best work but was still better than many bands can aspire to, and they were great on tour as well.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Object_47

Justin– What’s wrong with being named after Justin Hayward? The Moody Blues are one of the greatest bands in history. And extremely well-known, as well. They had hits ranging all the way from 1964 until the late ’80s.

Mike– Were you really listening to Hybrid Vigor?!?!?!?! For real? I can’t believe there is actually somebody on here who has heard of Webb Wilder (the Last Of The Full-Grown Men). Do you have Doo-Dad? (I love ‘Meet Your New Landlord’.) What about Acres Of Suede or Town And Country? Is ‘Fall In Place’ one of the greatest country songs ever, or what?

Eat hard, play hard, work hard, sleep hard, grow big, wear glasses if you need them.

Steph: Content versus form.

Wilfredo: And thank you, sir, for the compliment. Also, cool story about meeting Elvis Costello. I actually don’t have any burning desire to meet my favorite writers/artists/musicians/heroes for the most part, but Elvis is an exception to that. Always seems like a genuinely rad fellow. I suppose I would have dinner with him and John Hodgman, with drinks of Hodgman’s choosing.

Rachel: Likewise, if you two are ever in Wisconsin, you are invited over for drinks (also of Hodgman’s choosing).

Speaking of hitting, I met Elvis Costello in the eighties, and he was a gentle soul, until a record rep disrespected him. I had no doubt the Costello was gonna do what he threatened the guy with.