Saturday, September 13, 2008

Chips From The Chocolate Fireball

This is the pseudonym for an anthology of two EP's (25 O'Clock and Psionic Psunspot) by The Dukes of Stratosphear, which is a pseudonym for XTC.

How is it possible that I made it through four years of college radio between 1988 and 1992, and I never even heard of these songs? I suspect time travel is responsible. They sound like the Alan Parsons Project and the Mothers of Invention had a baby. I found them when I heard "Brainiac's Daughter" on WYEP, and wondered how I could have missed something that sounded like such a natural fit for my pysche. I mean, no one even ever mentioned these songs to me! What other secrets is the world keeping?

4 comments:

  1. Ah!!! Someone else who knows about these bands! Got the albums when they came out and honestly haven't listened to them (for want of a working turntable) for almost 10 years... I'm glad you found them!
    Pearl

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  2. Fantastic stuff, you show fine taste, sir.

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  3. If you like the Dukes O' Stratosphear, you might check out an excellent 80s Neo-Psychedelic band called The Rain Parade. Very cool band. They're different than the Dukes, who were going for a very 60s sound with that XTC twist on it. The Rain Parade were highly melodic with lots of guitar. I loved their records. You can sample one of them on iTunes. Thanks for the fun blog.

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