Quirky genius

Pretty much couldn't have been more excited to read in this recent interview that legendary quirk-folk trailblazer Robyn Hitchcock is working with XTC's Andy Partidge!

"Last but certainly not least, what are you working on, now?

Immediately, I’m getting a pizza from Pizza Express. They have Peter Blake’s artwork on the walls in there, it’s almost like eating Peter himself. With olives. Otherwise I’m editing a collection of old recordings made with the Egyptians in the 1980s, preparing a new record album with the Venus 3 for fall release, and working on something with Andy Partridge (legendary XTC main man) in his shed."

Robyn Hitchcock plus Andy Partridge making music in a shed? It's pretty much destined to be genius.

(The rest of the interview is equally entertaining, I highly recommend it.)

In a relatively unrelated segment, here is some rough video of Hitchcock performing one of his songs with the Decemberists:

Stupidly Happy

My motto for 2007 (I heart 2007) dovetails nicely with one of my favorite songs ("Stupidly Happy") from one of my favorite albums (XTC's Wasp Star: Apple Venus Vol. 2<).

"Stupidly Happy" is currently the song of the week on XTC's MySpace page. Go there to listen to it in its entirety and read an interview with XTC's Andy Partridge about how it came into being.

My favorite quote from the interview?

"I guess, when I write a song, I sometimes have other bands in mind as a template. Not as a stealing thing, but you're doing your own little Sistine Chapel, and you use bits of songs by other bands as some sort of scaffolding to help you up there while you're doing your own thing."



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