The Dukes of Stratosphear
TTop loaned me “Chips From The Chocolate Fireball”, The Dukes of Stratosphear anthology. Remember them from the 60’s? The CD cover reports that it features all of “Psonic Psunspot and 25 O’Clock”. Still not ringing a bell? Well that’s because they didn’t really exist in the 60’s. This album is all about psychedelic music: It has elements of the 60’s Stones, Floyd, Beatles, Byrds, Moodys, you name it — it even has a Beach Boysish track. They almost do the 60’s too well! This album is not meant to be funny like The Rutles or Spinal Tap, instead it is a fine addition to your late 60’s collection. It is really a 1987 release by the members of XTC. For more info, see this Chalkhills link. Check out The Dukes of Stratosphear — the 60’s are only getting farther away!
October 17th, 2005 at 6:20 am
So-o-o-o, let me get this straight(er)…. Supposedly, a group called “The Dukes of Stratosphear” released three psychedelic albums (including an anthology) in/about 1969….., But-t-t-t, it turns out that these English scamps were really a band called XTC and the albums were released in/about 1986-7 which was around 18 years later than period of time they were imitating….. O.K.?…… So-o-o-o, it’s been another 18 years (’87-’05), is there an album out there supposedly recorded by XTC in/about 1987 which is really by “The Dukes of Stratosphear” and recorded in/about 2005?…. Stranger things have happened (but only in Oklahoma.)……
Actually the album looks very interesting….. I went to the link and checked it out visually and, due to interruptions yesterday by certain indviduals, who will remain un-named, I plan to listen to the sound samples today…..
October 17th, 2005 at 9:21 am
So, better play me some next time Im over……
October 17th, 2005 at 9:47 am
Ya’ had me going for a while. I was a record collector at one time, that specialized in 60 & 70 music. Thought I had heard of everything from that era. There has been very little rock music in the last 10-15 years that has caught my attention. I’ll definitely check this one out.
October 17th, 2005 at 9:57 am
Need to listen to this one at night, with the lava lamp cranked up. Reminded me of sitting in the floor at someone’s house, listening to the Electric Prunes. Long, long ago……………………in a land far away!
October 17th, 2005 at 10:20 am
The Dukes are a real favorite of mine. It was an XTC side-project, originally an EP (1985) called 25 O’Clock and the record company presented it as “this old unknown 60’s band we found in the vaults.” But XTC fans caught on real quick. They followed up with an album-length release called Psonic Psunspot in 1987, and in the same year the EP and album were compiled onto one CD called Chips From The Chocolate Fireball. I agree, they really out-sixties the sixties, but it’s not done in any parody sort of way, you can tell they’re paying tribute, indeed there are musical references to some fairly obscure 60’s bands. I have an XTC book called “Song Stories” where they talk about their songs in detail, and I if I recall correctly, they spend a fair amount of effort detailing some of the Dukes songs and their references.
Really fun stuff for anyone who likes the sixties idiom!
October 29th, 2005 at 1:05 pm
Thanks to jek & ttop for suggesting this one. My copy arrived from Amazon yesterday.
The summary jek provided is spot on. It sounds like an original sixties group using fairly modern recording equipment & techniques. One of the few “rock” albums I’ve purchased in years. Enjoyed it very much. Will listen to this one a lot.
October 30th, 2005 at 10:17 am
Listened again this morning. Doubly impressed. Cloudy morning, had the lava lamp going. It was like Deja Vu all over again (Yogi Berra). What are the XTC CD’s like?
October 30th, 2005 at 3:14 pm
I really like the XTC stuff — one of my favorite bands of all time. They have changed a lot over the years, from early punk/new wave in the 70s to a more melodic rock sound today. The Dukes are definitely a side project, XTC’s other music doesn’t sound like it, but the 60’s influence is definitely there. I like to think of XTC as what the Beatles might have become had they not broken up, but that might be overstating it a bit 🙂 Reminds me of a line in John Wesley Harding’s song “When the Beatles hit America” — a song about a dream he had that the Beatles re-formed and toured the US in modern times. It has a line that says “they sounded quite a lot like ELO, or ELP… or REM or XTC, they sounded a lot like XTC!”
Some of my favorite XTC albums:
Skylarking – “A summer’s day cooked into one cake” as described by XTC frontman Andy Partridge. Produced by Todd Rundgren, this album is very cohesive from end-to-end, with some great songs. They had a minor hit off this album with the song “Dear God”.
Oranges and Lemons – this might be the most Dukes-like album as it was made in the same timeframe and some songs originally thought to be Dukes tracks ended up on this. The production is more modern and shimmery, but still lots of good songcraft here, from the psychedelic-tinged opener of “Garden of Earthly Delights” to the anthemic “The Loving” (“All the rich and poor, even those we fight at war need The Loving…”), to the cheeky double entendre-laced “Pink Thing” and the majestic hopefullness of the closer “Chalkhills and Children.”
Apple Venus Volume One – I didn’t think any XTC album could ever supplant Skylarking as my favorite, but this one did. Conceived and executed as an “Orchoustic” album, Partridge hits the peak of his songwriting combining grade A pop songs with orchestral/acoustic production. If you forced me to choose at gunpoint, I say this is my favorite album of the last ten years.
XTC has lots of gems in their extensive catalog, rummage around in your local used bin and see what you come up with. For the XTC newbie, I would avoid any albums pre-1979 (they had a kind of herky-jerky punk sound then).
In other Dukes news, just this morning at the record store I saw a new release,Children of Nuggets, the third in the excellent Rhino Nuggets box sets series (all psychedelic obscurities). Excitedly I flipped over the box and saw the very first track on the very first disc is “Vanishing Girl” by The Dukes of Stratosphear. 🙂
October 31st, 2005 at 11:52 am
TTop, on your recommendation I just ordered Skylarking. Also ordered one called Black Sea. I will let you know what I think. Thanks again for the suggestions. Oh yes, Nuggets. I bought the first CD when it was released (15 or 20 years ago?)
October 31st, 2005 at 1:22 pm
BTW, there is some previous XTC conversation on the HARD KNOX AND DURTY SOX post from April.
October 31st, 2005 at 5:00 pm
Black Sea had four singles make it into the top 40 in the UK — “Generals and Majors” (also a US alternative radio hit), “Respectable Street”, “Sgt. Rock (Is Going To Help Me)” and my personal favorite “Towers of London” (last year I made sure to listen to that on my iPod the day that I visited the Towers of London).
I think you’ll find Black Sea and Skylarking sound very different from each other, but I like both records. I think Black Sea is great music for exercising — almost all of it is upbeat.
October 31st, 2005 at 8:37 pm
TTop, I was thinking we had quite a bit in common until you said “great music for exercising”
November 1st, 2005 at 11:31 am
TTop, I hope you took my last comment as a lame attempt at humor. Reread it, and didn’t quite come off like I intended.
Peace, Love & Understanding (or something like that)
November 1st, 2005 at 11:39 am
No offense taken. I was only a half-hearted exerciser before this year. On January 3rd, 2005 I started a hard-core diet and began running — although I hated running and could only run barely a mile (and hurt for days afterwards). After training hard all spring and summer, I lost ~55 pounds and then on October 9th I raced in the Royal Victoria Half Marathon, beating my goal of two hours by finishing in 1:52:05.
November 7th, 2005 at 3:44 pm
Didn’t like these as well as “Chocolate Fireball”. “Black Sea” a little to punky for my taste (Clash meets Beatles meets ELO). However, I did enjoy the last track (reminded me of Brian Eno). I liked “Skylarking” really well. Will be listening to that one some more. Almost sound like two different bands (3 counting the Dukes). Again thanks to TTop & jek for turning me on to these.