Record Rack: A round-up of the week’s new albums, expanded reissues and/or box sets, appearing each Monday on Slicing Up Eyeballs. All releases due out this Friday unless noted. (Since we missed last week’s round-up, this includes titles that came out this past Friday, too.)
XTC’s Andy Partridge will release new music next month, having christened his newly upgraded studio by recording a pair of his favorite songs: the Syd Barrett-penned early Pink Floyd single “Apples and Oranges” and the Bonzo Dog Band’s Humanoid Boogie, written by Neil Innes. Full details right here.
John Dent, the mastering engineer who worked on albums by U2, Love and Rockets, The Stranglers, Bob Marley and others, and is credited by Andy Partridge with figuring out XTC’s Skylarking suffered for years from “reversed polarity,” died of cancer last week at 63.
The Showtime cable network has released a trailer ahead of its airing of the new XTC documentary “This Is Pop,” a 30-second tease that’s a fraction as long as the nearly 6 1/2-minute trailer that leaked earlier this year. Still, for fans in the U.S., where the doc has yet to air, it’s a tantalizing glimpse of the film that will screen Jan. 11.
American fans clamoring to lay their eyes on the new XTC documentary “This Is Pop” — which premiered on UK television in October — finally will get their chance in January when the 75-minute film has its U.S. premiere on the Showtime cable-television network. The program will be available on demand, too.
The audiophile reissue of XTC’s fourth album, 1980’s Black Sea, is due out Nov. 10, and will include new 5.1 Surround, stereo and and high-resolution stereo mixes of the record by Porcupine Tree frontman Steven Wilson, plus demos, instrumentals and music videos. More details here.
The highly anticipated XTC documentary “This Is Pop” — the subject of a petition earlier this year to convince the BBC to air it after the network allegedly passed on the program — will, in fact, be seen on TV in the UK this fall: Sky Arts is set to broadcast the film in October. Watch the full trailer here.
Q&A: Daniel Ash on Love and Rockets’ reunion, his new band — and figuring out how to play “So Alive” 
Q&A: Chris Frantz talks Talking Heads, Tom Tom Club and new book ‘Remain in Love’ 
Q&A: Steve Wynn on The Dream Syndicate’s first new album in nearly 30 years 
Q&A: Bauhaus’ David J on his ‘accidental’ concept album ‘Not Long For This World’ 
Q&A: Peter Murphy on ‘Ninth,’ Bauhaus’ break-up, reuniting Dalis Car 
Q&A: Joey Santiago on Pixies’ ‘Doolittle’ tour, possible ‘Surfer Rosa’ shows, new album talk 
Q&A: Prefab Sprout’s Paddy McAloon on new album, changing the world with music 
Q&A: Peter Hook talks ‘Unknown Pleasures’ tour, re-recording Joy Division 