Just fuck off with your ukulele orchestra!

May 20, 2018 10:22 PM

And so we don’t fit your criteria
You’d really like it, if you ever hear it, yeah?

If you want twee, you got it

The latest project by punk singer Eddie Argos is Keith Top of the Pops & His Minor UK Indie Celebrity All-Star Backing Band. "If You Want Twee (You Got It)" is the first cut from the upcoming album Livin’ The Dream.

posted by Johnny Wallflower (20 comments total)

Eh, this feels more like a mean-spirited laughing at rather than laughing with, and musically it’s not even a clever parody.
posted by D.C. at 11:06 PM on May 20, 2018 [1 favorite]

I think there's an interesting intersection of punk and twee, but this probably isn't it, although I'm inclined to like anything from the guy behind Art Brut, honestly.

How about Los Campesinos covering Black Flag?
posted by vibratory manner of working at 11:28 PM on May 20, 2018 [3 favorites]

I seriously tried to imagine the closing montage of Final Destination 5 while I listened to this.

Not recommended.
posted by Clave at 12:31 AM on May 21, 2018

I think there's an interesting intersection of punk and twee

Having spent the last ten years or so moving in the UK queer punk scene, I am just sick and tired of the intersection of punk and twee. At this point, it's novel and interesting if a band plays loud and/or fast.

This parody feels very old and stale.
posted by Dysk at 2:17 AM on May 21, 2018 [3 favorites]

I’m up for some mean spirited laughing at the twee ukelele brigade. The last 65 seconds of this are perfect.
posted by gnuhavenpier at 3:41 AM on May 21, 2018

I feel like he's covering ground Tullycraft covered better fifteen years ago.
posted by Leon at 3:41 AM on May 21, 2018 [1 favorite]

I think Beat Happening was the intersection of punk and twee before twee had its own music scene.
posted by ardgedee at 4:16 AM on May 21, 2018 [5 favorites]

Twee As Fuck
posted by fearfulsymmetry at 4:30 AM on May 21, 2018

I feel personally attacked
posted by pxe2000 at 5:11 AM on May 21, 2018 [3 favorites]

the intersection of punk and twee

Jonathan Richman.
posted by erniepan at 5:12 AM on May 21, 2018 [14 favorites]

Seems like the original anorak/shamble/c-86 scene which eventually became known as twee was all about the space between DIY pop/new wave and DIY punk, this just seems like it’s a continuation of what the roots of genre are all in about?
posted by nikaspark at 5:26 AM on May 21, 2018

> Jonathan Richman

The OG.
posted by ardgedee at 6:00 AM on May 21, 2018 [2 favorites]

(If you want tweed)
posted by rongorongo at 6:03 AM on May 21, 2018

Eddie Argos was six when the UOGB formed, so they were twee when he was literally in short pants.

Twee is punk. Always has been.
posted by scruss at 7:08 AM on May 21, 2018 [2 favorites]

Isn't this actually a cross between hard rock (not punk) and twee since it's riffing on an AC/DC song "If You Want Blood You Got it"?
posted by The_Vegetables at 7:55 AM on May 21, 2018 [1 favorite]

I love Argos & Art Brut but this is a fail. Aims for Half Man Half Biscuit, falls short.
posted by Jellybean_Slybun at 8:37 AM on May 21, 2018 [1 favorite]

Isn't this actually a cross between hard rock (not punk) and twee since it's riffing on an AC/DC song "If You Want Blood You Got it"?

I ponder a lot about the influence NWOBM (New Wave of British Heavy Metal) had, and take note of how both scenes also sprung from the vacuum of the late 70's rock and punk scene dying out in England.

This leads me to wonder how anorak, C86 and shambling twee may have been either reacting off of NWOBM or perhaps fascinatingly inspired from NWOBM or perhaps just a snotty pisstake of NWOBM...

I've not found any real interviews or articles from that time exploring the seams between NWOBM and early 80's UK indie but at some point I will have the time and will do so. If anyone knows anything please feel free to enlighten me!
posted by nikaspark at 8:50 AM on May 21, 2018 [1 favorite]

and yes I know AC/DC is not NWOBM, it just reminded me of NWOBM...
posted by nikaspark at 8:50 AM on May 21, 2018

Twee. That's where I'm a viking.

Twee has been embedded in punk since before it was punk. Proto-punk was often twee as fuck:

? and the Mysterians "Sally Go Round the Roses"
The Kinks, "I'm On an Island"
The Chocolate Watchband, "Misty Lane"
The Velvet Underground, "I'm Sticking With You"
The Kingsmen, "Jolly Green Giant"

I get a little hot under the collar when people mock twee, probably because I'm pretty twee, but also because I think there is a lot of gendered weirdness coded into what is considered authentic or serious or worthwhile in the arts based on how self-consciously art or childlike or oddball it is, all of which seem entirely valid artistic expressions to me.
posted by maxsparber at 9:20 AM on May 21, 2018 [1 favorite]

Twee is everywhere in British music, and always has been. It's not bad of itself, but for every Young Marble Giants there are ten St Winifred's School Choirs. My preferred variant is late 60s UK psychedelic and the follow-ups like Nick Nicely and the Dukes of Stratosphear. Twee can seque into surreal with panache. And yeah, any genre that can come up with Captain Sensible...

But putting on a plastic fish head doesn't really cut it. Absolutely HMHB would have pulled this off with aplomb.
posted by Devonian at 9:48 AM on May 21, 2018 [1 favorite]