This is a journey into Twee
July 15, 2009 9:32 AM Subscribe
Kitten Painting's site has wonderfully evocative descriptions of the front line of the 1980s indie/anorak/C86 scene. (Not sure what 'twee' is? Try here, have a listen to C86, or download from here. )
Twee is the one genre I find myself coming back to, over and over again.
That and power metal.
posted by LSK at 9:43 AM on July 15, 2009
That and power metal.
posted by LSK at 9:43 AM on July 15, 2009
Your favorite indie music blog sucks.
posted by ElmerFishpaw at 9:44 AM on July 15, 2009
posted by ElmerFishpaw at 9:44 AM on July 15, 2009
MOAR TWEE
Your favourite Onion t-shirt slogan sucks. Now, have a lollipop and pop The Pastels on.
posted by mippy at 9:46 AM on July 15, 2009
Your favourite Onion t-shirt slogan sucks. Now, have a lollipop and pop The Pastels on.
posted by mippy at 9:46 AM on July 15, 2009
Great post. The Pitchfork article was informative and highly nostalgia-inducing.
Kids today can't understand how much logistical effort it was just to keep up with a scene as a consumer, let alone the sheer heroism of folks like Calvin Johnson for starting and nurturing one in the first place.
Fast forward to today, where last.fm--its twee meters no doubt pegged by my music collection--said I'd like All Girl Summer Fun Band. In a matter of minutes, I had previewed, purchased, and downloaded the entire discography of my new all time favorite band.
Truely we live in the age of (twee) miracles.
posted by whuppy at 10:22 AM on July 15, 2009
Kids today can't understand how much logistical effort it was just to keep up with a scene as a consumer, let alone the sheer heroism of folks like Calvin Johnson for starting and nurturing one in the first place.
Fast forward to today, where last.fm--its twee meters no doubt pegged by my music collection--said I'd like All Girl Summer Fun Band. In a matter of minutes, I had previewed, purchased, and downloaded the entire discography of my new all time favorite band.
Truely we live in the age of (twee) miracles.
posted by whuppy at 10:22 AM on July 15, 2009
Although I have mixed feelings about the genre, twee is one of my favorite words. It sounds incredibly onmatopoeic although I don't think it's technically onomatopoeia.
posted by kozad at 10:51 AM on July 15, 2009
posted by kozad at 10:51 AM on July 15, 2009
Twee is the one genre I find myself coming back to, over and over again.
That and power metal.
There's a great little bit in the indisputably best-of-the-web True Porn Clerk Stories wherein the author talks about the challenge of making an in-store music mix well-pitched enough to entertain the staff and confuse the customers; a coworker hit upon shuffling Belle & Sebastian and GWAR.
It amuses me in the abstract but...oh, "twee" is not a compliment.
posted by kittyprecious at 11:44 AM on July 15, 2009
That and power metal.
There's a great little bit in the indisputably best-of-the-web True Porn Clerk Stories wherein the author talks about the challenge of making an in-store music mix well-pitched enough to entertain the staff and confuse the customers; a coworker hit upon shuffling Belle & Sebastian and GWAR.
It amuses me in the abstract but...oh, "twee" is not a compliment.
posted by kittyprecious at 11:44 AM on July 15, 2009
This is splendid. The fact that I did not have the chance to be part of this scene at the time sometimes makes me exquisitely sad... and this blog only makes it worse. But it is lovely description, of course. (And the drawings are delightful.)
posted by punchdrunkhistory at 9:02 PM on July 15, 2009
posted by punchdrunkhistory at 9:02 PM on July 15, 2009
Jesus Christ punchdrunkhistory.. your sentence alone made me want to give you a dead arm and steal your lunch money..
I like some twee, very little though.. mostly I have an appreciation for twee-influenced things like shoegaze and The Decemberists..
posted by mediocre at 11:31 PM on July 15, 2009
I like some twee, very little though.. mostly I have an appreciation for twee-influenced things like shoegaze and The Decemberists..
posted by mediocre at 11:31 PM on July 15, 2009
It amuses me in the abstract but...oh, "twee" is not a compliment.
It's one of those genre names which originally was pejorative but then lost its negative connotations, like "shoegazer" and "gothic rock".
posted by acb at 3:40 AM on July 16, 2009
It's one of those genre names which originally was pejorative but then lost its negative connotations, like "shoegazer" and "gothic rock".
posted by acb at 3:40 AM on July 16, 2009
Oh, and Another Sunny Day's London Weekend is getting a rerelease, with six extra tracks and liner notes by Bob Stanley.
posted by acb at 3:42 AM on July 16, 2009
posted by acb at 3:42 AM on July 16, 2009
It took me nigh on twenty years (plus vast improvements in computing power, networking, communications protocols, and disk storage) to finally get to hear the C86. (By contrast, the ten years for Girly Sound was an eyeblink.)
Just curious: How widespread was the C86 itself in the pre-internet era? Beyond the original NME distribution and the word-of-mouth, tape-to-tape dubbings was there any semidecent release available at retail?
posted by whuppy at 8:48 AM on July 16, 2009
Just curious: How widespread was the C86 itself in the pre-internet era? Beyond the original NME distribution and the word-of-mouth, tape-to-tape dubbings was there any semidecent release available at retail?
posted by whuppy at 8:48 AM on July 16, 2009
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posted by mippy at 9:41 AM on July 15, 2009