Twees're Good (except they're not)

Ulala

Awkward Woodward
So I was complaining in the 'Best of 2011' thread about feyness and twee and whimsy and childishness in music, and several of you agreed, so let's have a complaining thread.

Let's be clear, though: twee isn't automatically bad. I'm quite partial to BMX Bandits and Belle and Sebastian, where twee is more an aesthetic than the whole raison d'etre. This is about the modern-day ironic cover-version twee, and the kind of person/mindset to whom it appeals. If you've watched any amount of TV recently, you will have been subjected to hideous adverts containing some of the most objectionable music, like, ever. Here are some examples:



I said that the Match.com one made me want to trample on throats, and it does. (Even the pretty girl in the advert deserves a kicking for her involvement.) This kind of shit is insidious and unacceptable. The mawkish, cloying childishness of it is what rankles most, I think; the simpering gentility and (yes, I'm going to go there) smugness of it all. The hesitant, stilted, 'aren't I so sweet and timid?' delivery, the thrift-store clothes, the coyness, the fucking xylophones - these people are eunuchs, who need to be fed drugs and cocks until they join humanity again. That, or chemically castrated so they can't propagate their worthless, infected genes ever again.

Post your own twee songs! Bile is, in this case, entirely necessary.

[Edit: I know you can't castrate eunuchs, as such, but they deserve it anyway, the bastards.]
 

muser

Well-known member
I got to say I quite like múm, and they could definitely be described as pretty twee. Johanna Newsome also. I dislike the songs you've put up, and im totally with you on those twee adverts though, I think the whole aesthetic makes it all alot more anger inducing. Hearing the music in isolation and it just sounds a bit bland and annoying.
 

hucks

Your Message Here
I think the film Juno is responsible for this. It was the only film I've ever considered walking out of on account of the soundtrack.

I like múm tho, or at least I have one album of theirs from about ten years ago and it's OK.
 

pattycakes_

Can turn naughty
part of it has to do with the emergence of the ukulele and hipsters wanting to be musicians. it's easy to play and, to the dead of brain, stirs up the emotions.
 

continuum

smugpolice
There is a gang of twee bands in Oxford. To be honest this aesthetic makes me want to puke. There is a clothes shop called The White Stuff here in Ox that sells all the sort of clothes they wear. Some of them are good musicians though and they seem alright in person but for fucks sake why make wanting to be a children's TV presenter something to aspire to?
 

computer_rock

Well-known member
I think the film Juno is responsible for this. It was the only film I've ever considered walking out of on account of the soundtrack.

I like múm tho, or at least I have one album of theirs from about ten years ago and it's OK.

juno is terrible. character development reduced to semi-obscure pop culture references. fuck off.
 

slowtrain

Well-known member
Juno is a horrible movie.

I feel sorry for my mums partners band, they were a joke band from the mid 80's (who are still going) and their thing was playing Ukuleles, and now uke's are really cool, so itsvery weird how they are percieved now.
 

SecondLine

Well-known member
I'd probably stop short of castration fantasies, but I saw the most offensively twee band tonight and thought of you Ulala. It was searingly twee...they gave out quirky gifts in between songs and at one point encouraged audience members to make paper aeroplanes and throw them around, aha, what fun.

It was so abrasively twee that I think it must have been a meta thing, it's the only explanation. The lyrical content was a string of cliches and platitudes which were collaged together to form a kind of a-signifying infantilist love-babble. There was a glockenspiel.

Also just came across this. Evoking the infinite love of god w/ felt animations and a piano:

 

slowtrain

Well-known member
I'd probably stop short of castration fantasies, but I saw the most offensively twee band tonight and thought of you Ulala. It was searingly twee...they gave out quirky gifts in between songs and at one point encouraged audience members to make paper aeroplanes and throw them around, aha, what fun.

It was so abrasively twee that I think it must have been a meta thing, it's the only explanation. The lyrical content was a string of cliches and platitudes which were collaged together to form a kind of a-signifying infantilist love-babble. There was a glockenspiel.

Also just came across this. Evoking the infinite love of god w/ felt animations and a piano:



There used to be a band like this a coupla years ago. They had this gimmick where all their songs were about pandas.

Fucking horrible, i hated them as a teenager and i still hate them now.

Twee music mades me want to bash heads in.

Fuck this shit, I am going to form a band that sounds like a mixture of Guns n' Roses and Big Black.

Also let it be pointed out that I hate the first Joanna Newsom album despite being a big fan of Ys and Have One... I like her voice DESPITE its quirks, not BECAUSE of it.

Also, while I am on a roll, I fucking hate hate that thatehtahtehtaht that whistling song with the cartoon video. Hate it from the bottom of my heart.
 

Trillhouse

Well-known member
I think there needs to be a distinction made that there is plenty of good music/musicians/bands out there that can be labelled as twee. And if all music had to be loud, shouty and aggressive it would become a pretty boring conversation quickly, so there's a place for it.
The most important part is that twee is very frivolous, so it really needs to be backed up by something more concrete, like actual musical talent and great song writing. Otherwise it can be entirely sickening quickly.
 

luka

Well-known member
all art is manipulative isnt it? i thought that was the point. then its a matter of what you choose to submit to. it would all probably have an effect if you could submit to it.
 

gumdrops

Well-known member
if you think juno is a terrible film (which it is - it tries way too hard to be cool/blithe) or wore its rock cred way too heavily, you need to watch 500 days of summer, which is basically like one long advert for someones itunes 80s indie rock playlist, and even more twee.
 
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pattycakes_

Can turn naughty
all art is manipulative isnt it? i thought that was the point. then its a matter of what you choose to submit to. it would all probably have an effect if you could submit to it.

i guess this form of it gets on my nerves more than others because it's using nostalgia. which is a pretty low blow as far as art manipulation goes imo.
 

gumdrops

Well-known member
i think theres a space for gentle, sensitive music, just not music made by people trying really hard to sound like that, or innocent, and sweet, and playful and naive, when theyre anything but. sounds really fake.
 

Slothrop

Tight but Polite
i think theres a space for gentle, sensitive music, just not music made by people trying really hard to sound like that, or innocent, and sweet, and playful and naive, when theyre anything but. sounds really fake.
Well, the more interesting twee stuff (eg Belle and Sebastian) tends to work with a definite thread of dark humour or worldliness or weirdness, unlike the off-brand imitations and advertising-oriented stuff where faux-naif escapism is pretty much all that's going on...
 

gumdrops

Well-known member
the worst offender prob has to be the ad with a twee version of sweet child of mine. wasnt even lol-worthy. it was just awful.
 
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