Twees're Good (except they're not)

pattycakes_

pattycakes_

Can turn naughty
i wonder if people like devandra banhart (and all the other nu/wyrd/freak - folk cats from a few years ago) have much to answer for for with nu-twee?

that stuff wasn't quite as commersh as this new variety. but maybe it planted the seed?
 
M

muser

Well-known member
I dont think I have ever seen anyone and thought , wow you are really twee, I would say more faux-hippie. Authentic modern day hippies have dreadlocks, ketmaine addictions and drink special brew.
 
N

Numbers

Well-known member
I think I have some difficulties to grasp the concept of twee. Is it just some kind of middle-class consumerist nostalgia mixed with a vague set of do-well&feel-good morals (eat organic, respect the environment, community ideals)?

If so, i have to fear I'm the biggest twee-er ever. I hate indie music though.
 
Mr. Tea

Mr. Tea

Let's Talk About Ceps
I see it more as an aesthetic and an affectation than as anything like a political stance, though there are probably certain values and behavioural tropes that go with it. It seems to me to be mainly characterised by a willful infantilism (linked to nostalgia of course) and studied 'niceness' and harmlessness, with just an antique silver teaspoon of whimsy. If people are genuinely into that then fair enough, it's their thing and it'd be churlish to resent them for it - they can't be held responsible for advertising wankers having latched on it.

[Perhaps something of a reaction to the way mainstream pop music/culture has become more openly sexualised, more rap-influenced, more 'street'/'edgy' in the last decade or so? Or is perceived to have done, anyway.]

I think it's the way this whole shtick has infiltrated marketing that pisses so many people off, with reason.

SomethingAwful were all over this a few years ago, by the way:

http://www.somethingawful.com/d/your-band-sucks/field-guide-north-3.php?page=2

dannymanic~twee.jpg

Benefits of Friendship: Twee twits are pretty much guaranteed to be nice, reliable, steadily employed, and inoffensive. They don’t mind packing a little bit of a paunch, so they’ll be willing to eat greasy diner food with you at 4 in the morning without bitching about gaining an ounce.

Drawbacks of Friendship: Two words: Belle & Sebastian. There’s no escaping the fact that these guys like boring, boring music, and they’re going to get uncomfortable if you blast any crunk in your car (and why even have a car if you can’t blast crunk in it?) If his girlfriend dumps him, you will have to see him cry, and his tears and snot will get all in his beard.
Click to expand...
 
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slowtrain

slowtrain

Well-known member
I also hate Iron & Wine with a passion.

my favourite demeaning phrase is that something is "too twee for me" it makes me feel tough
 
Mr. Tea

Mr. Tea

Let's Talk About Ceps
Leo said:
fucking steampunk.
Click to expand...

Oh man, you should see the fucking facial hair in parts of east London. It's like everyone fancies themselves as an intrepid Victorian explorer or the hero in a graphic novel involving jet-powered zeppelins or some shit.

And the men look just as bad.
 
B

baboon2004

Darned cockwombles.
re Something Awful (who have published some of my favourite stuff on the interent ever), have to disagree rabidly about Belle and Sebastian. Wit and hardness to them under the twee facade....as Stn testified to earlier, sems totally natural that they appeal to a pretty wide range of people compared to more unremittingly twee stuff....
 
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Mr. Tea

Mr. Tea

Let's Talk About Ceps
I don't know B&S at all, but yeah, I gather they have a lot more to them than your run-of-the-mill acoustics-n-cardigans outfit.
 
slowtrain

slowtrain

Well-known member
Carriw Brownstein is(t) infinite krieg.
'
Sorry, irrelevant.

I've been a real waste of space in this thread.
 
R

routes

we can delay.ay.ay...
can comedy be twee tho? isn't an earnestness a key trait of tweeness? knowingly ridiculous. i suppose people can be earnest about knowingly ridiculous comedy. like walliams, my g*d what an odious self-righteousl prick... er anyway i think the old soaked-in-oak-barrel-knitted-jumper kind of twee is out of date tho... nu-twee = grime nostalgia, mpc auteur fetishisation (but they secretly like amniotic synths etc), peemptive boredom oneupmanship linked to a reluctance to fully commit to enjoying anything current for what it is, as opposed to what it might retrospectively be seen as.
 
M

martin

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I warned you all about this, years before. None of you listened when I told you that Jack Johnson was evil. Nobody batted an eyelid when the Feeling released an album. Yep, you want infantalised Britain? You got it. In 2018, these people will be sitting on Hackney Downs, eating Cow & Gate products and making collective cry-giggle-grizzle noises.

Incidentally, that John Lewis advert - why is the mum wearing a cardigan in bed?
 
M

martin

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Actually, one thing I like about the twee crowd, they're not running around London going 'Alright geezer!' and hamming up mockney accents.

Still, if they all died in a gas explosion, I doubt anyone'd notice.
 
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