do americans "get" twee?

jeff tweedy?

New York Post -- Kyle Smith

A slow train to Dullsville that makes all local stops. You know a film is in trouble if the most interesting thing in it is the luggage.

The different kinds of tea that cattle like

This thread reminds me that Mark Wahlberg has a Tweety tattoo.

And when googling for a picture, I found this! (technically nsfw although you can't see anything)

maxr, I called you on being twee and I'm Britishes. Now get off your horse and drink your milk you hornswagglin' son ov a bitch.

I strongly dislike twee for the sake of it. Belle and Sebastian and Alexander Payne==awesome. Camera Obscura, 90% of Sarah bands, Little Miss Sunshine, You and Me and Everyone We Know etc are just plain bad. I'm not American so this is relevant at all. Just wanted to vent.

How are Sarah bands any more twee for the sake of it than a pastiche of Sarah bands!

And when googling for a picture, I found this! (technically nsfw although you can't see anything)

Classic only if it's a tat.

xpost-I guess because, for me, it doesn't sound like B&S set out to be a twee band. More like just a rollicking good pop band whose members happen to combine in a way which sounds very close to those other bands' sounds. I don't really know much about them personally though--I'm probably wrong about that on many levels.

You people don't even know what twee means anymore, do you.

You just toss it at anything like buckshot at a barnside.

help us understand, nabisco

it is going to be all about class or something, and there will be a minor flame-out. laters.

http://www.pitchforkmedia.com/article/feature/10242-twee-as-fuck

The politics of twee

LOL @ B&S 'rollocking'. Get one copy of Rhoda.

Twee:
http://pic.hjbbs.com/doc/200704/375767110_85f94ae51c93.jpg

it's a bit like someone from the UK trying to be a cowboy isn't it?

^ examples of ilxors who do this?

hi dere
http://photos-b.ak.facebook.com/photos-ak-sctm/v115/110/26/549466400/n549466400_298945_1055.jpg

AWESOME

Karl May to thredd

heave ho's image is a visual representation of a b&s song-title, that is cheating

the last time i really got twee was about a year and a half ago. i blacked out and woke up in a sweater vest and a pair of ugly glasses

An American who gets twee:
http://www.artbythomaskinkade.com/images/kinkade_foxgloveCottageB.jpg

Quirky Motherfucker Poll

quirky is a word that means even less than 'edgy' as far as i'm concerned -- it's a total sign of hack writing to use it as a catagorizing adjective w/r/t music, tv, film, whatever ...

did we talk about that recent article about QUIRK and how annoying it is? i'll look for it later if we haven't

french people can be twee

scandinavians are mostly twee

god bless the indian summer

"hi my name is mo and you can thank me for sarah records and that girl from the pastels. and the marine girls. and some other stuff probably. you are welcome. bye now. gotta run."

http://www.explodedgoat.com/images/misc/Mo.JPG

"I know you had beat happening and all that but..."

beat happening would be the icky tip of an actually very cool iceberg. for starters:

http://kukai.free.fr/radiopwhy/patience_et_prudence.JPG

but it's endless really. and the 50's were a golden twee era. definitions of twee will vary, of course. and the brits were definitely the kings of twee in the 60's. or at least that was when a lot of my fave twee music was made. though i do dig a lot of 80's/90's diy/postpunk/indie tweeness. much more than i like most 80's/90's american attempts. and most american tweeness of the 80's/90's seemed to be combined with dementia of some kind. jad fair, jonathan richman, daniel johnston, etc...

I am trying to think of a single twee thing that Jonathan Richman has ever done. The last gig of his I went to in Glasgow was like some kind of booze-fuelled riot.

Ah, OK, I hit submit then remembered G-I-R-L-F-R-E-N

see, i don't think the stuff from the 50s and 60s that infuences twee was twee in itself. it's just bit tame in retrospect compared to post-hippy youth culture that followed. those people were squares or whatever, back in the day.

i mean twee is a longing for that era, rather than the era itself.

this thread has reminded me that i dissed Americans for not being twee enough in a trembling blue stars review i wrote seven years ago:

"Those who balk at dreamy-boy nakedness will want to skip the bathos, but such people are called Americans, and they aren't fit to shine Terry Hall's moccasins."

http://www.villagevoice.com/music/0039,seward,18492,22.html

twee sucks anyway

Beat Happening were never twee, at least not in the Sarah/Waaaah! sense. They took inspiration from a variety of sources, from the Germs to Lee Hazelwood to the Marine Girls. To the extent there was "twee" content, it was probably in the lyrics and Heather's vocals/drums.

After listening to Calvin Johnson & The Sons of Soil, I'm now convinced that whole scene has dead-ended.

I don't really see where Little Miss Sunshine is "twee." Miranda July, yes. Wes Anderson, probably. The Decemberists, maybe (though coming from a different directly.)

I am trying to think of a single twee thing that Jonathan Richman has ever done.

ice cream man, abominable snowman in the supermarket, hey there little insect, i'm a little dinosaur, i'm a little airplane, the lonely little thrift store, when she kisses me, give paris one more chance, buzz buzz buzz...

And Girlfriend!

yes. definitely proto-twee.

I've heard at least tiny twee bands cover "Ice Cream Man" live.

this thread has reminded me that i dissed Americans for not being twee enough in a trembling blue stars review i wrote seven years ago:

"Those who balk at dreamy-boy nakedness will want to skip the bathos, but such people are called Americans, and they aren't fit to shine Terry Hall's moccasins."

Isn't that like Gene Simmons chastising teenage girls for not being chaste enough?

i think noise board is nowt more than our atlantic cousins' slightly-more-strident take on twee.

grrrrrr

http://www.smh.com.au/ffximage/2007/02/12/scones_narrowweb__300x449,0.jpg

http://www.stitch4stitch.com/images/s4s055/s4s055_ind.jpg

http://www.lat34.com/_/Photo/500xNone/elvis_presley-getty_images-blue.jpg

^^ jens lekman

it's a bit like someone from the UK trying to be a cowboy isn't it?

lol twee cowboys

village person

http://members.tripod.com/~Blue_Lena/cowboykeith.gif

The cowboy in The Village People could be called many things but I don't think "twee" is one of them. There's nothing overly precious about The Village People.

Some guy in my office just said 'rosemary, sage and thyme'

Isn't Canada part of Americas

America invented twee, just like acid house, jungle, etc. Across the ole pond it was just made more their own. Why do you think all the big UK proto-twee bands (whatever the fuck that means) were obsessed with Americana?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j1gWCF0MPL4

louis, why are you styling yourself as some kind of ilxpert, lately i seem to read about 80 fanciful pronouncements a day from you.

this thread reminds me there was a time when america was seen as sunny and childish and pastel colors and mickey mouse hats and old ladies baking apple pies in mint green and purple cottages with little squirrel figurines in curio cabinets. before the whole imperial death war thing.

Vietnam? Or Reagan?

Invented national character, post modernism, all that Momus shit. 40s-early 60s I"m thinking. you know, the whole naive chirpy american in dark and serious england kinda thing. Now culture here is all about KCIKIN ASS YEARHG.

naive chirpy americans were pretty much all about kickin ass too.

http://www.skylighters.org/disney/mosquito.jpg

is that twee?

Is belle and sebastian twee? I love b&s

teenage american hipster trash loves twee

also:not so sure what is there to 'get'