OK, is this the worst piece of music writing ever?

my jaw was wrenched into an expression of horror by that part, and wasn't returned to it's proper place by any words following xp

"why don't you gently revolve on this"

So, is Marc Spitz twee's Greil Marcus or Twee Greil Marcus?

New York Times, Spin, and Vanity Fair contributor Marc Spitz

stopped reading here

one might say that the book description is worthy of a spitz take

I like how it traces the "roots of twee" to...children's literature

A lot of this stuff passes me by, and I tend to think "not for me, really" but the level of *vitriol* that gets hurled at anything of this aesthetic... well, I find it kinda baffling really.

Like this vitriol says a lot more about the people who are expressing it than it does any (perceived or real) lifestyle of the people involved. It's one of ILX's uglier emotions.

the old "says a lot more about the people doing the criticizing" saw

It's PR fluff but is it possible we're actually offended by the idea that this book makes the case that his definition of "twee" is a cultural force the size of hip hop?

I mean, not that offended. It might be a good book, might be a bad one, but that's pretty ridiculous on its face. I think you're mistaking water cooler conversation for actual vitriol.

what's worst, standing around the water cooler talking about how you can't believe some judge's opinion on a singing competition television show, or standing around debating whether someone's posited take on a cultural force is valid

they're probably both bad, but it's ok to have opinions

Spitz posts on ilx?

from that "i listen to my husband's records" blog:

Part of me feels like I want to be avant garde enough to get this, but then another part of me feels like the emperor isn’t wearing any clothes!

she's talking about albert ayler! :(

And he was like, “Yeah, this album has gotten a lot of play.” Um, who am I even married too?!?

i dunno about you folks, but i don't know that i would get to the point of wanting to marry someone if they were so "amused" and condescending toward my tastes. i don't expect them to share exactly the same tastes (though having some common ground seems important) but... sheesh.

sorry I'm late to the party.

xpost isn't this the same author who wrote a memoir about being a punk rock drug addict wannabe badass? seems an odd follow-up subject.

lol amateurist

husband writes:

, this isn’t music that’s easy to listen to or to have on in the background, because you kind of have to dialogue with it

i actually do listen to a lot of this stuff in the "background"--or at least while I'm writing, reading, whatever.

Given the amount of ILX discourse on the subject, yes, I'd say it does *seem* to occupy a large space in the cultural landscape.

"the" cultural landscape: well, *your* cultural landscape

what are you guys discussing now; it's hard to keep up w/ this thread.

battle raps

"twee" pickles

actually reading around the blog isn't terrible; mostly annoying for her sort of pumped- faux-naive blogvoice.

arrrgh

pumped-up faux-naif

Let's just fold husband's record collection blog discussion into twee discussion to make things easier for everyone.

the idea that beards and artisanal pickles are twee kind of ignores the bike messenger types who are definitely into both

my gutter punk/crust punk friend ended up marrying someone who is definitely from the more northeastern us farmy/punk side of things and they'd be all about beards and pickles and they're not twee at all

Feel like I should at this point, start a list of Things I Only Know About Because ILX Goes On About Them So Much:

1) NPR
2) Portlandia
3) Poomplamouse
4) Wes Anderson

Actually, wait, no, Wes Anderson I think might be real because Daniel Kessler mentioned him the other day, but I'm still not entirely sure that Daniel Kessler isn't an ILX0r (or perhaps collectively hallucinated by ILX and made flesh) so I dunno.

No, this is not "faux-naif" or whatever. These are literally things I only ever see discussed on ILX and nowhere else in my world.

my main objection to the blurb is that it seems to conflate a lot of different things + aesthetics into a category so large it might as well be meaningless. i don't see how the book can handle that - if it really does cover beards, pickles AND Garden State.

I thought the same thing. It seems like this book is probably stretching the definition of twee to include everything that the official market of "NPR yuppie" want to read about.

Examples: Girls, This American Life, Pitchfork, Arcade Fire, Morrissey

Who's Daniel Kessler?

I may be off the mark, though, haven't had my twee-dar calibrated recently

there are probably literally hundreds of things I read about on ilm/ilx before anywhere else?

Not to mention Nirvana! I'm gonna go listen to twee classic "Scentless Apprentice" now.

lol imago to thread re: his take on american cinema
http://www.digitalspy.com/movies/news/a560046/the-grand-budapest-hotel-beats-need-for-speed-at-uk-box-office.html

It's not "heard about first on ILX" - it is literally "never hear discussed, anywhere else *except* on ILX".

I don't know who this Daniel guy is but I'm guessing the fact that people out there in the world randomly talking about things is evidence that they're maybe not evidence of americentricism

Is it possible that ilx is just a lot more diverse than the groups we see outside ilx

(Daniel Kessler is some weird figament that I think Nabisco invented, or assembled and manufactured wholesale from bits of ILM posts I made in like 2001/2 and somehow made flesh and sold to Pitchfork and the NME. So I don't think he counts as "not ILX".)

* furiously googles *

oh he's some american dude I didn't know the name of

stop being so americentric in your references!!!!

psst he's not American.

i thought NPR and BBC world service were sister corps?

local NPR station plays BBC world service stuff for an hour or so every afternoon

I was aware of the existence of something called the NPR, which was the radio equivalent of PBS, but the idea that there is this "NPR tweefuX0r yuppie" demographic that needs servicing with all this weird shit you guys discuss... I call shenanigans.

Anyway, I have some Orcadians to meet so I can't stay and argue this. And Daniel Kessler: is still British.

lol that was the point

I notice on world service they'll be really confrontational with guests and the guests kind of take it, but when terry gross digs up something uncomfortable you can hear the glares.

mh bang on the money upthread. It's obviously the hip hop comparison, the weird name check of pickles and the complete absence of mention of any bands from the period when twee was a (completely valid) small p political stance such as Tallulah Gosh and the Pastels etc. I'd be equally irate if a book on goth ignored Bauhaus but mentioned the Hot Topic clothes franchise.

Oh, and as per thread... it's really, really badly written.

I think if you're truly British you're used to shrugging off criticism and making your case clearly? That is what I get from it. xp

I actually didn't mean to be disparaging with that "NPR Yuppie" thing earlier. I listen to NPR all the time and could probably be described as an NPR Yuppie myself. I just was trying to use shorthand for a demographic much desired by the publishing industry, due to a variety of reasons. Honestly, this book seems less like a book about twee and more a book about "things educated urban yuppies are really into."