Britpop : Time For Reevaluation?

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Nothing wrong about the NME these days.

Here, just for you, Geir, is NME's recent review of The Twang's single 'Wide Awake':

"First the Kaisers, then The Automatic and now The Twang. On current form, you'd put a fiver on 'super-indie' B-Unique succeeding even if they announced plans to fly Pennie to Mars fuelled by one of Preston's leftover cappucinos.

At first glance these gnarly Midlands upstarts look unlikely superstars. Their wardrobes are hopelessly bereft of the indie nation's current clobber du jour (mock gothic; Day-Glo rave). Their ever-growing fanclub, meanwhile, led by Noel Gallagher and Tom Meighan, suggests a certain laddishness about their disciples. And yet 'Wide Awake' is still the mightiest, most gloriously life-affirming track you'll hear this month. A filthy, cocksure confessional in the best tradition of Shaun Ryder, it finds Phil Etheridge taking drugs, getting jiggy with someone he shouldn't have and waking up in the morning feeling like death. It's a Mike Skinner concept album packed into three epic minutes. "What was I doing with that MILF?" he booms, as swaggering U2-like guitars shimmer by, all blessed with an unmistakable skunk-rock scuzziness.

If 'Wide Awake''s similarity to Flowered Up's 'It's On' (ask your dribbling, saucer-eyed, flower-headed weirdo of an uncle) will delight wheelchair-bound baggy veterans, The Twang are also bringing more of the pilled-up, anything-goes spirit of rave to the party that all the opposition put together. Sorted!"

LET. ME. COUNT. THE. FUCKING. WAYS.

― unfished business, Saturday, 10 March 2007 21:07 (nineteen years ago)

I'd rather listen to "it's on".

― Brigadier Lethbridge-Pfunkboy, Saturday, 10 March 2007 21:10 (nineteen years ago)

"upstarts".

Everyone's a freaking upstart in the NME.

― everything, Saturday, 10 March 2007 21:11 (nineteen years ago)

Oh, and the best bit? It's a tough call, but THIS is the winner:

swaggering U2-like guitars shimmer by, all blessed with an unmistakable skunk-rock scuzziness.

UUUUUUUUH

― unfished business, Saturday, 10 March 2007 21:14 (nineteen years ago)

(downloads "Wide Awake"; gives it a couple listens)

This is terrible.

― Mr. Snrub, Saturday, 10 March 2007 21:45 (nineteen years ago)

So you see. You've only just SCRATCHED THE FUCKING SURFACE, dude.

― unfished business, Saturday, 10 March 2007 21:46 (nineteen years ago)

But what does GEIR think?!

― Brigadier Lethbridge-Pfunkboy, Saturday, 10 March 2007 22:06 (nineteen years ago)

I haven't heard The Twang, but from the description they sound great. Guitar based archetypically British pop/rock with a heavy empasis on songwriting and melodies usually is.

― Geir Hongro, Sunday, 11 March 2007 12:47 (nineteen years ago)

Well, this Twang song is really crap: U2 meets Hard-Fi, at first listen.

― zeus, Sunday, 11 March 2007 13:01 (nineteen years ago)

Mr Twang - 'Wide Awake'

― Mr. Snrub, Sunday, 11 March 2007 16:57 (nineteen years ago)

What? You can't post links to YouTube on here?!?!?!?

― Mr. Snrub, Sunday, 11 March 2007 16:57 (nineteen years ago)

Blur B-Sides still WIPE THE FLOOR with whatever else you care to mention. Throw Oasis and Boo Radleys out with the rubbish. And take Ocean Colour Scene while you're at it.

― Bimble, Sunday, 11 March 2007 17:12 (nineteen years ago)

"No one can see when they get mace in their eye-eye-eye-eyes!"

Blur rule.

― Bimble, Sunday, 11 March 2007 17:32 (nineteen years ago)

you better take that back about the boos. in fact i'm surprised you champion blur b-sides and not the boo radleys when really they're practically the same thing.

― the next grozart, Sunday, 11 March 2007 18:18 (nineteen years ago)

You put my ignorance to shame, Grozart, I've greatly appreciated your posts earlier on this thread.

― Bimble, Sunday, 11 March 2007 19:08 (nineteen years ago)

bimble, have you heard a boo radleys song that is not a) wake up boo or b) i hang suspended (single version)?

― unfished business, Sunday, 11 March 2007 19:28 (nineteen years ago)

Throw them ALL out for all I care.

― fandango, Sunday, 11 March 2007 19:30 (nineteen years ago)

:-) Bimble just promise me you'll give Giant Steps a go - it's pre-Britpop shoegaze-psychdub wonderment from 1993. If you can't be bothered then at least get the song "Blues For George Michael", an 8-minute epic B-side that really should've been an A-side in a perfect world.

Funny you mention "I Hang Suspended" Louis, as I thought it was normally 'It's Lulu', 'C'mon Kids' or even 'Wish I Was Skinny' that get dropped as "the only other Boo song I know". This is a shame as they're all relatively mediocre straight-up pop songs that were released as singles but were never really representative of their more left-leaning stuff.

Sad to see such a great band immortalised as a cheesy second-rate Britpop group with two songs, but I guess that's what you get for releasing boring singles. I say singles, I really mean "A-Sides" as the Boos, along with Blur, had one of the most fun and most eclectic back catalogues of B-sides in all of pop in my opinion.

That said, I did always like I Hang Suspended (not really very adventurous but a nice noise all the same). Lazarus is their only other true anthem single (after Wake Up Boo of course which I understand can leave a bad taste in the mouth but is still classic in my book). 'Ride The Tiger' was good too, despite the slightly dicky lyrics but the version released as a single missed out the cool psychedelic middle-eighth jam with the animal toys and swirly organ which on the album is kind of crucial to it being a wicked song.

― the next grozart, Sunday, 11 March 2007 22:20 (nineteen years ago)

Argh, I went to their myspace to see if The Twang could possibly be so bad and good lord, they are terrible!
Where on earth is the baggy element or the rave like euphoria? The sub-Edge delay and chorus soaked guitars are horrible and the drums lumpen. And the singing? Dreadful.
Worse still, the picture on the myspace player for Wide Awake is a bunch of pills. Ooh! Controversy! Danger! Opportunistic bullshit.

― Stew, Monday, 12 March 2007 00:55 (nineteen years ago)

I'm just waiting for the NME to hype a band called The Shitehawks. Someone start it please.

― Brigadier Lethbridge-Pfunkboy, Monday, 12 March 2007 01:40 (nineteen years ago)

Oh and if only the Britpop bands had the vision to create and album like "Giant Steps".

― Brigadier Lethbridge-Pfunkboy, Monday, 12 March 2007 01:41 (nineteen years ago)

I can't even see a Verve or Spiritualized coming through from the current lot of NME Carling Rock bands.

― Brigadier Lethbridge-Pfunkboy, Monday, 12 March 2007 01:42 (nineteen years ago)

Thank feck for that.

― Marcello Carlin, Monday, 12 March 2007 08:49 (nineteen years ago)

Surely the plodding, pseudo-meaningful balladry of Coldplay, Keane et al owes a lot to the Verve - more than to Radiohead arguably.
After all, didn't Chris Martin introduce Bittersweet Symphony as "the best song ever" (what's he on?) when they performed it with Dickie Ashcroft at Live8?

― Stew, Monday, 12 March 2007 08:59 (nineteen years ago)

I was more thinking of Early Verve, you know, before they were The verve.

― Brigadier Lethbridge-Pfunkboy, Monday, 12 March 2007 09:23 (nineteen years ago)

Why did I say Early with a capital E? Anyway none of those bands could lace the boots of any era of them.

― Brigadier Lethbridge-Pfunkboy, Monday, 12 March 2007 09:25 (nineteen years ago)

Has there ever been a rock group named Early?

"Early" Verve is a good call, however.

― Marcello Carlin, Monday, 12 March 2007 09:40 (nineteen years ago)

There is a group called Earlies now.

― zeus, Monday, 12 March 2007 13:42 (nineteen years ago)

Surely the plodding, pseudo-meaningful balladry of Coldplay, Keane et al owes a lot to the Verve - more than to Radiohead arguably. [i]

There were two sides to Verve. Coldplay, Keane and Travis owe a lot to the good side of Verve, the great songwriting side that gave us such great classic songs as "The Drugs Don't Work" and "Sonnet". However, The Verve also had another side, consisting of boring overlong "jams" mostly based on only one chord. And luckily Coldplay etc. haven't paid much attention to that heritage.

Other than that, there [i]is a lot of "The Bends" era Radiohead in their style, but also lots of U2 and a-ha. (Travis and Keane are great a-ha fans)

― Geir Hongro, Monday, 12 March 2007 13:51 (nineteen years ago)

Oh and if only the Britpop bands had the vision to create and album like "Giant Steps".

Would have been a lot better if Boo Radleys had created more albums like "Wake Up" instead. Lots of screaming and noise just doesn't make good pop music.

― Geir Hongro, Monday, 12 March 2007 13:52 (nineteen years ago)

This thread goes from strength to strength.

― Dom Passantino, Monday, 12 March 2007 13:54 (nineteen years ago)

Lots of screaming and noise just doesn't make good pop music.

Beatles to thread.

― Marcello Carlin, Monday, 12 March 2007 13:57 (nineteen years ago)

Geeeeiiiirrrr...!!!

― the next grozart, Monday, 12 March 2007 14:33 (nineteen years ago)

Geir excels himself again.

Marcello OTM

― Brigadier Lethbridge-Pfunkboy, Monday, 12 March 2007 14:34 (nineteen years ago)

ten months pass...

Oasis and Blur have reportedly been lined up to appear in a Britpop special of The Weakest Link.

The show's bosses have contacted Noel Gallagher, Liam Gallagher, Damon Albarn and Alex James to appear in the episode of the gameshow, according to the Daily Star.

"If we can pull this off it would be unbelievable," commented a BBC source. "Noel Gallagher admits he’s a Weakest Link fan."

Other stars that bosses want to have on the show include Pulp's Jarvis Cocker, Elastica's Justine Frischmann, Manic Street Preachers' James Dean Bradfield and Suede's Brett Anderson.

― blueski, Thursday, 17 January 2008 16:33 (eighteen years ago)

Shit will be pointless without Johnny Dean.

― The blue-green world is drenched with horse gore, Thursday, 17 January 2008 16:37 (eighteen years ago)

Predicted final line-up:

Bonehead
Neil Codling
Gary Crowley
Fruitbat
Chris Gentry
Tony McCarroll
John Power
Matthew Priest
Russell Senior
Louise Wener

― Dingbod Kesterson, Thursday, 17 January 2008 16:44 (eighteen years ago)

if they got Noel and Damon would watch it for sure.

― chap, Thursday, 17 January 2008 16:45 (eighteen years ago)

No Drummer from Gay Dad?

― Tom D., Thursday, 17 January 2008 16:45 (eighteen years ago)

He's too busy fearing breakbeats in the shires.

― Ned Raggett, Thursday, 17 January 2008 16:47 (eighteen years ago)

Luke Haines
Crispin Hunt
Suggs
Curly-haired twat who used to drum for Stereophonics
Some bloke you don't recognise in a stupid hat
Skin

― The blue-green world is drenched with horse gore, Thursday, 17 January 2008 16:48 (eighteen years ago)

Junkie wife of dude from Supergrass

― Dom Passantino, Thursday, 17 January 2008 16:49 (eighteen years ago)

John Robb will be on it

― Herman G. Neuname, Thursday, 17 January 2008 16:49 (eighteen years ago)

Then I won't be watching it

― Tom D., Thursday, 17 January 2008 16:50 (eighteen years ago)

At least one of Terrorvision.

― chap, Thursday, 17 January 2008 16:51 (eighteen years ago)

Crispian Mills
Buster Bloodvessel
Danbert Nobacon
Bez
Crispin Glover
Beaky

― The blue-green world is drenched with horse gore, Thursday, 17 January 2008 16:52 (eighteen years ago)

Some bloke you don't recognise in a stupid hat = Shovel Out Of M People

― Dingbod Kesterson, Thursday, 17 January 2008 16:54 (eighteen years ago)

Nah, I recognise Shovel. He's that bloke in the stupid hat out of M People.

― The blue-green world is drenched with horse gore, Thursday, 17 January 2008 16:54 (eighteen years ago)

I feel a Weakest Link "Some bloke you don't recognise in a stupid hat" Special is but months away

― Tom D., Thursday, 17 January 2008 16:55 (eighteen years ago)

MC Tunes

― The blue-green world is drenched with horse gore, Thursday, 17 January 2008 16:55 (eighteen years ago)

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