So who ARE that insufferable indie couple in the new Hyundai TV ads?

The Cat Power stuff I'm familiar with always seemed to going more for dark and tortured than fey and wacky.

Yeah, that Truvia conmmercial is totally this:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kFvRe_Zk3VI

Whenever they used to sing out an "R" sound it reminded me of chewbacca. Think Jewel. They were all doing that back then.

Wow that is so fucking twee.

actual serious question: does backing music like this indicate "product is being marketed to women?" (plainly the case for truvia, wondering if this is also hyundai's aim)

wow @ that video

wait...it's that VU song! the "i'm sticking with you" Moe Tucker thing! That's DEFINITELY to blame.

― Sanford, Monday, January 3, 2011 10:51 AM (25 minutes ago) Bookmark

OTM. I was about to say Georgia Hubley, but yeah, it's Tucker.

So why do I love Moe Tucker and hate this?

I mean, some things are good and some things are bad, even if they share sonic features! You think you hate the sonic features but you just hate misuse of the sonic features. E.G. I like Garfunkel and Oates and I cannot lie.

Moe sounds intimate and this sounds highly over-produced?

xpost

yeah its funny cuz i DO like plenty of twee stuff. whatsherface from the pastels used to do a total moe tucker rip, but i really liked it. guess it just depends.

it's cos twee is fine in the privacy of your own home but kinda shameful in the public arena of shilling for car manufacturers

like what could be less twee than advertising - therefore you get false twee consciousness

Research indicates the Truvia singer is Rebecca Zapen, this video is really similar to the Pomplamoose one, and all sorts of twee, and yet I kinda like it. Some of her other stuff sounds like The Roches, whom I love.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yw3l31HiZY8

I'd much prefer terrible music used to shill cars than music that has any value to me, like say weird al yankovic.

So why do I love Moe Tucker and hate this?
You should hate them both

Pomplamoose opened for the Dresden Dolls on NYE here in SF at the Warfield. I somehow negelected to attend.

i just started a thread about twee girls! but i like this for some reason. maybe cuz they live in spain? and don't sing in english? and i don't even hate their twee waking up in their apartment video.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6_OlFQEcUnk

would actually make a really good car commercial ditty too.

twee girls are fine, twee indie is generally pretty stellar ime, this car commercial isn't twee but rather a feist knockoff doing christmas jingles and nothing more. twee is something else entirely i think.

would you want tullycraft shilling for nissan leaf though?

'the punks are driving EV cars whoa-OH!'

yeah you are right. i am a twee fan. calling it insufferable indie is the way to go.

i feel like there is twee the specific musical subgenre and there is twee the ever expanding cutesy culture, these fools fit into the latter if not the former

What particularly irritates me about them is their seeming lack of enthusiasm for their own schtick. They remind me of when 60s/70s pop or country singers would phone in half-hearted psych tunes to stay relevant.

its more like they think being nbd is a virtue, jus having a lil fun u know, virally marketing ourselves

What particularly irritates me about them is their seeming lack of enthusiasm for their own schtick. They remind me of when 60s/70s pop or country singers would phone in half-hearted psych tunes to stay relevant.
He's too enthusiastic, and she's so concerned with maintaining that deer-in-headlights money shot look that she APPEARS to be phoning it in (she's really working overtime to keep her head perched on her shoulders "just so"...)

http://sweasel.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/11/pomplamoose.jpg

rhde

http://www.theresident.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/07/AI-TimUrban.jpg

And another thing! Why do young people want "comb overs" so bad? You're not going bald! You can have a normal haircut!

Watching the original commercial is even funnier after reading the thread.

And the dude in the commercial is engaging in another indie trope that's long in the tooth at this point: ironic wackiness and self-conscious overacting

And that kimya dawson video is reason #34 Diablo Cody needed to be put in the stocks for a month back in 2008.

guess nabisco really is gone, 500 mentions of the word "twee" itt not enough to bring him back.

xpost -- that's what I meant about "phoned in"; it's like the guy isn't even sincere in his irony.

the way she harmonizes with herself is strange. traditionally when singers multitrack their own voices, they're trying to make their music sound fuller, more polished, more professional, etc., and this goes as far back as Les Paul & Mary Ford wowing space age audiences with fancy new magnetic tape technology, or Skeeter Davis masking her rather thin-sounding voice. but with Pomplamoose, her harmonies are so amateurish that they only increase the awkwardly precious, off-kilter feel of the music, to the point where I wonder if she's failing at sounding pretty or succeeding at sounding ugly ( their 'Sound of Music' cover is as good an example as any). I guess it isn't so strange, though, once you realize sounding pretty in an ugly way is one of dominant aesthetics of old-school twee.

I wonder though, is elaborate self-harmonizing a common feature in indie-pop, either in 2011 or 1995? it seems like the kind of trick that indie pop kids shy away from because it breaks the illusion of a down-to-earth band laying everything down in one take. this song (or, rather, the Carousel's entire discography) from 1991 comes to mind...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IcErPvjp-R8

but aside from the lo-fi sound quality, this is quite polished and professional, and it shows an ex Talulah Gosh member's attempt to distance herself from that band's reputation for shambling incompetence. it's basically the opposite of what Pomplamoose achieve.

I wouldn't consider Pomplamoose insincere though. they're extremely self-conscious and image-obsessed, but that doesn't necessarily mean they're bored with it all. well I'm not sure about the bearded guy, but the singer seems like she must've watched the Vivian Girls' "Tell the World" video a thousand times and was like, "oh squeee, I want to be them!" and she got so good at aping that deadpan look and delivery that she never breaks character during the songs. when a musician's schtick is feigned unenthusiasm, it's hard to tell if they're genuinely unenthusiastic when the music stops, but judging by some of the banter tacked onto the end of some of their videos, they seems totally perky and into what they're doing, even if they come off as creepy and garish to me and a lot of other people in this thread.

(btw I'm no Pomplamoose apologist. most of what I've heard from them is utterly meh, although I kinda like their Lady Gaga cover)

"their Lady Gaga cover"

Oh god, it was just inevitable that this would exist, wasn't it.

but judging by some of the banter tacked onto the end of some of their videos

Wow, you made it to the end?

More than once?

with liberal use of the fast forward feature, yes. I don't have a will of iron, y'know.

i'm curious what youtube stars people would find less irritating to see on a commercial?
i was not so much irritated but saddened a little to find keyboard cat shilling pistachios with "snookie"

but with Pomplamoose, her harmonies are so amateurish that they only increase the awkwardly precious, off-kilter feel of the music

isn't that on purpose? they're going for a lite(white?;-))-jazz sound. apparently the guy's dad was a jazz pianist

I would actually like these people better if they'd take the logical step of adding a bandmate or two and becoming the New Monkees.

Pomplam0n

i'm curious what youtube stars people would find less irritating to see on a commercial?

Literally every single one.

Tay Zonday's shilling for Dr. Pepper just made him cuter, really.

ftr i find kutiman wholly enjoyable

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pomplamoose

Genres: Indie Jazz, Alternative, Indie rock

http://forums.macresource.com/smileys/barf.gif

So far, Pomplamoose is still somewhat obscure but has procured a small, yet intense fan base of fellow YouTubers. All it will take is the acknowledgement and approval of the Converse-wearing set and their fame catapult them into ubiquity.

Converse-wearing set

you guys would rather see autotune news dudes + jonathan coulton covering joy division?

Whatever. I'm (good lord) 42 and I still wear them. I wear a lot of other things too, but I still wear my Chucks. Sue me.

― Alex in NYC, Monday, April 5, 2010 3:01 PM