I can only walk past so many Nazis.

[alexsarll]

As is usually my habit I am posting this before reading my friendslist, but I'm guessing that at least half of it will be either Snow! :) or Snow! :(, so in deference to your jaded sensibilities I shall avoid the topic.

I've always known there was something bothering me about Klaxons, beyond the praise they were accumulating for fairly mediocre records. Then I read that they wanted to go R&B, 'Ghetto Fabulous' started playing in my head and everything slotted into place. Three post-indie kids who've done dance, done pop and have their eye on R&B? Klaxons are the rubbish Baxendale! And is is so often the case, they're snaffling all the plaudits and sales which eluded their vastly superior predecessor.

The Boys is back in town.

Further to yesterday, it seems I spoke too soon about the Lords: "A Church of England spokesman said: "We...acknowledge that in a house with reduced numbers consideration needs to be given to the appropriate number of Lords Spiritual. We also welcome and agree the recommendation that the wider religious make-up of the UK be reflected by the appointed element of a reformed House". Now, if they meant ensuring that representatives from the National Secular Society, pagan, Satanist and Jedi bodies got seats, fair enough. But why do I suspect that's not going to be the case?

Virgin was full of posh schoolgirls this evening. The world does enjoy its little puns.

Comments

[giro-playgirl.livejournal.com]

Yes but Bazza, Baxendale WERE rubbish.

You're wrong, and you're a grotesquely ugly freak.

[barrysarll.livejournal.com]

Baxendale were one of the all-time great lost pop groups, and if there were any justice 'Music For Girls' would have defined a generation.

Re: You're wrong, and you're a grotesquely ugly freak.

[giro-playgirl.livejournal.com]

Woah there young man. Being wrong I can deal with. But ugly? You've not even seen me for almost a year! My feelings are HURT.

Re: You're wrong, and you're a grotesquely ugly freak.

[barrysarll.livejournal.com]

(Chris Morris quote - I assumed you'd recognise it!)

[duranorak.livejournal.com]

This seems like a good place to say that I've always wanted to like Baxendale but never quite managed it, for musical reasons that feel similar to the reasons I don't like the Pet Shop Boys. (As yet undefined, but it's something to do with major chords.) So if I had never heard of them, which songs would you recommend above the others? I really want to like them and I want to know what it is about them I've missed.

E.
x

[barrysarll.livejournal.com]

For Baxendale? 'Music for Girls' is the key track, definitely. After that, it gets more subjective. If you're not so keen on major chords (which roughly speaking = cheerful sounds, yes?) then maybe 'Battery Acid' or 'Switzerland'.

I'm always rather surprised when *anyone* doesn't like the PSB, but particularly so given you're a synthpop fan!

Wrongpop

[myfirstkitchen.livejournal.com]

No, Baxendale really were the rubbish Baxendale (lovely people, mind). I don't like indie bands doing pop. It's like indie bands who claim they are influenced by Motown and Brian Wilson and Phil Spector and Joe Meek and even modern things like Girls Aloud, but what do you know? It's yet more dodgy lyrics, dodgy vocals, offkey harmonies, cheap synths and handclaps. Rotten. They should be proper pop groups or steer well clear.

Re: Wrongpop

[peacockpunk.livejournal.com]

If I ever hear a band dribble in an interview "We're not afraid of pop, we don't think it's a dirty word. We're not ashamed to be pop." then I pretty much know they're going to be godawful. And I never liked Baxendale. And Barry, comparing them to Klaxons is a stretch worthy of Reed Richards.

Re: Wrongpop

[barrysarll.livejournal.com]

Oh sure, most of the time it's a case of 'you wish' - but the same applies whenever a band quotes good influences. Hell, even the bands who quote rubbish influences usually don't manage to match them. Sturgeon's Law, remember?

And yes, like me Reed has a mighty intellect capable of spotting connections not clear to lesser brains - though clearly I'm very disappointed by his position on the Registration Act.

Re: Wrongpop

[barrysarll.livejournal.com]

Why can't indie bands be influenced by those things? There's no point getting over the snobbery which automatically dismisses 'manufactured pop' if we only invert it and assert that no non-manufacturd/'indie' band can be pop. Sure, most of them are dreadful (hi, the Pipettes!) but so are most 'proper pop' acts - and others, like Johnny Boy, will carry it off.

TBH I find it puzzling that people can even see the boundaries anymore, after McFly managed to make a pop career out of being a fourth rate indie band.

Re: Wrongpop

[myfirstkitchen.livejournal.com]

They can be influenced by those things, if they understand what makes those things great and do them right. Just doing a half-arsed version of that thing and calling it indie isn't enough. Crap lo-fi versions of stuff that isn't supposed to be crap and lo-fi is pointless. Johnny Boy sounds like proper pop, though the girl needs the studio trickery to help her weak voice. Still, it doesn't hurt Kylie et al so let 'em get on with it, it's not unpleasant and offkey and yer man with the electronics hasn't chosen to use a VL-tone emulator to make the backing tracks. Talent and production values shouldn't fall by the wayside. The Associates were indie and yet proper pop, non? Pet Shop Boys, Duran Duran, Bowie - all fully-realised versions of stuff, not half-arsed, and yet non-manufactured and full of substance (until they went shit).

McFly's first album was pop, as was their third. Their second was third rate Kendallindie, but we can't have it all.

Re: Wrongpop

[barrysarll.livejournal.com]

The Associates, like Roxy Music before them, had the good fortune to precede the deleterious 'pop'/'indie' dichotomy - just like Bogart or Powell & Pressburger were lucky enough to live before Hollywood split into 'the blockbusters' and 'the arty stuff', both of which were painfully incomplete.

I have heard plenty of McFly, and not one second of it belonged anywhere but third on the bill at the Dublin Castle.

Also, I love Johnny Boy live.