Please define "twee."

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A co-worker saw "twee" used to describe the music in A Mighty Wind and wanted to know what it meant. Ordinarily, I'd just say "Belle & Sebastian" but I don't think she's familiar with them.

How would YOU describe twee?

― Michael Daddino (epicharmus), Friday, 18 April 2003 14:05 (twenty-two years ago)

twee
adj. Chiefly British
Overly precious or nice.

― Kenan Hebert (kenan), Friday, 18 April 2003 14:07 (twenty-two years ago)

Yeah, "precious" really is the operative word when talking about twee. Also, a certain childike quality: innocence, wonder, naivete, etc. Pretty melodies.

― Brandon Gentry (Brandon Gentry), Friday, 18 April 2003 14:21 (twenty-two years ago)

Cardigan sweaters and slumped shoulders. Owning nothing but a rotary phone and a typewriter. Like Mr. Rogers, but younger and with hatred bubbling just below the surface.

― Chris H. (chrisherbert), Friday, 18 April 2003 14:26 (twenty-two years ago)

This reminds me that I must see A Mighty Wind this weekend.

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Friday, 18 April 2003 14:35 (twenty-two years ago)

haha I instantly thought "belle and sebastian" too!

twee motherfuckers is a nice ilmeme

― Ronan (Ronan), Friday, 18 April 2003 14:42 (twenty-two years ago)

Hey I'm off to "A Mighty Wind" tomorrow.

― Chris V. (Chris V), Friday, 18 April 2003 14:46 (twenty-two years ago)

The Beautiful South

― Dave Stelfox (Dave Stelfox), Friday, 18 April 2003 14:46 (twenty-two years ago)

When Belle and Sebastian played in Austin last year, the Chronicle ran a blurb on the upcoming show which ran something like,

"So get some thicker glasses, put on a cardigan, get one of your stoned friends to cut your hair in the dark and come on down."

I thought that was pretty great.

And I'm seeing A Mighty Wind tonight.

― Brandon Gentry (Brandon Gentry), Friday, 18 April 2003 14:47 (twenty-two years ago)

I saw A Mighty Wind on opening night, and totally dug it. The music is great.

― jaymc (jaymc), Friday, 18 April 2003 15:06 (twenty-two years ago)

The funny thing is that Belle and Sebastian, at least at the beginning were comparatively non-twee: I really think their entire intial success revolved around playing stuff that should have been twee but always turned out to be a little heavier than expected.

(For instance: if you took the Dog on Wheels EP and re-recorded it with either too much gloss or too much tape hiss, made the vocals crappier and the performances more amateurish, made the lyrics dumber and cuter, and made Belle and Sebastian Spanish ... you've got an indie-pop record on your hands. Half of the interest in B&S -- and also stuff like the Pastels' last -- came in suddenly noticing the space between those two things.)

― nabisco (nabisco), Friday, 18 April 2003 15:25 (twenty-two years ago)

This is my way of saying "if you think Belle and Sebastian are twee just wait until you hear the Softies."

― nabisco (nabisco), Friday, 18 April 2003 15:27 (twenty-two years ago)

Yeah I think of B&S as playing with "twee" not embodying it, although their recent singles are another thing altogether. And the stuff by the "other" band members on Fold Your Hands qualifies a bit better than anything before.

Beat Happening is similarly post-twee (or is that pre-twee, sheesh).

Are Northern Picture Library/Trembling Blue Stars twee?

― Amateurist (amateurist), Friday, 18 April 2003 15:32 (twenty-two years ago)

Amateurist is OTM. Stuart Murdoch's songs are too emotionally complex to be considered "twee". It's Stuart David, Stevie and Isabel's songs that are shamefully twee more often than not.

― gygax! (gygax!), Friday, 18 April 2003 15:42 (twenty-two years ago)

are you some kind of tweeist?

― felicity (felicity), Friday, 18 April 2003 15:50 (twenty-two years ago)

After much consideration, we decided Belgium was the twee-est country on earth, though Japan comes close.

― Michael Daddino (epicharmus), Friday, 18 April 2003 16:07 (twenty-two years ago)

jaques brel and plastic bertrand are NOT twee.

― gygax! (gygax!), Friday, 18 April 2003 16:10 (twenty-two years ago)

Well, neither is Merzbow or Mishima. I mean, we're talking entire countries here, so there's lots of room for antithetical extremes. But when everything is rounded out...

― Michael Daddino (epicharmus), Friday, 18 April 2003 16:14 (twenty-two years ago)

Should the Vaselines be considered twee? On the one hand, they have that whole boy-girl, lo-fi thing, but on the other their songs were pretty aggressive and bitter.

― Brandon Gentry (Brandon Gentry), Friday, 18 April 2003 16:16 (twenty-two years ago)

No, they're like Beat Happening: the days when twee was all gritty and complicated.

The Field Mice are twee.

― nabisco (nabisco), Friday, 18 April 2003 16:26 (twenty-two years ago)

Nobody understands how hard Beat Happening rock.

― nabisco (nabisco), Friday, 18 April 2003 16:27 (twenty-two years ago)

If you like the music described as such, it's fantastic shorthand and a badge of membership. What do you like, oh I like twee pop, me too! Of course this is pretty much an imaginary conversation if you're not in a chat room but twee pop doesn't really attract pragmatists does it?

The Clientele are far more twee than Belle and Sebastian, but as it's a label neither of them want, I'm happy to restrict the term to myself and the people I know who share my taste in that kind of music.

Probably easier for Americans to bandy the term about as well, like shoegazing it never really had a strong perjorative sense here... just another genre that nobody you meet day to day has ever heard of.

― fortunate hazel (f. hazel), Friday, 18 April 2003 16:28 (twenty-two years ago)

The Field Mice are WAY twee. The Kings of Convenience are also pretty twee (especially on Quiet is the New Loud, which became un-twee when it was remixed on Versus). Nick Drake is twee's dad.

― Brandon Gentry (Brandon Gentry), Friday, 18 April 2003 16:30 (twenty-two years ago)

The Clientele are fey, The Field Mice are twee, get it straight.

― Amateurist (amateurist), Friday, 18 April 2003 16:32 (twenty-two years ago)

Kings of Convenience aren't very twee, either, I don't think. They just sound like Simon and Garfunkel.

― nabisco (nabisco), Friday, 18 April 2003 16:34 (twenty-two years ago)

What is the locus classicus of twee?

― Amateurist (amateurist), Friday, 18 April 2003 16:35 (twenty-two years ago)

I said that they're more twee than B&S, which doesn't imply any innate tweeness. Something tells me the people in the Clientele would balk at any suggestion, but realistically all the twee kids I know love the Clientele.

Did twee spring fully formed from the forehead of Nick Drake? Somehow it doesn't work for me.

― fortunate hazel (f. hazel), Friday, 18 April 2003 16:36 (twenty-two years ago)

One of my first posts to ILM mentioned the Clientele and the Kings of Convenience in the same sentence. Alasdair was offended.

― nabisco (nabisco), Friday, 18 April 2003 16:38 (twenty-two years ago)

I think the thing to watch out for here is "60s = twee" which isn't really true.

― nabisco (nabisco), Friday, 18 April 2003 16:39 (twenty-two years ago)

Nabisco, I think your warning is appropriate. But, twee is not the product of Nick Drake alone. I think the Fairport Convention had a hand in it, too. Even Simon and Garfunkle. A lot of English psychedelia fixated on themes of childhood and, like, elves and stuff, and I think that's pretty twee.

― Brandon Gentry (Brandon Gentry), Friday, 18 April 2003 16:42 (twenty-two years ago)

I can't think of many modern-twee stuff outside of Athens, GA that gets into the imaginary-beings end of things: the whole project is awfully grounded in re-imagining real life as potentially cute and pleasant, as opposed to admitting escapism by making things up. But yeah, S & G were definitely up to the same thing at many points.

― nabisco (nabisco), Friday, 18 April 2003 16:46 (twenty-two years ago)

But their source for it was folk music, which -- almost weirdly -- has a lot of the same impulses as modern-twee in that sense.

― nabisco (nabisco), Friday, 18 April 2003 16:47 (twenty-two years ago)

See, I would never have thought about any of these bands having much of anything to do with twee, although I do like them, especially Nick Drake.

― fortunate hazel (f. hazel), Friday, 18 April 2003 16:48 (twenty-two years ago)

"twee" is a word that should be forever abolished from the English language. Other examples of words that should be forever abolished are "pompous", "overproduced", "derivative" and "dadrock".

One doesn't need negative words to describe positive aspects of music.

― Geir Hongro (GeirHong), Friday, 18 April 2003 16:51 (twenty-two years ago)

Go Sailor were pretty twee, as well as The All Girl Summer Fun Band and that whole KRS/K scene.

It disappoints me greatly that some people seem to see Athens, GA, Elephant 6 and twee as all being fairly synonymous. Tons of E6 stuff (the good E6 stuff) isn't terribly twee if at all, and plenty of twee bands aren't at all involved in the scene.

Are Self twee? I saw their album, Subliminal Plastic Motives in the dollar bin the other day and nearly picked it up. That's the one recorded entirely on toy instruments, yes? I haven't heard the band, though my friend Andrew swears by them.

As far as origins of twee go--what about Syd Barret-era Pink Floyd? He was pretty child-like at times, though there always seemed to be a kind of sadness behind it, whereas most of what I consider twee is sunny and happy to the point of being saccharine.

― Ian Johnson (orion), Friday, 18 April 2003 16:53 (twenty-two years ago)

Like "You Should All Be Murdered" by Another Sunny Day?

― fortunate hazel (f. hazel), Friday, 18 April 2003 16:54 (twenty-two years ago)

I have the understanding though, that "twee" would mean something like "whatever sounds nice and pleasant enough for your parents to be likely to enjoy it".

I still cannot quite see the negative aspect of that though.

― Geir Hongro (GeirHong), Friday, 18 April 2003 16:56 (twenty-two years ago)

"As far as origins of twee go--what about Syd Barret-era Pink Floyd?"

I was actually thinking about this when I mentioned English psychedelia, specifically See Emily Play. See also: David Bowie's first album.

― Brandon Gentry (Brandon Gentry), Friday, 18 April 2003 17:00 (twenty-two years ago)

Well, there are some really bad songs out there, Geir. And some of them came about because somebody liked twee pop but didn't realize that twee pop has different inputs than outputs. Trying to out-Field Mice the Field Mice can be disastrous. If you really are trying to out-Field Mice the Field Mice, you should actually be trying to out-Wake the Wake. That's unfair to the Field Mice who are ace in their own right but you see what I mean. Not that it matters one way or another... better somebody has a go at releasing a 7" and has a good time of it no matter what the result than to live in fear of upsetting a canon.

― fortunate hazel (f. hazel), Friday, 18 April 2003 17:06 (twenty-two years ago)

Life must be adorable.

The origin of twee = "Keep on the Sunny Side" as sung by the Carter children.

― Amateurist (amateurist), Friday, 18 April 2003 17:14 (twenty-two years ago)

The Field Mice are equal parts disastrous and sublime.

― Amateurist (amateurist), Friday, 18 April 2003 17:16 (twenty-two years ago)

Yes, I thought "Quicksilver" was overly sentimental for a song about going to the dentist and getting a filling.

― fortunate hazel (f. hazel), Friday, 18 April 2003 17:20 (twenty-two years ago)

something like "whatever sounds nice and pleasant enough for your parents to be likely to enjoy it".

So, Bob Dylan then? The Beatles? Yo La Tengo's calmer moments? Will Oldham?

Try again.

― Ian Johnson (orion), Friday, 18 April 2003 17:37 (twenty-two years ago)

The most parent-friendly Beatles songs, such as "Yesterday", "Michelle" and "Let It Be" were often written off as "twee".

― Geir Hongro (GeirHong), Friday, 18 April 2003 17:41 (twenty-two years ago)

Nobody understands how hard Beat Happening rock.

TWEEST COMMENT EVAH!

― M Matos (M Matos), Friday, 18 April 2003 17:43 (twenty-two years ago)

I guess I see "twee" as more of a descriptive term than a derogatory one (like, say, "dadrock"). Like, I do think it's a good way to describe Isobel Campbell or Kings of Convenience: gently strumming guitars, earnestly cooing vocals, a little too precious perhaps. But then I'm not British, and I have a feeling it's applied more generally in the UK than what my personal connotations may be. (I doubt that most Americans have a working definition of it.)

Can I add to the early Bowie / Syd Barrett stuff : "Phenomenal Cat" by The Kinks? Same idea?

― jaymc (jaymc), Friday, 18 April 2003 18:20 (twenty-two years ago)

Kaleidoscope UK owns. And there is nothing "twee" about Nick Drake, except maybe "Poor Boy" but I think that was more of a joke than anything.

― Mr. Diamond (diamond), Friday, 18 April 2003 18:25 (twenty-two years ago)

Yeah, WTF, Nick Drake made somber and depressing music. "Phenomenal Cat" is OTM but I think we must distinguish music-hall-throwback twee and the thinking-fondly-of-the-old-playlot twee.

― Amateurist (amateurist), Friday, 18 April 2003 18:33 (twenty-two years ago)

I always thought of twee as being derogatory... maybe because it sounds like twit. Overly sentimental, saccharine-y (maybe because twee sounds like sweet.) ...also - Canary-like, reminiscent of an English professor's jacket or Abba-esque.

― dave225 (Dave225), Friday, 18 April 2003 18:42 (twenty-two years ago)

Or maybe it's just that I like a lot of the stuff that people call "twee," that I never picked up on the derogatory intent.

― jaymc (jaymc), Friday, 18 April 2003 18:47 (twenty-two years ago)

I think the point of "twee" is that it was a derogatory word that was reclaimed as a superlative by a select group of people. I'm sure Ray Davies would consider it a fighting word while Amelia Fletcher would not. (Or would she?)

― Amateurist (amateurist), Friday, 18 April 2003 18:52 (twenty-two years ago)

don't see what is remotely twee about field mice - their songs about sexism, homophobia etc never struck me as anything but angry even if the medium was more subtle than many here would like - b&s on the other hand often seem twee for the sake of it (and yes i guess that was talulah gosh's problem) so are far more deserving of the sobriquet ?

― kieron, Friday, 18 April 2003 19:03 (twenty-two years ago)

The Clientele are fey, The Field Mice are twee, get it straight.
Okaaaayyyy, then...how does twee and fey differ? Isn't one the hallmark of the other and vice versa?

― Lord Custos Epsilon (Lord Custos Epsilon), Friday, 18 April 2003 19:35 (twenty-two years ago)

No, no. Hello Kitty is twee, but definitely not fey. And Robert Plant is fey, but definitely not twee.

― Kenan Hebert (kenan), Friday, 18 April 2003 19:36 (twenty-two years ago)

...
Ooookay. So...
Robert Smith == Twee
Stephen Morrissey == Fey
?

― Lord Custos Epsilon (Lord Custos Epsilon), Friday, 18 April 2003 19:38 (twenty-two years ago)

"Twee" is just about being small and cute. "Fey" is about giving off a gay vibe. I would argue that both of those men are more fey than teww, though either can be both from time to time.

― Kenan Hebert (kenan), Friday, 18 April 2003 19:41 (twenty-two years ago)

teww=twee

― Kenan Hebert (kenan), Friday, 18 April 2003 19:42 (twenty-two years ago)

Hmmm. Wouldn't "fey" also implies something "elflike" in ones nature? As in Bjork is fey without giving off a gay vibe, whereas Melissa Etheridge can give off a gay vibe without being the slightest bit fey at all.

― Lord Custos Epsilon (Lord Custos Epsilon), Friday, 18 April 2003 19:44 (twenty-two years ago)

You're right. "Fey" means "fairy-like," in every sense of that.

― Kenan Hebert (kenan), Friday, 18 April 2003 19:46 (twenty-two years ago)

Tullycraft are twee, right? Cub too? They don't sound anything like The Clientele. There may be a link in attitude, but it seems like a distant one. The more we define "twee" the less I'm sure what it means.

― Miranda (Miranda), Friday, 18 April 2003 21:52 (twenty-two years ago)

twee = early Three O' Clock!

― matt riedl (veal), Friday, 18 April 2003 22:08 (twenty-two years ago)

tullycraft maybe - i mean they did a song about it - but i don't see much twee about Cub. Cub could have a few of the other bands we've mentioned in a fight, surely ? If by twee people mean shorthand for "melodic, but really badly produced" then a lot of this thread would make more sense ?

― kieron, Friday, 18 April 2003 22:09 (twenty-two years ago)

it's nice to have hazel here to defend the twee, prodigy flashbacks. it's always interesting to see how people recoil when the twee accusation is lobbed at them as if it was the worst possible thing you could say about a person's music taste but then I suppose some people still think if you listen to hard music it makes you hard and the opposite as well.

― keith (keithmcl), Saturday, 19 April 2003 00:07 (twenty-two years ago)

Early Televison Personalities were twee as hell.

― Mike Taylor (mjt), Saturday, 19 April 2003 00:36 (twenty-two years ago)

Tyrannosaurus Rex = twee. As does the first Bowie lp.

― Sean (Sean), Saturday, 19 April 2003 01:03 (twenty-two years ago)

Nabisco has made me very glad I haven't heard the Softies.

― sundar subramanian (sundar), Saturday, 19 April 2003 01:14 (twenty-two years ago)

The Field Mice were New Order obsessives = not twee. If only because Bernard Sumner's lyrics were mostly about drunken sex, by his own admission.

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Saturday, 19 April 2003 02:34 (twenty-two years ago)

Nabisco has made me very glad I haven't heard the Softies.

oh B&S are WAY more twee than the Softies, as I undertsand twee. There's nothing pretentious and self-congratulatory about the Softies.

― Aaron A., Saturday, 19 April 2003 02:40 (twenty-two years ago)

Ned's right - the Field Mice are just New Order with lyrics about girly girls rather than whatever the hell Bernie sings about

― electric sound of jim (electricsound), Saturday, 19 April 2003 02:51 (twenty-two years ago)

When somebody hands you a pamphlet called "Is your son/daughter twee?" very high on the bulleted list on the inside flap is "Are they New Order/Smiths obsessives?" Being obsessed about a pop group = twee.

I hear the Field Mice in the Wake's "Something No-one Else Could Bring" EP a lot more than in any New Order release, but admittedly it's a very thin line... it's impossible not to hear the New Order in the Wake's "Something Outside."

Field Mice record covers have Factory all over them.

― fortunate hazel (f. hazel), Saturday, 19 April 2003 03:46 (twenty-two years ago)

it's nice to have hazel here to defend the twee, prodigy flashbacks

You make it sound like somebody blew on a horn and I got summoned back into Narnia to defend the twee! I love it. Where is Julian Lawton or Mike Blackbean to rein me in this time though?

As for twee vs. fey... twee is cat ears, fey is a top hat that isn't black.

― fortunate hazel (f. hazel), Saturday, 19 April 2003 03:58 (twenty-two years ago)

then what do you call a paperback on the bus/valium in the park? is that not twee?

― Aaron A., Saturday, 19 April 2003 04:10 (twenty-two years ago)

Aaron, surely "pretentious" is the antithesis of twee.

― nabisco (nabisco), Saturday, 19 April 2003 06:12 (twenty-two years ago)

I take offense to the usage of twee in a negative sense. I think it's nothing but a good thing. If I were in a band I'd want nothing more than to be twee. Think of the elitest connotations.

Also, what about movies? Can they be described as twee? But I'm a Cheerleader? Splendor? Any movie with Belle and Sebastian on the soundtrack (all two of them)?

― Tim G, Saturday, 19 April 2003 17:52 (twenty-two years ago)

twee is a term thrown around like emo. it's not really something you can put an absolute definition on. for example, twee is often associated with the whole c86 thing but you wouldn't really call a band like primal scream twee, but maybe some people would consider wedding present super twee.
basically though, i think the fundamental elements of twee are the same ideas that were originally put into punk rock. instead of layering sounds and doing guitar solos and singing like a prick give some instruments to people that have no idea what to do with them, like simple/cute things and see what happens. with twee, it's like you don't have to rock in order to rock. you can be slow and cute and happy and still make good music.
maybe if you're going to try and pinpoint it to a past era look at the bubblegum pop bands of the 60's like the 1910 fruitgum co., ohio express, lemon piper's green tambourine (hey, wonder where pam berry and co. got the idea for a black tambourine), etc etc.
to be well versed, but unrehearsed. to be simple but effective. to not care about the past two statements and just do whatever.

why do you have to put a name on everything? when you get to the bottom of it, it's all pop. if you're going to get hardcore about labeling it though it's stupid to classify boyracer as twee. just because they had some singles on sarah doesn't make them twee, they rock like a punk band. the aesthetics are there but in that case you can find tons of bands to call twee. twee is not concrete, just like emo. boyracer and belle et sebastian can be considered twee yet moss icon and jimmy eat world can be considered emo. it'll all end up being cliche anyways mocked by people putting ""'s around the name. you're so "twee".

― spiegs, Sunday, 20 April 2003 08:18 (twenty-two years ago)

I always thought twee was just another term for indiepop. I think twee relates more to the attitude/interesets of the listener than the band, I don't mean this as an insult. No band in the history of music has gone "I know, I'll be twee".

― jel -- (jel), Sunday, 20 April 2003 08:41 (twenty-two years ago)

one thing i've notice that conflicts that is a band like apples in stereo (or any other E6 band for that case, except maybe dressy bessy) will be considered indiepop, but not twee.
as far as the listener thing, yeah.. it's always the people that take things and blow them out of proportion (the fact that there is huge thread debating whether or not belle and sebastian is 'twee' is a good example). even the ramones who are pioneers of punk considered themselves a "rock n roll band" they didn't pin the punk rock title on themselves. man i can relate anything to punk rock :)

― spiegs, Sunday, 20 April 2003 08:51 (twenty-two years ago)

"Twee fucker" (dustmen to Stuart M).

Stuart M's nickname (alright, he doesn't know it, but it's the one I've given him) - The Engine. The man is so fit.

― Cozen (Cozen), Sunday, 20 April 2003 08:52 (twenty-two years ago)

I was wondering when there'd be a Mighty Wind thread. I have nothing to contribute here other than "this movie's mostly really funny except for a few disappointingly cheap jokes, which is the case with all these (otherwise sophisticated) Christopher Guest mocku-ensemble films."

― Jody Beth Rosen (Jody Beth Rosen), Sunday, 20 April 2003 09:02 (twenty-two years ago)

i hate comedy.

― Amateurist (amateurist), Sunday, 20 April 2003 09:10 (twenty-two years ago)

two years pass...

I came to the conclusion last night (at 3AM lying in my bed no less) that Simon and Garfunkel's Mrs. Robinson is, in my honest opinion, the prototypical, and probably most famous, "twee" song.

― Cunga (Cunga), Sunday, 28 August 2005 19:21 (twenty years ago)

Okaaaayyyy, then...how does twee and fey differ? Isn't one the hallmark of the other and vice versa?

I see fey as being more unintentionally naivè than twee, which usually brings a fair amount of irony. Twee pop has been called "indie bubbglegum" and that's accurate if only because twee pop combines the naive and syrupy fluff of a bubblegum band with with the cynicism, irony and self-aware posturing found in indie rock. Irony is probably the most crucial element in twee that separates it from genuine bubblegum or plain "fey" stuff. The difference between a "fey" Donovan singing about "catching the wind" and a "twee" Paul Simon singing about Mrs. Robinson is that Paul Simon is writing a song for two different audiences, one for people who will see it as a straight up pop song with catchy little "woo-woo-woos" and another one for more "intellectual" people who know it's actually a bitter mockery of many things (pop songs arguably being one of them). The Donovan song sounds hopelessly silly and doesn't leave much room for not taking itself seriously while a Simon and Garfunkel song will often times sound very aware of it's own preciousness.

Belle and Sebastian are compared to S&G and are called twee because of their similiar fondness for irony and self-aware preciousness. I've even seen some more naivè people ask if they were a "Christian" band because of their references to Jesus in songs. That's the kind of trick S&G would play.

― Cunga (Cunga), Sunday, 28 August 2005 19:51 (twenty years ago)

www.twee.net

― late adopter, Monday, 29 August 2005 03:19 (twenty years ago)

the cynicism, irony and self-aware posturing found in indie rock.

― AaronK (AaronK), Monday, 29 August 2005 11:47 (twenty years ago)

Teenage girls in anoraks - not because they have no fashion sense, but because they deliberately have no fashion sense. guitar pop music that sounds like the wall of sound rebuilt in lego. Fanzines. 7" coloured vinyl.

― Mippy (Mippy), Monday, 29 August 2005 13:07 (twenty years ago)

three months pass...

I've always thought of twee as a descriptor of a band's sound as much as their underlying philosophy/ethic/whatever. English twee = either fast-strummed, ridiculously distorted guitars a la the Jesus and Mary Chain, the Velvet Underground, the Ramones, or the TV Personalities (see: 14 Iced Bears, Shop Assistants, Pastels, Talulah Gosh, Vaselines, some Field Mice, etc.), though that might be closer to C-86. English twee can also mean ridiculously jangly guitars and poorly-mixed drums and bass a la Felt at their most unadorned ("Penelope Tree," "Rain of Crystal Spires"), the Smiths at their most jangly, or the first Byrds album (see: Sea Urchins, Another Sunny Day, the Orchids, the rest of the Field Mice stuff that's not acid house, etc). Frequently, English twee = both. American twee is harder to pin down, which is I guess why most people just use the term "indie pop." There is probably some nebulous middle ground between amplified acoustic guitars, distorted electric guitars, drum kits made out of things which are not drums, casio keyboards, "imperfect" vocal harmonies, and no bass which, should a band stumble across it, would be the quintessence of American twee pop. Twee in America definitely seems more like an aesthetic than a sound.

― owen moorhead (i heart daniel miller), Tuesday, 13 December 2005 17:05 (twenty years ago)

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