Baxendale: C or D?

jamesmichaelward's gonna kill me!

Seeing as half their songs about Tim plotting his revenge against the world, I'm not sure you could call them defeatist. Top Deck seems a pretty damn ambitious song ("And that suffering for your art? Well I'll see you on the Pepsi Chart"). They're pretty anti-retro too (The Nineteen Sixties rages against 60s retroism, The First Robot rages against vocoder-obsessed 80s revivalism whilst acknowledging that they've been guilty of that in the past - but only because they liked that Cher song so much...) And I'd say the influence of current pop/r&b is way stronger than the 80s influence

I don't get the Girl Weak Boy Strong allegation either. "Boy" is often used as shorthand for "boring", "girl" means cool. Strength/weakness doesn't really come into it. And in most of the songs, Senay kicks Tim's ass anyway.

A few of the new songs seem to feature Tim doing his aggressive rapping bit now, so maybe they got fed up with people moaning about the vocals so his voice certainly isn't girly or weedy any more. I was in a club and they were playing Electric Trains and I realised how deep his voice was, but it might have been the club or something.

Any band which can sing moving ballads about All Saints splitting up or rap about the tragedy of being born with the indie gene will automatically get a special place in my heart.

And even if you don't like them, you can hardly say they've got no talent - Tim's lyrics, Senay's voice, Alex's theremin skills...

Yes, they try to ape the pop they love (and they really do love it) and maybe they don't get it quite right but it's the way in which they don't quite get it right that makes them special.

Any way, Stevie and Suicide Ally made a lovely couple...

I don't get the Girl Weak Boy Strong allegation either. "Boy" is often used as shorthand for "boring", "girl" means cool. Strength/weakness doesn't really come into it. And in most of the songs, Senay kicks Tim's ass anyway. I mean buying into it accidentally. By seeking to rage against if they're reinforcing it by buying into this idea of femininity. Plus, a lot of boy stuff that's boring... i really like electronics, stereo systems, the iontricacies of computers and discussing equipment.

And even if you don't like them, you can hardly say they've got no talent - Tim's lyrics, Senay's voice, Alex's theremin skills...
well my point was i find all those aspects of them pretty weak. songs packed with ideas, maybe, but i don't like the words tim picks for them. i can't remember senay's voice either. but really, my problem with them is that they're too focused on other people's music to work out a way to best employ the... esoteric talents they have.

I don't quite follow your logic that plotting revenge=accepting defeat. Splitting the band (and burying their heads in the sand and going to plant cabbages somewhere in Ireland etc) would be defeat. The Bax ethos seems to be "Ha, you think you got us beat...just you wait" Their revenge is against everyone who's held them down/written them off without giving them a chance/everyone who sneers "Synths=80s"

The thing about Girl Weak Boy Strong I don't get either. There's a difference between buying into something and acknowledging something exists. Is Madonna buying into that idea in What It Feels Like For A Girl? And electronics stuff is Bax-approved boys stuff anyway (see Neato)

I think Tim's lyrics are often spot-on "Does anyone really want a new Pet Shop Boys? I certainly wouldn't given the choice/Don't want to kick Senay out and tour the world/Singing 'This is music for West End Girls'"

But I've always had a soft spot for music about music and songs about songs so maybe none of what bothers you about them is an issue for me.

Richard: Both versions of Electric Trains, Ghetto Fabulous, Walk Like Baxendale, a couple other new tracks that I don't know the names of, Tina Dreams, Solo Records, I Love The Sound Of Dance Music, the intro to the album version of Battery Acid all show the influence of modern pop/r&b/UK Garage. There's probably other, better examples but I'm tired

Oh, and their versions of Say My Name and Mi Chica Latina are slightly influenced by modern pop...

Any way, you can all say what you like about them. Lalala I can't hear you.

I think Tim's lyrics are often spot-on "Does anyone really want a new Pet Shop Boys? I certainly wouldn't given the choice/Don't want to kick Senay out and tour the world/Singing 'This is music for West End Girls'"
I'm thinking more of shape and sound and rhythm of words. and you know, that's just AABB rhyming, it's not so interetsing. Quite tight, but a load of extraneous words. I like people who play with rhythm and space of words.

I think Daft Punk take a much more interesting approach to tributes to the music they love.taking old methods of production and filtering them through new technology where the Bax just kind of replicate the structure of a bunch of pop records. Though I think where we entrench in details your bound to trump me as you care enough to know the details i don't have any particular interest in.

No. Wait. This makes no sense. Weren't you just saying that you didn't like Baxendale because they have no ambition? Now your saying they should be happy with their own "quite enthused" fanbase. You're confusing me.

I think Daft Punk take a much more interesting approach to tributes to the music they love.taking old methods of production and filtering them through new technology where the Bax just kind of replicate the structure of a bunch of pop records

You're doing it again. I thought you were tiring with retro-readings. But now your praising Buggles 2001. I can't keep up.

The wider issue raised by Baxendale, though, is what do you do if you want to emulate some of the sounds and ideas of modern pop but you don't have a big budget? Richard says B'dale are 'tinny' but do they have any choice??

Daft Punk feel utterly 2001 to me, whereas Baxendale...Baxendale feel like a working through of some Pop Theory for Beginners Textbook. I'm probably too harsh on them and I've heard very little of them but the idea of them doesn't appeal.

You're doing it again. I thought you were tiring with retro- readings. But now your praising Buggles 2001. I can't keep up.
just meant for a while it's all i listened to. that wasn't a critical statement, just my current listenign habits. and i like buggles, what i was suggesting was that daft punk take a more interesting approach re. the minute detail, the way they wring quite genuine emotion from desperately hackneyed cliches lyrically.

Their records do sound wimpy, annoying and tinny, yeah. But live they just exude (Hi)energy, and I find it impossible to not find them a little charming.

But to compare them to the late John Sims is just pap. They're nowhere near as good and nor do they sound anything like them. The Helen Love thing's about right, though.

This is a good point, I don't think the tinnyness is really deliberate. If it was, why do they keep reworking all their songs all the time? Each time, the songs get fuller and smoother

Baxendale feel like a working through of some Pop Theory for Beginners Textbook

Don't say that, they'll use it as part of their slideshows...

What the world needs now, is boy cheerleaders, sweet boy cheerleaders.

That's the only thing that there's just too little of.

Sorry for the rant, hope you understand my opinion.

http://www.freakytrigger.co.uk/passing.html

The song has been around for a while, but the single's coming out soon. The version you're most likely to come across is the Kashpoint Radio Edit, but there's a 12" mix that goes for 5:20, and "a mildly hilarious booty-esque mix by a white r'n'b PSB fan from Hamburg" that I think I have in my gmail somewhere.

http://www.perfectsoundforever.com/ilmrg.html

I may go through and update this later today, unless it's just somewhere else now. In which case, please direct me.

*'Music for girls' (early defining anthem, shonky bedroom disco, defining popism in opposition to Britpop beerboys)

* 'Top Deck' ("do you prefer to sit on the top deck or the bottom deck? Baxendale think they have their priorities pretty straight on this one" says the soppy robot, while the band make the doomed proclamation "we'll see you in the Pepsi charts!")

* 'The 1960s' (very funny bitter song about the girl you fancy going out with a Creation records bore: "He's taking you back to the nineteen sixties / Back to his flat at the end of my street / A million miles away from the modern world today / He'll play you records that were made before you were born / He'll say that all of these new kids have got it wrong / He'll take you out all day
Wandering round the antique shops / The smell of mothballs and crackling records is all he's got")

* 'I love the sound of dance music (parts I and II)' (epic late nite post-club car ride: Jonathan Richman meets the PSBs)

* 'Hanging out with her' (the best here-comes-the-summer song of the 1990s - key line: "we could break into our old school and lie on the tennis courts, listening to the Boards of Canada")

* 'Me and my piano' (Belle and Sebastian meet DC Thompson comics, features a synthesiser constructed from "some broken toasters and a really long extension lead")

* 'Tina dreams' (funny throwaway single about fancying members of S-Club 7)

* 'Ghetto Fabulous' (great defiant diatribe, sampling 'Dog on Wheels' and bemoaning the fact that Tim isn't going out with one of TLC)

* 'Your body needs my sugar' (the first Bax-single to sound properly pop - Rachel Stevens should cover it now)

i once thought this was clever, now it seems a bit 'protest too much'...

They should release Heat Activated at some point.

Alexander's Festival Hall though = actually brilliant, I think. (I should make the effort and see him/them sometime).

(and have a copy of that MD as a souvenir. Wasn't it a Baxendale/Clientele/Pinefox triple header?)

Bless you. Me and the "bloody peasant" in Monty Python and the Holy Grail...

And....back to Baxendale!