Tag Archives: twee as fuck

Stuck In Summer: “Summer Time’s Gone”

Posted on May 17, 2012 by Patrick St. Michel

About two weeks ago, Tokyo’s Shortcake Collage Tape posted a song called “Polaroid Full Of Kisses” that ended up being a far more craftly bit of indie-pop to pin down than the name implied. It was a fuzzy memory of a song, vocals ripped from anime and sampled flute dropped into a woozy downtempo gunk. It was a nice reminder that, while tons of young Japanese artists take to Soundcloud armed with rollicking guitar and a deep knowledge of the Sarah Records catalog, plenty of indie-pop kids are capable of adding crinkles to the sunny formula. Count Osaka’s Stuck In Summer alongside Shortcake and OMEGABOY as a project refusing to be straight-up cardigan rock – “Summer Time’s Gone” opens with an aged sample that sounds like some sort of 80’s surf-bro movie, a technique that also opened up fellow Osaka group Ice Cream Shout’s 2010 song “Tattooed Tears.” Once the dudes drop back, the song reveals itself to be a mix of bouncy synth-pop and more straightforward indie-pop…see, the vocals…with a few diversions into more dusty sampling down the line. Stuck In Summer come off as trying to recreate the smirk-bearing pop of Swedish acts like The Tough Alliance or (especially) The Embassy, but even if you don’t want to try to read lips “Summer Time’s Gone” a nice variation on the great kawaii-pop explosion of 2012. Listen below.

Wallflower Cover The Field Mice: “This Love Is Not Wrong”

Posted on May 6, 2012 by Patrick St. Michel

Osaka indie-pop outfit Wallflower posted a cover of The Field Mice’s “This Love Is Not Wrong” online over the weekend, and its definitely worth taking a listen to. For the most part, Wallflower’s take on the track doesn’t break new ground – something something jangle something something twee – save for the vocals. Whereas The Field Mice original leaves the singing untouched and in the open, Wallflower’s vocalist gets pushed a little deeper into the mix and surrounded by sparkles, which is me trying to describe Wallflower sounding “dreamy” without using the word “dreamy.”

[soundcloud url=”http://api.soundcloud.com/tracks/45384594″ iframe=”true” /]

The current boom in Japanese indie-pop has resulted in a lot of good music…this cover being a fine example…but at the same time the whole thing comes off as a bit too backward looking, a little too content to stare wide-eyed at the past and replicate those times. I like the original songs these groups do – Wallflower’s “Cure For Your Heart” is a good example, or just as recently Post Modern Team’s “Never Let You Down” – but there has also been a rise in cover songs that just don’t add much to the conversation besides “remember this, that was great.” I like The Field Mice and The Smiths and all the stuff covered on the JPN C86 tape as much as the next melancholy blogger, but indie-pop is all about creation, of picking up whatever instrument you have and creating something with it. I love the original stuff coming out as they really represent the DIY nature of indie-pop, but all these covers seem a bit too nostalgic.

Or cover “Emma’s House,” I wouldn’t whine about that.

Go Go Indie-Pop: Post Modern Team

Posted on May 3, 2012 by Patrick St. Michel

I’m on semi-vacation for the next two days…hooray sleeping in!…so you might only see one post per day. Yet I couldn’t kick back and pass out without mentioning a band out of Osaka named Post Modern Team, who have two lovely songs available for download this way. As is the style in that part of Japan, Post Modern Team lean towards the twee, highlighted by the hazy glide of “Never Let You Down,” one of the sweetest indie-pop numbers to emerge from Kansai in recent months (that chorus!). They also have included a cover of The Smiths’ “There Is A Light That Never Goes Out.” Spend your holiday weekend (or working week) with these dudes. Get here.

Surprise Bend: Shortcake Collage Tape’s “Polaroid Full Of Kisses”

Posted on April 30, 2012 by Patrick St. Michel

All praise be to Japanese indie-pop and the description “jangly,” but the one downside of Japan’s current twee obsession is the slow realization that a lot of this stuff sounds the same. That, in and of itself, isn’t a bad thing – if the music sounds good, the music sounds good so whatever. Yet at this point, when I see a band with a cutesy/youthful name, I’m making big assumptions about what I’m going to hear, and not being shocked by the melancholy, sugary sounds about to come out my speakers. One look at a project called Shortcake Collage Tape and my indie-pop bells were ringing – a song titled “Polaroid Full Of Kisses” and I probably could have written the entire post without hitting play on the SoundCloud button. I did click, though, awaiting something sounding like NME-approved outfit BOYISH.

Instead, “Polaroid” opened with some guitar picking and noises I imagine you would hear if you lived inside a lava lamp. When the downtempo drums and muffled vocal sample kicked in seconds later, all my preconceptions were dashed. This isn’t jangly or cute – it’s indie-pop pulled inward, twee as done by someone like Teams or even Washed Out. Shortcake himself tagged the song as “chillwave” but that word comes with too much baggage about nostalgia and weed to do “Polaroid” justice. The best moment comes a little later, when this achingly gorgeous flute wisps into the song and Shortcake triggers a sample of dialogue from what sounds like an anime. “Polaroid” definitely adheres to twee ideas – this thing aches melancholy daydreaming, albeit done in a very private way – but the production is so different from everything else happening in Japanese indie-pop at the moment that this track leaves a deeper impression than most. Listen below.

[soundcloud url=”http://api.soundcloud.com/tracks/44507666″ iframe=”true” /]

Moscow Club Present Japanese Indie-Pop Compilation, Featuring Occult You, Super VHS And OMEGABOY

Posted on April 22, 2012 by Patrick St. Michel

International Tapes debuted this over the weekend, but in case you missed it here is a reminder: Moscow Club helped to organize the Ç86 compilation, a collection of indie-pop-leaning artists (I mean, check the name of the comp again) that the group put together in time for the Spring. It’s a pretty great introduction to the country’s contemporary indie-pop scene. The compilation features pretty faithful recreation of 80’s indie-pop courtesy of The Moments, It Happens and Lilacs. The tape also gives some room to the producer-fantasies of Occult You and OMEGABOY, as while as a back half bordering on ambient. It’s not perfect – some of the sparse electronic songs drag, while Slow-Marico’s dentist drill of a song makes a pretty good case against noise – but when stuff like Super VHS’ bouncy “Not Too Late” plays this tape seems vital, a great digital object highlighting some exciting artists.

The best songs, though, come courtesy of Moscow Club themselves. Last year, they jumped between straight-ahead indie-pop goodness (“Daisy Miller,” “Bikinikill”) and electro-tinged compositions (“Pacific 724,” “Echo Beach”). Here, they make a truce between the two, decking their twee songs out in Christmas lights and letting them twinkle away. They lack the emotional ooooomph of a “Daisy Miller,” but still sound like a step forward for Moscow Club sonically.