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July 26th, 2006 by Dillon Flynn (Permalink)
Label: Memphis Industries Year: 2006 Add Comments |
Press needle to wax with “We Are The Pipettes,” the debut LP from UK’s latest up-and-comers (The Pipettes), and you’ll be greeted with fourteen infectious, vintagey, sugar-pop ditties about being super, super, mean to boys while rocking out in six-inch heels and cute dresses. If you’re not bucking and calling to grab your copy yet, then…
Well, I suppose I can’t blame you.
Regardless, if you harbor even a centimeter of cherry-flavored mush underneath that cold, steel exterior—a tiny little nook of your brain secretly devoted to grieving the lost art of the three minute pop song—then I urge you to fight back your gag reflex and dive headfirst into this Jackie-O universe of romantic cruelty and unbridled sexual freedom which Rose, Gwenno and Becki, the fearsome threesome, have so skillfully assembled.
Don’t even bother trying to round up some surnames for those gals. See, that’s all part of the packaging: We listeners are just supposed to think of these three front-ladies as semi-mythical creatures (or at least characters in an Archie comic book) that fight crime or solve mysteries or something. Meanwhile, we’re asked to ignore those boring instrumental dudes in the background entirely (Monster Bobby, Jon, Seb and Joe, if you were overly curious).
Yeah, it’s all a bit kitschy.
Beyond the Spectoresque sound walls of violin and synth lay some seriously knee-jerking beats, toe-tapping bass riffs, and absolute three-part harmony gold. Oft-times, the lyrics are groaningly camp (“He knows about ABC, 123, XYZ but he don’t know about XTC!”), but it’s all part of the package. The whole endeavor must read terribly, but it’s executed with razor-sharp expertise.
So, faithful reader, here is your call to action: Throw on the pinkest thing you own, grab a television remote controller and fake like it’s a microphone, stop trying to pretend that you’re cool, and let the Pipettes break your neck into the shape of a heart with some good time rock and roll.
Investing in a few pastel-colored lollypops might also be in your best interest.
“We Are The Pipettes” is being put out by Memphis Industries, and it hits your shelves on July 27th.
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August 1st, 2006 at 11:56 am
[…] “I Like a Boy in Uniform,” the a-side to the Pipettes’ debut single (2005) resumes the pop deconstructionism of X Ray Spex, et alia, but with an insistent fidelity to aspects of that pop tradition. In its obvious reference to “I Love a Man in Uniform,” the Pipettes counter the girl-pop as materialistic consumption position of Gang of Four. More relevant, however, is the Pipettes’ take on the neo-post-punk of our time. Franz Ferdinand’s retreading of Gang of Four and Josef K may have been obvious to the initiated, but, to most of the O.C. viewers who discovered Franz Ferdinand in that iPod commercial, this music was completely new and, at the same time, a logical extension of the previous years’ fads, the retro electro of Fischerspooner and the disco-punk of “House of Jealous Lovers.” But this decade’s yearly succession of retro movements — various “old” schools (e.g. ‘88, ‘93) of hip-hop (Jurassic 5, Dilated Peoples; 2000), garage rock (the Strokes, the White Stripes; 2001), electro (Fischerspooner, Peaches; 2002), disco-punk (the Rapture, LCD Soundsystem; 2003), and post-punk (2004) — led to last year’s year of the cheerleader. To be sure, the retro-ization of girl-group pop has its own tradition, from at least as early as the Go-Go’s, Josie Cotton, and Toni Basil in the 80’s and continuing through to the Aislers Set and Saturday Looks Good to Me, among many others, in this decade. Last year, we saw countless artists do the Toni Basil “Hey Mickey” retro cheerleader thing, from the ubiquitous Gwen Stefani, to the ultra-trendy Go! Team, to Architecture in Helsinki’s relatively overlooked but stunning “Wishbone.” “I Like a Boy in Uniform” rode this fad to the Pipettes’ current cult status to the point where their debut album, released earlier this week, was among the year’s most anticipated. […]