BARBELITH underground
 

Subcultural engagement for the 21st Century...
Barbelith is a new kind of community (find out more)...
You can login or register.


Underground > Radio & Music >

The Long Blondes

  
 
All Acting Regiment
09:51 / 15.06.07
I've taken a while to start this thread as I've been getting into French/North African dub, hip-hop and house, but...



I hate the formula that runs, "The X it's okay to like." That said, there may just be a straight-forward indie-pop band (for students?) that actually take the idea and fun of being a pop band and make something of it, whilst being glamorous and wearing vintage clothes and all the rest of it. Here's their website, which contains a bunch of interesting stuff including videos, and here's the Wikipedia page, which links to various interviews and so on.

Methinks much of the fuss made about the Arctic Monkeys (ooo teh lyrics) and Franz Ferdinand (ooo teh style) ought really to be made about the Long Blondes.

In fact, they might even approach the wonderous tonal beauty that is CSS. Perhaps. Maybe.

On the other hand, we might join with the ILM folks in wondering about "The Politics of Twee", or indeed the politics of any kind of vintage clothing in the construction of an "indie" image, if we wanted to. There's also the idea of Sheffield's history as a music town.
 
 
rizla mission
11:00 / 15.06.07
I really like The Long Blondes, with certain reservations.

BBC Radio 6 has been getting an awful lot of play in my flat over the past 9 months, and of the whole parade of indie/trendy carrying on they play, Long Blondes have been the only band that have had me turning it up, jumping around etc.

"Seperated By Motorways", that one that begins "you're only 19 / you don't need a boyfriend.." - GREAT songs. Love 'em.

However, they've lost me a bit with some of their other material by going all - BIG SIGH - post-punk/disco-y and generally sounding like a watered down Au Pairs 25 years too late.

I haven't heard their album yet, partly because I haven't found it cheap or in the library, and partly because I'm afraid I would find it disappointing, and realise too late that they might be one of those bands that I'd prefer to remember by a fading memory of their great singles...

On the other hand, we might join with the ILM folks in wondering about "The Politics of Twee", or indeed the politics of any kind of vintage clothing in the construction of an "indie" image, if we wanted to.

I don't honestly think the band's image is anything to get worked up about, certainly not a hook worthy of hanging your perception of them on anyway.

So the attractive lady singer and the dapper chap on the left evidently like to dress well - so what? Good for them. The other three look like they could be people I know attired for an average night out... just because they're a rock band not wearing ripped jeans & converse doesn't mean they're in "costume" in order to make some sort of cultural point. And it's not as if cultish British indie bands haven't been dressing in a comparable manner for at least two decades; most of them just don't get as much mainstream publicity, that's all.
 
 
Twig the Wonder Kid
11:06 / 15.06.07
It took me ages to work out who The Long Blondes reminded me of, but my gf finally hit it on the nose - anyone remember The Belle Stars
 
 
All Acting Regiment
11:21 / 15.06.07
So the attractive lady singer and the dapper chap on the left evidently like to dress well - so what? Good for them.

Aye, my point exactly, although what the ILX thread did raise is the question of what wearing specifically vintage clothes, harking back to the 30s/40s, is saying - is it simply playing around, is it fun appropriation, or is it set up as a conservative move against "urban" fashion?

Of course, I suppose you could say that about me (cardigans and smart trousers and shoes) and the only way you'd really know someone's intentions is by asking someone, and for the time being I'm happy to assume by default that if someone's dressing like that (or like anything) then it's all for the right reasons.

Giddy Stratospheres is a rather wonderful song.
 
 
rizla mission
14:14 / 15.06.07
It took me ages to work out who The Long Blondes reminded me of, but my gf finally hit it on the nose - anyone remember The Belle Stars

Well the video link doesn't work, but that did inspire me to look up some info on The Belle Stars, and hey, they sound pretty awesome! Did their music live up the general idea?
 
 
johnny enigma
14:21 / 15.06.07
I have to say I really really liked the singles but I haven't heard the album yet so am reserving jugdement proper until then. That Kate Jackson is undoubtedly a fine looking lass, as they might say in Yorkshire. However, I agree with the point that there is nothing radical about their image - most of the band look like the modern equivalent of Sleeperblokes (remember them? the people in Sleeper that weren't Louise Wener or what ever her name was? That's the whole point - noone ever remembered them).
 
 
The Natural Way
14:30 / 15.06.07
Wot you said earlier, Rizla. I just can't understand, with the fucking glut of post-punk bands out there (FOR THE PAST 5 YEARS!), why anyone would single out the long blondes. They just strike me as a pretty run of the mill, dime-a-dozen indie band. They're fine, but nothing about them demands any airtime.
 
 
rizla mission
16:05 / 15.06.07
Well actually that's not really what I said at all.... the first few Long Blondes records I heard weren't very post-punky at all, they had loud guitars and great tunes and punk angriness and smart, attention-grabbing lyrics and were GREAT; they really stand out and are worthy of much air-time.

It was only their last single (I think) that resorted to the same ol' 1982 disco-rock thud that everyone else is doing at the moment, without much urgency and, y'know, generally a bit blah, blah whatever.
 
 
doctorbeck
08:42 / 16.06.07
i saw them live last year, they were great, definitely something of that Pulp / Hawley / Monkeys observational take on songwriting and retro aeshetic, a real joycore feel with a smart lyrical twist, ' i know how it feels to be a girl your age...' being a great line in a great song.

they reminded me of early blondie more than anything else and have a great lead singer full of fun and confidence. lp is worth a listen too, though not too many repeated ones.
 
 
All Acting Regiment
14:27 / 18.06.07
Wot you said earlier, Rizla. I just can't understand, with the fucking glut of post-punk bands out there (FOR THE PAST 5 YEARS!), why anyone would single out the long blondes. They just strike me as a pretty run of the mill, dime-a-dozen indie band. They're fine, but nothing about them demands any airtime.

Because they have a girl singer and lyrics that manage to tell a story about interesting characters and fit together coherently, the Long Blondes single themselves out from the last 5 years of "post-punk" bands, surely?

I mean compare the awful Thribb lyrics of Bloc Party:

A heart of stone, a smoking gun
I'm working it out
Why'd you feel so underrated?
Why'd you feel so negated?

Turning away from the light
Becoming adult
Turning into my soul
I wanted to bite not destroy
To feel her underneath
Turning into my soul

She don't think straight
She's got such a dirty mind and it never ever stops
And you don't taste like her and you never ever will
And we don't read the papers, we don't read the news
Heaven's never enough, we will never be fooled zzz repeat ad nauseum

To the song I just mentioned, Giddy Stratospheres (although it could be any LB song):

You're pretty, oh so pretty
Why waste your time just sitting
Here a-listening to this dead-eye bitch?

Do nothing, eat your chocolate,
Drink your wine, she won't let you
Make your way across her empire line!

What's eating you is a mystery
But go home with her one more time
And you know you'll be history

Watch movies with the lights on
Sit still; keep her tights on
Do you see this once and timeless week?
Go on, say something clever
Just act(s) it, she will never
Take you higher than her attic room

What's eating you is a mystery
But go home with her one more time
And you know you'll be history

She'll never take you to giddy stratospheres that come from Your fears!
She'll never take you to giddy stratospheres that come from Your fears!

(Is she a femme fatale?)
That's what she wants you to think
(She'll never lead him astray)
But it's the best she can do
(But is she going away?)
No, she'll always be here,
Waiting for you
Back here on earth

Your mother call your mother
Even she's surprised that this is how you want to spend Your nights indoors
You never call too often. What's up?
Have you forgotten what it's like to have her on all fours?

The difference in force and coherence is obvious, even if both songs are lyrically inferior to most contemporary rap music.
 
 
Regrettable Juvenilia
12:04 / 19.06.07
Well that last clause is hopefully something we can ALL agree on. Agree on, or be banned.

I've never been a fan of the "why single this band out when others exist?" line, which is not to say I've never fallen into that trap myself, but it seems somehow a little unproductive and ungenerous.

Anyway, the Long Blondes: I've got the album, but I don't listen to it much at all. I think that's partly because a lot of it is unexceptional, but it's also because when they are good, the mood they convey tends to be a pretty bleak and cynical one, and I haven't been in that mood for a few months. I quite like 'Weekend Without Make-Up'.

But the really outstanding song they have is 'You Could Have Both'. This is a song in which the protagonist tried to entice someone who is in a relationship to have an illicit affair with them. It's not entirely unsexy in its frankness and self-abasement. Its honesty and ability to sum up a very specific but very plausible situation and emotional state. It suggests a narrator who is willing to propose a very unromantic arrangement because deep down their feelings for the person addressed are very romantic indeed. And it ends as bitterly as it possibly could, sniping at all the people who seem to have it all, who get whatever and whoever they want in life and never have to worry – except that the venom is directed back within, coils of self-disgust, layers and layers because one of the things this person who can have it all can have is our protagonist - "you'll always have a phone to ring at 3 in the morning" – i.e. "mine", says our anti-hero(ine), "if you want it", with the secret unspoken plea of "please do it, one day".

Ethics, dignity, self-respect: these things are not present in 'You Could Have Both'. But a lot of very other real things are.

Oh, and it sounds a bit like Pulp, back when Jarvis seemed like someone you could believe in.
 
  
Add Your Reply