The Scissor Sisters

October 5, 2004 11:14 AM

The Scissor Sisters (album art NSFW) seem to be getting the attention of the two primary community-owned radio stations I have bookmarked, to the point of becoming a guilty pleasure. The band is unapologetically camp riffing or perhaps just plundering the more popular glam rock lexicon and of course the music that we love to hate, disco. Of course, it may be all over. With the recent revelation that the Scissor Sister are favored by U.K. Tory co-chair Liam Fox they might suffer what the Guardian calls, the Curse of the Thrashing Doves. The wisdom being that while it is kosher for bands to endorse politicians, it is the kiss of death for politicians to endorse bands. Still, it is interesting to me how things have changed in that the Scissor Sisters are capitalizing on the gay card early in their careers. Melissa Etheridge took two albums before coping to what had been an open secret.
posted by KirkJobSluder (14 comments total)

Fortunately for them, if they do catch on in the rest of the world, it won't matter if a politician in one country likes them or not. I love the album, but they seem to rub a lot of people the wrong way - as do all bands, I suppose.
posted by Joey Michaels at 12:25 PM on October 5, 2004

It's throwaway pop, but then isn't that an essential part of the definition of "pop" itself? What I don't really "hear" is the comparisons I'm always reading to Elton John - other than being flamboyantly camp, I don't think they're similar at all...
posted by JollyWanker at 12:28 PM on October 5, 2004

Tits on the radio was actually on my swap cd. good stuff
posted by bob sarabia at 12:42 PM on October 5, 2004

I can hear a lot of Elton John (early 70s) in their music.

Tony Blair invited Noel Gallagher to one of his crappy schmooze parties a few years back, and it didn't seem to harm him.
posted by catchmurray at 12:42 PM on October 5, 2004

Definitely a lot of Elton John. I dig their disco version of Pink Floyd's "Comfortably Numb"
posted by cell divide at 12:44 PM on October 5, 2004

The disco version of "Comfortably Numb" actually makes a lot of sense to me because of its cognitive dissonance. While rock has usually tended to keep one foot (or perhaps just a big toe) planted in reality, the club scene is almost purely about escapism, frequently involving the heavy use of chemical substances. Apparently, one of their other tracks deals with crystal meth as well, so I'm not convinced that it is, as some critics have said, just simple apropriation.
posted by KirkJobSluder at 2:14 PM on October 5, 2004

Wacky. Someone put a scissor scissors song on my hard drive and I found it by accident last night and put it on my portable music device. It was the last thing I heard before I sat down at my computer and I wanted to find out more about them. Song: 'Take Your Mama Out'. I thought it had a good beat and you could dance to it.

/serendipity
posted by bdave at 4:05 PM on October 5, 2004

Patrick, the drummer, is a friend of mine. He has been in a variety of bands for twenty years without commercial success before this. He joined Scisssor Sisters after responding to an ad in Craigslist. He's also a big fan of brazilian music (and student of capoeira) and a couple of years ago rode his enduro motorbike from New York City to Brazil, which is not unimpressive.

[/celebrity trivia]
posted by liam at 4:33 PM on October 5, 2004

the album art is NSFW? do you mean this? am i missing something? it doesn't seem that bad, just a bit tacky.
posted by pxe2000 at 6:49 PM on October 5, 2004

pxe: nope, the offending cover is for Comfortably Numb
posted by bob sarabia at 8:36 PM on October 5, 2004

i like Goldfrapp much better, for that genre--if they count as the same genre. (There is way too much reviving going on lately anyway and not enough innovating, i think.)
posted by amberglow at 9:00 PM on October 5, 2004

I'm so glad to see this post. I have fallen in love with the Scissor Sisters this past week. I discovered them through Alex Ross's blog and I can't get their songs out of my head.
Makes me think of that line from Guffman: "They're really quite catchy...almost to the point of being irritating."
posted by adrober at 9:15 PM on October 5, 2004

The Scissor Sisters performed "Take Your Mama Out" on "Live with Regis and Kelly" yesterday. Defintely a 'high camp' pop culture moment.
posted by wendell at 10:04 AM on October 6, 2004

The Scissor Sisters have been my favorite band in the world for the past year -- everybody needs this album, now. (And no, they're nothing like Goldfrapp.)
posted by logovisual at 3:08 PM on October 6, 2004