Video: The Pipettes- ABC

While I may love and treasure the whole indie rock/underground/whatever-you-want-to-call-it scene, it is not without sins. Sometimes, gimmicky bands are loved and praised based solely on the same things we hold against other 'scenes' of music. Hence the Pipettes, a throw-back to the all girl bubblegum pop of the 50s and 60s.

I'm not inherently posed to revivalism, but this kind of music doesn't really need revisiting. The era of monolithic girl groups who don't write their own songs, don't play the instruments, and have ever changing line-ups is long gone, and for good reason. It would be another thing if The Pipettes brought anything modern to the form, other than actually writing the songs, but as near as I can tell it's just about exploiting the cute-ness of the girls and being a constant come on to shy, awkward indie rock dudes like me. That seems to be the implication of 'ABC' anyway, though I care about neither math nor science and I do in fact know about XTC (as well as ecstasy) so...whatever. Kitschy retreads of music from years past are clever but they aren't automatically great.

The first thing I thought when I saw this video was, wow, here's someone trying to undo everything that bands like Sleater-Kinney and Bikink Kill accomplished.

Also, this video reminds me of that pink haired chick from the Esurance ads.