since the SS are the new incubus, it's about time again a thread about them was started... interesting
article in the village voice is long (excerpts below) but confirms that SS aren't indie rock at all. other food for thought included. at least they can sell out the 930 in a jiffy.
Queens of England Why the British love the Scissor Sisters more than we do
(...)
Perhaps it's this sort of cheeriness that spurred Oasis guitarist Noel Gallagher to deride the Sisters as "music for squares, man," as he did that weekend in Spinâ??a quote immediately pounced upon by the British press. Even the group's friend Beth Ditto, frontwoman for Northwestern indie-rock band the Gossip, complained more recently in Mixmag that touring with the Sisters was "a soul-sucking experience" thanks to crowds of "soccer moms wanting chart hits." "It wasn't gigs," she opined. "It was 'concerts,' you know, like when you're nine and New Kids on the Block come to town and you camp outside the mall all day to get your ticket."
It's a conundrum that any big band deals withâ??the bigger you get, the more watered-down your audience becomes. "The problem with playing places this size is you've really got people that aren't necessarily the most loyal fans," Shears says later over tea. "Just people that have heard a couple of your singles on the radio, and they want a night out, and they want to surprise their wife with tickets. You're still having to sell the show."
(...)
The "Can they break America?" question won't go away. They might be too dance-y to get radio play, or maybe they're too campy. But these are just code words for "too gay." Homophobia is the last refuge of accepted blatant prejudice in a country that has laws banning gay marriages. It probably didn't help that the Scissor Sisters' initial volley, "Comfortably Numb," takes a deified classic-rock band and turns them into a flamboyant punchline.
So can a band named after a lesbian sex act crack the mainstream here? The Observer's McLean doesn't think so: "If 'Take Your Mama' can't be a hit in the States, maybe they'll never be successful."
Even the band dodges the issue. As showtime looms, Babydaddy digs into his pasta and mulls the challenge over. "When music is good and credible in the U.S.," he says, "you're supposed to strip everything else away and let the music speak for itself. That's kind of what Nirvana was, and in my mind, Nirvana was the ultimate credible band of a generation. There was no sparkly exteriorâ??there was just guys playing music, and most everything else out there still goes by that model."
Shears suggests that maybe they'd be bigger here if they were tormented: "I think our whole sexual side is optimistic and free, and I think that American audiences are so used to, and expect, dark sex, which mainly involves women." If the Scissor Sisters were closeted, "I don't think we would exist," he says. "I think we would be a completely different band."
"Maybe it's too much," says McLean. "Too many ideas, too many genres fighting for attention. And they look funny."
<incoming: gratuitous "they love them because all british are gay" comments... *sigh*>
