The Pet Shop Boys hold a special place in my heart not just because they rule but also because there was this one summer when I was world’s most homosexual professional housepainter, during which I spent about one-thousand hours painting condo interiors while bumping around to The Pet Shop Boys’ Greatest Hits in paint-splattered cut-offs. The good old days. 🙁
Although I’ve retired that particular pair of cut-offs, the Boys are still around, with a tour and a new-ish album– you can watch them perform their new single in the video above. The New Gay has a really smart interview with Neil Tennant, in which he discusses irony, the state of electronic music, and todays’ gays. Says Tennant in the interview:
TENNANT: What I think is missing [from today’s electronic music]– and I won’t name any names– is exuberance. I like exuberance, and I don’t hear a lot of that at the moment… I don’t think it’s irony culture, I think it’s cool culture. The idea of cool is a stifling one. It’s much more refreshing to be uncool. That’s where the fun starts, and sometimes that can then be cool. You dont want to be tragically retro, either. I hate that. Funnily enough, I don’t like camp. People always assume we would, but I think camp can be lazy…
The gay scene is so strong its stifling. I don’t think it’s particularly interesting. What is interesting is how much gay culture has become mainstream, but with the sex taken out of it. It’s been like this for ten years or so, There aren’t many of the weird, edgy clubs left, and there used to be loads of them.
Click over to The New Gay to read the whole thing.
I just came while picturing Bmad in paint-splattered cut-offs dancing to The Pet Shop Boys.