Tah-Dah! It’s the Scissor Sisters!

I don’t know how the local market has taken to Scissor Sisters, now one of the biggest-selling groups in Europe and the US. There is no buzz in the stores and I have not heard their songs on radio. This is unfortunate because I am sure that once fun-loving Pinoys get into the sexy Scissor Sisters groove, there will be nothing that can tear them away.

Scissor Sisters is the most successful gay breakthrough act of the times. Knowing how the gay community is so well accepted hereabouts and how many who have outed individuals are respected members of society, I do not see any reason why the band will not win its share of Filipino fans. Besides, gay or not, Scissor Sisters creates music for the hip set. It’s a mix of pop, disco, rock, techno, electronica and other modern forms you can dance to, emote to or simply sashay to. It is pang-rampa sound of the highest order.

That’s probably why Scissor Sisters had the audacity to title its second release Ta-Dah as in Ta-Dah, take a bow or Ta-Dah, voila! Every cut in the album can be introduced with a loud reverberating Ta-Dah. This is so despite the fact that there is nothing original about the music. This does not mean Scissor Sisters simply ripped off bits and pieces from the works of other musicians. After all, these guys do write their own songs and the results are quite impressive. Listen to the lyrics and you’ll find pathos, tragedy or the aching desire to be loved or simply to be taken seriously. What they did was frame their sentiments against echoes or veiled hints of the familiar. The device diffuses the pain and makes the whole package so easy to like.

I hear the Bee Gees in the falsettos. I’m sure you will, too. The pounding backbeat could have only come from Queen. The harmonies are from ABBA. Maybe I might as well throw in names like Elton John, who co-wrote two songs, The Beach Boys, early George Michael, Blondie, etc. etc. The amazing thing though is you do not feel anything contrived or calculated about the blatant use of those influences. The feeling you get while listening is that the band took all the things they love about those acts, mixed them up in their own way and Ta-Dah! out came Ta-Dah.

Ta-Dah! get ready to find out what happens if Elton John were to sing with the Bee Gees in I Don’t Feel Like Dancin’. Hear Wham! in She’s My Man. And Ta-Dah! there is no way you can miss the Beatles in I Can’t Decide! Listen to the entire album and have a great time finding out what these witchy Scissor Sisters used to brewing these great sounds out of their cauldron. I assure you the process can be lots of fun and the discoveries amusing.

Other titles included are Lights, Land of a Thousand Words, Intermission, Kiss You Off, Ooh, The Other Side, Might Tell You Tonight, Everybody Wants the Same Thing and the best of the lot, a full-tilt rocker titled Paul McCartney.

Scissor Sisters is made up of, wait, please take careful note of the new names the members gave themselves, Tommy Shears (real name: Tom Coppell) on vocals; Babytommy (Tom Finn) on bass, keyboards, vocals and guitar; Ann Matronic (Ann Kelly) on vocals, percussion and as Mistress of Ceremonies; Steven Marquis (Steven McGreal) on guitar; and Danny Boom (Danny Turner) on drums and percussion.

Scissor Sisters was born out of the gay club scene in New York. From there, the band broke through the international music scene via London with one hit single after another from the self-titled and quite controversial debut album. This one gave birth to Comfortably Numb, Take Your Mama, Laura, Mary and Filthy Gorgeous. It was named Bestselling Album of 2004 in the UK. A year later the Brit Music Awards honored Scissor Sisters with trophies for Best International Group, International Breakthrough and International Album.

I have always been fascinated by the way groups name themselves. Like blah! As in The Beatles or imaginative as in Velvet Underground. So the first thing I did after listening to the first Scissor Sisters album was check the web for the meaning of the band’s unique name. I found it but since this is a family newspaper, I’ll just keep it to myself.