Pitchfork Reviews Reviews

sometimes you really have to stare at a goofy internet photo for a long time to penetrate the veil of mystery

it's a meat loaf shaped like a question mark, strongo.

DUH

I think his thing is not punctuating at the ends of paragraphs, but he does it elsewhere.

He's good and thoughtful in a diaristic sense but this is not the kind of stuff I would want to read in a magazine proper! It's too personal.

And too internetty, and secretly assumes certain knowledge on your part to get what he's doing. And yeah, I think some of it is problematic if you read about music to really get information about music. But if you want to talk about magazines proper, I mean ... the more you get toward normal general-audience readers/listeners, the more people totally go for being narrative, or first-person, or "personal." E.g., Chuck Klosterman writing personal essays that happened to be about music a lot of the time -- and if you gave a bunch of young people a "name one music critic" survey, he'd probably come out on top. Not saying I get much out of his music essays, but "personal" and "narrative" are SO not sticking points for the vast majority of potential readers, you know?

can I point out that if you gave a bunch of young people a "name one music critic" survey, you'd probably get Gene Shallit as top answer?

Shalit's rap reviews are hot

"There's only one word for Gucci Mane: burriliant! When life gave him lemons, he made 'Lemonade!' No matter what 'state' you live in, I 'appeal' to you to buy this album!"

just wait until the inevitable book deal

when I sang with the BSO, we would periodically see Shalit out around town in the Berkshires wearing a child's sailor hat

I apologize for making a Custosy Shalit/rap joke that neglected to work in BIG PUN

shalit's earned the right to wear whatever piece of childrens apparel he wishes

not according to megan's law

I mean, look, on some level I would have really preferred not to think he's a good writer, you know?

^^

Really, he's my favorite music writer working today. And his shit absolutely needs to get into next year's Da Capo Best Music Writing series. Nabisco's right, his essays use a really great personal narrative structure that runs through his work, and it's fantastic. I find that a lot of music crit runs together into one big formless uninteresting mass, but this guy has a VOICE. And not many people do. I like writers whose personal style I can recognize, follow, understand, and I like being able to reconcile the crit with the writer, and see the two as a piece. I can do that with (to name Pfork writers in conjunction with PFF talk) Breihan, Tim F, Jess, Mark R, Ewing, Drake, nabisco, Mike McG, Scott P. And much as I'm sure several of them would resent seeing their name next to the PRR fella, I'd put him in the same league at this point. He's as good as any Pfork writer working today. And that's incredible.

(to name Pfork writers in conjunction with PFF PRR talk)

Correction ^

And that's incredible.

― ilxor has truly been got at and become an ILXor (ilxor), Friday, September 24, 2010 9:16 PM (15 minutes ago) Bookmark

putting this in my CV

dog no offense but i recommend reading more

how could he possibly take that offensively

well there are a million condescending things going on beneath the surface

i mean look as the dude who will unapologetically brag abt 'discovering' ringtone cru classics i have no shame bigging up myself but just .... LOL

http://www.eminem.net/stan/images/eminem_stan_06.jpg

hahha

so this is probably aggressively mean but basically the ilxor stamp of approval means either PRR dude is going to blow up far beyond his talent or he's about to be forgotten by everyone everywhere (placing money on option #2 because at the end of the day dude SUCKS and really there is nothing to be gained by advancing this infantile bullshit beyond sinking the average level of discourse about anything in this country further down the toilet)

(of course this means that dude is about to be enshrined as a great American writer because quite honestly most of the US just wants to elevate someone they can feel superior to)

i remain totally baffled by any praise of this guy but there is no point in discussing it afaict

ha yeah

at this point all I want to do is drink until I forget PRR exists

loooooool

that's basically what i'm doing right now

would be worried if you had written "drink so that I forget PRR exists"

So wait, if you write on a blackberry it automatically capitalizes the first letter of a paragraph? This makes total sense because even my shitty ancient bottom-of-the-line Nokia does that!

Dude writes a whole lot, so you have to give him credit for that. But i dont think it's really anything great or mindblowing. I would kinda like to see a Pitchfork Reviews Reviews Reviews site.

I would kinda like to see a Pitchfork Reviews Reviews Reviews site.

Pitchfork Reviews Reviews Reviews

This guy strikes me as someone who would've just stuck to writing pornographic fan fiction had he reached adulthood before the internet gained popularity, but instead he found a particular niche that he could exploit from a sheltered vantage point.

Really, he's my favorite music writer working today. And his shit absolutely needs to get into next year's Da Capo Best Music Writing series. Nabisco's right, his essays use a really great personal narrative structure that runs through his work, and it's fantastic. I find that a lot of music crit runs together into one big formless uninteresting mass, but this guy has a VOICE. And not many people do. I like writers whose personal style I can recognize, follow, understand, and I like being able to reconcile the crit with the writer, and see the two as a piece. I can do that with (to name Pfork writers in conjunction with PFF talk) Breihan, Tim F, Jess, Mark R, Ewing, Drake, nabisco, Mike McG, Scott P. And much as I'm sure several of them would resent seeing their name next to the PRR fella, I'd put him in the same league at this point. He's as good as any Pfork writer working today. And that's incredible.

― ilxor has truly been got at and become an ILXor (ilxor)

¯\(°_o)/¯

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i mean look as the dude who will unapologetically brag abt 'discovering' ringtone cru classics i have no shame bigging up myself but just .... LOL

O_O

http://barthel.tumblr.com/post/1196280642/6-ways-of-looking-at-pitchfork-reviews-reviews-based
http://barthel.tumblr.com/post/1196420478/to-be-less-obtuse-about-my-previous-post

...and my friend leans over and blows some high school kids' candles out because i think that is the punkest way to handle this. an asian teenager who is standing in front of me and dressed in drag asks me if the plastic birthday cake that is strapped to the top of his head is blocking my view and i say "no you're good" and connect my thumb and pointer finger to make an O and outstretch my other fingers and hold my hand up and smile

i mean come on. that's how you do it.

amazing piece of writing, no lie

Really, he's my favorite music writer working today. And his shit absolutely needs to get into next year's Da Capo Best Music Writing series. Nabisco's right, his essays use a really great personal narrative structure that runs through his work, and it's fantastic. I find that a lot of music crit runs together into one big formless uninteresting mass, but this guy has a VOICE. And not many people do. I like writers whose personal style I can recognize, follow, understand, and I like being able to reconcile the crit with the writer, and see the two as a piece. I can do that with (to name Pfork writers in conjunction with PFF talk) Breihan, Tim F, Jess, Mark R, Ewing, Drake, nabisco, Mike McG, Scott P. And much as I'm sure several of them would resent seeing their name next to the PRR fella, I'd put him in the same league at this point. He's as good as any Pfork writer working today. And that's incredible.

― ilxor has truly been got at and become an ILXor (ilxor), Saturday, September 25, 2010 3:16 AM (2 days ago) Bookmark

omg u r an actual idiot

And what about, you know, SUBSTANCE? I'll give you that the kid has a personal style, but let's not forget that when he *actually writes about music* he's just spouting bullshit 80% of the time.

¯\(°_o)/¯

Predictable.

That Awl piece is like an 11th grade essay--with a bunch of paragraphs beginning the same way:

so we walk around outside the venue

so we walk around to the back of the venue

a girl who is alone walks up to us

then a woman comes up to us

And of course 3 variations on "Then they played some songs"

I believe they call that 'having a voice'

or 'having a diary' can't remember

or "didn't take Essay Writing 101."

let's give him so much attention that he takes all our work, A+ you guys

I think you mean 10.0

Crankiest New

Amazing writing? Come on, it's basically livejournal-level 2003 Weezer reunion show memories where every cliche about being in a hipster music scene is imbued with tremendous meaning and affected high school school drop-out grammar rules to give an air of youthful, exhilirating breathlessness. If I were to think this was amazing writing it would also mean livejournal circa 2001 was dominated by literary geniuses the likes of which only appear once a generation. Which, yeah, may be the case...

successful troll is successful itt