pitchfork is dumb (#34985859340293849494 in a series.)

Nirvana, they were a Scream side project right?

You know, that band the dude from Sweet 75 was in.

expanding his sound to include bold elements of vintage country and R&B.

NEWSWORTHY

http://pitchfork.com/news/55871-laurie-anderson-was-trapped-inside-a-hyperbaric-chamber/

i get that there's a core of truth in even the dumbest/most poorly expressed criticisms, but this is still a pretty dumb thing to say:

And it doesn't render commonplace technology personal and alive—there's not much here that a savvy amateur couldn't do with GarageBand, a low bar to clear when grid-based composition with soft synths is so accessible.

I used a soft, clear synth to clean my coffee pot this morning.

Braff’s most vaunted position in pop culture circa 2014 isn’t as the actor who played the annoying guy on the TV show your college roommates watched all the time, or as a fervent Redditor who once assisted in helping someone propose to their girlfriend online, or as a distant blood relative to Mitt Romney. Arguably, he’s not even most known as the guy who directed Garden State—he’s the guy who put together the Garden State soundtrack

I'm always happy to read something taking down this dude, but the idea that he's most famous for putting together the Garden State soundtrack is kind of dumb.

Though I guess it outranks the random Romney factoid pointlessly thrown in there.

Scrubs ran on a major network for 8 years, but yeah he's definitely more famous for really liking Iron & Wine.

Obviously the assertion that the Garden State music is more renowned than Scrubs is silly, but I definitely know people that are still really into that soundtrack (I seem to recall someone I knew at university telling me it was her all time favourite album)

Yeah, I definitely feel that it's fair to say that the Garden State soundtrack--and the role it played in mainstreaming a certain idea of indie--is actually Zach Braff's most lasting cultural legacy. But that paragraph makes the odd assertion that he's actually most famous for picking movie soundtrack songs.

The whole review read like someone who hates everything he's heard about Garden State but hasn't actually seen it himself. And I don't mean that in a "he doesn't get it" way- I'm not a fan of the movie.

I guess I'm just referring mostly to this:

"...obvious visual framing, a reliance on juvenalia for comedic effect, a bizarre focus on discouraging the use of antidepressants for the mentally ill..."

1. Visual framing example was a joke in the movie, right?

2. "Balls" written on the forehead was pretty self-aware iirc (linked image in second point), and not exactly handled in a Dude Where's My Car? fashion.

3. Braff's character wasn't actually mentally ill so wasn't that the conflict? Just now I'm thinking there may have been some lame speech about widespread reliance on medications so that criticism could actually hold.

But this coming from someone completely indifferent to the movie overall. What do I care?

An editor once taught me never to start a sentence with "arguably." You're already making the argument. It's redundant.

Didn't people dress in trash bags in that movie? Something like that?

I think that was a makeshift rain poncho solution.

He spends four paragraphs talking about all the baggage of Garden Sate before getting onto the soundtrack at hand. a) who needs that recap after a decade of "Shins will change your life" hackery, and b) give the new soundtrack at least a little credit and try to judge it on its own terms.

yeah, i knew as soon as i saw that as the lead that it would be an extremely low grade plus some Braff-bashing.

I'm fine with Braff-bashing tbh just feel like this was a particularly low quality version.

@Evan Feel like he was trying to find new ways to criticize a move that's already been beaten to death. But the established things that are awful about Garden State (extreme solipsism, underwritten cliche as female lead, some random quirky idea functioning as the driving force behind each scene, Shins scene) are bad enough; "it includes visual gags" is a much weaker criticism.

Right! It's a weird position to be in when you have to defend something you don't like or are otherwise indifferent towards because the other person is criticizing minor or irrelevant details.

i think it's time to pack this one up guys

garden state is shit (#31467846953264847 in a series)

I've noticed a really irritating trend. So many of my favorite albums this year - like YG, tune-yards and Owen Pallett - has gotten 8.1 or 8.2, without a bnm-nod. Which, I mean, who cares, but the reviews never ever bother explaining why these albums - some of them from artists who were bnm'd before - weren't quite good enough this time. And todays review of Shabazz Palaces is just weird. It ends like this: The soul of Shabazz Palaces is pairing next-gen sounds with classic brass-tacks show-and-prove emceeing, and Lese Majesty tugs those extremes as far as they've ever been pulled; that it never shows signs of wear speaks to the strength of the bond. How is that not a bnm? Tugging next-gen sounds as far as they've ever been pulled? But there's nothing in the review taking it down. It just seems as if they've completely giving up on the idea of innovation being anything to be aplauded.

On another note, no hip-hop albums have been bnm'd this year. The only bnm'd black artists - afaict - are Beyoncé and the Hyperdub-comp. They've really become Mojo for hipsters, haven't they?

I'm furiously tugging next-gen over here

there it is

It's been established that reviewers don't assign BNM so the language of the review has nothing to do with whether it gets BNM or not. That said, they should just stop doing BNM because it's weird and confusing.

I don't think the reviewers assign the ratings either?

That said, they should just stop doing BNM because it's weird and confusing.

Maybe but it is a go-to for people who aren't hardcore music nerds and just want a cool playlist for their Hanukkah party, I've seen it happen.

Shabazz Palaces would be great at a Hanukkah party, give it BNM now.

bnm is for ppl w/ lives/jobs

Basic New Music

https://twitter.com/djperry1973/status/493789133601394690 <-- logical endpoint

I don't think the reviewers assign the ratings either?

― Immediate Follower (NA), Monday, July 28, 2014 11:51 AM (41 minutes ago) Bookmark

this is not true

yeah this canard comes up fairly regularly itt

http://media.tumblr.com/tumblr_l2oic3J0vk1qz9rjn.gif

you're gonna break out your box sets this week aren't you

more braffology!

http://www.stereogum.com/1694425/premature-evaluation-spoon-they-want-my-soul/franchises/premature-evaluation/

here’s a moment on Spoon’s new song “Outlier” where Britt Daniel sneaks a sharp splinter of film criticism into one of the tough, terse, personal songs that Spoon is so known for: “I remember when you walked out of Garden State / You had taste, you had taste / You had no time to waste.” Imagine Zach Braff’s face when he hears that song — because you know he’ll hear it. As a guy who was making slick, broadly appealing indie rock in the early ’00s, Daniel probably indirectly made some money off of Garden State, and Joe Chiccarelli, the longtime music-biz insider who co-produced “Outlier,” previously produced the life-changing Shins’ Wincing the Night Away. Point is, that tossed-off dis, really just an aside in the song, is a potential bridge-burner, and most big-indie frontmen in 2014 aren’t in the business of burning bridges, at least not consciously. But Daniel has always carried himself above the fray, with a slight sneer in his voice and a clear sense of purpose in his melodies. And if he wants to say “fuck that” about something, he’s going to do it. That’s a minor moment on Spoon’s new album They Want My Soul, but it’s a telling one, and it shows off the haughty confidence that has always set both Daniel and his band apart. Spoon carry themselves with a certain strut, and it’s been too long since we’ve heard that strut in action.

whoa that beat that one to death.

i mean its kind of a funny line to take note of but to use it as like mathematical proof that britt daniel is a badass is kinda sad

it’s been too long since we’ve heard that strut in action.

Maybe Britt Daniel is talking about that time she walked out of the State of New Jersey.

strutted out of new jersey

I saw Britt Daniel at Pitchfork Fest six years ago in cargo shorts and high tops in the Chipotle line: he wasn't bad ass.

That review is trying a bit hard to turn being a spoon fan into a sign you're a fearless ice-cold mfer.

It would be pretty easy to read that line as sarcastic too.

cargo shorts are pretty badass, lots of pocket space for more handguns

or burritos

i bet you could rob ppl for a lot of burritos at pitchfork fest

Imagine Zach Braff’s face when you steal his burrito

in one of Britt Daniels' cargo shorts pockets is a interdimensional portal back to Austin, through which he rides on a burrito