pitchfork is dumb (#34985859340293849494 in a series.)

if they've completely giving up on the idea of innovation being anything to be aplauded.

I hope so. "innovation" is a false god

"innovation" may be false, but what about innovation?

Britt Daniel sneaks a sharp splinter of film criticism into one of the tough, terse, personal songs that Spoon is so known for:

lol is this really what he's "known for", I have never had more than the barest glimmer of understanding of what any of his songs are about beyond the most obvious (Sister Jack etc)

innovation is more about technology, not so much about aesthetics. I don't really care about technology and it's false sense of progress. music is not about progress.

wait, what is false about the progress in say medical technology?

tons of things that were marketed as progress courtesy of technology have turned out to be detrimental - the idea that because something is new it is better than what came before (the very essence of the concept of progress) is, how you say, problematic

ah, so you meant 'technology and its sometimes false sense of progress'

I love Spoon and I have no idea what their songs are "about," Sister Jack included, this is part of the appeal tbh

i'm pretty sure i know what fitted shirt is about

rolling burrito with a spoon thread

tons of things that were marketed as progress courtesy of technology have turned out to be detrimental - the idea that because something is new it is better than what came before (the very essence of the concept of progress) is, how you say, problematic

― Οὖτις, 29. juli 2014 01:32 (3 hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Nah, it's the way art develops. Otherwise you end up with fucking Fleet Foxes as album of the year. And really, the concept is that something that is new is all things considered better than something we have heard a thousand times before.

(for some reason I listened to Fleet Foxes the other day. christ it's awful. this thread should prob have been closed back then)

Well the most forward-thinking music right now is probably festival EDM/dubstep, which they don't cover except sneeringly:

http://pitchfork.com/reviews/albums/19139-skrillex-recess/

probably cuz it's built on ideas that have been regurgitated so many times (and weren't that great the first time around) that even pfork can tell the treads worn off the tires.

much unlike the national and fleet foxes

yeah pfork can't tell w/ them or other civil war reenactors - fucked up, parquet courts, cloud nothings, whatever

Well the most forward-thinking music right now is probably festival EDM/dubstep, which they don't cover except sneeringly:

http://pitchfork.com/reviews/albums/19139-skrillex-recess/
--dilligaf escape plan (Whiney G. Weingarten)

dawg

is Dawg the guy who presses 'play' on his album while wearing a giant dog head that shoots lasers

Yeah, Recess is kinda one of my favorite albums this year. So fun. But really, the 'electronic' albums that have been bnm'd is Todd Terje and Brian Eno & Karl Hyde. And I like the Terje-thing, but it's hardly a 'Recess'.

seen a bunch of EDM shows this year and they have thrilling moments for sure but a lot of the big artists aren't good DJs and anyway the appeal of a lot of EDM is that it's new headbanging music which isn't exactly my idea of "forward thinking"

Though, yeah, a lot is being repurposed from jungle and UK dancehall and w/e, but it's the only music not interested in the sounds/textures/rhythms of the past (see "alls fair in love and brostep") which is definitely more forward thinking than Ought/Parquet Courts doing Pavement's version of the Fall or w/e

a lot of "forward thinking" music is inaccessible and bad, too

anyway by pitchfork's count the best four albums of the last two years have been a a compton rapper's concept album, a fashion designer's political noise rap record, a gay R&B singer's magnum opus and one incredible album (vampire weekend) that is a reminder that judging music on what is the most "forward thinking" is perhaps not the truest rubric, so i think they're doing ok

no, jordan, you're totally rhttp://i.imgur.com/J2IFLVK.png

Tuff Phost

BOOM

What was that incredible album again?

The Hairy Unicorns

http://pitchfork.com/reviews/albums/19685-the-unicorns-who-will-cut-our-hair-when-were-gone/

"vintage synthesizers set on “fart”

Guys guys youre both beautiful

stay gold ponyboys

why are mom and dad fighting

anyway by pitchfork's count the best four albums of the last two years have been a a compton rapper's concept album, a fashion designer's political noise rap record, a gay R&B singer's magnum opus and one incredible album (vampire weekend) that is a reminder that judging music on what is the most "forward thinking" is perhaps not the truest rubric, so i think they're doing ok

― le goon (J0rdan S.), 29. juli 2014 07:19 (9 hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Yeah, that's right (and their 2010 favorite was rap as well), which makes it even more weird that no raprecord has been bnm'd. Like, what happened this year? How come that other compton rapper's concept album, this time with innovative beats, couldn't even get an 8.5?

Also, I'd claim that tracks like Ya Hey is pretty 'forward thinking' for an indie record in it's incorporation of manipulated voices. Vampire Weekend are hardly Mac Demarco. I'd also say the most innovative liveshows I've seen these last few years has been loop-indie like tune-yards and owen pallett. And again, no dice this year.

makes it even more weird that no raprecord has been bnm'd

the only rap album from this year that deserved a BNM was YG and i bet that gets rectified on the year end list

Nah, it's the way art develops. Otherwise you end up with fucking Fleet Foxes as album of the year. And really, the concept is that something that is new is all things considered better than something we have heard a thousand times before.

this is actually not the way art develops. the process is closer to a constant repurposing of old material/old techniques via new technology, and it isn't a linear progression.

xp

a compton rapper's concept album, a fashion designer's political noise rap record, a gay R&B singer's magnum opus and one incredible album (vampire weekend)

i know jordan's not some corny indie fuxxor but this just reads so funny. all these descriptors for the other albums plus one great album . "there was a rap album, another rap album, an r&b album, and one incredible album"

also who's the "we" in that last sentence, not everybody has heard the same things a thousand times before, especially young people, which are the core of pop music's audience.

xxp

hey, i have an awesome dollar bin column in the new issue of The Pitchfork Review. which is the fancy print magazine Pitchfork is putting out. you should buy it! (also has a 7-inch with local - local to me - bands king tuff and the lentils! go brattleboro!)

your pal, scott :)

sorry, scott. by extension, you are now dumb.
[also, i have a new column up on pfork today - http://pitchfork.com/thepitch/412-invisible-hits-peter-laughner/]

cool tyler!

A recently surfaced 1969 tape of Mr. Charlie, Laughner’s high school band, playing in Bay Village, Ohio, shows that he was an extremely early adopter of the VU aesthetic.

lol, bay village ohio is actually my hometown

haha, nice -- it was home to one of the cooler high school bands i've ever heard, that's for sure.

great read tyler, as usual, he's one dude i've never investigated as deeply as i should.

thanks, man. i might even say laughner's slightly overrated (in some circles) but when he's good he's good!

the only rap album from this year that deserved a BNM was YG and i bet that gets rectified on the year end list

― le goon (J0rdan S.), 29. juli 2014 17:45 (1 hour ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Well, looking over the list of above average garage-rock which has been bnm'd, deserve's got nothing to do with it. I agree that YG is the obvious no-brainer, but arguments could have been made for Future, Common or (especially!) Shabazz Palaces, and p4k chose not to and instead focus on slightly rawer versions of Black Keys. It seems like a change in focus for me.

not really. only a few rap/r&b albums per year get BNM anyway and 2014 has undoubtedly had only a very very select few rap or r&b albums that have brought even core rap fans together, so it's really not a surprise that it's turned out this way.

But, like, what's most annoying me is that they don't argua against the rap-albums either. It's 'yeah, this is prob the most sonically interesting rap-music around this year, and the lyrics are great, but come on, that does still not mean it's as good as these here guys playing pavement covers slighly more melodically than usual'

you're saying that you're surprised that pitchfork is favoring indie rock

agree that there aren't a lot of obvious rap BNMs out there besides YG (Honest doesn't deserve it, imo) but the fact that they skipped over Shabazz Palaces def seems beyond weird and into some 'everyone's gonna love this, everyone's gonna expect 9+/BNM on this, let's pull back a bit' territory

I count 8 rap-records on the best of 2013. Pusha T, ASAP Rocky, Run the Jewels, Drake, Earl Sweatshirt, Chance the Rapper, Danny Brown and Kanye West. I think it's weird going from a year with 8 favorites, to seven months without one. And you might say that rap usually does better on end of year charts than BNM, which is prob true, but kinda weird as well...

They seem to be doing less BNM overall-21 so far this year, 30+ at the same point in 2013.

music must be getting worse