pitchfork is dumb (#34985859340293849494 in a series.)

why post the juan maclean review now when the release is in exactly two weeks

I have a $10 wager going with a friend: I say the new Interpol will score a 5.9 or lower, he says 7.0 or higher.

I'm on your side there.

gonna say it's in the elusive six point whatever stretch

a stretch as vast as Paul Banks' waistline.

I bet it gets 79.15.

- some kind of musing about "in the years since interpol formed they've been" and so on
- last two albums have been kinda whatever
- new album shows them coming back with renewed confidence, maybe some line about settling into their role as relative old pros in the indie rock world
- 7.4

Why are they attaching the "Windowlicker" to literally every single news story about the new Aphex Twin album?

OK not literally, all but two (the blimp story has "Come to Daddy" and the interview excerpts has no video) but:

http://pitchfork.com/news/56552-aphex-twins-syro-full-album-art-and-box-set-packaging-revealed/
http://pitchfork.com/news/56504-aphex-twin-announces-syro-listening-events-in-north-america-and-europe/
http://pitchfork.com/news/56457-aphex-twin-details-syro-says-it-wont-be-his-last-album/
http://pitchfork.com/news/56375-aphex-twin-reveals-amazing-syro-album-artwork-and-bio/
http://pitchfork.com/news/56341-aphex-twin-announces-new-album-syro-via-the-deep-web/

they've been doing that for awhile, must be an editorial requirement to have a video on every post, so it's "and here's the youtube video with the most hits from this person, which is otherwise unrelated."

I'm sure it's some kind of SEO baiting.

or maybe that Aphex Twin is not a household name for today's indie youth? ("oh yeah, that guy with the crazy video from way back")

hot chix in the video, duh

Time on site more than seo

I have a $10 wager going with a friend: I say the new Interpol will score a 5.9 or lower, he says 7.0 or higher.

― MaudAddam (cryptosicko), Tuesday, September 2, 2014 11:24 AM (6 days ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

I win.

that's still about 3 points too high

opening a review with a 5.9 and then indulging in 5 paragraphs of COME LET ME TELL YOU A TALE OF A BAND THAT PEAKED A DECADE AGO before reaffirming the album's negligible status as their fourth-best out of five...and then starting your review.

like people who care about interpol don't already ask why they bother

shhh Branwell will hear!

I should have known there'd be a 9/11 mention in there. the ripple effect al qaeda had is still creating waves that lap at the shores of indie rock even today.

What will the next American tragedy mean for Interpol?

the number of p4k 9/11 references is absurd

this is the international police we are talking about here you guys

Not the guillemots

the number of p4k 9/11 references is absurd

― marcos, Monday, September 8, 2014 1:56 PM (3 hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

#neverforget

On June 1, 2009, Air France Flight 447 crashed into the Atlantic Ocean. All 228 people aboard died. It's difficult to ignore that tragic fact now when reflecting on-- or, honestly, Googling-- an Air France record called No Way Down, and I know I can't possibly begin to feel the pain of those victims' families.

wait is that real?

J0rdan made the most hilarious string of posts in ILX history after that blurb

Wait, what happened on 9/11?

Jay Z released the Blueprint.

I went to Best Buy to buy "Love and Theft"

I seem to recall something about the Coup blowing up the World Trade Center.

Holy shit, DO NOT google "9/11" and "World Trade Center"!!!!!

I went to Best Buy and bought the Moldy Peaches album. Remember feeling a bit strange listening to "NYC is a like a Graveyard" on the way home but I can't recall precisely why.

Holy shit, do not google "moldy peaches"! Yuck.

On 9/11 most of ILX was at Best Buy.

But were any of them buying copies of Mariah Carey's Glitter?

Wait, so the silly Ariel Pink thing, he's interviewed at length, and the interviewer says he is smart and thoughtful, until the end of the interview, when he snaps and gets confrontational and ignorant. So after the 800 word feature, it's the ignorant, confrontational stuff from the end of the interview that gets prime Q&A placement?

just reading the aby ngana diop "liital" review: http://pitchfork.com/reviews/albums/19726-aby-ngana-diop-liital/

i feel like it is a pitchfork thing to only grant international/world music albums, no matter how good, something in the 8.0 range. i know, i know, griping about scores, etc., but has anyone else noticed this?

Well, it could be that since those albums are so rarely reviewed, they wouldn't even cover something unless it was worthy of a high score, no?

yea i was more thinking that it caps out at the 8.0 range. most of that stuff is reissued yea so it's generally well-selected and curated so i'd figure it would score highly, but never seems to score higher than 8-ish. god i feel like such a twerp even just typing this.

Do they give any reissues higher than an 8? How many non-English language releases make their best album list?

Wait, so the silly Ariel Pink thing, he's interviewed at length, and the interviewer says he is smart and thoughtful, until the end of the interview, when he snaps and gets confrontational and ignorant. So after the 800 word feature, it's the ignorant, confrontational stuff from the end of the interview that gets prime Q&A placement?

― Josh in Chicago, Tuesday, September 9, 2014 1:04 PM (2 hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

so you're saying they focused on the interesting part?

Wait, so the silly Ariel Pink thing, he's interviewed at length, and the interviewer says he is smart and thoughtful, until the end of the interview, when he snaps and gets confrontational and ignorant. So after the 800 word feature, it's the ignorant, confrontational stuff from the end of the interview that gets prime Q&A placement?

― Josh in Chicago, Tuesday, September 9, 2014 1:04 PM (2 hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

That's generally how journalism works, yes.

I didn't think any of it was interesting tbh. But if you say that most of what he says is smart and then suddenly he gets ignorant, then not sure the dumb stuff is necessarily newsworthy, let alone worth highlighting, just clickbaity. Esp given the dumb stuff prone subject

can't believe Ariel "I GOT MACED BY A FEMINIST SHE TALKED ABOUT HER DAD ALL NIGHT AND I LISTENED WHATEVER” Pink said something dumb

ariel pink seems like a dumb druggie mostly

ariel pink is a snooze. i just got the most terrifying e-mail message subject line:

"it's Mumford & Sons meets The Black Keys"

which has nothing to do with pitchfork...

ariel pink gives me the willies, i get charlie manson vibes

i just finished my 3rd dollar bin column for the pitchfork magazine and i gotta say it's kinda my dream column. don't even wanna do anything else. and i had sorta given up on anyone asking me to do anything like that. i asked a few other people not that long ago about doing something like that and they had zero interest. gonna go get a pitchfork tattoo...

pitchfork is a tattoo (#34985859340293849494 in a series.)