pitchfork is dumb (#34985859340293849494 in a series.)

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i like that pets piece but i generally like pets

ToddBonzalez (BradNelson), Thursday, 6 April 2017 13:51 (seven years ago) link

the pets feature is great!

nxd, Thursday, 6 April 2017 13:55 (seven years ago) link

http://www.spin.com/tag/pet-sounds/

SSN Lucci (Whiney G. Weingarten), Thursday, 6 April 2017 14:33 (seven years ago) link

yeah i really missed that feature!

ToddBonzalez (BradNelson), Thursday, 6 April 2017 14:35 (seven years ago) link

I didn't invent the idea of musicians talking about their pets obviously (CMJ and Decibel did it before me, I think). Best one of that batch was Marnie Stern, because it's not only the cutest pet but had a harrowing tale

SSN Lucci (Whiney G. Weingarten), Thursday, 6 April 2017 14:39 (seven years ago) link

hipster puppies of the world unite, you have nothing to lose but your leash

Bobson Dugnutt (ulysses), Thursday, 6 April 2017 16:48 (seven years ago) link

hipster puppies were so cute, def one of my fav internet things

blonde redheads have more fun (upper mississippi sh@kedown), Thursday, 6 April 2017 17:03 (seven years ago) link

:)

SSN Lucci (Whiney G. Weingarten), Thursday, 6 April 2017 17:06 (seven years ago) link

Chance the Rapper Had the Most Amazing Birthday Cake

Wimmels, Tuesday, 18 April 2017 11:41 (seven years ago) link

also, who edits this fucking thing?

It’s back-to-basics energy and prosaic storytelling make it his best solo album in years.

its not it's and prosaic is a bad thing, you idiot

Wimmels, Tuesday, 18 April 2017 11:43 (seven years ago) link

No it isnt

duped and used by my worst Miss U (President Keyes), Tuesday, 18 April 2017 12:20 (seven years ago) link

lmao

flapp.y, Tuesday, 18 April 2017 12:52 (seven years ago) link

If someone called me 'prosaic' I would absolutely assume I was being called 'basic,' and so would you. I just have no idea why someone would use that word to describe Ray Davies, who is an "everyman," sure (I guess that's what the author is trying to say?), but--like Mark E Smith or Lou Reed--is a poet first and is anything but ordinary and dull, which is what 99% of people think when they see that word

I also probably wouldn't have noticed the shitty word usage if the author knew the difference between "its" and "it's"

but let's split hairs, sure

Wimmels, Tuesday, 18 April 2017 13:09 (seven years ago) link

mark e smith lyrics are prosaic u dismal pedant

flopson, Tuesday, 18 April 2017 14:03 (seven years ago) link

Barry used the word correctly in the article, Wimmels. Your problem is with the dek which, in most cases, "the author" didn't write.

SSN Lucci (Whiney G. Weingarten), Tuesday, 18 April 2017 14:07 (seven years ago) link

no katherine

SSN Lucci (Whiney G. Weingarten), Tuesday, 18 April 2017 14:15 (seven years ago) link

This is by no means a hill I wish to die on, but there isn't a writer alive who would take being called "prosaic" a compliment, which makes the word choice in the context of this very positive review rather baffling

Wimmels, Tuesday, 18 April 2017 14:48 (seven years ago) link

Barry says Davies' details are prosaic, not Davies himself. And this isn't even some "I didn't call you a bitch, I said you were acting like a bitch" pedantry. Sometimes masterful songwriters sing about prosaic details and its what gives their music depth.

SSN Lucci (Whiney G. Weingarten), Tuesday, 18 April 2017 15:06 (seven years ago) link

Like what would a song like the Beatles' "A Day In the Life" even be without the prosaic details?

SSN Lucci (Whiney G. Weingarten), Tuesday, 18 April 2017 15:07 (seven years ago) link

4000 less holes

blonde redheads have more fun (upper mississippi sh@kedown), Tuesday, 18 April 2017 15:38 (seven years ago) link

tbf those holes were rather small

Bobson Dugnutt (ulysses), Tuesday, 18 April 2017 18:41 (seven years ago) link

http://pitchfork.com/features/festival-report/10059-are-music-festival-lineups-getting-worse/

this is a weird article in re how it doesn't really address the question in the title and doesn't acknowledge any kind of inside perspective into festival lineups vis a vis pitchfork fest. in fact, pfork fest is barely acknowledged at all. i'm also confused by the gender breakdown chart - if there's a band with two women and two men, it seems like that should count "more" than a solo female artist, but it doesn't seem like they're counting it that way? i don't know, just a weird and not particularly useful article.

na (NA), Tuesday, 18 April 2017 19:08 (seven years ago) link

to turn the pedantry up a notch, let's consider this alternate reading of the sentence:

"It’s back-to-basics energy and prosaic storytelling make it his best solo album in years."

i.e. the album is back-to-basics energy; prosaic storytelling make[s] it his best... (in which case the error here would be the plural rather than singular form of "to make")

eh?

anyway, agree w/ wimmels that prosaic as a descriptor for lyrics is almost always derogatory; the word more or less means banal, pedestrian, unexceptional, even dull. "dazzling with prosaic details" is just a very misguided construction.

budo jeru, Tuesday, 18 April 2017 19:27 (seven years ago) link

to turn the pedantry up a notch, let's consider this alternate reading of the sentence:

"It’s back-to-basics energy and prosaic storytelling make it his best solo album in years."

Again, this sentence was probably not by the author of the review, which is who Wimmels is quibbling with

SSN Lucci (Whiney G. Weingarten), Tuesday, 18 April 2017 20:29 (seven years ago) link

i think you're sort of missing my point, but yes i understand the author didn't necessarily write those first two lines.

anyway, the author certainly wrote this:

This is Davies in Dylan mode, hyperbolic but as dazzling with prosaic details as his student Jarvis Cocker.

i'm not saying that a lyricist has never employed the prosaic to artistic effect. i'm just saying that it would be an unusual choice of words to call that effect "dazzling," and for that reason i think the author doesn't know what the word really means. that's all.

budo jeru, Tuesday, 18 April 2017 21:54 (seven years ago) link

or maybe it was slang for prose mosaic

Sufjan Grafton, Tuesday, 18 April 2017 22:10 (seven years ago) link

regardless, we should really keep this conversation going

Bobson Dugnutt (ulysses), Wednesday, 19 April 2017 01:20 (seven years ago) link

lmao holy shit i was reading the story about the brainiac documentary and the hyperlink for the kickstarter campaign was this http://deadspin.com/5986076/ladies-jr-smiths-twitter-come-on-will-have-you-sopping-wet

flappy bird, Wednesday, 19 April 2017 01:40 (seven years ago) link

no idea why I was mentioned, I don't give a shit about "prosaic" either way ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

a self-reinforcing downward spiral of male-centric indie (katherine), Wednesday, 19 April 2017 02:24 (seven years ago) link

not to speak for whiney but i think he was nodding to your past posts about editors sabotaging stories by tinkering with the titles

Bobson Dugnutt (ulysses), Wednesday, 19 April 2017 03:11 (seven years ago) link

xpost lol @ ulysses

budo jeru, Wednesday, 19 April 2017 03:54 (seven years ago) link

the very existence of public-facing stories is greater sabotage than any editor could possibly inflict

a self-reinforcing downward spiral of male-centric indie (katherine), Wednesday, 19 April 2017 07:32 (seven years ago) link

anyway, agree w/ wimmels that prosaic as a descriptor for lyrics is almost always derogatory; the word more or less means banal, pedestrian, unexceptional, even dull. "dazzling with prosaic details" is just a very misguided construction.

idk that phrase is bad maybe but there are ways to employ "prosaic" that are not derogatory--it's certainly better than saying "banal details", less clunky than "everyday details" and not as eggheaded as "quotidian details"

duped and used by my worst Miss U (President Keyes), Wednesday, 19 April 2017 12:44 (seven years ago) link

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vEt1vV3KAH0

ToddBonzalez (BradNelson), Wednesday, 19 April 2017 12:45 (seven years ago) link

"This is the last installment of this column in Pitchfork. Beginning in May it will appear in the Village Voice."
http://pitchfork.com/features/greil-marcus-real-life-rock-top-10/10062-what-do-you-call-father-john-misty/

end of an era

Frozen CD, Thursday, 20 April 2017 01:50 (seven years ago) link

Ha how many Marcus pitchfork columns were there -- three?

tylerw, Thursday, 20 April 2017 01:59 (seven years ago) link

i think he did it for a year

flappy bird, Thursday, 20 April 2017 02:05 (seven years ago) link

I take it back, he wrote a bunch and I wasn't paying attention.

tylerw, Thursday, 20 April 2017 02:08 (seven years ago) link

I wonder how many people sent him hate mail

a self-reinforcing downward spiral of male-centric indie (katherine), Thursday, 20 April 2017 02:11 (seven years ago) link

i liked his recent-ish thing about "right" being the new "like"

flappy bird, Thursday, 20 April 2017 02:13 (seven years ago) link

"Prosaic" is always bad, read books

albvivertine, Thursday, 20 April 2017 02:46 (seven years ago) link

read butts

duped and used by my worst Miss U (President Keyes), Thursday, 20 April 2017 13:40 (seven years ago) link

two butts beating as one

Bobson Dugnutt (ulysses), Thursday, 20 April 2017 13:42 (seven years ago) link

ok, i think it's kinda hilarious there was this widespread mocking of justin bieber for saying in the NYT Where Are U Now video that they were "expensive sounds" and now i've seen that exact language used in both p4k's DAMN. review and its Narkopop one today

austinb, Friday, 21 April 2017 19:43 (six years ago) link

honestly always liked it as a shorthand descriptor so i'm pleasantly surprised to see it popping up

austinb, Friday, 21 April 2017 19:44 (six years ago) link

If you’re a fan of cheesy snack foods and well-curated superhero film soundtracks, Doritos has developed just the thing for you.

nomar, Tuesday, 25 April 2017 16:20 (six years ago) link

I think they could jazz up these press release stories by speculating that the corporate spokesperson was smoking a blunt while responding to the writer's emails.

duped and used by my worst Miss U (President Keyes), Tuesday, 25 April 2017 16:23 (six years ago) link

If you’re a fan of cheesy snack foods and well-curated superhero film soundtracks, Doritos has developed just the thing for you.

AdamVania (Adam Bruneau), Tuesday, 25 April 2017 17:20 (six years ago) link


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