How is that second despite bothersome (aside from the writer just needing a thesaurus)? The writer is emphasizing his thesis statement; the Rolling Stones were good at pumping out appealing, easy-to-acclaim singles but had problems focusing that energy into a cohesive, easy-to-acclaim album.
Whether that opinion makes any sense is better handled by the people already making fun of it.
― Have a slice of wine! (HI DERE), Monday, 24 May 2010 19:04 (fourteen years ago) link
Who wrote that Rolling Stones review? That's some incredible wrongness.
― Fig On A Plate Cart (Alex in SF), Monday, 24 May 2010 19:05 (fourteen years ago) link
I think starting two sentences with Despite is the bothersome part.
― Fig On A Plate Cart (Alex in SF), Monday, 24 May 2010 19:06 (fourteen years ago) link
I'm not sure he's constructing parallel structures, but even if he wasn't both uses of "despite" are correct.
― Filmmaker, Author, Radio Host Stephen Baldwin (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Monday, 24 May 2010 19:08 (fourteen years ago) link
How is that second despite bothersome
It just didn't flow like he was emphasizing it to me. The ideas that he expresses don't need that kind of build.
― kkvgz, Monday, 24 May 2010 19:09 (fourteen years ago) link
Despite an absence of the band's best-known songs, the sweaty, grimy Exile on Main St.
"Tumbling Dice" isn't one of their best-known songs? If he'd said "an absence of the band's biggest hits," he'd be correct; "Tumbling Dice" "only" hit #7.
― Filmmaker, Author, Radio Host Stephen Baldwin (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Monday, 24 May 2010 19:10 (fourteen years ago) link
That seems nit-picky. "Tumbling Dice" isn't as well known as their best known songs, yes.
― Fig On A Plate Cart (Alex in SF), Monday, 24 May 2010 19:12 (fourteen years ago) link
ha, I was all ready to say "I have never heard this song before in my life" and then it got to the "baaaby" part:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1sh-fMOecSE
― Have a slice of wine! (HI DERE), Monday, 24 May 2010 19:12 (fourteen years ago) link
Are those Playboy dice?
― Filmmaker, Author, Radio Host Stephen Baldwin (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Monday, 24 May 2010 19:14 (fourteen years ago) link
I have never heard this song before in my life.
― jaymc, Monday, 24 May 2010 19:21 (fourteen years ago) link
(I mean, maybe I have. The "baby" part does sound familiar, but I don't know if it's actually familiar or just familiar-sounding.)
I've never pegged you as a Stones fan.
― Filmmaker, Author, Radio Host Stephen Baldwin (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Monday, 24 May 2010 19:22 (fourteen years ago) link
i think it's true -- in all my days as a classic rock radio-listening pre-teen/teenager, Exile songs were *not* the Stones songs they played on the radio very often. to this day, i bet there are at least 15 Stones songs more likely to be played on the radio.
― tylerw, Monday, 24 May 2010 19:25 (fourteen years ago) link
"Tumbling Dice" never got as much play as the sixties stuff, the Some Girls threesome, and "Start Me Up," but I heard it enough. Its chart position is exactly right: big enough.
― Filmmaker, Author, Radio Host Stephen Baldwin (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Monday, 24 May 2010 19:27 (fourteen years ago) link
Opening "ooooooh-oooooooh" of the background singers in Tumbling Dice always hits me like a greeting from a great old friend.
― Trip Maker, Monday, 24 May 2010 19:33 (fourteen years ago) link
actually, the one I feel like I've heard the most is "Beast of Burden," which seems kind of weird. but this is just my experience ...
― tylerw, Monday, 24 May 2010 19:33 (fourteen years ago) link
That's totally weird.
― kkvgz, Monday, 24 May 2010 19:34 (fourteen years ago) link
In my last town I think the classic rock station played "Beast of Burden" every day.
― frozen cookie (Abbott), Monday, 24 May 2010 19:39 (fourteen years ago) link
Yeah, the last time I spent any significant amount of time listening to classic rock (lol 1987) "Beast of Burden" was played a lot.
― Have a slice of wine! (HI DERE), Monday, 24 May 2010 19:40 (fourteen years ago) link
might just be that it's the stones ballad of choice -- Wild Horse is a little too draggy for classick rock stations, probably.
― tylerw, Monday, 24 May 2010 19:41 (fourteen years ago) link
96 Rock in the ATL played "Tumbling Dice" all the time; it's a pretty southern rock-y single, which the Stones don't really have very many of, given their fixations---there's "Brown Sugar", and not many others.
This is my kind of Pitchfork thread! (I mean the Stones part.)
― Euler, Monday, 24 May 2010 19:43 (fourteen years ago) link
I'm not. But I just looked at this list and can count about 15 songs that I instantly know how they go, which means there's probably also a handful of others I might know if I heard them.
― jaymc, Monday, 24 May 2010 19:47 (fourteen years ago) link
I was jokin'. Beast of Burden is a very, very famous song by the Rolling Stones.
― kkvgz, Monday, 24 May 2010 19:47 (fourteen years ago) link
http://www.rollingstonesnet.com/images/BeastOfBurdenPS.jpg
Although when I image searched it, I came up with a bunch of Magic: The Gathering cards.
― kkvgz, Monday, 24 May 2010 19:50 (fourteen years ago) link
http://twitter.com/pitchforkmedia/status/15357256549
― Hippocrates or wat!! (Merdeyeux), Thursday, 3 June 2010 23:17 (fourteen years ago) link
pretty thrilled they've started having entire news items that quote stuff like Colin Meloy weighing in on the MIA saga via Twitter
― ksh, Thursday, 3 June 2010 23:22 (fourteen years ago) link
You're being ironic, I hope.
― Filmmaker, Author, Radio Host Stephen Baldwin (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Thursday, 3 June 2010 23:23 (fourteen years ago) link
ugh that Andre 3000 "song" is so sad
― in my day we had to walk 10 miles in the snow for VU bootleg (Shakey Mo Collier), Thursday, 3 June 2010 23:24 (fourteen years ago) link
like, this is what yr wasting yr time with dude? really?
http://pitchfork.com/news/39014-echo-chamber-colin-meloy-vs-mia/
^ SEO SEO SEO SEO SEO
― ksh, Thursday, 3 June 2010 23:25 (fourteen years ago) link
also: zzzzzzzzzz
Sorta half serious question -- it feels around ILX like though Pitchfork often covers the albums that get a lot of discussion, it's kinda a closed circuit. Outside a few columns (specifically Why We Fight, Poptimists, stuff like that), they review an album and then outside this thread or others like it there's no relationship to the review. I assume a good Pitchfork review can still help sell a record, but has their critical impact waned at all (I mean, more than the general critical impact of music writing has waned)? I can't even remember what they wrote about any of the albums that I'd consider interesting this year -- even stuff that formerly would've fallen into their critical context (like Vampire Weekend or Sleigh Bells). Is this anyone else's experience or am I totally off-base?
― Mordy, Monday, 7 June 2010 03:41 (fourteen years ago) link
always hear "beast of burden" as "pizza burger" as in "i'll never eat your"
― NUDE. MAYNE. (s1ocki), Monday, 7 June 2010 04:17 (fourteen years ago) link
Super lol btw at Colon Meloy taking a shot at M.I.A. After this fiasco - http://www.villagevoice.com/2006-11-07/music/taynted-love/ - you'd think he'd have some empathy for musicians getting into embarrassing fights with critics.
― Mordy, Monday, 7 June 2010 04:26 (fourteen years ago) link
read that cee oh tee tee piece as sophomore in college. embarrassing for everyone involved
― ksh, Monday, 7 June 2010 04:28 (fourteen years ago) link
I've seen a few people suggest recently that it's in some way mean or cowardly for Pitchfork not to allow people to comment underneath its album reviews, as if (a) this is some entrenched right of the modern internet user and (b) P4K comment boxes wouldn't attract the worst people on earth
― taqsim for Gaffney (DJ Mencap), Monday, 7 June 2010 06:35 (fourteen years ago) link
Oh man, Chris Ott is terrible.
― Brad Nelson (BradNelson), Monday, 7 June 2010 07:17 (fourteen years ago) link
Maybe that is axiomatic here at ILX.
― Brad Nelson (BradNelson), Monday, 7 June 2010 07:23 (fourteen years ago) link
(b) P4K comment boxes wouldn't attract the worst people on earth
Instead we just let them gather on ILX, amirite?
― I just wish he hadn't adopted the "ilxor" moniker (ilxor), Monday, 7 June 2010 13:31 (fourteen years ago) link
I assume a good Pitchfork review can still help sell a record, but has their critical impact waned at all (I mean, more than the general critical impact of music writing has waned)? I can't even remember what they wrote about any of the albums that I'd consider interesting this year
Seriously though -- I think Pfork does help to sell albums. Here in ATX, for example, if I walk into Waterloo Records ~1 week after a Best New Music review hits the site, that album is almost *always* in the store's top 5-10 albums of the week, sales wise. Not really a big deal for something that would sell regardless of Pfork acclaim (say, Vampire Weekend, or the National), but for something like Flying Lotus to hit the top charts at a store that caters to a large crowd of people into local Texas musicians, folk, country, run-of-the-mill indie and other similar stuff, I think it's telling for things like FlyLo that are more "difficult" to grasp are selling so well. And of course, Pfork still has the power to move a decent # of units for bands that were previously off the radar completely to the casual record store goer (e.g., Male Bonding, Fang Island, Delorean, the Morning Benders).
Personally speaking, I've still managed to pick up on an album here and there by checking the Pfork site. Most recently, I checked out the review for Cave's new EP (I think?) based on the blurb on the main review column a few weeks back, then backtracked to the Psychic Psummer review, listened to the album using the embedded Lala player, and presto! they've got a new fan. Meaning, the next time I order stuff from Important Records, I'll probably shell out $10 for the Cave album. So, yes, Pfork does get me to buy the occasional album I may not have found immediately otherwise.
As for what Pfork's saying about stuff I already enjoy, I'm often curious to check out the reviews, but I couldn't really care less whether I'm in agreement or not. It's just one more voice in the general critical discourse -- not some almighty tastemaker.
― I just wish he hadn't adopted the "ilxor" moniker (ilxor), Monday, 7 June 2010 13:42 (fourteen years ago) link
From what i gather from my friends who work at record labels and are in bands...
a "Best New Music" does help sell a few records, but the other reviews on the site are usually just internet background noise that just work in tandem with the NY Times/Brooklyn Veg/ILX/Village Voice/etc swarm of titter
― gorilla vs burrr (Whiney G. Weingarten), Monday, 7 June 2010 13:56 (fourteen years ago) link
i've had so many friends fall in the dreaded 6.0 to 8.2 zone!
― gorilla vs burrr (Whiney G. Weingarten), Monday, 7 June 2010 13:58 (fourteen years ago) link
NY Times/Brooklyn Veg/ILX/Village Voice
Not sure I'd put ILX in the company of those widely read pubs...
― I just wish he hadn't adopted the "ilxor" moniker (ilxor), Monday, 7 June 2010 13:59 (fourteen years ago) link
i would! i'm just saying "other places ppl read about music." The music hivemind is usually a snowball that creates itself via everything from the smallest blog to the biggest magazine. We're a very small part of it, but certainly part of it
― gorilla vs burrr (Whiney G. Weingarten), Monday, 7 June 2010 14:05 (fourteen years ago) link
sounds almost mystical tbh
― NUDE. MAYNE. (s1ocki), Monday, 7 June 2010 14:09 (fourteen years ago) link
everything from the smallest snowflake.. to the most massive galaxy
― NUDE. MAYNE. (s1ocki), Monday, 7 June 2010 14:10 (fourteen years ago) link
we're all one cosmic snake eating its own ass
― da croupier, Monday, 7 June 2010 14:13 (fourteen years ago) link
A Best New Music certainly sells records. You should see how it affects Insound, who have a direct link on every Pitchfork review.
― Evan, Monday, 7 June 2010 14:14 (fourteen years ago) link
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LyzIau5dBao
― fruiting bodies of minds in agony (dyao), Monday, 7 June 2010 14:14 (fourteen years ago) link
the dreaded 6.0 to 8.2 zone!
Ha, I'm not sure I'll ever entirely understand the dread. Hell, some folks seem surprisingly pissed that they have, say, released a record that was deemed notable, found worthy of coverage, and given a generally positive review on a well-read music website. I understand that people are going to think their records are 9.9s -- that's awesome, that's just believing in your work and caring about what you do -- but I don't know how mad anyone should get about press that says "this band's work is fairly good!"; your problem there isn't the press, it's that you're in the midst of a shuffle of SO MUCH other music that you were hoping for something more.
― oɔsıqɐu (nabisco), Monday, 7 June 2010 15:26 (fourteen years ago) link