pitchfork is dumb (#34985859340293849494 in a series.)

I feel like she was talking about LDR for sure but didn't come right out and say it.

it's not like it's a zero sum game: if there are bands that sing lazy shit into a microphone and put effects on it and people like it, that doesn't mean that other artists who can easily modulate between keys and discuss music theory can't make music. there's room in music for both, and more.

and this is obvious so apologies in advance for mentioning it, but if people like the "lazy" music (i hate myself for adopting that as a description because it's wrong but whatever), why should julia holter or any other trained musician care? it reeks of mid-70s dinosaurs whining about the ramones, and it points to an assumption, even if it's unstated, that more complicated/grounded in theory = better. and also just a kind of jealousy - "some stupid kid in a room with pirated effects modules is landing ahead of me on year end lists, while i, classically trained julia holter, languish in obscurity." well, bullshit, who cares. it's not a zero sum game.

many xposts

flopson your post is so bad

― puff puff post (uh oh I'm having a fantasy), Monday, December 17, 2012 2:42 PM (13 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

ftr i like lots of amateur music featuring dispassionate singing, but at the same time it's been a few years now and so much of it that's totally awful. not just on the internet or in the media, where it's easier to avoid, but also at shows. not that the existence of this glut negates any of the good stuff, but it's definitely something you might want to kick away from if you've sat through too many sets. i wouldn't put it in the words "putting your soul into it" but i definitely feel like bands that take their performances to a more potentially embarrassing place feel refreshing rn

LDR's not the only person she could have had in mind - it wouldn't fit the bedroom thing anyway, it actually feels like she's taking shots more at people like, idk...salem? there's so much music out there which sounds like being in your bedroom alone on the internet at 2am that she could have been talking about any number of artists. good for her tbh

xp @ some dude, no way man I <3 her forever

i think you're reading more into the quote zs. or at least, you're reading different things than i am into it. i don't imagine she gives a fuck about people's classical training, i think she means more just, like, actual effort and thought and time put into the music

also a weird conflation of technical chops with "putting your soul into it."

it's ok to have never performed before. you gotta start somewhere, if anything it's sound discouraging for new artists.

There's always that first year of interviews where musicians say the dumbest things, not realizing that "we're the best band in the world!" is a great attitude to have around your bandmates and label and family and your own work ethic but that it just doesn't translate into good press

Anyway that Julia quote felt like that to me,

Also "that first year" is a variable period of time for some people :/

I agree with that flopson but my stance on this is that there is no harm in doing anything so let people release as much similar sounding shit as they want and then maybe 20 years down the line there'll be a bunch of disposable bands from ages ago w/ one good idea on their release that can be sampled

xp @ some dude, no way man I <3 her forever

― you, your max is on fire (flamboyant goon tie included), Monday, December 17, 2012 3:06 PM (1 minute ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

yeah but the fact that this thread is about her now because of that quote and not in a "you go, girl" way suggests that if it was an attempt to reframe her in a negative light it was successful

also a weird conflation of technical chops with "putting your soul into it."

i.e. weird because technical ability and passion/soul are often framed as opposites in the rock/indie world (not saying i agree with this)

fact is like EVERY young musician believes they are going the grain of a music world that has lost its way, which is fine as a motivating force to get stuff done but should really really be kept in check when speaking in public

please don't dudesplain

can this discussion NOT be about pitchfork or julia holter

lol

i like to consider those topics "off limits" itt

how is my post 'splaining any more than your last couple posts (xp)

for the love of god, let's not talk about Pitchfork on the "Pitchfork is dumb" thread

surprised nobody mentionned anthony's 'should animal collective go to jail' quote.

ah fuck I was jk u idiot

well my feelings weren't hurt before but they definitely are now! :(

I mean if anything I am holding myself back from making a julia holter pussy tastes like joke

and I dont even know who julia holter is

some dude, I guess we're talking about Julia Holter for a moment, but I was making the shaky argument that the JH quote was included deliberately to cast her in a negative light, as opposed to, say, the John Maus one, where it was like "we have passed over all the famously dumb things this man has said to include this innocuous (but still idiomatic) opinion on cannibalism"

Like, "did Pitchfork curated these quotes with an agenda?" of course they did editorially, but it just seemed especially strange

xp "should animal collective go to jail"? really? i missed that one

wow pitchfork picked a quote from andrew wk about partying, how profound, how utterly worthy

Did you hear what Pussy Riot said in the courtroom? "Even though we're behind bars, we're more free than anyone." That's like Benazir Bhutto before she went back to Pakistan to be killed. That's like Oscar Wilde facing the courtroom before he was jailed. To see that courage among women in a white youth movement? That is incredibly powerful. It sets a new bar: How are we going to participate now? Should we all be going to jail? Should Animal Collective go to jail? Should Grizzly Bear go to jail? Should Bon Iver go to jail? Is it time?

- Anthony

- Hey Justin, it is time.
- Aww ok.

that's kind of amazing

To see that courage among women in a white youth movement?

there is some very cruel editing going on with some of these

consider for example the quote from Elite Gymnastics' James Brooks:

I don't know if I could ever write a song for a girl to sing. I hate that paradigm of male producer/songwriter, female frontperson-- I feel like encouraging it reinforces this bullshit that all women are good for is looking pretty out in front.

here is the associated picture:

http://pitchfork-cdn.s3.amazonaws.com/content/b3404d1e.jpg?wmode=transparent

OTOH the Killer Mike quote is amazing

Agreed.

lol djp

i posted on (a different) board with that kid, he's um...very very serious but basically deemed like a decent guy

xp When Antony allows himself some candour he rules the school

re: James, I like his tumblr posts, he actually reminds me of Lex like a lot

-_-

jusssst kidddding

And she doesn't sound like she's "putting her soul into it," she sounds shy at least on record.

― Evan, Monday, December 17, 2012 1:04 PM (2 hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

I haven't listened so I don't know, but i know you can be shy and put your soul into it.

― Van Horn Street, Monday, December 17, 2012 1:08 PM (2 hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Late response. I guess it seemed like she was just describing herself, is all. Anyway, carry on.

Should Animal Collective go to jail? Should Grizzly Bear go to jail? Should Bon Iver go to jail? Is it time?

o_O @ "white youth movement" but this is surely the greatest thing anyone has said in 2012

it's a pretty ufwa statement i gotta say.

white youth movement wtf

he's been hanging around Current 93's friends too much perhaps

In electronic music, the term "futurism" always seems to indicate dissonance: The sound of tomorrow is stuck in sci-fi dystopia-mode, demanding stark minimalism, abstract squelching, and plenty foreboding low-end wobble. If you try to add little sunshine here and there, then you're probably going retro. But Lone's Galaxy Garden summons up a lush, warm, and, possibly, vacation-friendly vision of Tomorrowland. The UK-based producer takes a few cues from old-school rave (see "Crystal Caverns 1991"), but the dizzy rhythms and thought-clouding keyboard runs driving the record would be hard to excavate from any vintage mixtape. Galaxy Garden's sound palate is Discovery Store-centric, with steel drums, new age pads, and the sloshing of a digital rainstick here and there. It's a record that plays best in its most surreal moments, where the headphone candy momentarily takes precedence over the floor-friendliness. --Aaron Leitko

it's the future, but it has bits of the past, but it's really future because it has sounds from a store that closed five years ago and 1980s cliches

Kinda sad Mount Eeerie didn't even crack the honorable mentions.

Oh shit! They didn't

And both albums were great. I feel bad they didn't rate my lists

Top tens anyway

Julia H does a fine job of summing up the Salem thread; just needs a late pass is all

,(obv shes not the only one)