Cool response, Whiney, thanks.
I'm not denying that this connection hasn't been reported, and repeated, by many sources. Nor am I denying that a positive review from Pitchfork affected that band's trajectory, or at least, gilded it. But this thesis relies on the notion that AF hadn't had any major success until then, when they'd had loads. Massive amounts. Canada and otherwise. They'd already been subject to an (indie) bidding war, sold out Bowery (with huge excess demand), even featured on there non-CAN magazine covers before the pitchfork review-- you could easily argue that Plan B, feature for feature, was the more prescient publication for indie music. As for the crowds and the guarantees, they went up a bit, but not nearly as much as they did, say, as they did when management was hired in 2005, or the Spike trailer, or any number of other events that made them The Thing They Are Today
― I'm a lover, not a partner (flamboyant goon tie included), Thursday, 11 April 2013 19:36 (eleven years ago) link
selling out smallish venues in nyc is not as tough a prospect as it seems given the MASSIVE AMOUNTS OF INDUSTRY here. i am v rarely impressed by nyc sellouts as a barometer of anything save self-sustaining buzz cycles
― maura, Thursday, 11 April 2013 19:38 (eleven years ago) link
Wilderness were kind of a weird non-entity even in Baltimore, although i only heard one of the later albums so maybe i just missed what the excitement was actually about
― some dude, Thursday, 11 April 2013 19:40 (eleven years ago) link
but yeah maura otm, i'm much more impressed when a band can sell out in a smaller market than in nyc
But good point about "who's the author?"
― I'm a lover, not a partner (flamboyant goon tie included), Thursday, 11 April 2013 19:43 (eleven years ago) link
arcade fire/pf feels very 'print the legend' at this point
― some dude, Thursday, 11 April 2013 19:46 (eleven years ago) link
But Maura they went from Bowery pre pitchfork to Irving post pitchfork, it wasn't a big move. It seems ridiculous to consider this stuff ~now~ but they weren't a huge band in 2005 by any means
― I'm a lover, not a partner (flamboyant goon tie included), Thursday, 11 April 2013 19:46 (eleven years ago) link
If anything Wilderness is the purest counterexample I can think of that a big pfork push on its own doesn't bestow success in the absence of other support (did Wilderness get pushed by anyone else?)
― anonanon, Thursday, 11 April 2013 19:50 (eleven years ago) link
I love Wilderness so much. Fav of 2005 for me, and honestly I may have missed them if not for that review.
― Evan, Thursday, 11 April 2013 20:19 (eleven years ago) link
Sometimes the taste-making that happens comes from a collection of BNM selections when the albums aren't as accessible and strong as an Arcade Fire all by themselves.
― Evan, Thursday, 11 April 2013 20:22 (eleven years ago) link
strawman: is metacritic arguably as/more important as a tastemaker than pitchfork?
― Chuck E was a hero to most (s.clover), Thursday, 11 April 2013 20:28 (eleven years ago) link
no
― J0rdan S., Thursday, 11 April 2013 20:31 (eleven years ago) link
do people even read metacritic
― J0rdan S., Thursday, 11 April 2013 20:32 (eleven years ago) link
Hard to say:
http://www.alexa.com/siteinfo/metacritic.com#
http://www.alexa.com/siteinfo/pitchfork.com#
― Evan, Thursday, 11 April 2013 20:33 (eleven years ago) link
I use Metacritic for movies; that's about it.
― the little prince of inane false binary hype (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Thursday, 11 April 2013 20:34 (eleven years ago) link
so basically people go to metacritic to read about video games
― J0rdan S., Thursday, 11 April 2013 20:36 (eleven years ago) link
What's funny to me is I often see the average score on metacritic practically match pitchfork's exact score.
― Evan, Thursday, 11 April 2013 20:42 (eleven years ago) link
I look at Metacritic's music section regularly but mostly as a handy list of recent/upcoming releases.
― jaymc, Thursday, 11 April 2013 20:48 (eleven years ago) link
heaven is a place on earth with you
― http://bit.ly/oIujXP (markers), Thursday, 11 April 2013 20:49 (eleven years ago) link
Wilderness were the shit, I keep checking their Wiki to see of they have new stuff coming
Derivative? Oh yeah they were but SFW
― Raymond Cummings, Thursday, 11 April 2013 21:59 (eleven years ago) link
I've purged my physical music collection tons of times but just don't have the heart to rip/sell the Wilderness CDS
― Raymond Cummings, Thursday, 11 April 2013 22:02 (eleven years ago) link
Though even if you did you could buy them all back second hand for maybe $7.
― Evan, Thursday, 11 April 2013 22:07 (eleven years ago) link
All together.
― Evan, Thursday, 11 April 2013 22:08 (eleven years ago) link
derivative AND safe for work!
― your holiness, we have an official energy drink (Z S), Thursday, 11 April 2013 22:42 (eleven years ago) link
AND pitchfork approved! this is like the holy triumvirate
― your holiness, we have an official energy drink (Z S), Thursday, 11 April 2013 22:44 (eleven years ago) link
http://web.archive.org/web/20011121175939/pitchforkmedia.com/record-reviews/h/handsome-boy-modeling-school/so-hows-your-girl.shtml
Old review of the first Handsome Boy Modelling School album. Do you even underground, bro?
― Popture, Friday, 12 April 2013 01:43 (eleven years ago) link
haha that was one of the first pf reviews i ever read
― some dude, Friday, 12 April 2013 01:50 (eleven years ago) link
In the wake of the fatal car crash that claimed the former Princess of Wales, concerts across a grieving U.K. were cancelled en masse-- including a handful of Primal Scream dates in London, the promoter of which claimed the band were kiboshing “out of a mark of respect for Diana.” This came as news to the band, who issued a reactionary retort claiming, “We wanted to play... We have no respect whatsoever for Diana Spencer or any member of the English Royal Family. We are totally opposed to the monarchy.”
i am being a pedant but just in so many ways this is not a "reactionary retort"
― daft on the causes of punk (schlump), Wednesday, 8 May 2013 17:20 (eleven years ago) link
it's a retortive reaction
― Eyeball Kicks, Wednesday, 8 May 2013 17:31 (eleven years ago) link
that timeline about their political "awakening" seemed a little screwy to me, it glosses over Vanishing Point ("Star", the title track) which foreshadowed XTRMNTR pretty clearly
― four Marxes plus four Obamas plus four Bin Ladens (Shakey Mo Collier), Wednesday, 8 May 2013 17:40 (eleven years ago) link
the review did make me a lot more interested in this album than that first video did, I'll give it that
lol you dorks still read pitchfork ??
― H3LP, Wednesday, 8 May 2013 17:47 (eleven years ago) link
http://www.threedonia.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/10/070201_joebiden_vlwidec-249x300.jpg
― Evan, Wednesday, 8 May 2013 17:54 (eleven years ago) link
give 'em H3LL
― congo nattefrost (DJ Mencap), Wednesday, 8 May 2013 18:10 (eleven years ago) link
can someone explain to this print dinosaur if there is some internet economy / click-based / revenue-driven reason for Advance to NOT have a pause button? it's maddening. ok that might be overstating it a bit.
― alpine static, Wednesday, 8 May 2013 19:24 (eleven years ago) link
I wonder if labels insist?
― jay-z's ansari (upper mississippi sh@kedown), Friday, 10 May 2013 19:09 (eleven years ago) link
this interview with dude from surfer blood about his domestic battery arrest is not very good
― congratulations (n/a), Friday, 10 May 2013 19:18 (eleven years ago) link
oh you didn't hit her? oh ok. you want to talk more about what did happen? no? oh ok. so maybe we should talk to the other person involved instead of just relying on your perspective? no? ok.
― congratulations (n/a), Friday, 10 May 2013 19:19 (eleven years ago) link
like maybe they just couldn't get the full story, which is fine, but then you don't have to run the story instead of just publishing this mild, vague, spineless thing
― congratulations (n/a), Friday, 10 May 2013 19:24 (eleven years ago) link
I kinda feel like the interview gives the guy enough rope (although it could stand to link back to the previous PF news item with the police report that disturbingly details what he did that was not 'hitting'). A q&a with an individual, even a controversial one, need not be held to the standards of a reported piece with multiple sources.
― seanpennderizer (some dude), Friday, 10 May 2013 19:46 (eleven years ago) link
wow yeah, I just read that. I was wondering why he was being so precise about saying "I never hit anybody" multiple times.
― wk, Friday, 10 May 2013 19:54 (eleven years ago) link
i don't really see what was wrong with it? except surfer blood is a horrible band regardless of the singer's record.
― call all destroyer, Friday, 10 May 2013 20:04 (eleven years ago) link
ha otm
― congratulations (n/a), Friday, 10 May 2013 20:11 (eleven years ago) link
i guess some dude is right but the thing just felt pointless and perspectiveless and like there was a big hole in the middle with missing questions and answers
― congratulations (n/a), Friday, 10 May 2013 20:12 (eleven years ago) link
Surfer Blood getting desperate for "hits"
― Evan, Friday, 10 May 2013 20:16 (eleven years ago) link
either that or it's something to do with streaming royalty rates. it's more expensive to have a completely on-demand service and less expensive to have "Internet radio" where the listener has more limited control over what's playing.
although since it's obviously set up in collaboration with the record companies I don't know if they pay royalties on that or what.
― dmr, Friday, 10 May 2013 20:17 (eleven years ago) link
― call all destroyer, Friday, May 10, 2013 4:04 PM (36 minutes ago) Bookmark
i think the problem with that piece is that even though it tries to stay neutral, by design it works really hard only to engender sympathy for someone who doesn't really need or deserve it (i.e. "did this case make it harder to concentrate on your music?")
― J0rdan S., Friday, 10 May 2013 20:43 (eleven years ago) link
i doubt his victim would want to talk about this so that seems like a pipe dream to me and i admire PF's willingness to wade into the fire here because surfer blood is a band everyone could ignore with no consequences but i think it wasn't pushy enough in places and just... sort of a lose-lose proposition
― J0rdan S., Friday, 10 May 2013 20:47 (eleven years ago) link
Holy shit, I forgot that Surfer Blood was even a band, let alone this happened. I assumed they were touring in bizarro world with Tapes n Tapes and Clap Your Hands and some other oh-yeah bands.
― Josh in Chicago, Friday, 10 May 2013 20:55 (eleven years ago) link
Surfer Blood recently played a cafe here, so I don't know that you're far off
― P is for Poo Poo Doo Doo (Sufjan Grafton), Saturday, 11 May 2013 04:26 (eleven years ago) link