pitchfork is dumb (#34985859340293849494 in a series.)

xp Revolt of the ILX Brigade: New Post-Fahey Folk For PPL that post in the Takoma & Tompkin's Square Threads

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I think a lot of people have heard of John Fahey

And have also heard him

no idea who or what that stat is sposed to be refuting but with the best will in the world that thread is (iirc) a small number of unusually clued-in ppl posting dozens of times each

yeah that thread has (as I've mentioned over there) given me a skewed idea of the size/appeal of this kind of music -- the actual "american primitive" style shows i've been to in the past year have been woefully under-attended. even william tyler, who has one of the top 3 indie labels backing him, drew about a dozen people! and four or five of them were his close family.

Is not Pitchfork, like ILX, something of a microcosm of the world's "unusually clued in people," though? I mean, relatively speaking? And if so, don't you agree a primer on Fahey is not really useful to those people? On both ILX and Pitchfork, you can read about Bill Orcutt and you can read about Taylor Swift, is what I mean.

Also, I apologize, did not mean for my ultimately trivial complaint to occupy the better part of anyone's afternoon. I just thought this terrible piece, appearing just as "guitar soli" trending is reaching a sort of tipping point, was lol. Appreciate the food for thought from everyone though, and sorry if any of this came off snarky or 'trolling' etc - was not my intention.

xp ha yeah I saw WT play last year (in the UK) to about that many ppl. it was quite poorly promoted but I doubt giant billboards around town would have made much difference

Is not Pitchfork, like ILX, something of a microcosm of the world's "unusually clued in people," though?

the average Pitchfork reader is clued in enough to discover a website called Pitchfork

When I saw William Tyler here in Chicago a few months ago, there were at least a 100 people there, so that's good.

I think a huge percentage of people, even Pitchfork-reading people, don't know shit about John Fahey.

i think Pitchfork's key demo of "twentysomethings who won't laugh out loud at the idea that Perfect Pussy is an intriguing and interesting band" could stand to learn a little something about John Fahey, yes.

― Whiney G. Weingarten, Tuesday, January 28, 2014 12:05 PM (2 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Can't believe I'm saying this, but I think you're underestimating Pitchfork a bit here. A daily (or close enough) reader of Pitchfork is likely aware of the Tompkins Square label, recent Basho reissues, Glenn Jones, etc; the idea that such a person would be ignorant of Fahey - arguably the architect of this entire scene - seems unlikely, no?

look i listen to this shit and any one of these things would have, given the right choice of time in my life, been completely nothing to me

fahey primers are perennially useful, just like coltrane primers and early-postpunk primers, because there are always new people for the old things

is there any conversation more tedious than arguing over exactly who constitutes the readership of pitchfork???

Who are the "hipsters" anyway?

I heard the average Pitchfork reader can't read!

http://www.quickmeme.com/img/d0/d064a11cb6ba53bf23783c69d06d5012f97ba15c15a8f5df2a73f120136006a2.jpg

that's what the numbers are for

who hips the hipsters (to john fahey)

who hips the hipsters

just gonna post this everywhere cuz it's hilarious and awesome

http://skotrok.blogspot.com/2014/01/i-listened-to-all-of-pitchforks-top-100.html

i made that joke upthread xp

ah fuck

xpost Loved that guy's (s)troll through Fork's 2013. Pretty funny.

"Did I learn anything after listening to all these songs? Well, I learned that rap music is awesome and that college kids listen to a lot of music that nobody is going to remember a year from now. Haha, just kidding. I didn't learn that. I already KNEW that.

so that's what he's been doing!

love JD for refusing to give the term american primitive any endorsement. i guess the only problem w/ the JF primer is that pf didn't know to ask me to write it. i think that wld be v stressful tho... the only other JF primer i recall was the one on the wire, which was by david keenan but all i really recall was the neat artwork they'd commissioned.

i think in general 'primers' are bad ways of introducing ppl to things, it's always awkward to squish in the details, it ends up being a massive stream of meaningless titles and descriptions that immediately blur into one. i'm pretty sure i found about JF through pf reviews of the likes of cul de sac, gastr del sol &c. the first thing i can i remember reading properly on JF was the byron coley interview (which i read on perfect sound forever which was a bit of a treasure trove), which opens w/ a discussion of pauline theology & all sorts of shit which was infinitely more intoxicating & illustrative to my young self than the strained tone of an overview. otoh i also remember a pf review that i think opened with the line "John Fahey was a lover." which made me feel v bad inside

it's a kind of reductive view but imo primers should answer the questions "what kind of music did the artist make during his/her career?" and "where should I start?"

i prefer genre primers to individual artists and p4k has done a few nice ones - http://pitchfork.com/features/articles/6007-africa-100-the-indestructible-beat/ was good and also i really liked http://pitchfork.com/features/underscore/8822-quiet-storm-tk-tk-tk/

primers are so fucking evil in principle

the strange grey-area they occupy between wikipedia article & trying to give someone a glimpse at an avenue they want to pursue tends to lead to some pretty weird little stand out sentences & facts that i suspect will lead to some tragic partial recollections in the future cf. "oh yeah... the guy who influenced sufjan stevens"

e.g.

yeah, i mean i can understand the utility (and god knows things like the spin record guide etc turned me on to things) but i kinda hate that weird mix of canon and curriculum they work w/, the way they codify 'here is precisely how to approach this artist'.

yeah for example usually every single primer in the av club in their "where not to begin" section will have something egregiously incorrect imo.

I think we'd all be better off discussing why so many PF interviews are so bloody SHORT.

i do feel like i've been seeing more and more reviews there where i get to the end of the 4th paragraph and go "that's it? i thought we were just getting started"

I think that primers like this are pretty helpful for people. I checked out so many bands because of obsessively reading the blue Trouser Press record guide.

Al, I wrote a splice piece about this very issue. Ran today.

http://splicetoday.com/digital/get-your-act-together-pitchfork

TOO FAR

Haha I don't even know how to read that

I'm not a Future Islands fan but that piece was what really tipped the scales for me, like WTF three questions?

i dunno i just think the difference between griping about that kind of thing on a message board and writing an actual article about it is pretty significant

I mean, I just am a guy who digs long interviews and expect a certain approach. If something bothers me I tend to write an article about it, if I'm able.

Not hating, just saying to P4K "don't think we don't notice this"

Considering the low barrier to entry to be a Pitchfork writer, I really have no idea why you'd write a thinkpiece on this as opposed to just writing some long interviews for pitchfork and be the change you want to see.

Can I rewind this thread a bit and ask who is Jon Fahey

Sufjan Steven's father

Got it. So he is from the Midwest and plays a guitar??

http://eil.com/images/main/John+Fahey+-+Sea+Changes+%26+Coelacanths%3A+A+Young+Persons+Guide+To+John+Fah+-+4+LP+SET-399757.jpg

Yes. Maryland is in the Midwest

Considering the low barrier to entry to be a Pitchfork writer,I really have no idea why you'd write a thinkpiece on this as opposed to just writing some long interviews for pitchfork and be the change you want to see.

― Whiney G. Weingarten, Wednesday, January 29, 2014 9:18 AM (3 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

RC does state in his piece - in the first sentence - that he's applied to write for Pitchfork many times. You didn't see that part?

For all the bashing (deserved or otherwise) re: low barrier for entry, I'd argue that the caliber of writing on Pitchfork is generally a cut above some of the other shit we make fun of around here (AV Club, etc). Which is why when someone really, really stinks, it's glaring.

I'm speaking about reviews, of course. I don't read the features or interviews regularly enough to comment too much on that, but I really have liked The Out Door and Show No Mercy, among others.

If your first name is Sam or Brandon it's pretty easy to write for P4k