pitchfork is dumb (#34985859340293849494 in a series.)

looking forward to the Top 50 Romo Albums list on Pitchfork soon, then

controversial opinion: if Melody Maker's transition had involved more articles where musicians told us about their pets, it would not have folded.

but seriously, the pets article should be in the pitchfork is good thread, not the pitchfork is dumb thread. pop stars talking about their pets is always good.

they actually reviewed an Ahmad Jamal re-issue the other day, probably a tactic to try and draw old degenerates like me in and then snare me with their upcoming Camden lurch top 100.

i like that pets piece but i generally like pets

the pets feature is great!

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

yeah i really missed that feature!

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

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

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

:)

Chance the Rapper Had the Most Amazing Birthday Cake

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

No it isnt

lmao

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

mark e smith lyrics are prosaic u dismal pedant

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

no katherine

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

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.

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

4000 less holes

tbf those holes were rather small

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.

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.

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

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.

or maybe it was slang for prose mosaic

regardless, we should really keep this conversation going

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

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

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

xpost lol @ ulysses

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

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"

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

"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

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

i think he did it for a year

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

I wonder how many people sent him hate mail

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

"Prosaic" is always bad, read books

read butts

two butts beating as one

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

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

http://pitchfork.com/news/73105-new-doritos-bags-play-the-guardians-of-the-galaxy-soundtrack-on-built-in-cassette-decks/