pitchfork is dumb (#34985859340293849494 in a series.)

otm

might be a more fun exercise to see if there were any indie bands that broke despite neglect or a bad review from pitchfork, can't think of any off the top of my head

a lot of emo and twee stuff was v poorly reviewed in its early years, including early Of Montreal iirc?

these don't really count but they dropped extremely negative reviews on Andrew W.K. and Mumford & Sons pre-breakout.

Taylor Swift

iirc maybe the first review of Discovery by Daft Punk was a lot lower than what i'm seeing now?

Future Islands and early Ariel Pink

Future Islands was neglect, and Ariel Pink's lo-fi records were all trashed. over the top praise for Before Today and making "Round and Round" song of the year in 2010 was a panicked atonement when they saw how many of those fucking chillwave bands that came and went cited him as their primary influence.

iirc maybe the first review of Discovery by Daft Punk was a lot lower than what i'm seeing now?

― omar little, Wednesday, January 17, 2018 2:21 PM (fifteen minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

this is true, but i think they atoned fairly quickly and put the record in the top 25 or so of their half-decade '00s list iirc

Daft Punk preceded p4k, I saw the "One More Time" video on MTV programmed between Gorillaz and System of a Down. we're talking about bands that emerged after p4k had become the tastemakers. '04-'09 is a spot on window.

That entire circuit of indie rock/Bonnaroo festival bands like Airborne Toxic Event, Silversun Pickups, Cage the Elephant, Cold War Kids did remarkably well w/o Pitchfork's help and sometimes with their direct antagonizing

it's still the same review tho. A Schrieber classic

https://pitchfork.com/reviews/albums/2134-discovery/

xp those are great examples.

add Minus the Bear and maybe Dr. Dog to that list

Animal Collective, Dan Deacon, Grizzly Bear, etc. all would have had big indie success without a p4k. maybe not as big but "p4k made these bands" is as silly as saying Rolling Stone magazine made Bruce Springsteen

menomena

Grimes? idk... p4k really only had a monopoly on taste in the mid/late 00s. LCD is spot on, I was gonna say Interpol too but like The Strokes they had that last gasp of support from MTV & radio. Same goes for Kanye.

― flappy bird, Wednesday, January 17, 2018 12:37 PM (two hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

are people seriously suggesting that Pitchfork somehow had anything to do w/ "breaking" Kanye West??

That entire circuit of indie rock/Bonnaroo festival bands like Airborne Toxic Event, Silversun Pickups, Cage the Elephant, Cold War Kids did remarkably well w/o Pitchfork's help and sometimes with their direct antagonizing

― mag gerwig! (Whiney G. Weingarten), Wednesday, January 17, 2018 2:44 PM (one hour ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Different demos though? These bands exist in their own universe that's almost as distinct as those of AP magazine.

if you really want to split hairs between the mid-Aughts cool "i'm white and i'm online all the time and go to oberlin/pratt" indie rock vs. the mid-Aughts uncool "i'm white and upwardly mobile and go to a state school and/or live in California" indie rock, be my guest

huh i thought airborne toxic event was like guitar hero metal or something

can we collapse all of that into mtvu-core or whatever

or like those bands all named Bad City Chain Gang who opened for Velvet Revolver or Black Label Society

if you really want to split hairs between the mid-Aughts cool "i'm white and i'm online all the time and go to oberlin/pratt" indie rock vs. the mid-Aughts uncool "i'm white and upwardly mobile and go to a state school and/or live in California" indie rock, be my guest

― mag gerwig! (Whiney G. Weingarten), Wednesday, January 17, 2018 4:43 PM (six minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

you bet your ass i wanna split that hair

Just saying that it's probably the reason p4k doesn't necessarily have any affect on the success of those bands you've listed.

xps

The difference between those bands and My Morning Jacket and p4k indie bands are pretty fucking minor, the only difference being that they're not immediately embraced by backseat lefsetz office warriors who think the NARRATIVE and THE CONVERSATION have any bearing on an objective financial reality.

There's also like Black Angels/Thee Oh Sees style psych bands that did/fine without P4k too

I mean, yes, if you narrow the pool of music listeners to a specific marketing demo of people that followed Grantland on Twitter and Tweet about how Ladybird made them cry and yearn to taste Cronut then, yes, Pitchfork is everything, slay kings

what if i yearn for cronut but i've also see Tool live? do they cancel each other out?

https://pitchfork.com/reviews/albums/9244-we-are-the-pipettes/

tbh i yearn for cronut

I mean, there is a distinct difference between bands popular on alt rock radio vs bands that hit it big on AAA.

Is it splitting hairs to differentiate, say, Smashing Pumpkins and the Counting Crowd?

Counting Crows, stupid iPhone

Who is the Counting Crows of being Dan Deacon?

Mister Jobs aaand me

I mean, yes, if you narrow the pool of music listeners to a specific marketing demo of people that followed Grantland on Twitter and Tweet about how Ladybird made them cry and yearn to taste Cronut then, yes, Pitchfork is everything, slay kings

― mag gerwig! (Whiney G. Weingarten), Wednesday, January 17, 2018 5:03 PM (thirty minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

I mean, this isn't really right either ^

The difference between those bands and My Morning Jacket and p4k indie bands are pretty fucking minor, the only difference being that they're not immediately embraced by backseat lefsetz office warriors who think the NARRATIVE and THE CONVERSATION have any bearing on an objective financial reality.

There's also like Black Angels/Thee Oh Sees style psych bands that did/fine without P4k too

― mag gerwig! (Whiney G. Weingarten), Wednesday, January 17, 2018 5:01 PM (forty-six minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

I mean, yes, if you narrow the pool of music listeners to a specific marketing demo of people that followed Grantland on Twitter and Tweet about how Ladybird made them cry and yearn to taste Cronut then, yes, Pitchfork is everything, slay kings

― mag gerwig! (Whiney G. Weingarten), Wednesday, January 17, 2018 5:03 PM (forty-four minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

this is a correct argument against the claim, made by no one ever, that p4k was omnipotent over all rock music

it seems silly to deny that they once had serious gatekeeping/tastemaking power that has significantly declined in the recent past

bullshit if anyone steps to me with some 7.6 bullshit i'm like get that garbage outta here son i only fucks with BNMs

re: Kanye, no, p4k had nothing to do with his success, if anything the perfect 10 for twisted fantasy was overcompensation, as good as that record is.

They gave him very good reviews before. You know, perhaps they just thought it was an incredible album?

actually yea you're right, I forgot about that. Late Registration was very high on their 2005 list

https://pitchfork.com/reviews/tracks/justin-timberlake-supplies/

savagely negative pitchfork reviews aren't dead, they're just thriving in the track reviews section

best new music used to result in five figure soundscan bumps.

From personal experience my old band played a local college radio show on the bill with Tapes n' Tapes the week this came out

https://pitchfork.com/reviews/albums/8314-the-loon/

remember talking to the drummer and they were pretty blown away that it happened

anyway they didn't really draw that many people that night, it was okay attended (andrew broder of fog actually headlined), but anyway their NEXT gig was suddenly opening for Clap Your Hands Say Yeah, later that summer we took over their opening gig for Futureheads they cancelled because they went to play Pitchfork Fest.

Like honestly they could maybe draw 100 people in Mpls to a small club on a good night before that review and after that they were everywhere for a while

yeah, I interviewed quite a few bnm'd bands in that period and many had similar experiences

anyone remember Thunderbirds Are Now! ? don't think they got BNM'd but they did play the first p4k fest when it was called Intonation, released an awesome album in 2005 called Justamustache, and then another in 2006, and then went quiet until last year when they put out a final single. they seemed burned by over enthusiastic press early on that quickly left them.... such a great band

yeah i remember that name but i don't know if i checked them out
man there were so many bands

i checked out CLEARLAKE because of the BNM imprimatur. i liked that album. but eventually sold it. same with the Futureheads.

man there were so many bands

otm

so weird