pitchfork is dumb (#34985859340293849494 in a series.)

Nick Sylvester on his time at P4K:
https://smartdumb.substack.com/p/24-years-of-pitchfork

lol great subhead

The grinch you hoped would never get gooped on. Alas. An ode to the early days.

how much of that is made up

xxxp plus stan culture's obsession w/streaming stats, chart positions and "new records," gaming the album charts as a sort of "Deflate-gate," etc.

If only this was the remaining staff playing a prank:

News
Ice Spice Shares New Song “Think U the Shit (Fart)”

By Nina Corcoran
January 26, 2024

Ice Spice reimagines our perception of shit and farts

I kind of want to hear Ice Spice cover “Lift Yourself” now

You think you're a shit, but you're only a fart
You think you're a shit, you are only a ...

Where's neanderthal

I kind of want to hear Ice Spice cover “Lift Yourself” now

― the new drip king (DJP), Friday, January 26, 2024 12:44 PM (twenty-six minutes ago) bookmarkflaglink

this is actually the last good kanye song

He had more to say on that than he has on any song since, at least

Where's neanderthal

― Toshirō Nofune (The Seventh ILXorai), Friday, January 26, 2024 2:06 PM bookmarkflaglink

the signal was slow to reach me but I'm here. *fart*

I play "Lift Yourself" on public jukeboxes all the time. Very fun.

xpost to Josh

.. clart ?

Walmart

https://defector.com/a-notorious-pitchfork-reviewer-was-my-biggest-musical-influence

she was the first of several girlfriends to inform me that Hole’s Pretty on the Inside outsold Nirvana’s Bleach until Nevermind came out.

You mean in the one week between when Pretty on the Inside and Nevermind came out?

Girlfriend Always Gets Little Rush Out Of Telling People 'Pretty on the Inside' Beat 'Bleach'

xpost I think she's saying "prior to the arrival of Nevermind, Pretty on the Inside outsold Bleach, but after Nevermind, a bunch of new fans bought Bleach en masse and now Bleach outsold Pretty on the Inside as well"

so wait Pretty on the Inside sold more in the week between September 17 - September 24, 1991 than Bleach had sold in total since June 15, 1989?

it doesn't actually pass the quick fact-check I did (i.e. Wikipedia, lol). Bleach had sold about 40,000 copies by the time Nevermind came out, whereas Pretty on the Inside had only sold 27,000 by 1994 (three years after it was released).

MAMA'S WRONG AGAIN!

Swift Boat Veterans for Bleach ✊🇺🇸

Girlfriends wrong again

lol

This 'fact' seems to come from Courtney Love. It is probably correct that in Sept. 91 the new Hole album was selling more than a two year old Nirvana album--until Nevermind blew up anyway.

That's the one sentence you guys got stuck on, huh

beats working I guess

true

How is that Defector piece simultaneously interesting and boring?

(and surely any passer-by could have explained the Moby joke to him)

I glanced over the first few graphs and couldn’t get into this piece, but on the upside it did make me think on my favorite Pitchfork reviews (which are from the last several years, honestly).

Defector rarely misses, but…

To my mind the best thing about the piece was that McQuade said he was much more of an electronic music listener than anything else. Kinda wish he'd just talked about that!

kind of misses the fact that while the stuff pitchfork covered was well done, it was very much not not representative of the breadth of those genres, either!

i'm not an expert on electronic/dance but as a reader phillip sherburne is one of the reasons i kept coming back to pitchfork

Seems shocking that Hole only sold 27k albums across '92 & '93.

xp yeah, his writing is a treat!

I mean, in a just world, Pretty on the Inside would have outsold both Bleach and Nevermind, but I'm a much bigger fan of Hole than Nirvana.

Genuine question since I didn't get into Hole until Live Through This, but was there sexist bullshit around Pretty on the Inside when it came out like the two followings albums (i.e. the stupid rumors of "Live Through This/Celebrity Skin is only good because Kurt/Billy wrote it for her").

IIRC the response was mostly "Jesus, her voice is awful and don't we already have one Babes In Toyland?"

Glad to see that people are still linking to ILM threads in 2024.

(And funny that this guy was Keith Fullerton Whitman's brother.)

I mean there are for real bad feelings among Babes in Toyland that Courtney jacked songs or parts of songs from Kat when they were in Pagan Babies together, also Kat's baby doll dress thing, but who knows if Kat is the most reliable narrator either

and just generally their style for the first Hole record

<I>(And funny that this guy was Keith Fullerton Whitman's brother.)</I>

still am!

:)

lol

resident advisor talked to some ex-pitchforkers

https://ra.co/news/80210

Walmart

This made me crack up.

On February 1st, Minsker also revealed that former Pitchfork staff are no longer allowed to freelance for the site. "I've heard this from at least four people who were told pretty directly from someone at Pitchfork," Minsker said. As an active union member, he said he feels protective of his colleagues: "It feels unnecessary and vindictive. We all deserve better."

WTF

I agree that a Pitchfork list that says Pavement’s “Gold Soundz” is the best song of the ’90s is a much more interesting version than one that puts Mariah Carey’s “Fantasy (Remix)” featuring Ol’ Dirty Bastard at No. 1, and I say this even though I think “Fantasy (Remix)” is a better tune.

I will never understand this way of thinking. Pitchfork -- specifically -- ranking "Fantasy" as their number 1 is far more surprising and transgressive (and therefore interesting to me) than "Gold Soundz." And if it's a "better tune," what are we even arguing about?

I think the "poptimism failed them" crowd assumes Pitchfork was trying to pull in a new and more diverse readership, while I always interpreted it as their writers and editors trying to challenge their existing readership. The people I know that read Pitchfork are much better off having "Fantasy" be "validated" than being told Pavement is the most important band in the world for the millionth time.