Pitchfork Reviews Reviews

what if they "rate" him "third-rate" like Alfred?

i think there's definitely some contention here about "uniqueness of voice"

yeah, fair enough. you could call it wide-eyed indie boy standard, and i guess i wouldn't object. he's definitely working within that genre, but i think it's well done and distinctive nonetheless. not genius shit or anything, but better and more interesting than most music reviews i read.

what if they "rate" him "third-rate" like Alfred?

^^^^ 7.9

the tone of the comments he leaves seem to differ, at least in some cases, from the tone he employs in the posts

I dont really read his stuff but from what I've read I get a sense of contradiction in that here he is pretending to be this ~naif~ just ~blogging about pitchfork~ from ~my company bathroom~ but its obv. that he's built this into something bigger and larger than that, part of the system if you will, but he still sort of affects this doe-eyed outsider-looking-in perspective that clashes w/ his actual experiences (maybe that's just his default approach to life, I dunno)

yes, he's clearly a rupert murdoch-level magnate at this point

I kind of find it impossible to read through one of his blog entries tbh...like I really wanted to read about his Weezy F. tattoo but I just couldn't force myself past a couple of paragraphs.

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even if we grant that his stuff is carefully constructed, he has nothing interesting to say!

I mean, dude keeps in contact with pitchfork writers, hangs out w/ the head of mtv india, has a NYT piece about him, etc. maybe he is just that sort of guy.

catching up on the thread, realize that my criticisms have already been elucidated upon w/ much more clarity upthread. guess in the end I think he's a good example of 'pitchfork alt', it's nice to have someone writing against the Institution. but in the end, maybe it's just kind of lol and mostly sad that there is someone out there who reads pitchfork cover to cover every single day w/ no larger pretense than just being 'interested' in pitchfork. (assuming that his whole naif shtick is genuine)

does he even like music?

even if we grant that his stuff is carefully constructed, he has nothing interesting to say!

Ding ding ding ding ding ding.

He sure does structure his bullshit well, tho.

wow he really rubs u guys the wrong way!

Pitchfork Reviews Reviews Massage Reviews

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bLHc-yIAPbg

okay, so i'm waiting around for my friend to finish doing his laundry at his roommate's girlfriend's place, because it's free, even though it is taking forever, and so i actually read the awl piece and one other one.

I think I can understand why people like it, but to me, besides the long-windedness, and all the nothing words and phrases, the pointless repetition - there's next to no insight. Plus, he doesn't really create interesting characters in a narrative sense. Maybe I'm supposed to already have bought into these details or these types being significant, but all i'm seeing/reading is a bunch of empty signifiers that don't communicate much.

okay, so i'm waiting around for my friend to finish doing his laundry at his roommate's girlfriend's place, because it's free, even though it is taking forever, and so i actually read the awl piece and one other one.

lol a+

okay, so i reread the awl piece just to make sure, and yeah, i still like it. i love the headlong rush of details, almost psychedelic in its tight first-person focus, a blur of events and interactions only briefly glimpsed and half understood. especially love the suspense & unanswered questions generated by conversations he can't quite hear, the way favors and opportunities somehow materialize as product of secret chains of interaction. kid just has a good eye/ear for social micropolitics, not for how they work when you understand them, but how they feel when you don't. and he's got a good reporter's instinct for telling details, for the sequence of narrative links within the overall wash of details. he may not have much to say in terms of direct commentary - as sarah notes - but he spins a good yarn, and in the sense that his tales are documentary, i think he does a good job of pulling out telling, evocative details that paint a meaning-dense larger picture.

it's really just 70s-style "new journalism" applied to music writing, and kind of old-fashioned in that. worse, i think he sometimes goes for rather obvious "big resolves" in his pieces, like the wrap-up in the awl piece about wealth vs. hipness, which falls flat. still, i love his style and his eye for details, both psychological and physical: the weirdness of waiting on other people's whispers, nick zinner's veins, kyp malone's ecstasy, the kid taking a picture of himself after the show.

won't deny the underlying slightness, the at least occasional sense i get that there isn't much real substance beneath the well-marshaled details and pleasant narrative flow. i suspect the wide-eyed stance of introspective but not terribly intellectual observation gives the writing a certain universality, or at least a relatability. but perhaps this comes at the cost of an ability to develop/deliver more complex insights...

yeah, or i dunno, maybe he's just getting started, finding his voice, figuring out what's what.

contenderizet otm w new journalism
comparisons, except they used the same techniques to mine deeper truths. this guys spinning his wheels in the mud

This kind of criticism--where the music itself is semi-ignored and only what supposedly hip people think or say about it is the subject of analysis--reminds me of Washington political journalism.

I quite like this guy but there are so many bloggers over the last ten years who more thoroughly deserve the weirdly intense praise he's getting.

okay, so i'm waiting around for my friend to finish doing his laundry at his roommate's girlfriend's place, because it's free, even though it is taking forever, and so i actually read the awl piece and one other one.

This actually reads like a PRR quote ^^

i think that was the point?

do you think that might be why history mayne said lol a+

xpost

are contenderizer and PRR guy the same person?

I enjoy reading Contenderizer's words of praise more than the original articles.

kid just has a good eye/ear for social micropolitics, not for how they work when you understand them, but how they feel when you don't. and he's got a good reporter's instinct for telling details, for the sequence of narrative links within the overall wash of details.

See, I don't really see anything impressive here - he is telling a story, the way everyone tells stories. And I do find that aspect of it appealing - that he's telling a story, as opposed to stringing together a bunch of adjectives and analogies that may give next to no insight about the music to sometimes ridiculous degrees.

I liked the spitting water into the air part. There were probably a couple other bits and pieces I thought were good, but that probably would average out to what - 5% - of the whole thing? The rest, for me, was a bunch of details that I'm guessing were supposed to be "telling" - but really weren't. The guy keeps doing something with his hair. So? What does he do exactly? Hair-fiddling as signifier of insecurity, superficiality, etc. is a cliché at this point, isn't it?

It just seems like he's applying the clichéed elements of new journalism or disaffected teen writing to the alt music scene, but doesn't really say anything interesting specific to that scene, except for a bit of name-dropping.

PRR's has something up on The Awl again:

http://www.theawl.com/2010/09/das-racist-were-not-racist-we-love-white-people-ford-trucks-apple-pies-bald-eagles

*PRR

Loooooove the ending to this piece (yes I read it all):

then we walk to the backstage area and the band is putting away their equipment and Himanshu looks at me and says, "okay i don't wanna be on the record anymore" and i say "okay, what should i write to end this naturally though?" and he goes, "just write, 'Himanshu said he wanted to be off the record and then we hung out'" and i say "okay" and then he left the backstage area to talk to some more people, i think, and then he came back and i said goodbye and i left and then i went to the bus stop in the Hasidic area in Williamsburg and thought about exclusion

Also can I just say I fucking LOVE this guy's interview style, I mean, how refreshing is this if you're Avey Tare??

after a few songs Himanshu goes to the bathroom and i walk behind him to go to the DJ booth and as Himanshu passes the DJ booth he salutes Avey Tare. while Himanshu is in the bathroom i go up to the DJ booth and see Avey Tare sitting cross-legged on the ground in the booth. he is wearing a graphic t-shirt and a white trucker hat with like neon cartoon ghosts on the front of the hat, and the hat has a white brim and white netting. Avey Tare is smiling and drinking a cocktail

i go up to him and crouch down and say "hi, my name is David and i write a music blog — could i ask you three questions please?" and he says "sure!"

i say, "do you believe in god?" but then instantly i regret asking because i should have led off with something on the lighter side

he laughs and thinks for a second and looks at my face and says "hmmmm… it's complicated?" and he looks like he is trying to formulate a more direct response but i stop him and ask him another question because i regretted asking the first question

i say, "do you listen to rap?" and he says "yes" so i say, "what rap?"

Avey Tare says, "mostly late 80s and early 90s hip-hop. some jay dee, tribe called quest, NWA, EPMD"

i say, "okay cool. how do you think the world will end?"

he thinks about it again and looks around. he takes a sip of his drink and looks at my sneakers and i look at the crates of records that are in front of him. he says, "very slowly and painfully" and then laughs and i thank him and walk back to Himanshu who is congratulating his band because they just finished playing

considering that it's barely an "interview", probably not very

that "interview" is completely retarded (shockah, right?)

That shit was so refreshing Avey Tare was like "damn, was that an interview or a Fresca?"

"wow, i love it when strangers come up and ask my if i believe in god"

I haven't actually read the piece yet, but

i say, "okay cool. how do you think the world will end?"

should put this in next year's Da Capo.

not with a bang, but with a review of itself.

I mean I bet Avey's thinking, "fuck, not another standard PR fluff piece, I hate interviews, how many times do I have to talk about Merriweather Post Pavvy changing the world...," and then PRR dude busts out his shit and Avey is all, oh... well then.

That shit was so refreshing Avey Tare was like "damn, was that an interview or a Fresca?"

actual lol ^^

having interviewed avey tare, his seems to be a natural befuddlement.

i don't think you understand how the process of interviewing an indie rock musician works

i don't mean that in a mean way, either.

you're also acting like these questions were original or interesting

In the context of typical music interviews, yes, they're quite original. Show me a non-PRR interview in 2010 in which the interviewee gets to ponder and talk about how the world will end?

I mean I bet Avey's thinking, "fuck, not another standard PR fluff piece, I hate interviews, how many times do I have to talk about Merriweather Post Pavvy changing the world...," and then PRR dude busts out his shit and Avey is all, oh... well then.

― ilxor has truly been got at and become an ILXor (ilxor), Tuesday, September 28, 2010 1:58 PM (58 seconds ago) Bookmark

like, if PRR had gone thru AC's/or avey's press contact & that press contact had set up a time w/ PRR where avey had to push something back so he could talk to some random dude about his music, then maybe yes, he might be 'refreshed' by the interview being only three questions long, thus allowing him to go on with his day

but i doubt that he found some random dude walking up to him in a record store and asking him three questions like "do you believe in god?" to be 'refreshing'

who cares, tbh

apparently you

why is the sky blue