Pitchfork Reviews Reviews

umm, it's praise of a sort?

and hey, the ann powers piece is totally solid, no complaints. didn't blow me away, but i respect it and am not cutting it down at all. wouldn't choose myself to compare it with PRR. they're aiming for very different effects & audiences.

anyway, i wonder if PRR has any appeal for those without an abiding love of (perhaps overly sentimental) young adult/coming of age fiction.

cuz that's the spirit in which i take it. thinking i love you, junie moon.

comparing it to harry potter was meant to read as comic self-deprecation, just so's we're square

think your digging yourself into a hole here tbh

oh, no sweat. i'm pretty okay with liking stuff that sensible people abhor.

listening to hidden hand and lords of the new church tonight.

note to self: stop digging

i think contenderizer is onto something - i like reading this guy's stuff cuz they're just these weird little stories too... it doesnt have to like, replace good music criticism. it's just something else. still not sure why it makes everyone's BLOOD BOIL

i mean i'm not sure if i really want to engage with 'u mad'-type stuff but usually when i learn about a new internet site i can at least grasp the gravity of it, whether i like it or not--hro is a decent example of this--but with this guy i just have no idea what separates and elevates him from like a million other bloggers, except i guess that he has successfully "done meta"

i mean maybe i'm missing the part where he's been acclaimed the greatest music critic of his era, like, where is this dude being so overhyped? besides getting to occasionally write for 'the awl'

i dunno, yeah, on the surface, he could be like a million other bloggers, but his stuff has a readability to it that sets it apart.

well he was profiled in the times

well that might be a little much haha. but the times will desperately write about anything if they think people in brooklyn like it these days.

i guess i'm not sure where else he's being overhyped! but i find the extent and tone of some of the praise on this thread baffling--like ppl are reading something different from what i'm reading.

so yeah while i am not thrilled about continuing to post on a thread about something i don't like, i do kind of want to keep exploring why this guy is compelling to some of us--i think we made some progress on this last night.

yeah i think the NYT profile was when people started going o_0 - i still reserve my actual boiling blood for the editor who commissioned that/writer who degraded themselves to write it.

i find his shit completely unreadable fwiw, as in i have never been able to actually finish any of his pieces because when they're not grating they're extremely fucking tedious and just tl;dr tl;dr all over. it feels like someone is dribbling gently but ceaselessly on your face.

in a good way tho right?

i think we've probably reached a point where ppl need to just agree to disagree in re: his style--some of us like it, some of us can't stand it.

but i'm much more interested in how people are responding to the content.

i think people will read almost anything if it's on the internet and looks halfway decent on the web page

seems like most ppl who have beef with the style have it with the content too though? xp

ie it's self-indulgent and doesn't convey anything that the wider world remotely needs to know about

i like reading this guy's stuff cuz they're just these weird little stories too... it doesnt have to like, replace good music criticism. it's just something else. still not sure why it makes everyone's BLOOD BOIL

^^

i thought before you were saying he shld be in the da capo book of music writing? or did you mean the da capo book of weird little stories

i like reading this guy's stuff cuz they're just these weird little stories too... it doesnt have to like, replace good music criticism.

don't fool yourself; it will

not my problem

* drives off in porsche *

*Yello heard faintly in background*

ie it's self-indulgent and doesn't convey anything that the wider world remotely needs to know about

― I ain't that kind of player I just foul a lot (DJ Mencap), Wednesday, September 29, 2010 9:45 AM

Yeah, it is self-indulgent. But the audience for his stuff isn't the "wider world," it's people -- some critics who and indie kids -- whose musical world is, at least in part, the American indie rock scene. The morning roundup stuff isn't interesting to me. I imagine that at least some of the critics who work for Pitchfork are interested, at least a little, in seeing what the dude has to say about their work. The other stuff, which seems to be what people in this thread are most interested in discussing, isn't really about the music itself, it seems to me. Which is one of the reasons the kid isn't a rock critic. Because critic implies criticism--a critical engagement with something, and I don't see that happening too much here. What I do see, however, is one kid's stories about what it's like to be an indie kid and hang around some people who are relatively high-profile, again, in the American indie rock scene. So this is super, super niche: relatively high-profile in the American indie rock scene. I'd guess that at least one of the reasons he has a readership is because:

(1) Some people find his writing engaging. I'd agree that it's definitely not "good writing," if by good writing we mean stuff that's well-edited, smartly paced, etc. It's a mess. But it's a blog, and it's a mess some people, myself included, sometimes/often find fun to read.

(2) Some people are interested in the topic of American indie rock. If you don't care about the dudes in TV On The Radio, getting in to YYYs concerts, DJing, etc., then his stuff probably isn't going to be for you, unless you just find it pleasurable to read the writing itself or are someone who's just really curious about stuff you're not super up on. But, for the most part, this is stuff for people who are interested in indie rock minuatae and pretty engaged with the scene.

^ didn't really edited that, which is in the spirit of the topic imo ;-)

edit, obv

yeah markers but what you're seeing but not getting is that prr guy basically used the initial cheap one-joke meta conceit of his site, couple with the increasingly high-profile of Pitchfork, to both call attention to and validate what essentially is his blog diary, and what I think burns a lot of people round here is how some ILXors are getting suckered into thinking this stuff is relevant to music writing when they really should know better...

I don't know the kid behind the site well enough to know whether it was his intention or not to piggyback on Pitchfork's work in order to get attention, but I have a feeling he was probably just interested in writing about Pitchfork and his stuff eventually just gained traction, at least in part, on its own merits. Ripfork, a site with a similar conceit, gets no attention because it sucks.

no one is getting suckered into anything ffs, calm down

I mean, the fact that the moment he actually starts to get some attention (not to mention some real writing gigs) and now he is talking about seriously stopping the actual Pitchfork Review Reviews part of the blog, or at least downgrading it: isn't that like a dead giveaway or something?

IT'S A TRAP

oh that's enough out of you

sorry but the idea that this is like some conspiracy to usurp rock crits everywhere is ridiculous

no one is getting suckered into anything ffs, calm down

― If Airplanes Could Fly This Place Would Be An Airport (s1ocki), Wednesday, September 29, 2010 11:32 AM (4 minutes ago) Bookmark

kid is the best damn music writer i have read in ages and i am crazy crazy jealous, like knowing what truman capote was up to his teens & 20s level jealous. just for the record.

― a dystopian society awaits if we continue on this path. (contenderizer), Thursday, September 2, 2010 1:21 AM (3 weeks ago) Bookmark

Cannot believe you guys don't read PRR when there are brilliant insights like these ALMOST EVERY SINGLE FUCKING DAY:

now i am thinking about when ezra sings, “you can turn your back on the bitter world!!!” and also when kurt cobain sings, “i found it hard / it’s hard to find / oh well, whatever, nevermind” but maybe it’s a double-entendre because it sounds like he’s singing, “it’s hard to find the will, whatever, nevermind…”

― ilxor has truly been got at and become an ILXor (ilxor), Thursday, September 16, 2010 6:26 PM (1 week ago) Bookmark

I mean, the fact that the moment he actually starts to get some attention (not to mention some real writing gigs) and now he is talking about seriously stopping the actual Pitchfork Review Reviews part of the blog, or at least downgrading it: isn't that like a dead giveaway or something?

haha this is totally what i thought, too, as soon as he made the announcement. (so soon after getting the awl to pick up his shit? say it ain't so.) but even if it's true, i can't hate on people for finding back doors into audience- and venue-building these days. shit is hard out there.

they like his writing. i don't think they were like, lured into his blog under false pretenses only to have the porticullis snap shut behind them xp

um, where did I say that, s10ck1? xpost

drugs a. money dont waste your time worrying about ilxor and contenderizer they always have weird opinions, all over the board, over and over and over again, but its sweet that you care

(ilxor quote might be sarcasm, though it's hard telling since he'd been repping for him quite some time before that post)

xpost thanx max! :D

Pitchfork Reviews Reviews Thread Reviews

(ilxor quote might be sarcasm, though it's hard telling since he'd been repping for him quite some time before that post)

For the record: I definitely like the guy's writing, and I definitely exaggerate my enthusiasm for the sake of funneh ILX responses. So, while my enthusiasm is genuine, so is my coming across like an extreme fanboy. :)

is someone gonna man up and start blogging ILX thread reviews? (Not it.)

RIP clusterfuck thread

still not sure why it makes everyone's BLOOD BOIL

I think the only thing that makes BLOOD BOIL is when people say he's the next great thing or whatever. He's pretty meh tbh; after skimming that last Awl piece i kinda stopped reading his stuff altogether.

I read far more criticism about him than actual writings he has done!

Ripfork, a site with a similar conceit, gets no attention because it sucks

Ripfork is also a shitty title. Pitchfork Reviews Reviews is pretty funny, and probably wholly responsible for his fame.

kid is the best damn music writer i have read in ages and i am crazy crazy jealous, like knowing what truman capote was up to his teens & 20s level jealous. just for the record.

― a dystopian society awaits if we continue on this path. (contenderizer), Thursday, September 2, 2010 1:21 AM (3 weeks ago) Bookmark

ooookay, so this i'd forgotten about. yikes. think i wrote this after first reading his stuff, several of the pieces he links at the top of his site as the work he's most proud of. and i was, momentarily, a bit overawed. apparently... i'm not exactly rescinding the praise, but i am a bit embarrassed by my tendency to go all-out (THIS SUCKS! or THIS IS GREAT!) on first exposure to new things. my initial impressions are almost always moderated and complicated by time.

i still think the guy is a talented writer, by which i mean "arranger of words in appealing sequence." i've said it before, so i won't go into it again, but i like the way he structures and tells a story. i'm impressed with his literary chops on that level. in that sense, i don't buy markers' claim that this is nothing more than poorly written inside baseball aimed at indie obsessives. it may scratch that itch that for certain readers, but it's better than that.

is this really "music writing"? i don't know that it is. it certainly isn't music criticism in any conventional sense. most of PRR's best essay-style pieces barely comment on the music they ostensibly address. they deal instead with the author's own life and with the lives of those around him, narrating certain moments spent immersed in music as culture. i guess i view these pieces as a combination of journalism and personal essay. perhaps people object to the fact PRR's (admittedly overhyped) essays have so little to say about music. i'm okay with that, because i like/admire the writing, and because i think the author frequently does manage to get at something meaningful and interesting - though more often than not it's personal rather than critical. the careful attention to the texture of professional interactions with strangers in the das racist piece, and the way it doles out and builds up its angle on immigrant experience and alienation.

contenderizer could you link to the shit you read that made you all WOW

kind of curious, i've largely ignored this thread cuz I don't care about pitchfork or reviews of their reviews but if it's causing this much reaction consistently I guess I should at least hip myself to it