pitchfork is dumb (#34985859340293849494 in a series.)

I still get great pleasure in eviscerating bad movies. That's the genre where the culture of consensus rules supreme.

Outside of old jazz records for which I had no cultural context and needed someone to frame them for me via the allmusic guide, I don't think I ever used critics as a buyers guide. Whenever people bring up that "we don't need critics any more since we can listen to anything" argument I seriously cannot relate: the reason I was drawn to music (aside from a brief window where I felt like I was joining the Conversation in the early-mid 00s) had a lot more to do w cultural context I was in and always has, including when I was spending money on CDs.

This can be a huge problem, especially when a writer starts rattling off comparisons-as-description that are a) full of names of bands that nobody but music critics ever listened to, thus effectively useless, or b) mired in cliched rock-critic received wisdom. (Oh, really? We're gonna compare this latest quartet of anono-twats to Pet Sounds and the Velvet Underground? Someone please inject me with an air bubble once I finish slipping into this coma, thanks.)

― the top man in the language department (誤訳侮辱), Wednesday, March 30, 2016 11:22 AM (1 hour ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

see I LOVE a), and often it is the only way to even find out about those bands

often i belatedly find i've completely omitted any reference points at all, which i think is bc reference points that do occur to me are either a) slightly sideways and indirect and often not to do with the actual genre, or b) also make me think of all the differences and thus require an extra para of clarification. if a reference point is obvious and direct and isn't also a point of contrast then it's not really a compliment

ooh, that stings...

"Most of all, we listen for reassurance that our beloved Weezer can avoid relapsing completely into embarrassment—and by those parameters, mediocre may as well be magnificent."

http://pitchfork.com/reviews/albums/21593-weezer-white-album/

not really though. now pitchfork isn't gonna get free weezer tickets!

the song's sharp commentary is overshadowed by an overwrought arrangement cribbed from Zep's "Stairway to Heaven"—right down to the acapella ending

I think I need to listen to "Stairway to Heaven" again; I don't remember an a cappella part.

I think he meant the "she's buuuuuyyying a stairway" part. I think?

That's the only a capella part of the song, so I would assume so.

yeah I was mostly talking about big-name artists here. there is also the aspect of competition -- if you're pitching a less-known artist there's probably a good chance you're the only one pitching it, but if you're pitching, idk, taylor swift then you are competing with god knows how many other people, and by the time someone tells you no it's too late to write about it for anyone

― a self-reinforcing downward spiral of male-centric indie (katherine), Wednesday, 30 March 2016 04:20 (Yesterday) Permalink

this

Something that happens to me more and more is that I want to have lots of time with whatever I've reviewing - like weeks. I don't want to spend a week with the album PLUS (in some cases) cramming to get up to speed on a back catalogue. So generally when pitching I'm gonna pitch way in advance, which in a world full of scheduled and stunt releases, presents its own set of problems. Also: unless it's an artist I care about or it's awful in a spectacular/interesting way, I don't really want to write a negative review, I'd rather write about something that blows my mind or opens up new vistas.

Oscar gives it four-and-a-half phooeys.
http://vignette4.wikia.nocookie.net/muppet/images/e/e1/SYSATMR.jpg/revision/latest?cb=20100218024413

PHOOEY PHOOEY PHOOEY PHOOEY (and one-half PHOOEY)

A Visual History of Battles (the Band)

When I saw this headline, I'm expecting it to be a visual history of Robbie Robertson getting into it with Levon Helm.

What's with all the Deftones love this week?

I dunno. If I had realized they sounded like Thursday, I might have listened to them 15 years ago.

What's with all the Deftones love this week?

long overdue imo

i feel like p4k has been covering a ton of old bands lately, makes me question whether their core audience really is passionate millenial males tbh

right now on the p4k home page are:

queens of the stone age
at the drive-in
metallica
pj harvey
the shins
the black keys
the beach boys
deftones

p4k becoming Rolling Stone for aging hipsters?

well p4k is about as old now as Rolling Stone was in 1984

http://rymimg.com/lk/f/l/65603346bd3ac5016e5ae1e0d2be25f7/3802938.jpg

that album is great, 10.0 #bestoldmusic

so there IS a new issue of the pitchfork review coming out. but i'm not in it. sad really. i liked being in a pretty magazine that you could find at the last remaining barnes & noble on earth. it's the jazz issue too and i totally could have written about the best dollar jazz records! i'm guessing j-hop was my only champion over there.

Maybe you can write about jazz for MTV or wherever she went.

yeah, she went to MTV.

tbh the website redesign is so bad I've basically stopped reading

me too

did u guys read my pj harvey story though #RollingStoneforaginghipsters

I read stuff you link via twitter but I just can't look at that site

i will always read ilxors on pitchfork if they link it on the facebook. but that's all i read on there.

i actually think the pitch section has really improved lately -- less hot take-y stuff and more interesting niche pieces.

it has (including your stuff!), but unfortunately it coincided with the time that the section got demoted to a tag

more of a promotion tbh

yeah i don't know, it seems more buried now? but it also just looks the same as the rest of the site ... guessing that most readers don't really care what section a thing is in

i mean, everything is kind of buried now. but at least they appear as news items when fresh

they should bring peter sotos back to pitchfork. his critical voice has been sorely missed.

http://pitchfork.com/features/show-no-mercy/6398-show-no-mercy/

yeah i don't know, it seems more buried now? but it also just looks the same as the rest of the site ... guessing that most readers don't really care what section a thing is in

― tylerw, Thursday, April 14, 2016 12:49 PM (3 hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

everyone gets their articles through twitter and facebook

lol i kind of wish people shared p4k articles on my FB, no one talks about music in my feed, it is all bernie bros and bad memes

A lot of the people I'm connected to on Facebook actually work for record labels, so I see more links to Billboard than to Pitchfork.

My FB is about 99% articles about which poets are white supremacists and/or rapists

FB feed, that is

"bernie bros" is a thing?

i saw the link to ilx in the xiu xiu twin peaks review classy

Now, having long ago donated the majority of the Kickstarter proceeds to a Malian NGO, Dibb has finally emerged with a mostly self-financed, small-scale album that was quietly released this month in a special cassette/book edition for donors (and on Bandcamp for everyone else). But despite all the Kickstarter confusion and communication breakdowns, none of Dibb’s out-of-pocket supporters should feel short-changed. Because whatever anxiety Dibb felt about not following through on his Kickstarter campaign has been channeled into a wonderful little album about overcoming the anxiety of not following through on your Kickstarter campaign. Okay, so Sleep Cycle doesn’t include any lyrics that specifically reference inflated funding targets and comment-section outrage, but this exercise in self-help psychedelia provides a poignant portrait of an artist regaining their confidence one song at a time.

aw i love this http://pitchfork.com/thepitch/1083-lisa-simpsons-second-grade-blues/

Pfft. "Lisa's Sax" was a Season 9 episode, not a Season 3 episode!
I hope somebody got fired for that blunder.

Only four album reviews up today instead of the usual five.

Maybe there are no other new albums?

Sturgill is so good it counts as two albums