brad obviously can't help but be cool as a cucumber.
― j., Tuesday, 17 March 2020 23:12 (four years ago) link
if there are people listening to this stuff, he must be doing some kind of journalistic service
lmao ice old
― flopson, Tuesday, 17 March 2020 23:14 (four years ago) link
no i mean i like to check some of it out!! but it does seem like some of it might be being boosted by him out of more of a, well, like ol alex in baltimore would often be boosting the mainstream rock hits alongside the actually interesting music he repped, maybe out of personal affection but somewhat on the principle that popularity is popularity
― j., Tuesday, 17 March 2020 23:29 (four years ago) link
FWIW i discovered the glass beach album via ian so I will always give his hype-picks at least one listen.
― Tim F, Wednesday, 18 March 2020 00:59 (four years ago) link
do people still pay attention to Appleseed Cast? I saw them at a punk fest thing at this farm in Iowa and they were way different, kinda synth and proggy and mathy....way different than I remember...I was super messed up at that point though
― Blues Guitar Solo Heatmap (Free Download) (upper mississippi sh@kedown), Wednesday, 18 March 2020 15:56 (four years ago) link
their most recent album is great and your impression of them is correct
― mellon collie and the infinite bradness (BradNelson), Wednesday, 18 March 2020 16:01 (four years ago) link
I haven’t heard their latest but they are great musicians
― brimstead, Wednesday, 18 March 2020 17:30 (four years ago) link
i'm finally hearing the code orange, not sure why it merited that review at all but i am a nu-metal fr34k
― mellon collie and the infinite bradness (BradNelson), Thursday, 19 March 2020 15:04 (four years ago) link
I guess GC just felt like swimming against the tide of The Discourse, which has been generally pro-Code Orange. Can't run the risk of sparking any "Rawk is Back!" meta-narratives, after all.
― but also fuck you (unperson), Thursday, 19 March 2020 15:18 (four years ago) link
it's especially funny coming so close after their rave for Loathe, who sound so much like Deftones at times that it's uncanny. but they nod at emo and not industrial so of course.
― brechtian social distancing (Simon H.), Thursday, 19 March 2020 16:23 (four years ago) link
I didn't realize Wayne Marshall was writing for Pitchfork these days. That "Funky Kingston" review is great. (but to nitpick: it would have stuck the landing better without that meandering last sentence)Also refreshing to see them refrain from giving a 10.0 to such a stone cold classic... must have been tempting.
― enochroot, Sunday, 22 March 2020 13:11 (four years ago) link
Agreed on both the review and the final sentence (where's an editor when you need one)?
― morrisp, Sunday, 22 March 2020 15:01 (four years ago) link
sad lol that their Kenny Rogers obit ended with a Seinfeld reference
― Muswell Hillbilly Elegy (President Keyes), Sunday, 22 March 2020 15:25 (four years ago) link
it’s sad because his restaurants were pretty good. I mean, I was like 12 at the time but
― brimstead, Sunday, 22 March 2020 18:02 (four years ago) link
A casual observation: it seems that every single jazz album reviewed on Pitchfork never gets more than 7.0 and never less than 8.0.
― does it look like i'm here (jon123), Saturday, 28 March 2020 10:18 (four years ago) link
...unless it's a jazz reissue, in which case it gets between 8.4 and 10.0.
― enochroot, Saturday, 28 March 2020 13:53 (four years ago) link
(for the record, I think that reflects the curation of what they're willing to review more than anything else)
― enochroot, Saturday, 28 March 2020 13:55 (four years ago) link
they gave a new release jazz album BNM back in january! it's very rare but it does happen, though this one was jeff parker from tortoise so he has indie cred. looking through their archive, the only new release jazz album to get BNM that's not kamasi washington (an obvious outlier) or a crossover act like thundercat or esperanza spalding (at least on the album she got BNM for) is A Cosmic Rhythm With Each Stroke by Vijay Iyer & Wadada Leo Smith
― ufo, Saturday, 28 March 2020 14:14 (four years ago) link
Makaya McCraven / Gil Scott-Heron was categorized as jazz as well.
― Frederik B, Saturday, 28 March 2020 14:18 (four years ago) link
For a while they were reviewing everything Vijay Iyer released. It seems like Shabaka Hutchings is filling his slot at the moment.
― but also fuck you (unperson), Saturday, 28 March 2020 14:41 (four years ago) link
And TBF their jazz reviews aren't idiotic; they've got good writers doing them. But they're too infrequent to feel anything but tokenistic, with particular artists receiving favor for a year or so then vanishing.
― but also fuck you (unperson), Saturday, 28 March 2020 14:43 (four years ago) link
Yeah, it's not a genre they really have a take on. It's a bit like metal or 'global'. But it's not particularly awful either.
― Frederik B, Saturday, 28 March 2020 14:48 (four years ago) link
I had a look at the last 20-odd jazz albums they reviewed.
8.07.98.07.87.97.88.08.67.48.47.97.27.58.08.08.07.57.77.78.37.8
And I only stopped going back further because I've stuff to do in the next few minutes. That is remarkable uniformity, isn't it?
― does it look like i'm here (jon123), Saturday, 28 March 2020 15:46 (four years ago) link
Actually, as it happens, the very next review is 5.9 (for Robert Glasper's mixtape thing). But then it's back to 8.1s and 7.6s.
― does it look like i'm here (jon123), Saturday, 28 March 2020 15:47 (four years ago) link
It’s a bit like reviewing poetry books—why even bother unless you like it
― Muswell Hillbilly Elegy (President Keyes), Saturday, 28 March 2020 17:57 (four years ago) link
my sad terrible superpower is usually being able to predict Pfork scores for marquee releases within about .2 of a point just based on the surrounding narrative/buzz.
― Evans on Hammond (evol j), Saturday, 28 March 2020 18:19 (four years ago) link
Best new mutant
― Muswell Hillbilly Elegy (President Keyes), Saturday, 28 March 2020 21:00 (four years ago) link
The Pearl Jam review is well-written.
― morrisp, Saturday, 28 March 2020 21:46 (four years ago) link
Sodomsky's one of their best writers.
― TikTok to the (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Saturday, 28 March 2020 21:49 (four years ago) link
especially in 2020, when they remain the last band intact from their particular scene. https://assets.blabbermouth.net/media/kingbuzzosolo2012_638.jpg
― The Mandymoorian (Whiney G. Weingarten), Saturday, 28 March 2020 22:25 (four years ago) link
6.2 means it's good
― billstevejim, Monday, 30 March 2020 02:11 (four years ago) link
Back in the day when I had a blog I was probably guilty of this often, but 10 years later it gets my goat when a writer describes a group as practically "making a pop record" when said group is NOT REMOTELY pop. Like, adding vocals and making songs under 5 minutes does not mean Windy & Carl is close to making a pop record.
― sctttnnnt (pgwp), Monday, 30 March 2020 23:11 (four years ago) link
That was my first thought after reading that review and clicking on the embedded track... in what sense is this pop?
― enochroot, Monday, 30 March 2020 23:18 (four years ago) link
I mean, the review does say, "(don’t worry, it’s not that close)" -- but yeah, that is an old saw, so to speak.
― morrisp, Monday, 30 March 2020 23:39 (four years ago) link
That is one of those parentheticals where the act of writing it is an indication that you should just delete whatever came before.
(It’s like seeing “no pun intended” in print—there was a moment in the editing process where you could have removed your unintended pun, but you didn’t, so the pun was intended.)
― sctttnnnt (pgwp), Tuesday, 31 March 2020 03:39 (four years ago) link
The subject of the lead review today is, wait for it, a reissue of the Paris Hilton album from 2006.
I appreciate everything's ground to a halt and there's nothing happening, but . . . come on.
― does it look like i'm here (jon123), Saturday, 4 April 2020 12:33 (four years ago) link
Stars are Blind does hold up tho.
― triggercut, Saturday, 4 April 2020 13:00 (four years ago) link
Was that an album that was beloved on this site upon it's release or mocked? Sometimes I can never quite tell how strong the forces of poptimism are. Especially when I still remember AllMusic's infamous 4.5/5 rating for it.
― MarkoP, Saturday, 4 April 2020 13:12 (four years ago) link
This was released slightly pre-poptimism iirc. If it was released today by whoever her modern equivalent is it'd be a BNM and we'd be hearing her "break down" every song on the album and learning about her favorite IPAs
Agree Stars Are Blind is dope in that "even a stopped clock is right twice a day" kinda way
― Paul Ponzi, Saturday, 4 April 2020 13:29 (four years ago) link
PARIS HILTON - PARIS
― rob, Saturday, 4 April 2020 13:37 (four years ago) link
had forgotten about all her racist shit
― Blues Guitar Solo Heatmap (Free Download) (upper mississippi sh@kedown), Saturday, 4 April 2020 15:01 (four years ago) link
review is really weird, sort of like....why do this?especially when you're giving it a 5.2 and not even making the case that it's worthwhileesp in the current climate I don't really find a rich kid's vapid bullshit real interesting right about now
― Blues Guitar Solo Heatmap (Free Download) (upper mississippi sh@kedown), Saturday, 4 April 2020 15:08 (four years ago) link
http://i.imgur.com/UYjQD1l.png
― Fuck the NRA (ulysses), Saturday, 4 April 2020 15:32 (four years ago) link
Yeah, totally weird thing to review... a vinyl reissue of a nothing album (and not even in the Sunday “retrospective” slot)? Feels like the writer maybe convinced the editors to let him do it, as a “pet project” or something. It’s not a badly written piece, but major points off for deploying this idiom:
It is quite tempting to shit on Paris at a time when...
― morrisp, Saturday, 4 April 2020 15:40 (four years ago) link
I recall giving it a pretty positive review upon release, not sure what side of history that puts me on
― Evans on Hammond (evol j), Saturday, 4 April 2020 18:41 (four years ago) link
“Drunk Text” was good.
― Mr. Snrub, Sunday, 5 April 2020 00:27 (four years ago) link
― Paul Ponzi, Saturday, April 4, 2020 8:29 AM (fourteen hours ago) bookmarkflaglink
no its not ... how are you posting on ilx and not knowing when poptimism is ... this album was a full on thelex moment
― ILX’s bad boy (D-40), Sunday, 5 April 2020 03:57 (four years ago) link
‘stars are blind’ is my gf’s alarm clock on her phone
― flopson, Sunday, 5 April 2020 08:39 (four years ago) link
yeah I think there's a thread where ppl were really into the Paris album
― Blues Guitar Solo Heatmap (Free Download) (upper mississippi sh@kedown), Sunday, 5 April 2020 14:38 (four years ago) link
I guess in a way she was a pioneer of all these vapid assholes, YouTubers and everything
― Blues Guitar Solo Heatmap (Free Download) (upper mississippi sh@kedown), Sunday, 5 April 2020 14:47 (four years ago) link