pitchfork is dumb (#34985859340293849494 in a series.)

Haven’t heard that Jack Johnson album but that is a good review.

I know it was a joke upthread but “sangfroid” actually translates as cold-blooded.

lmfao that joke made me lose it

The Cousin of Vampire Weekend’s Chris Baio Is Now on the New York Yankees

https://i.imgur.com/kYtZecH_d.webp?maxwidth=640&shape=thumb&fidelity=medium

weird headline yes but i had no idea that harrison bader and chris baio were cousins and that’s kinda interesting!

weird headline yes but i had no idea that harrison bader and chris baio were cousins and that’s kinda interesting!

Baio first saw Bader play in the majors in September 2018, at a home game for St. Louis against the Pittsburgh Pirates. Bader has posted 1.5 fWAR playing center field in 72 games for the Cardinals this year, good enough for a 93 WRC+. He won his first Gold Glove—awarded to the best fielder at each position—in 2021. The player for whom he was traded, Jordan Montgomery, accumulated 1.4 fWAR in 114 innings across 21 starts this season for the Yankees, posting a 3.69 ERA.

dear pitchfork baseball news team,

i am writing to highlight an error in your recent piece celebrating the return of outfielder Harrison Bader to the New York Yankees, who is excited to move back to NYC because he grew up in the Bronx and is the cousin of Vampire Weekend's Chris Baio, who is a musician and not a baseball player, but who is family nonetheless and also grew up in the Bronx.

you write "Bader has posted 1.5 fWAR playing center field in 72 games for the Cardinals this year, good enough for a 93 WRC+ [sic]". The stats are correct, but the words "good enough for a 93 WRC+ [sic]" are misleading and go beyond a mere typo, stetching into the range of a misunderstanding of the meaning and utility of both the wRC+ and fWAR metrics. In short, the sentence implies that Bader's 1.5 fWAR (a measure of overall player value) contributed positively toward his wRC+ (weighted Runs Created, which measures hitting production) of 93. In fact, Bader's 93 wRC+ is below average (which is set to an index of 100), and wRC+ is just one of several different components that make up fWAR.

An easy correction would be to say that "Bader has posted 1.5 fWAR playing center field in 72 games for the Cardinals this year, despite hitting 93 WRC+"

I look forward to watching and listening and reading to more baseball and music and baseball/music baseball and music news

what's going on with Scott Baio and Ruth Bader Ginsburg?

Baio posted a note from MLB about the trade to his Instagram story, captioned with a series of italicized exclamation marks.

Italicized, even!

He won his first Gold Glove—awarded to the best fielder at each position—in 2021

i'm interested in the pitchfork baseball news team's decision to explain what a gold glove is but not what fwar, wrc+ and era are, and what that says about the pitchfork baseball news team's understanding of the pitchfork baseball news readership and the pitchfork sports news readership in general.

they care when harrison bader is traded to the yankees, but not when he spends five years playing for the cardinals

Yeah, where were the “Vampire Weekend plays St Louis, home of baseball player Harrison Bader, Cousin of Scott Baio” stories! I would have liked to have known about that as they were happening, to appreciate them both for not only existing and being related and being talented in different ways, but also for being in the same place

guys pitchfork has been on the baseball beat for some time now:

https://pitchfork.com/news/watch-japanese-breakfasts-michelle-zauner-throw-the-first-pitch-at-a-mets-game/

https://pitchfork.com/news/48292-watch-lil-wayne-sing-take-me-out-to-the-ballgame-at-the-nlcs-baseball-playoff-game-last-night/

https://pitchfork.com/news/jack-white-is-now-in-the-baseball-hall-of-fame/

https://pitchfork.com/thepitch/727-pitchfork-at-the-plate/

https://pitchfork.com/news/38475-video-death-cab-for-cutie-perform-at-seattle-mariners-opening-day-game/

https://pitchfork.com/news/julian-casablancas-throws-first-pitch-at-new-york-mets-game-watch/

https://pitchfork.com/news/69327-chance-the-rapper-diehard-white-sox-fan-endorses-cubs-no-problem-mashup/

https://pitchfork.com/thepitch/1155-modern-baseball-and-how-emo-grew-up/

Alfred Soto – I think there may be an editing issue in the 2nd graf of your Amanda Shires review: the 2nd sentence is apparently talking about a male guitar player ("His rhythm licks and twangy embellishments..."), but it's not clear who it refers to(?)

[Jason] Isbell is mentioned immediately before that sentence

No he's not(?)

oh I see it – "an Isbell solo". Sorry

thanks, though!

lots of interesting looking stuff here: https://pitchfork.com/features/lists-and-guides/great-records-you-may-have-missed-spring-summer-2022/

I like that Horsegirl album but how is it under the radar? Don't know how anyone could have missed it, but maybe that's just about where I spend my time online?

it's one i've heard of unlike most of the list but the only criteria is 'we didn't give them BNM' & i don't think they're super prominent in indie rock or anything

Credit is due: I hadn't heard of almost all of those. I cynically wonder whether that's for solid reasons though. The Quietus has burnt me before like this lol

The quality of the music that the Quietus promotes has dropped precipitously over the past few years.

Like oh great, another gabber metal record and a Sleaford Mods side project plus an effusive review of some unlistenable experimental dance music

Horsegirl definitely a band that I avoided because of their name.

Fwiw the Binker Golding is in my top 5 of the year, incredible record.

The quality of the music that the Quietus promotes has dropped precipitously over the past few years.

― broccoli rabe thomas (the table is the table), Thursday, 18 August 2022 10:53 (seven minutes ago) bookmarkflaglink

fully agree

any music site who reps for Fat White Family needs burning down and then salting the earth over their domain. That's an even worse crime than p4k clickbait like: here is what some gormless twink from some netflix shite is currently listening to.

the quietus just has a strange taste very much of its own and always has

It's made a pronounced lurch towards really boring, nothingy music imo

I do wonder how much of that is the result of the UK avant-music scene falling embarrassingly, catastrophically behind the US one though

mighta messaged on other boards but i really recommend the brainwaltzera album, looks like a nice list will deffo check the others

of the ones on there, i’ve heard the naima bock (excellent) and the defcee/boathouse album (pretty good)

oh! and the they hate change album, which is one of my ten or so favorite albums of the year

I checked out Horsegirl and it was decidedly not my thing, so the only one on here I've really heard is the Lynn Avery & Cole Pulice, which is lovely. I keep meaning to start a Moon Glyph label thread, lots of gems there

yeah moon glyph has been doing great stuff, i was glad to see that lynn avery album get a nod

I've played stuff off the Katarina Gryvul and Silvia Tarozzi records on my radio show, so I wholeheartedly recommend those. Interested in the Afrorack record.

the Avery & Pulice is really good, and agree with emil.y re: the Gryvul— those two and the Binker record are all year standouts for me.

re: the pfork list — the ella mai got a shoutout and that's got one of my favorite songs of the year on it, so i'm down. skimmed a few other things that looked of interest and made some notes. these are almost always my favorite types of pieces pfork does.

mighta messaged on other boards but i really recommend the brainwaltzera album, looks like a nice list will deffo check the others

― nxd, Thursday, August 18, 2022 8:35 AM (seven hours ago)

of the ones on there, i’ve heard the naima bock (excellent) and the defcee/boathouse album (pretty good)

― comedy khadafi (voodoo chili), Thursday, August 18, 2022 9:18 AM (six hours ago)

I liked the first track on the brainwaltzera, but wasn't quite in the mood for that sound so will have to return.

The Bock album is brilliant so far, really happy to hear this! I've also been meaning to listen to They Hate Change...

from that pitchfork list i'm really loving FLO

ooh otm, this is really well put together

agreed map. production is nice.

has anyone else heard this ogi? i'm checking it out now because of the mention in the pfork piece. only two song in, but one of them is this:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FwKp-HkKUMA

"envy"

this is completely great.

it's funny to read this in parallel to the ilm '10s poll, w/r/t/ how a bunch of esoteric picks and unique individual tastes get flattened out into a dull consensus (as i assume very few of these albums or songs from them will make p4k's main year-end list)

a good point— and always been a source of frustration with pfork for me. "we could talk about this stuff more, but nah." i mean i guess all of the albums or artists were at least mentioned before the column, but most of us will probably be able to guess their top ten albums in a month's time. none of them will be from this column.

most of us will probably be able to guess their top ten albums in a month's time

I don't know if it's just me, but I visit that site every day, and yet I don't really have a grasp at all as to what their top albums this year will actually be other than Beyonce and Big Thief.

most of us will probably be able to guess their top ten albums in a month's time

I don't know if it's just me, but I visit that site every day, and yet I don't really have a grasp at all as to what their top albums this year will actually be other than Beyonce and Big Thief.

Yeah same here actually (not that I pay super close attention…)

yeah there just haven't been that many big event albums this year so far, so those are the only two i'd consider locks for p4k's top 10 (& ours) so far. kendrick is another critically acclaimed event album of course but p4k was notably cooler on it than most critics so i expect it'll show up in like, the 20s on their list. i'd also point out that no one really expected them to have jazmine sullivan at #1 last year, especially since the consensus among fans seemed to be that it was a bit slight? last year's p4k list was genuinely pretty unexpected in general.

Reports of rockism's demise have been greatly exaggerated: today's Sunday review is Graham fucking Parker.