pitchfork is dumb (#34985859340293849494 in a series.)

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.

I dunno, I've wanted to read a contemporary reappraisal of a once-lauded figure, and Elizabeth Nelson's the writer to do it.

Nelson's a good writer who clearly wishes she was alive to write for the Voice in the Seventies. A young fogey. Of course she loves Graham Parker — it would be shocking if she didn't.

Yeah, I always have to remind myself that I am old and getting older every day, and even then Graham Parker was already somewhat forgotten history when I was *young*. There's no reason to believe anyone learning about music today would necessarily give that or any Parker album (or Joe Jackson, or Nick Lowe, or hell Elvis Costello) a listen, but it's a good record and I welcome any renewed discourse.

It might be best that we all forget Elvis Costello

Pitchfork will 100% have Rosalía’s Motomami in its top 10.

Wet Leg maybe too

It might be best that we all forget Elvis Costello

― broccoli rabe thomas (the table is the table), Sunday, August 21, 2022 9:39 AM

I BEEN SAYIN THIS FOR YEARS

lol it's the midpoint of Tom Petty and early Elvis Costello

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=taXvBivGcMo

lol it's the midpoint of Tom Petty and early Elvis Costello

And Randy Newman. Jesus, I just watched that whole clip — it felt 48 hours long.

Yeah, wow, both of the songs I've heard from this guy are utter trash

ok zoomer

milo's vid unavailable here in uk: what's the song?

i wd still rep for the LP squeezing out sparks but probably more from fondness towards my own youth than caring much abt parker's place in history lol, the critical consensus c.1979 was betting on a thing that ran off a cliff pretty quickly

"Local Girls"

which is on squeezing out sparks so doesn't even help my small point

lol Paul Ponzi, I’m turning 38 in five weeks

yr all zoomers to me

get off my lawn

property is theft, greyhair

Graham Parker placed second in the 1976 Pazz and Top poll with Heat Treatment and first in 1979 with Squeezing Out Sparks, for historical context

*Pazz and Jop

cadence weapon vs pitchfork
(with a namedrop for this place)

https://thewalrus.ca/bedroom-rapper/

I actually found ilm because Rollie mentioned it on a hip hop message board I used to read

Rollie has such a specific and interesting prose style. I enjoyed that excerpt and its hindsight-self-analysis.

yeah, I enjoyed that piece. That level of critical self reflection is all too rare.

Going back to that overlooked albums list, Gwenno's Tresor is nicely in the Broadcast/Vanishing Twin/etc zone

Oh yes, if you're enjoying that please revisit Gwenno's other albums too. They're all fantastic.

Awesome! The name rang a bell, but I don't think I've heard her before, it's very much my exact kind of thing. Might have to send this to my (Welsh) dad too

o i c there's a thread: Gwenno - Le Kov

Going back to the list from last week of overlooked albums of the year so far - just want to note that I listened to that Afrorack album today and really enjoyed it.

After a few more drinks, practically vibrating, she jumps to her feet and leads a trek to her favorite record store, 12 Tónar. The plan is an impromptu DJ set, but she peers through the window to find no sign of life, no staff to schmooze, just a cardboard cutout of her younger self staring back from the shop floor.

Imagine if the cardboard cutout of herself was older! 🤯

hanging with bjork must be amazing but i would not like to be in a motor vehicle with her

would you be afraid of a motorcrash?

hanging with bjork must be amazing but i would not like to be in a motor vehicle with her

― Karl Malone

Also unless I’m misreading it, the writer pretty much ratted on her driving while drinking.

hmm, which part are you thinking of?

Sorry lol just read again and after she parks the car, she goes to the bar and they walk to the next location.

lol, i was re-reading every single fragment of this section searching for clues of drinking and driving:

Rumbling down a two-lane highway in her hefty white Land Rover, Björk is chatting away in meandering tribute to Iceland’s volcanic landscape when a digger truck lumbers into view. The unexpected obstacle presents a chance for a spot of mischief. Wrinkling her nose, Björk eyes a tight opening ahead and stamps the throttle to perform a perilous passing maneuver. “Cheeky cheeky!” she trills, nearly demolishing a roadside post. Back in lane, she slides off her coat and casually resumes her ode to her island nation.

“That volcano over there,” she says, pointing through a mountain pass, “one of its most famous eruptions caused the crops in France to get destroyed, and people say that’s why the French Revolution happened. Well, it’s a very Icelandic thing: It was our mountain that caused the French Revolution.”

at one point i wondered whether "resumes her ode to her island nation" was some sort of reference to drinking, but i have been to iceland and didn't remember a drinking culture that was any more extremely alcoholic than any other. then i considered the comment about the french revolution, lol

Lol

i was overdue for an inscrutable new dn

Pretty sure loads of other people have done this, not sure why the tone is so look-at-this-visionary-artist. Odd.

https://pitchfork.com/thepitch/burning-cds-with-blood-oranges-dev-hynes-in-the-basement-of-madison-square-garden/

yeah i remember them doing that at one of those early pixies reunion shows

yeah definitely not uncommon during a certain era, which makes the tone kinda lol. i mean its fair if people dont remember it firsthand but it certainly was not some visionary obscure thing that throbbing gristle invented

i feel like dave matthews did this?

p sure dream theater does it too…

actually I’m not pretty sure, I just think I might have read that somewhere

But even as he waved goodbye to the feather-boa-clad masses, he still had some work to do: For all 15 of his MSG dates with Styles, Petrucci and his team have been mixing, burning, and selling CDs of the show he just played, available at the merch booth that same night....

Soon Petrucci arrived wearing a Balenciaga cap, a slate gray hoodie, and royal blue shorts. He radiated calm, affable excitement and was visibly psyched to be pulling off this DIY art project inside the most storied arena in the city that has served as his home (and often his muse) for 16 years.

Burning CDs in the basement of MSG: the situation is so awesomely befitting of John Petrucci, visionary synthesizer of sensibilities and styles. He continues to prove how prismatically many-sided an artist can be

Now I'm trying to imagine the Harry Styles' audience reaction to a Dream Theater opening set.

There were or two companies who specialising in doing this across europe (and maybe other places) for tons of bands 5-10 years back, but their names are slipping my mind. Certainly not original... or that interesting

UMS I’m sitting here in my home office laughing at my phone