Pitchfork's Chris Ott takes No Prisoners

I never found out what this amazing move taht was going to mean that readership of Pitchfork eclipsed taht of Spin & Rolling Stone combined was. Unless it was the move over to covering non-indie divas that I read about by coincidence in another thread. But I'm not sure what the timescale there was & it sounded like people who had been reading Pitchfork might actually drop it for doing so anyway.

What was this amazing coup and how well did it work. I'm not sure if Pitchfork is a household world r if it only appeals to music geeks anyway. also not getting what the story is with Ott and them was there a parting of the ways & who called it & for what reason?

Nice to see that the great self-described Legend has teamed up with Ott in an attempt to stand up for the right of whatever. Not been a big fan of Jerry, is that ever? Or was he the sole reason that Sub Pop types broke through, I mean no Everett no Nirvana or Hole omigod etc. That the guy went from peddling indie twee to the oh so rugged sound of Minneapolis always did stick in the craw rather didn't it?

Sorry should have maybe said that Everett True = The Legend = (non pseudonym )Jerry Thackeray (mere pseud?).
who single handedly invented Sarah Twee pop, grunge and all points thereafter didn't he?

feeling kind of wistful now that ATP is over, picturing the finale concert when ILX finally shuts down, naughty by nature getting the last song, a remake of OPP, ott nodding on stage between treach and vin rock, even the most flagrant otter-haters in the audience, like queen latifah in the original video, grinning sheepishly about being down with OTT when it gets down to it. chris ott hooray, ho, hey, ho!

guys i'm sorry i lost my critic trading cards--can someone tell me who the fuck everett true is?

I think he's a Legend that got fired from the NME back before it became quite as bad as it did later.

Think he helped push a wheelchair bound Kurt Cobain onstage at Reading or something too.

big shaker in late-80s Melody Maker, introduced Cobain to Courtney, was the dude Sub Pop paid for to fly over and do a feature on Seattle in MM, which arguably led to the ~alternative revolution~ of the early-mid '90s, later did Careless Talk Costs Lives, now lives in Brisbane and whinges on the internet

also had early singles on Creation

thanking u. at least he sounds like he once had a career worth being bitter about.

In the good ol' days what sources of revenue did music magazines like MM or NME or w/e have besides advertising and reader subscriptions

newstand?

the inkies shifted hundreds of thousands of copies a week in the 1970s

Incidentally I just discovered taht Everett True was actually initially a supposedly every-man comic character who debuted in the early 230th century and had been revived for a comics catalogue the year taht Jerry Thackray was fired from the NME and thought the Legend penname was too attached to taht publication.
https://www.google.ie/search?q=outbursts+of+everett+true&rlz=1C1DVCJ_enIE452IE454&espv=210&es_sm=93&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ei=AjifUqSeKOSw7AauloHwDQ&ved=0CAkQ_AUoAQ&biw=1024&bih=652#facrc=_&imgdii=_&imgrc=tk0WOa6-6yjk4M%3A%3Bt86NMCBkKZkyAM%3Bhttp%253A%252F%252Ffarm3.static.flickr.com%252F2595%252F4177895834_e3a128930f_o.jpg%3Bhttp%253A%252F%252Fovo127.com%252F2010%252F09%252F10%252Fa-d-condo-and-j-w-raper-the-outbursts-of-everett-true-38%252F%3B404%3B800
is several of the comic strips featuring him.

I can't be awake yetor I'd know that the town that everybody loves in the title of the oral history on grunge is Seattle not Minneapolis. Can't think why I'd confuse the two.

& also might be able to type 20th instead of 230th.

your posts appear to be the ravings of a lunatic whose band received a poor review from ET in the 1980s. if your intention is to make him look bad you're really not succeeding.

i'm appreciating katherine's contributions itt

― reddening, Wednesday, December 4, 2013 3:11 AM (3 hours ago)

me too, if nothing else

me too

also i don't remember but i probably made some great posts

i was happy to find out katherine was KATHERINE katherine

cant tell if collapse board is sadder than sportsjournalists.com or if theyre both equally sad

FWIW, Jerry/ET posted here back in the early days and the only reason I have a vague kind of writing profile in the UK music press is due to writing in Careless Talk Costs Lives and its successors, and now The Quietus. So I'll still thank him for that!

He was a good writer and a vibrant figure for a long time, and totally deserves respect for ploughing new furrows over and over.

man i feel bad that i don't know who katherine is

gave up and posted on that comments section so

I love katherine's posts but have never figured out if she is a) the first victim of the Maura's infamous Fancy A Bout Of Alcohol Poisoning karaoke night b) a friend of bell_labs I once had drinks with or c) somebody else entirely

whoa, irl just crept into my ilx

ilx is well known for irl creeps

as for taking this seriously feel free to replace all text with this https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QHXgdtiFRNY

A nasty hangover today and I was thinking "I haven't felt this bad since

xp perfect

whoa xp

great responses katherine, both here and on collapseboard

yeah, great stuff katherine

amazing how infuriating this is, considering the stakes.

http://tinyurl.com/pztmnkb
is several pages with the Outbursts of Everett True comic strip that Jerry Thackray named himself after. Hadn't known the source of the name until earlier today when I posted this with a longer URL.
Apparently the character had been revived in a comic catalogue earlier in the year that the once Legend had been fired from the NME and thought the pen-name too associated with that publication.

Interesting strip, possibly a bit dated but it is from the early years of the 20th century. I think it debuted in 1905.

the Tony Isabella cover version was in CBG, not a "catalogue"

I can see you, you know.

What's up failed music critic

What'd you have for breakfast today

I was eating my own words. Again.

hot stuff coming through:

http://www.imposemagazine.com/features/chris-ott-shallow-rewards-interview

I think this guy has apoint or two

I am part of an age group that was raised to believe that if you went to school and learned a particular skill, you would come out of school with a chance at turning that skill into a career.

That’s called entitlement. I’m sorry you weren’t better protected. I don’t understand how anyone can justifiably look at the world and say, “I should earn a living wage to express my deep, intense feelings about a local band.” The only way you can do that is if you let people sell ads on the back of your exuberance.

"Get a job. That’s what I did. I got a job."

will get right on that, maybe I can buy one at the grocery store, wait no I can't afford to buy groceries this month

Doesn't Ott understand that advertising is simply the way corporations give back to the community

He found his contrarianism no longer welcome in an industry that, due almost entirely to Pitchfork's rise, now rejected controversy.

ok seriously this is how the reporter frames this shit??

The writer means controversy over what bands are cool and what bands are not

Q: Bullshit—why did you start writing for the internet if you weren't vain?

A: Because I wanted to express something that wasn’t being expressed anywhere else.

okay, I'm reading on further and his more reasonable option: "I got a job as an administrative assistant at a book publisher, making twenty-two grand." oh my god this is amazing. you want to talk "fucking deluded"? I was actually interviewed for a job as an assistant at a book publisher this year. You know how many people applied for the job (they told me at the interview)? 500. Five hundred. That's a 0.2 percent chance of getting a job. Harvard has better admissions odds. Even if you assume that a large portion of the applicants are unqualified (I mean, it's entry-level, but in the 2013 job market the process of becoming qualified realistically starts in, like, middle school), only a handful of people were asked to interview. Out of 500 applicants.

It's not Ott's fault that the job market stinks, though. His point stands.

reading on even further and "political correctness" is being used as a justification for hiring women, nope

wait till you get to the Pell twins point.

"When guys find out that there are cool girls that listen to cool music, they’re going to listen to those girls more than the guys that they’re jealous of."

nope nope nope hahahahahahaha NOPE. I'm sure this is going to be dismissed automatically because it's from a Pitchfork writer (a damn good writer, too), but I think it's a better depiction of how guys react to girls who listen to music (source: I am a girl)

http://lindsayzoladz.tumblr.com/post/29966963774/dont-blame-us-four-women-talk-about-why-they-didnt

thanks, katherine. Love this part:

And then they quiz you on the artist’s entire catalog. For instance, I really like this one Mission of Burma album, but I am hesitant to bring that up to a man, because I don’t listen to ALL of their albums.
I agree that men are more likely to think their opinions are Definitive and Correct.

As per women not finding as much pleasure in solitary activities, maybe? But a lot of our lady friends love to read and to discuss books and articles and etc. I’m turned off from talking about music because I’ve encountered so many men who are mainsplain-y about it, while I haven’t had that same experience with books, because a lot of men are dismissive of, like, Jane Eyre, so we never have those convos to begin with.”

yes yes amen

Honestly I think it takes some things to have the energy to make one of those: a) some degree of narcissism to assume that literally anyone cares what albums you like b) enough self esteem to believe your choices are correct or to not care if people disagree with you or think less of you because of which albums you like c) the fastidious patience to actually complete a task that is based mainly in narcissism.

Yes!

Those are obvious points that a high schoolers know. "Wow! Did you know that writers are narcissists because they want people to read their shit? YOU DON'T SAY."