pitchfork is dumb (#34985859340293849495 in a series.)

Mods please delete if needed - but in response to lamenting that the Pitchfork thread hasn't split, here's a potential solution.

Maybe should slightly rename to "pitchfork is even dumber" or pitchfork is dumb and dumber or whatever to avoid confusion.

How about "Pitchfork is Dumb: 2023 and Beyond"?

Wonder how many people unfamiliar with the artist read "Oneohtrix Point Never Announces Live Shows in New York, Europe, and Asia" headline thinking it was a complaint?

oneohtrix point never her

come to new york, europe, asia

more like, "oneohtrix point never heard of 'em", amirite?

Seems strange to refer to (Venezuelan-American) singer Devendra Banhart as “Venezuelan”… unless he’s stated a preference for that(?)

Not really? In South Florida there's slippage. I identify as Cuban, Cuban-American, or American depending on the context.

Yeah obviously people can refer to themselves that way, but I wouldn’t refer to someone else that way (especially in a “journalistic” context).

He was born in the U.S. to a Venezuelan mother and American father, spent his early years in Venezuela, and then moved back to the U.S. as a teenager. I can't tell whether he has dual citizenship.

If I'm editing that dek, I would probably change to Venezuelan American, but he has also said in interviews that he considers himself Venezuelan.

2013: "Do I consider myself Venezuelan? I do. I am."

2019: "I spent most of my life feeling like a Venezuelan in America and then like an American in Venezuela, and then things got so bad in Venezuela that I just felt really like a Venezuelan."

Oh ok, that seems fair

and the Worst Headline of 2023 award goes to

https://pitchfork.com/features/podcast/taylor-swift-eras-tour-concert-movie/

"On Duster’s 2023 album Remote Echoes—their third since regrouping in 2018—they leaned hard into the muted guitars and muttered vocals that give their music the feeling of a shared secret."

Philip you silly goose that's a compilation of cassette only material from the 90s

https://pitchfork.com/features/article/the-shoegaze-revival-hit-its-stride-in-2023/

Evan do you ride for any of those new bands listed? I’m way behind on the “show me a new Shoegaze band” tbh

Also kind of feels like he forgot that "space rock" is a term...

He gets close when he calls Windy & Carl "spacey post-rock", and then goes on to try to fit Duster into the shoegaze ecosystem without mentioning "space rock" at all, so that evidence points me to think he isn't aware of the genre tag? IDK

brimstead I like the Hotline TNT album for sure, but one not mentioned I really like is They Are Gutting A Body Of Water.

However these may not be the style of shoegaze you're looking for... what are some favorites?

yeah I’m open to everything really, I was just wondering because there’s so many of them out there and I trust your taste

I appreciate that! Ultimately I'm not perfectly on top of everything shiny and new, but here's another really fun new band I've been listening to:

https://jjuliee.bandcamp.com/album/pushing-daisies

TAGABOW rules ... one of the best examples of the genre getting reshaped by youngsters.

probably just left them out because their last release was 2022, and this is, presumably, a "year-end" kind of thing.

Fair!

Latest Flyying Colours seemed a little slept on too

https://cdn.vor.us/event/582695/b8d2d6dcf8874e3da32f35fea9c95b88.image!png.538902.png.PMF24_Lineup_1-1_FINAL.png

De La isn't a headliner?

they headlined it back in 2007. was amazing.

https://x.com/misterminsoo/status/1767930571869622453

https://x.com/misterminsoo/status/1767930571869622453?s=20

trying again

Every single person knows this is true.

Quite a statement to make about a band I've never heard of.

They must be feds.

In January 2021, then President-elect Joe Biden invited the Black Pumas to perform during his Celebrating America primetime special during the President's Inauguration activities.

not sure who else from that july 19 lineup would be a better headliner

ML Buch, obviously

I guess Pitchfork didn't even review last year's Black Pumas album. Does seem a little odd.

Wow, except for the Gen X bait and one or two newer others (Wednesday) I think I'm almost at a total loss.

I'm in for Day 2 with those top 4 acts. Rest is a bonus for me, and it's nice to know I can show up at 7 if it's hot.

I'd like to see Kara Jackson live.

Sweeping Promises are great

This really brings us full circle to the beginning of the first p is dumb thread:

Donald
Oh my God, what just happened at P-Fork
Mon Apr 1 07:08:25 2002
63.167.209.146

I'm not going to spew any elitist bullshit, but Alanis Morrissette, Kylie Minogue? Oh my fucking God. I'll stay for a little while to see if P-Fork still serves my needs, but with today's front page, I'm not counting on it. I understand the career move, but I just don't think it's going to serve me any more.

I don't think I've ever heard Black Pumas, but it does seem off-brand. My impression has been that they're a band that exists to get Grammy nominations.

a harbinger of terrible things to come after the GQ merger announcement

are the ppl who book the festival beholden to gq/condé

a friend was musing that that spot was prob originally for r**** m*****

red hot chili meppers?

i mean it’s just speculation, the world may never know

Robert Mugabe

My impression has been that they're a band that exists to get Grammy nominations.

They were nominated for three years in a row for the material from their first album - 2019 as Best New Artist, 2020 Album of the Year for the deluxe version of the same album, 2021 for a "Live from Studio A" performance of the songs from the first album.

They also appear to exist to keep pressing plants in business, not counting represses or just ones pressed at different plants, I counted over 28 different pressings of the debut record in different colors and formats (45" versions). It's kind of insane.

"more than a love song" from last year was cute (re: black pumas) but yes very much a grammybait noncommercial radio kind of act

rivers muomo

my black pumas opinion: i like the song "colors," but not enough for me to seek out any of their other songs

I was going to guess Roisin Murphy but the letters don't match the the ***

i counted wrong

rivers muomo

― the defenestration of prog (voodoo chili), Wednesday, March 13, 2024 1:52 PM (eleven minutes ago) bookmarkflaglink

lmao

Black Pumas headlines festivals literally around the world. They are in a similar zone to Mumford of being super popular but people don't actually register them as popular. This is kind of the most desirable zone to be in, everybody makes a ton of money and the Internet routinely does the "Who???" thing with you and you just cash checks and do half the promo work at most.

no way, mumford & sons have had huge chart success and have been playing arenas for years, they're very popular and very visibly so - no one does the "who???" routine with them. i have never heard of black pumas before and they don't seem to be anywhere near that sort of successful. they seem to just exist in that niche where aaa radio and the grammys love them, which doesn't seem like a terrible place to be, but it does mean they have very little visibility outside that? it is a very off-brand headliner when they're not an act that p4k has ever remotely cared about.

it also doesn't help when the other two headliners also seem underwhelming/weird in their own way

i don't think murphy would have been lined up as a potential p4k headliner when jessie ware is only third on the saturday bill.

are the ppl who book the festival beholden to gq/condé

well we do know that conde wanted to have more influence over it and were pushing for nonsense like trying to attract a reunited oasis or white stripes

The oral history.

It would be cool to see this expanded into a book, one with a LOT more voices

lol guess what band

Howe: I genuinely was enthusiastic about that band. But the message I took from whatever Ryan said to me was, like, “Yeah, we’re going to blow this band up. Do you want to be the guy?”

so I will say....so far Pitchfork hasn't been that much different than it was before

Tapes n' Tapes?
xpost

super close

I was going to guess Black Kids.

I was wrong, but they do talk about Black Kids.

I saw a double bill of Black Kids and Cut Copy right around that review (may have gone with Amy P. and a friend?), and Cut Copy was sooooo good and Black Kids was sooooo not. See also: the famous Clap Your Hands/National show here, where Clap went on first, 95% of the crowd left, and the National tore shit up.

Richardson: I spent a lot of time on a message board called I Love Music, and I noticed early on just how much ire Pitchfork inspired.

Surely not.

The Conde sale seems to have been handled naively by everyone concerned.

Also, big eyebrow raise at this considering the low the salaries of the editorial staff:

We went along for a few years there doing our thing, and YouTube was obviously growing immensely, and we went out to L.A. and managed to convince them to give us a few million dollars to start a YouTube channel.

It feels to me like Schreiber and Kaskie (maybe others too?) were hoovering up the money and probably also got big payouts when they sold up?

the famous Clap Your Hands/National show here, where Clap went on first, 95% of the crowd left, and the National tore shit up.

haha, I was there! It was nuts and my first time seeing The National, who were amazing.

Richardson: I spent a lot of time on a message board called I Love Music, and I noticed early on just how much ire Pitchfork inspired. It felt like having an opinion on one of Pitchfork’s opinions was an important part of keeping track of what was going on in music.

https://slate.com/culture/2024/03/pitchfork-oral-history-music-festival-conde-nast-review.html

D'oh - scanned for mention of Slate but missed Alfred's post

#slatepitch...fork

some interesting ruminations on the marketability of a music website including demographics and the disjoint advertising that currently pops up in this article on The Verge by Elizabeth Lopatto: https://www.theverge.com/24070565/pitchfork-gq-conde-nast-music-industry-change

I appreciate that Al got a mention of the Coltrane review into that Slate oral history

Thanks for that Verge story; it complements the Slate one.

shit, cat

Some richness, daddy.

Slate, cat

This bit made me laugh, idk why

Drake: In college in the early 2000s, I remember meeting a guy who seemed like the kind of guy who would read Pitchfork. I was like, “Do you read Pitchfork?” and he was like, “Yeah.” That was Pitchfork becoming real to me.

I met this guy … and he looked like he might have been a hat check clerk at an ice rink. Which - in fact - he turned out to be. And I said: "Oh boy, right … again.”

Lol

Haven't read through all this yet, but one thing I always wish about this type of project is that instead of having someone say "IDK, there didn't seem to be a lot of women early on," they would get in touch with Kristin Sage Rockermann or Meg Zamula or somebody and ask what their experience was! A lot of descriptions of the early years make me want to see more credit for various forgotten writers, but Kristin especially

I've had that same thought about KSR

👀

it’s telling that the discourse around *recent events* in music journalism has been so focused on eulogizing/remembering things that happened 10-20 years ago instead of the people, writing, and necessary change that has kept it alive and relevant in contemporary culture

— Puja Patel (@senari) March 19, 2024

^^^

ha ha I liked this from Alphonse Pierre

Rap beef is just not for J. Cole. He doesn’t have the heart for the lying, disrespect, and animosity it requires to make an effective diss track. A memorable diss feels like the equivalent of someone getting their grave spit on. J. Cole’s are like your camp counselor pulling you to the side, putting their hand on your shoulder, and advising you to stop belly-flopping in the pool or else you might get hurt. That was made clear on “Snow on tha Bluff,” the time he finger-wagged at Noname for being mean and reading too many books.

got 'em

Belated shout-out to Philip Sherburne's very good Sunday review of Photek's Motus Operandi (an album I had totally forgotten about).

https://condenast.wd5.myworkdayjobs.com/en-US/CondeCareers/details/Site-Director--Pitchfork_R-15910-1?jobFamilyGroup=d37c103a5736011b93d8774367016950&jobFamilyGroup=f59396a85ff3018de253b8f6660155de&jobFamilyGroup=f59396a85ff301914ce095f6660153de&locationCountry=bc33aa3152ec42d4995f4791a106ed09

The ~vibe~ I'm getting from job listings these days is gigs like this aren't going to anyone who spent the last 10 years as an "editor" or a "writer" at your fave media properties, but the anonymous white guys who were like "chief content officer" or "social marketing lead."

maybe they will pivot to video

xp Yeah, that's sort of what I gather from the role being called "Site Director" instead of "Editor-in-Chief."

https://pitchfork.com/artists/still-house-plants/

We didn't find any recipes, articles or videos for "".

it does seem like they've shifted to two new reviews a day for the past few weeks

One change I've noticed--you used to be able to browse the review archives chronologically back to 1999. Now you can only go as far back as 2015.

https://pitchfork.com/reviews/albums/blur-live-at-wembley-stadium/

?

I saw that earlier. I'd think it was an old school Pitchfork gag if it wasn't for the author.

It's gone now. I'm sure it was an error, giving a Blur live album a 0.0 and no review in 2024 doesn't draw any particularly insightful critical line.

Now a 7.0 and a mostly descriptive and positive review