Pitchfork's Chris Ott takes No Prisoners

it seems that this kind of topic is mainly enjoyed by males, both on ilx and at large. is there an argument to be put forward that the kind of combative behaviour on this thread is offputting and counter-productive to many people? this kind of thread seems a strange legacy, that i am surprised people would want attached to them. or perhaps it doesnt matter?

or perhaps there isnt a competitive and combative locker room vibe to this thread? what do you all think? i am curious to learn from people about their own posts here, and if that is the kind of effect and impression they were aiming to get across.

wtf is wrong w/"homoeroticism" anyway?

There are whole piles of these records I have absolutely no knowledge of (presumably all linked to US college radio/TV spots) - Dada's 'puzzle', for example, I seriously doubt ever made it to Britain in any kind of quantity - so can't comment on the accuracy there, despite the strong feelings Chris clearly has for them.

Of the stuff I do know... erm... it's not that accurate. Alex points out the CSC one at the outset of this thread, and some other people have picked out other ones, but for me... if someone can show me the musical link between Bleach and Th' Faith Healers I'd be grateful (and surprised). Oh, and Grebo was an odd term that applied to the Fraggle bands that weren't Fraggle (coming as it did from PWEI's major Fraggle single) and was interchangeable with it for a while - but ultimately became music press shorthand for any Black Country outfit (even bands like The Hunters Club).

(Note for trivia fans - the dance that the people on stage with Mud on *that* performance of 'Tiger Feet' is called The Grebo)

My biggest gripe though is with myself. I'd read this thread before I read the column and Mr Ott has managed to build such a negative perception of him that it's hard to be positive about his writing. I'm going to try his linked 'So Much For The Afterglow' and give him another chance.

I think I need to search the site and try and find him saying something positive about anything, just for balance.

john who packs bags at my local grocery store has a 6th toenail

This is same question Ott asked himself when he started the piece. Trouble is, he didn't bother to find out before writing.

I checked out about 3/4 of that before I started getting bored.  Isn't Ott's own participation in a forum he decries as self-serving and masturbatory a little suspect?  Especially because he's writing about his own writing (yawn) and basically by the end just trading imprecations with other board dwellers...?  Way to build credibility, champ. And why does any musical discussion that reaches an impasse invariably devolve into guys calling each other homos?

So my criticism of this article is that not enough of it reads like that, there's not enough surprise or pleasure. Too much of it feels like the kind of pat opinions I'm prone to giving out in the pub when I've had one too many.

Sorry to be negative.

It's clearly not a consistent stance though - as I said earlier, I went looking for other reviews to see if you could say anything positive about anything. I found the 'Forgotten Mixtape' piece you wrote, in which you excuse a lot of what's on it because, well, it was 1988, wasn't it... although you do defend Phil Collins and Robert Palmer...

Is that why almost all of your favourable reviews are for greatest hits, or reissues, or by big artists - because you've already decided you like them? (Or most bizarrely, for the Pavement reissue, because they sound like a band you were in?)

IMHO you had done yourself no favours in the debate up to this point, and coming back in today in the manner you have isn't winning you any points.

I'm with Tim.

Chris, what's the point of spitting out old opinions? I'm being serious. For me, half of why I write has to do with discovery. What kind of pleasure do you get out of the kind of writing you do?

Well, if you'd read the post, you'd see that I was quoting someone else, not expressing my own opinion.. As far as I'm concerned, your credibility as a music journalist is measured by your knowledge of the material, and your ability to convey/contextualize/communicate based upon the facts regarding that material. I'm not entirely convinced that your grasp of the material is that well versed. Thus, what you have to say is moot.

nah.

that's pretty cool that pitchfork got free advertising on radio though.