Pitchfork's Chris Ott takes No Prisoners

Going Cheese: Chris Ott, ILX Cunts, and the Prison of Belief

ain't it funny how the night bus moves

while this seems like a pretty flimsy thing to write a paper on, I wouldn't be surprised if message boards become a topic of academic interest

ain't it funny how the night bus moves

― he always came across as a great guy in Kerrang! in the 90s (some dude), Thursday, March 6, 2014 2:48 PM (10 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

okay you got me there, major larfs

Nate posted a response to some of you over on Facebook:

So that big Twitter back-and-forth between me and Ott has spilled over into some ILX debate that I wish I could clarify there. (see link below.) Since I can't post there -- I forgot my login info some 7ish years and three computers ago -- I wanted to point out a couple things.

1) My snarking at Ott was probably a bad idea, since the feeling of being set upon by outsiders is the fuel that sets his nitro-burning funny car on a collision course with wackiness. That said, the fact that we don't actually follow each other on Twitter but he jumped right out with a "MUST CREDIT ME" beef moments after I posted the link to my EMP abstract set off a big red flag. I do my best not to get wrapped up in inane beefs like that, since it almost never produces anything of value (unless you value hate-@s), but years of me being fed up with him shitting on my critical peers and friends took reckless precedence this time.

2) That said, he jumped to a lot of defensive conclusions based solely on the abstract (and probably a grudge against Pitchfork, ILX, whatever he ate for breakfast, etcetera), and while I didn't mention Hipinion by name in the abstract itself (and used unfair, heat-of-argument terms like 'circle-jerk' to describe the thread he claims I hijacked), I planned on attributing the messageboard and giving them their due, much like every circa-2011 "What Is Night Bus?" article I found on the Web did.

3) In fact, the paper I have planned (and haven't finished yet) starts with the idea that it's possible for something to start as a joke or a parody -- or at least come across like one, as most HRO-voice excursions in to subgenre-coinage are -- yet still get at something that actually resonates in wider terms outside of genre, as the CFCF mixes (which are rooted in that Hipinion dialogue) set out to prove.

4) And even then, aside from the necessary introductory historical context as mentioned above, the paper's almost entirely about pointing out, exploring, and emphasizing the aesthetics that these early adopters were getting at -- not claiming ownership over it, sanitizing it, or creating a revisionist history. Especially since "night bus" has since been discounted and declared "dead" by trend-fatigued bloggers and has largely fallen out of use.

5) I have no interest in gaining "cred" or whatever -- I've already done a couple EMP panels in the past, and it's a fun thing I get to do every so often as a way to connect with other music enthusiasts. Mostly I'm just interested in throwing around some ideas without the expectation that they'll be taken as gospel in academic circles. (And not to diminish said academic circles, but I'm far more interested in getting into dialogues with people from more journalistic/critical circles.)

honeybus > night bus

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xn0hsxzE5eU

fresher than the sweetness in water...

Thanks, Nate!

haha, nate's post convinces me to scroll back up the thread to get the whole story.

i'm sure all that guy wants is for you to reject "the man," man, and post content free on a blog. like god intended when he created the earth 6,000 years ago.

Live vlog and prosper

patrin doesn't know how to sign up for a new account?

Or maybe he doesn't want one

He seems to look upon this board with nearly as much scorn as Ott

*cries*

well, that's fine, but "i can't post there" comes off a little disingenuous then.

he meant "I can't post there because it makes me feel unclean"

Why should he sign up again to make one post? Why does it matter if someone posts that thought for him?

"i can't post here because i don't care enough about you jackholes to sign up for another gd email account"

He seems to look upon this board with nearly as much scorn as Ott

Nah. I decided to take a break some years back because of personal reasons (stress, anxiety, etcetera) and felt like I didn't really fit. It's not scorn (definitely not on an Ott-type caliber; this is not possible). More that I got fed up with the shit I was getting into, a lot of it my fault.

well, that's fine, but "i can't post there" comes off a little disingenuous then.

I can now. Registration took a couple hours. Not sure why I picked a late-period Sun Ra LP for my username other than that I like the record, but w/e

(tho I'm not interested in posting about gripe stuff for the most part, just yakkin' about music, figuring stuff out, the usual)

welcome back!

welcome back, sir.

yo is it true that lanquidity got sonned in a cheese beef with Ott

hi n8

hey dude, i'm not even involved in this debate, sorry for harassing you but welcome!

yo is it true that lanquidity got sonned in a cheese beef with Ott

This has made the whole ordeal worth it

serious use of "stakeholder" re: message board citation beef is amazingly classic.

haha otm

to call back to earlier in the thread, now at least i know his i.t. job is real

welcome back nate, however briefly

lot of posts about an inconsequential pop music opinion-haver, i see, gj ilx

^^^shit-stirrer sad that he missed the prime beef

i barely see k3v on ilx now he's sticking to his promise not to troll the race thread

CAD OTMx2

also poor nate getting dragged back in here :(

Whatever the rights and wrongs of any individual case, Ott always appears so obnoxious that if he were kidnapped by Somali pirates I'd feel bad for the pirates.

"You guys hijhack ships for money? You should get telemarketing jobs and do piracy on your free time for the love of it!"

it's so funny/sad to see guys mourn the aspiration towards principles and ethics in '80s/'90s indie by demanding everyone engage ethically with '80s/'90s indie sounds.

work for haliburton, who gives a fuck, UNLESS YOU HAVE A FUZZBOX THEN NO

hmmm

https://twitter.com/wewenthenfap

ilx up and spontaneously twittermorphized. machine sentience!

New registrant Twin Stars of Pence should frequent the base ball board.

that is a really awful concept twitter, even by concept twitter standards

fuck yes

https://medium.com/shallow-rewards/59c631acbb48?curator=MediaREDEF

I found that article utterly unreadable

straight gibberish

isn't it always

The ultimate problem for Apple, Beats and any other media distributor is that people want to experience art for themselves. These marketers speak in terms of data, simplification, and “music discovery,” an asinine formalization of “turning on the radio.” It’s not about discovery, the “user experience,” or their “trust” in your brand: it’s about finding a way we can arrive at music, on our own terms, free of the hype, advertisements, PR chicanery, and editorial bias you’re offering. We’re not paying you to tell us what to like: we’re paying you to provide us an easy platform through which to navigate music.

Shut up, and take our money.

[guy I've never heard of and have no reason to care about]’s CV reads like [incomprehensible reference to old-ass shitty movie], and [disclaimer that just leaves me more baffled. Plucked from the back room of [???] by [namedrop of some other dude I have never heard of and don't give a shit about] in [21 fucking years ago asshole, some of your readers are that age], Rogers lived out the decade as a hybrid digital hipster [what the fuck does that mean?], parlaying his double-threat reputation as a web designer and music industry insider into a lucrative if fruitless position at Yahoo! in the early 2000s [wanks, frustratingly unable to cum]. Honing an innate talent for concept-evangelism [motherfucker what?], Rogers absorbed the slick, bulletproof jargon [come again?] of his peers in digital marketing, and set out on his own, forming [Circle Jerx, Inc., now defunct] in 2007.

Killer lede graf brah. Tell me more.