Here is Pitchfork writer Mark Pytlik's second paragraph of his Bjork review: " From the "beats and strings" manifesto that shaped Homogenic to the "music for laptop speakers" mandate that drove Vespertine through to the vocals-only absolutism of Medúlla, her obsession with patterns and structure and conceptual boundaries has consistently been at the center of her work. Often, she has celebrated the messiness and the chaos implicit in these very things; in fact, the very first line of her very first single took a perverse delight in the lack of logic inherent in one of the biggest and most complex systems of all: human behavior."
Here is my take on the same album. Sure, her Dirty Projectors collab was aces last year but before then it has been one piece of tuneless wonk after another at least since the Lars Von Tiers movie and soundtrack. And here is more of the same. Instead of fucking about with sound variables, Bjork should stop jacking off into artistic ditherland and write some songs. Well, not this time…"
However accurate or otherwise Mark might be, as a writer he is a straight drag.
Pitchfork is a straight drag.
And if they are getting 3.3M readers a month, it is 3.3M readers who should do better than this stifflingly hip, immoderately egotistical and just plain bad bunch of intellectual sodomites.
Pitchfork can, apparently, make an indie bands reputation with jut a mention; they are the Frank Rich of white bread blandness. Around since 1995, Ryan Schreiber's indie Bible has their followers and then some, and at least once a year they have a festival, and bring out all these bands they've been in bed with for years, and sell a lot of tix and make a lot of money.
They also have an office in Brooklyn and have been trying to get together a Festival over here… well, let them explaiin: In partnership with New York City promoters The Bowery Presents, we're happy to announce Forms, a full-on four-day multi-media festival in New York City. Forms celebrates and explores the interconnected and growing worlds of independent music, art, and gaming. Also on board as a partner is videogame arts and culture company Kill Screen.
With a goal of showcasing the creativity, independence, innovation, and interactivity happening in the growing platforms of music, art, and gaming, Forms looks to go where other music-centric conferences haven't by giving equal weight to these mediums and bringing them together in unusual and exciting ways. Musicians will work with visual artists, game designers with musicians, game designers with artists. We'll present bands in galleries, artists in clubs, games everywhere in between. Forms will surprise and bring new experiences to audiences by presenting musicians, artists, and game designers finding common ground and drawing inspiration from and beyond their primary field.
Forms will take place February 1-4, 2012, with music performances focused across Bowery Presents venues, and additional art, music, and gaming programming happening at museums, galleries, and DIY spaces throughout the boroughs.
Forms wil surprise and bring new experience? I bet. If it is anywhere as tedious as the explanation is, what it will do is have hipsters of all stripes rolling their eyes.
Pitchfork is so wrong so often that when I agree with them, I doubt myself. The review of Kanya West's ;ast album, one of my faves of 2010, turned my stomach so bad I started to second guess. And after dismissing Ryan Adams newbie, Pitchfork's renewal had me going back to give it a harder listen.
And when they are undoubtedly right, on an artist like Tune-Yards, I feel as though she has peaked just because they are a quantum website. Pitchfork make bands worse just by writing about them.