With the People’s List, Pitchfork may just have created the best mixture of content and HTML5 Web design ever published. The graphics and design on this are far above and beyond what most other publications of its nature are even considering — it’s interactive, reader-submitted, data-focused, and features clever integration with its ad sponsor, Converse. Nobody else is doing anything close to this right now. (And of course, Radiohead takes up a fifth of the top twenty, but that’s besides the point.)
For its recent feature on Passion Pit, music site Pitchfork tried an approach they’ve never tried before — they laid it out like a long, horizontal magazine article, one step away from Paste or Spin. It’s awesome (and a great read), in case you haven’t seen.
2000: 5.4, with a lot of taking to task for “contrived nonsense.” 2012: 9.0, with a lot of reassessment, at one point calling Conor Oberst “oddly undervalued.” This is one of our favorite albums.
This year’s edition of The Village Voice’s Pazz and Jop critics’ poll is live and includes individual top tens from the following Pitchfork writers and editors: Carrie Battan, Ian Cohen, Joe Colly, Ryan Dombal, Martin Douglas, David Drake, Tom Ewing, Sean Fennessey, Larry Fitzmaurice, Andrew Gaerig, Jayson Greene, Jess Harvell, Marc Hogan, Marc Masters, Eavvon O’Neal, Jenn Pelly, Matthew Perpetua, Amanda Petrusich, Amy Phillips, Mike Powell, Mark Pytlik, David Raposa, Mark Richardson, Jordan Sargent, Philip Sherburne, Brandon Soderberg, Brandon Stosuy, Joe Tangari, Paul Thompson, Jeff Weiss, Douglas Wolk, and Lindsay Zoladz.
The winner, while deserving, is a bit of a surprise.
theunintentionalasshole asks: In the post about Lana Del Ray you said: "Could a Black Kids-style backlash be next?". What happened to the Black Kids?
» SFB says: To put it simply, Pitchfork gave an early release of theirs a great review, then pulled out the pitbulls (er, pugs) when their actual major-label album came out. The site later explained itself, claiming it was a too-much-too-fast situation for the band, and that the album didn’t hold up. The potential parallel Lana Del Rey could face is that her early material got built up by a number of major blogs, and the backlash has already started. Will say this much: “Video Games” is a great song and it’d be a shame for the hype to overshadow the talent. — Ernie @ SFB
Pitchfork tears apart Childish Gambino: A few weeks ago, we noted how weird it was that Pitchfork basically ignored Donald Glover’s turn as Childish Gambino — to the point where if you only read Pitchfork, you’d be blissfully unaware that the “Community” star was a rapper. We suggested that what was likely to happen was that they would bury the review a few weeks later and rip the album apart. Hence, this review. 1.6. Accusations of “hashtag rap.” Suggestions that he’s only inspired by Kanye. Sounds about right. The words would’ve sounded braver if they had reviewed it the day after it came out, like they did with Lulu.
First topic: Pitchfork and selective coverage of hip hop, or why Donald Glover has a total of one mention on their entire site (as an extra in a music video).
She sings, ‘They know that Santa’s on his way,’ as though ‘Santa’ were actually a plague of locusts. She should’ve recorded this while drunk.The best line from Pitchfork’s funny review of the new She & Him Christmas album. Second best, in reference to Zooey Deschanel’s National Anthem performance: “Seriously, no worse than B- for vocal, and, okay, D+ for the dress.”
brianfeldman says: Between the above post and this one, SFB has really been killing it on casually namedropping the entire Pitchfork RSS feed.
» SFB says: Not true! We haven’t even mentioned Neon Indian yet! (Crap!) — Ernie @ SFB
(Source: shortformblog)
We rate this redesign a 9.5. We liked the old design a lot, so this was a little unnecessary, but not bad by any means. EDIT: They’re also doing a mobile version of the site, which it’s sorely needed for a while.
I’m moving back to New York in a few days. Unlike past...
OMG. I got so...
In this week’s Newsweek, a little...
Tumblr this morning. [h/t anne]
#@#$%!.tumblr.com
Here’s a hidden feature that shipped in...
Watch: PCB gets a visual shout out on GMA’s Yahoo/Tumblr...
If you were a music fan in 2008, you might have seen the Pitchfork review for Black Kids’ “Partie Traumatic” and asked yourself, “What the hell?!” Why’s that? Well, the band was built up by Pitchfork, with many people first hearing about them thanks to this review. Well, finally, with a couple of years of hindsight, Pitchfork has finally explained itself a little bit in their roundup of “One-List Wonders.” Key line: “Soon came signs it was all happening too fast.” Either way, “I’m Not Going To Teach Your Boyfriend How to Dance With You” is still a great song. source
Good God, Pitchfork is almost old enough to start driving. Let’s hope the awkward middle-teens treat them well.
The writer-directors have penned a new script that has been making the rounds in the past few days to Hollywood studios, say two people who’ve gotten a look at the script but asked not to be identified because they were not authorized to speak about it.
Titled “Pitchfork,” it’s a dramatic thriller about the middle-aged mother of an indie rocker who, after her son is killed in a car accident, seeks vengeance on an online blogger who had peddled snark about her son (on the music site Pitchfork, hence one of the title’s entendres). Things take a turn, though, when she finds out the snarker is just a teenager.
The film contains a juicy role for the mother (Susan Sarandon is one of the actresses who’s being sought for the part) as well as the teen blogger, with [Jonah] Hill having discussed it with the filmmakers, said a person familiar with the pitch.
We wonder if Ryan Schrieber’s heard about this yet — or if he’s agreed to the naming rights. This is kind of amazing.
Pitchfork’s feature about late-night talk shows booking adventurous/indie/underground bands is pretty interesting. A couple gems from the piece: “Conan” booked Deerhunter for the band’s national television debut in part to make a statement about their freedom from NBC (Jay Leno is only mentioned once in the entire piece … in passing); Jimmy Kimmel’s staff struggled to get Joanna Newsom to cut down one of her songs to four-and-a-half minutes; and Jimmy Fallon was personally involved in making this amazing Odd Future performance (shown above) happen. (And a bonus: R.E.M.’s national TV debut on David Letterman back in 1983.)
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