This is another thread where we senselessly pick on Pitchfork

One thing's for sure, she ain't lookin' back.

sigh ... all those years spent in the company helicopter, tooling back and forth between Portsmouth VA, the Dwight School and daddy's Swiss Chalet ... thank god she's finally made something of herself.

I think Dusted Magazine is miles ahead of them.

just for kicks, look at this news item from today:

Swami Reissues Drive Like Jehu's Yank Crime

Catherine Lewis reports:
Put down your Starbucks, folks: Drive Like Jehu's signature 1994 LP, Yank Crime, was re-released this week on frontman Rick Froberg's label, Swami.

wrong guy, it's john reis' label.

This new-and-improved version includes all the tracks from the original release, plus three bonus tracks: "Bullet Train to Vegas" and "Hand Over Fist" (from the out-of-print 1992 Merge seven-inch), and the original version of "Sinews" from the Head Start to Purgatory compilation. The original version! Score one for the completists!

The San Diego-based group got together in 1990, as an outlet for Rocket from the Crypt members John "Speedo" Reis and Rick Froberg (aka Eric Froberg, aka Rick Farr, aka Rick Fork).

Rick was never in RFTC.

Prior to Jehu, the duo fronted Pitchfork, a band that came to define San Diego's booming post-punk sound (but not this website). Pitchfork (the band) released one seven-inch, "Saturn Outhouse", and the 1990 Nemesis full-length Eucalyptus (the seven-inch was appended to the CD version of Eucalyptus). To complete their new band's sound, Reis and Froberg added bassist Mike Kennedy and drummer Mark Trombino, both from the band Night Soil Man. Drive Like Jehu released their eponymous debut album in 1992 on Headhunter, and followed Rocket from the Crypt onto Interscope, who released Yank Crime in May of 1994. The band broke up shortly thereafter.

Well, after two national tours...

Following their demise, Mike Kennedy went on to play in a band called Corrugated with Lane Miller (And/Ors, Swivelneck) and drummer Tim Johnson (who is rumored to be the guy painting his armpits on the cover of RFTC's Paint as a Fragrance). Corrugated released the Future of Crime LP in early 2001 on Flapping Jet. Original members Reis and Froberg teamed with Delta 72's Jason Kourkounis and RFTC's Gar Wood to form Hot Snakes.

Gar Wood was not an original member of Hot Snakes, there's no bass on the first record.

After the release of their debut Automatic Midnight on Sympathy for the Record industry, Reis started the label Swami,

wait, just 2 paragraphs above you said it was Rick's label! The record was not released on SFTRI, it was released on Swami, using SFTRI's distro.

Swami's debut release was THREE YEARS AGO, the 2nd RFTC singles comp.

which-- in addition to the Yank Crime reissue-- released Hot Snakes' 2002 album Suicide Invoice, and is currently finishing up the re-release of Pitchfork's Eucalyptus for February 2003. As for Mark Trombino, he's trying to make ends meet with his little producing gigs for Jimmy Eat World, Blink 182, and Less than Jake.

Track list for Yank Crime re-release:

01 Here Come the Rome Plows
02 Do You Compute
03 Golden Brown
04 Luau
05 Super Unison
06 New Intro
07 New Math
08 Human Interest
09 Sinews
10 Bullet Train to Vegas (Rare 7" track)
11 Hand Over Fist (Rare 7" track)
12 Sinews (Original Version)

as mentioned here:

they switched up the bonus tracks on the sleeve (at least on my copy):
song 10 is "hand over fist"
song 11 is "bullet train to vega$"

I suppose by way of disclosure I should confess that they recently panned my band's record, but I swear my hatred of them was well-established long beforehand, and had they given the record anything other than a negative review, I would have been completely flabbergasted (and probably disappointed). In a way, a bad review from them is vindicating.

but sterling how is anything you've mentioned in your first post "senseless"??! the review just gave me a headache and made me momentarily sad for the children.

I would suggest that saying Chris Lombardi is Sub Pop's "engineer" (as opposed to co-owner and co-founder) is a rather serious oversight. As is saying a band is from New York when they're really from LA. As is getting tracklistings wrong, or entire band lineups wrong. You think this is nitpicking? Leaving aside the mountains of questionable prose ("wizard's caps" and "gris-gris pinball" guitar playing, etc.) can you really call it "journalism" if there's no regard for actual facts...?

a) i thought the comparison to kool keith was very very polite to missy (and i was comparing the eccentric, sci-fi personas more than i was mic skills). you'd have a hard time convincing me that missy is anywhere in the same class as kool keith. and her pedigree...if you don't acknowledge that kool keith's resume is ten times longer than missy's, you really don't know much about the genre.

b) the "here's a little story" sample... I'm not trying to push stuff off on ryan (because he does a wonderful job editing my reviews), but originally it was qualified with "among others." It also originally stated that the sample is taken from the song "DJ Premier in Deep Concentration" and not the album Deep Concentration (as the italics would indicate). And yeah, Slick Rick…but the Premier song is a personal favorite. The comment was just an observation…and I never tried to guess just to who Tim was giving props to (contrary to what your post suggested).

Jess:

I shot you an e-mail after the post on the 80’s list because you made a personal attack on me. As much as I disagree with Sterling and the rest, he has remained respectful (which I guess is something you don’t take for granted around here) and hasn’t tried to cut me down with quick insults. and sorry for the bluntness of "fuck you," but there's really not enough time in my schedule to deal with people such as yourself.

to all:

There certainly is an agenda at ILM that dislikes indie rock, underground hip hop, and pitchfork. But as much as you seem to hate on us, you sure spend a lot of time talking about us. You guys have a lot of interesting things to say about music (and i do check the boards for that reason), but when it comes to hip-hop, you're generally blinded by your politics (and i realize that this is a broad generalization of ILM posters). And so are my friends (many of whom are very invested in hip hop and its culture) who've e-mailed me today asking how the fuck could i give Missy such a good review. I tried to listen to this album without prejudice, and this was my honest opinion. Sorry if you weren’t feeling it.

(actually my theory of why, as a sub, i can open the mag on the day it comes back into the office and *immediately* have my eye fall on the only mistake in 120 pages, is because i've already subconsciously clocked it, except production time pressure forced me into denial and wouldn't let my conscious mind see it...)

i haven't the slightest idea abt pf's structure or finances, though it's obviously far easier to correct errors on a website (haha at sight and sound we had an errors and clarifications box on the letters page, addressing errors in previous issues... which wz usually fantastically dull stuff — gaffer on police academy xxiii is derrick bender not derek bender — but always felt like we were parading round in a dunce's cap)

And I don't think Pitchfork has an in-house fact-checker at all, frankly.

yes, sorry, that's what i wz getting at: it has to be as specific and deliberate an investment as whether or not you buy your own watercooler, and that's how you know whether this matters (although affordability is obviously also an issue) (credibility in this area being what economists wd call an "external" i guess)

anyway buffy just started so g'night all

(in other news, marcello is joining the so solid crew.)

(for the record I think Pitchfork is a fun read and it always seems like there's something unspoken informing the P-fork hatin' that goes on hereabouts -- class issues would be my guess but what do I know)

sez who?!?!

Sam: I personally think Missy has a huge resume considering her impact on hip-hop, the importance of EVERYTHING she's done, and the impact of her collaborations.

Plus if you listen to missy's lyrics, she's never actually rapped about the future hardly at all.

Now Sterling is it or is it not fair to say that if Pitchfork resorted to this kind of hyperbole you'd happily skewer them publicly?

Pitchfork are fine when they stick to what they do best, but ile this next to last year's Basement Jaxx review as being a collosal missing-of-the-point. It's one thing for pop-rap-hataz to ignore Missy and vibe on Timbaland's production, but praising a Missy album for being reminiscent of DJ Premier is about as useless as praising the Jaxx's "Broken Dreams" for sounding a bit like Stereolab (and in any case both comparisons are such enormously forced leaps that the comparisons become largely meaningless as well as useless).

Should Pitchfork just ignore this sort of music completely? I don't know, but I think they should choose suitable writers carefully; a lot of these articles suggest that the writer was (unknowingly) as uncomfortable reviewing the album as i would be reviewing free jazz. The fact that pop has more public exposure doesn't mean that it's any easier to approach when you have a writer who is miopically focused elsewhere.

It is nice to see a writer branch out like this and try to challenge themselves slightly, but that doesn't mean that readers are going to feel an obligation to smile encouragingly as the writer struggles their way through their private "My First Pop (or Free Jazz or Salsa or Indie Rap) Album" obstacle course. Especially when the reasoning they use verges toward the self-congratulatory so frequently.

But I should say again that I am talking out of my ass as usual -- what I'm reporting is just the feeling I get, not a well-formed opinion. It's just that there seems to be something rather personal going on in the anti-Pitchfork ribbing: the ribbing isn't corrective/helpful, just mean, really uncharacteristic of most ilX0r lighthearted verbal abuse.

On a more general level, I’m disappointed “Gossip Folks” and the 2nd half of the album was not mentioned.

And we're back live, Spring Break (boing), Virginia Beach, Timbaland thumps a pigeon on his windshield with his bhangra bass wiper kick. There's a galloping Eohippus tabla underneath and Missy spits (literally at one point) along with the jittery keyboard. Don't dance, convulse. "You like the way I s-s-sup my style", she taunts and there's a dupa fly in your soup. Missy howls "Nigggaaa" the way Kool Keith squeaks "Galaxy raaayys" mid-line Ultramagnetic's "Raise It Up." Tim goes itch me sun sheesh at the end, which, incidentally, is also the name of the choreographer's favorite power shake, the energy required to keep up with this jolt."

first person to tell me why i like THIS k.k. reference and not the one in the pfork review gets a cookie.

(this is kinda dumb)

but Brent D's review
of the new Missy today
has the following:

"'You ain't got ta sell ya' lil' phone / It's all right'"

Clearly this quote is
"Cellular phone", Mr. D!
(I've done this before,

especially when
I'm reviewing reggae stuff
and of course hip-hop)

Yeah, while I wish We Are Monster was an Album w/Overarching Concerns and Worldview, not just a Bunch Of Sweet Similar-Sounding Stand-Alone Tracks, I'm also convinced that in fact, a worldview is there, and probably an exciting one at that. I just haven't cracked one yet-- or just won't be able to.

(1) "Worldview" carrying connotations beyond just "perspective" or "outlook" but encompassing the literalness of "world" = international, as Mueller has said that he (i.e., Mueller himself) doesn't consider himself German w/r/t ethnic identity, but that said identity is meaningless within a postmodern digital age.