Comments on RIFF MARKET: LOVERBOY HERCULES

writing != hyping

writing positively != hyp...

2008-02-12T14:03:00.000-05:00

writing != hyping

writing positively != hyping

writing positively != kingmaking

IMP != pitchfork

how many hits a day do you think this blog gets, honestly? of those hits, how many of them are for google image searches of raquel welch? who are you and why am i here?

i don't think you get what i'm saying about the self-serving nature of internet music hype. i have nothing to gain by writing a freewheeling blog post about an album i like, on a blog with no ads and no readers. also, i don't make my name or hitcount by turning on my audience to new music. this is not where people come for their rapidshare tips. (R.I.P. shareminer.) but: any site or publication or entity with ads or a payroll or the ostensible purpose of turning people onto new music has something to gain from being first--crown in the cradle, as they say. in many ways the fader was the most "internet" of music magazines: it doubled down on every new artist, even people who hadn't recorded their own music, most of those people featured in the magazine go nowhere, but the Fader can lay a claim to breaking the small percentage that make it big. and... just got another e-vite to a dewar's party.

i don't hate anyone at pitchfork. many staffers started first as my friends before they became staffers, several of them are close friends, and the others i became relatively friendly with and still speak to with some frequency. granted i'm not crazy when some of my all-time favorite music writers (pitchfork or elsewhere--and yes i'm talking about you, rush) get caught in the vapidity and machinery of Being There First. but i certainly don't hate *them* for it. everybody has his version of a mortgage to pay for. we all gotta eat. the high road is a fallacy if not an impossibility.

you don't seem to understand why publications respect release dates. by the same token you fail to see the unfortunate necessity of something like a forkcast. which is to say you don't understand how i have no choice but to be above the fray. no more room; this inn is full.

2008-02-12T13:46:00.000-05:00

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I get a lot of what you're saying here about the s...

2008-02-12T12:58:00.000-05:00

I get a lot of what you're saying here about the self serving nature of internet music hype. But what are you doing differently here? Isn't hyping an album before it's officially released only going to encourage piracy? I know I go lookin around for rapidshares when I realize I'm gonna have to wait weeks to hear what people are already excited about. Your much maligned (now apparently by you too) friends at Pitchfork have been actively avoiding reviewing albums before their release for some time now, and I think this (combined with the whole avoidance of a frenzied rush to judgement thing) is one of the reasons for it.

Plus, isn't this album bound to get Best New Music from Pitchfork anyway? They put the track and video up on Forkast (which I actually do agree is pretty useless for whatever reason), Breihan's already repping for it, and they loved "I Am A Bird Now" and most other DFA shit anyways. You're indicting the "IMP" for overzealous kingmaking while simultaneously doing so yourself.

The album's good. I'm gonna buy it when it's finally released. But your tone is always as though you're somehow above the fray. I don't see it.

all of it: so true

2008-02-07T03:54:00.000-05:00

all of it: so true

Comments on RIFF MARKET: LOVERBOY HERCULES

writing != hypingwriting positively != hyp...

I get a lot of what you're saying here about the s...

all of it: so true

writing != hyping

writing positively != hyp...