Back in the day Pitchfork was amazing. The new crop of reviews that would pop up mysteriously at the beginning of every day was actually a reason to get up in the morning – it was like a newspaper with stories that you actually gave a shit about. I didn’t have a home computer at the time so I would walk to the computer labs at the University of Saskatchewan and spend an embarrassing amount of time trolling on the internet looking for new bands to devour.
Pitchfork was a tool that could help catapult relatively unknown bands into the hands of an audience that really appreciated the effort put into finding new music. It was also really cool when hard-working but under-appreciated bands would get a boost – Saskatoon’s The Deep Dark Woods got mad props and their audience doubled in a day. Amazing.
However nowadays its really fucking hard not to be jaded about Pitchfork and anything they market.
The majority of the reviews skim the upper crust of mainstream crapola. Tellingly, I haven’t been excited about Pitchfork’s smorgasbord of pabulum in a long time.
Of course I still take an obligatory peek once in awhile, hoping for a scrap of the faded glory of what was once the world’s best music blog.
Cloud Nothings’ Attack on Memory is currently gracing Pitchfork’s top albums section. Relatively unknown to me, I have to admit that they are right to do so – this LP rocks in a way that’s both fun and urgent. It’s a punk rock album that rocks in such a straightforward way that it’s impossible to be pretentious. But at the same way it’s a little too cerebral for all the garage-weirdo stuff that’s popping out of the woodwork across Canada.
It’s also the first album released in 2012 that I’ve lost my shit over.
So thanks for the suggestion Pitchfork, you collection of scummy whores.
Cloud Nothings blah blah fucking blah.
