http://thepitchfork500.com/

Did anyone ever get or read this thing?

To a point. But you don't get a book deal without substantive clips or some kind of audience (like Klosterman) and as those wells dry up and are supplanted by blogs, you'll wind up with the musical equivalent of that "Stuff White People Like" book. Nothing that really sticks to your ribs.

For perspective, writing a 33 1/3 book (which in most cases is going to take a few months to most of a year to research and write) only gets you $3,000 plus a portion of royalties after break-even. And not many of those books move big sales. Or that "Kill Your Idols" book from a few years back that I've seen in every music section of every book store I've been in; none of those writers got paid more than a small stipend.

so in a way, it boils down to publishers being cheap and greedy, not giving a fuck about what's even being published, and just trying to make a buck. the public is then delivered shitty content, and if you're not smart enough too look outside the box, you're fucked.

same as it ever was

its a little funny to hear he thinks its angrier here given his ranting, not that its not angrier here...

To the extent that we read music journalism to discover bands/albums, I guess its worth pointing out that its hard for a legitimate professional writer to compete with an amateur blog that post up whole albums illegally for free dl. That's surely a large part of the issue.

I know I'm not alone in valuing a filter though. Kingfish and I were chatting recently about the tyranny of choice and how easy it is to decide its not worth seeking stuff out without a more reliable filter. The marginal value of finding the 3783th album that i'll like is less than the annoyance of listening to ten meh to terrible albums to find it.

I agree with just about everything you're saying here. You've got audio tech advancements making it astonishingly easy for music to be recorded and distributed (not a bad thing) so anyone can get access to just about everything and then trumpet their opinions for a cost of close to $0. Together, those forces make it both easy and intimidating to be a music fan these days without a trusted filter to help in some way. CMJ NMM was my first, crowds at punk shows and college radio came next, then Obner in its headiest/pre-baby days.

And you need to note my earlier point on Whiney's rants; it's a fair bit of showmanship to get eyeballs. At base, it's a philosophy I think we all agree with at least in some way, then dressed up in Bill Hicks and Howard Beal outrage. Wouldn't be a bit surprised if he's got some theater background or reps doing standup. Dude's smart and knows he has to eat.

Of course Whiney thinks its angrier here -- people went from dangling from his nuts because he was a CMJ writer when we were on CMJ to not giving a fuck about him once I ruined the board.

Like Billy said - that's the pot calling the kettle black.

Well Gar, it was kinda my job to dangle from his nuts.

Yep.

I listen to less new music now than ever.

I like that Pitchfork (yep, still check it everyday) has that LaLa (RIP May 31 - thanks Apple ) album player next to their reviews. Even if their review hates on an album, I can listen to it immediately and form my own opinion. As far as music writing goes, I'm only going to read it if I'm already a huge fan of a band or if I've made a new discovery and want to find out more. Reviews don't hold a lot of weight with me anymore and there is so much hype nowadays on meh albums that you have to be your own filter even more so nowadays.

billy g and Kingfish are a different breed of music listener than me. While I want to find the 3,000th album I like, I also want to hear who is out there doing original music and progressing the form, instead of relying on pastiche. I still get excited by people making music that is "NEW".

I think you're being over critical of my tastes. I get excited by new music too. There are a lot of bands that are no where near "reg-rock" that I've liked. However, at some point there's so much crap in the new music category that I'm really finding it not worth the search anymore. I'm not going to listen to 10 albums posted on magistka or anywhere else everyday to find one album in 3 months that I may play 5x.

It's easier to just stick with what I know I like.

I always find it funny that a lot of the old posters who dominated CMJ and don't really post here magically appear when they're referenced here.

I like the fact that I can readily access anything I might THINK I like. But, I have to have SOMETHING tell me what is out there. So whether its RS, Spin, Dumpjack, Rads or Dalen, I like knowing who likes stuff I might dig, and then being able to snag it.

Like that Peter Wolf album, got good reviews, Rads said he wasn't super keen on it, but it hits a sweet spot for me.

I get the idea that its not just about finding music you like and that there's a more intellectual component of discovery that you can get enjoyment from. We just channel our efforts here differently. You want to stay on the cutting edge of new music, where I've been more interested in tracing back the roots of today's music and exploring music of different time periods, genres/subgenres and countries.

If I really agreed with that there was anyone progressing the form in a meaningful maybe I'd have a different attitude. The more I dug deep into 50's, 60's and early 70's music though, the more convinced I am that there really have been any significant progression in the form since the early 70's. That doesn't mean that there isn't plenty of good music today. I just don't really believe that I am missing anything revolutionary.

agree with this. i simply don't have to sort through dozens of new albums every week. i appreciate finding a few journalistic/blog sources or people I trust and going with their recommendations along with some investigating of my own when I get the time.

jesus, that's depressing.

But he's still listening to, or discovering, music that is new to him. How is that depressing?

Not really. Law school exams are depressing. More to life than "new" music.

ok, fair play. i jumped the gun.

but man, so many great new artists/releases....i can't imagine missing out on them.

right on.

i have all day to download and check out new stuff. i forget that others don't sometimes. my bad.

Yeah me too, and so does most of the board I'd assume but I also identify with the excitement of coming across something the 70s I've never heard before.

i clicked the link, saw the picture of him double barreled, shook my head and closed the tab

And hey, look what arrived in my mailbox today.



Looking forward to this. He said his plan for the book was to focus heavily if not exclusively on The Bomb Squad's contribution and the production aspect. 140-some pages, which for this series is on the hefty side.

I just forced myself to listen to a couple of minutes of whiney's diatribe, and he actually almost made me reconsider my desire for a professional filter and switch over to Dalen's side.

And his hat looks dumb.

No one said he had to be the filter. Sleep around a little bit.