In the last decade, no organ of music criticism has wielded as much influence as Pitchfork. It is the only publication, online or print, that can have a decisive effect on a musician or band’s career.... [W]hatever attracts people to Pitchfork, it isn’t the writing. Even writers who admire the site’s reviews almost always feel obliged to describe the prose as “uneven,” and that’s charitable. Pitchfork has a very specific scoring system that grades albums on a scale from 0.0 to 10.0, and that accounts for some of the site’s appeal, but it can’t just be the scores.... How has Pitchfork succeeded where so many other websites and magazines have not? And why is that success depressing? A lengthy history and review of
Pitchfork [Media], from an inexpensive online alternative to a music zine, to "indie" music kingmaker, and thoughts on pop music (criticism).
[more inside]
posted by filthy light thief
on Jan 24, 2012 -
109 comments
Arcade Fire devise 'synchronised artwork' for The Suburbs. Montreal band develop album art in the digital age, providing bonus material to accompany the download of their latest LP. "The idea is simple... Tightly sync a series of images with specific moments in a song using the m4a format. Like some podcasters do, but with micro chapters for each lines of the lyrics. In addition to that, we were able to add good old hyperlinks also synchronised to the song. This gives the possibility for the band to add, at any moments, all kinds of references related to each song. They plan to change and update those links occasionally."
says: Vincent Morisset, director of Arcade Fire's Miroir Noir live DVD
posted by Fizz
on Aug 4, 2010 -
51 comments
The Most Serene Republic, quite possibly the most underrated of all the acts on the
Arts & Crafts label, create music in a similar vein to fellow Canadian indie rockers
Arcade Fire,
Stars, and
Broken Social Scene. Experience their explosive, big-band, polyphonic, experimental flair by listening to their 3 releases in full:
Underwater Cinematographer (2005),
Phages EP (2006), and
Population (2007). A few video music videos as well:
The Men Who Live Upstairs,
Oh God,
Content Always Was My Favourite
posted by Christ, what an asshole
on Sep 30, 2008 -
21 comments
Chicago based designer & music fan J Tyler took it upon himself to craft a music video for The Arcade Fire song "
My Body Is A Cage" using clips from the classic Sergio Leone film Once Upon A Time in the West. The clips evoke the elegaic, reflectively somber beauty in the song remarkably well - so well that the video reached the attention of someone in the Arcade Fire's camp, who emailed Tyler and requested his permission to
post his work on their official site. If you have the bandwidth, I highly recommend
this direct download link to a high-res quicktime version, it's much, much better than streaming flash.
posted by jonson
on May 20, 2007 -
72 comments
