The Social History of the MP3.
posted by chunking express on Aug 24, 2009 - 75 comments

Grab your John Deere hat and your Asian girlfriend! Metafilter's most hated music website is telling you what the 500 best songs of the 21st century are! [more inside]
posted by bardic on Aug 19, 2009 - 147 comments

Coincidental to the publishing of her memoir, Candy Spelling - the widow of legendary television producer Aaron Spelling - is selling her Beverly Hills mansion for $150 million. (Daughter Tori Spelling is not expected to share in the proceeds.)
posted by Joe Beese on Mar 27, 2009 - 23 comments

I think that we can all agree that the best-selling duo in rock history, Hall & Oates, are pretty freaking awesome. They recorded some of the greatest songs in pop history, including "Rich Girl", "Kiss on My List", "Private Eyes", "I Can't Go for That (No Can Do)", "Maneater", and "You Make My Dreams Come True". They were incredible live. And they participated in the greatest back-alley song-writing duel of 1978. Also Daryl Hall considers himself a modern-day warlock. However, last night the world learned that Hall and Oates's are sad. They are extremely saddened by the upcoming departure of Alan Colmes from his show Hannity and Colmes, and they have chosen to express their sadness through song. [more inside]
posted by ND¢ on Dec 12, 2008 - 88 comments

Paulo in London asks musicians to write him a story on an index card. [more inside]
posted by goodnewsfortheinsane on Apr 15, 2008 - 7 comments

So, um, Pitchfork.tv launches today. [more inside]
posted by brevator on Apr 7, 2008 - 80 comments

The Internet Hype Machine Bubble. Idolator has an introspective on the boom and bust cycle of the online indie music scene, focusing on the band Black Kids, who with only one EP under their belt, are already being hyped to an extreme extent. With the conversation taking prominence over the music itself, are we seeing the dark side of the Cluetrain? [more inside]
posted by zabuni on Oct 26, 2007 - 29 comments

[...] now they’re really interested in this one song– and they still won’t make eye contact, looking through their little lenses, taping this one song for their blogs or for their fucking YouTube [accounts] or whatever, [...] and it just pissed me off.

Band of Horses singer gives San Diego YouTuber the finger, prompting reactions ranging from sympathy with the artist to basically "stop whining, it's part of the job".
posted by goodnewsfortheinsane on Jul 21, 2007 - 74 comments

Pitchfork has unveiled their Top 50 Albums of 2006 (don't also miss their Top 100 Tracks of 2006). Rolling Stone's Top 50. Prefix's Top 50. Stylus's Top 50. For those who love these lists, the deluge has only begun...
posted by Mach3avelli on Dec 20, 2006 - 176 comments

Stephen Colbert has a “Green Screen Challenge”. The Decemberists have their own green screen challenge. Colbert calls them idea stealing jerks and issues a "Second Green Screen Challenge": "to edit me into the Decemberists' green screen challenge... Let's see how well they perform their trademark brand of hyper-literate prog rock when I'm slicing off their legs at the knee." Now the Decemberists are saying that awesomely wielding lightsabers was their idea, and that Colbert must have copied them, and they have the "Decemberists vs Stephen Colbert Guitar Solo Challenge".
posted by ND¢ on Dec 1, 2006 - 61 comments

Master's thesis on My Bloody Valentine's album Loveless (full thesis as pdf, html).
posted by goodnewsfortheinsane on Sep 25, 2006 - 86 comments

Clell Tickle: Indie Marketing Guru (YouTube)
posted by runkelfinker on Aug 13, 2006 - 22 comments

Pitchfork? Predictable? Let's take an empirical approach.
posted by goodnewsfortheinsane on Aug 8, 2006 - 69 comments

Sound Team didn't think much of the review that Pitchfork gave them and replied via YouTube. [via] (which also reports on the winner of the Moo & Oink contest).
posted by tellurian on Jul 5, 2006 - 94 comments

"So I think we maybe have this sort of snobbish reputation. But we're just really honest, opinionated music fans." (via)
posted by bardic on Apr 30, 2006 - 178 comments

Os Mutantes have reunited and will be playing the Pitchfork Media Festival this summer. Archival footage of the band discussed here.
posted by hydrophonic on Apr 14, 2006 - 12 comments

Clap Your Hands Say Yeah are a band that, less than a year ago, were making music without the help of a record label, pressing CDs themselves and selling them at concerts and on the Internet. Then the following happened: June 9: Dan Bierne writes about the band on his MP3 blog, June 14: Pitchfork Media posts a review of the song "In This Home On Ice", June 15: Blogger Gothamist posts an interview with the band, June 20: Blogger Stereogum announces the band's show at the Knitting Factory, June 21: Gothamist reports that David Bowie was in the audience at the Knitting Factory show, and June 22: Pitchfork posts one of a slew of reviews of Clap's first album. Now, they've been named to dozens of critics 'best of' lists, they're playing Conan and Letterman, and are about to embark on a new tour. Why choose today to post an article about a band blowing up written in November you ask? Because their tour kicks off tonight at the 9:30 club in DC, and you can listen to it live.
posted by ND¢ on Mar 8, 2006 - 140 comments

NPR’s Live Concert Series site offers recordings of recent live performances by James Brown, Sinead O’Connor, Iron & Wine and Calexico, Son Volt, My Morning Jacket, The White Stripes, M. Ward, Sigur Ros, Bloc Party, The Decemberists, and live tomorrow at 7:30 p.m. ET, Colin Meloy.
posted by ND¢ on Jan 27, 2006 - 46 comments

Everyone is aware, I'm sure, that year-end or best–however many lists are really just not that interesting, and the discussion surrounding them falls along similar lines all the time. However, someone always links to them anyway. Here's Pitchfork's, of the top 50 albums of this year. Here's some guy's top ten of 2004. Two writers for Dusted (the rest to be linked from this page, theoretically). Stylus Magazine's picks, and those of Pop Matters.
posted by kenko on Dec 19, 2005 - 108 comments

The Confabulators. They Are Confabulators!! They Write About Music!! They Have Come From The Decemberists Board!! Ahhhh! It began on a message board (reg. required). All the latest news about The Decemberists, Sufjan Stevens, and now, more! Their latest entry: A review of Pitchfork's review of Sufjan's Illinois. That'll teach 'em.
posted by ludwig_van on Aug 8, 2005 - 18 comments

The power of the Pitchfork.
Rating: 7.8
posted by Quartermass on Dec 1, 2004 - 96 comments

Pitchfork's Top 100 Albums of the 1970s (dis|cuss|discuss).
posted by LinusMines on Jul 1, 2004 - 117 comments

pitchformula.com This project combines a computer science background and a songwriting hobby with an unhealthy obsession for popular music reviews. In it, I attempt to come up with a new computer-assisted songwriting method which takes music critics' opinions into account. By writing software to statisically analyze the content of several thousand record reviews from the Pitchfork music website (www.pitchforkmedia.com), I generate a set of compositional guidelines based on the musical preferences expressed by the critics. I then use those guidelines to write and record a couple of original songs, discussing in detail the relationships between the songs and the data that I have collected. [via music (for robots)]
posted by soundofsuburbia on Jun 16, 2004 - 18 comments

DJ Danger Mouse has been making waves recently with his Grey Album that cross-pollinates the music of The Beatles' classic White Album with the lyrics and delivery of Jay-Z's recent swan song, the Black Album. The results? "One of the more interesting pirate mashups ever done." (Pitchfork). "Most ambitious remix." (Village Voice). "As fun as it is daring." (Boston Globe). "Ultimate remix record." (Rolling Stone). Not surprisingly, EMI is far from amused by the unsanctioned and unapproved project and the limited release will no longer be distributed. So, download it now (or check out these Real Player samples).
posted by boost ventilator on Feb 18, 2004 - 92 comments

Pitchfork's 100 Best Albums of the 1990's I'm sure that you'll find plenty to bitch about on this list, but hang on, the last 20 will be posted tomorrow. You can also see where they stood at the turn of the decade.
posted by trbrts on Nov 25, 2003 - 67 comments

Warp Records becomes the first label to make entire discography available for download as pay-per-track at Bleep.com.

via Pitchforkmedia.com
posted by iamck on Nov 23, 2003 - 32 comments

THE PIXIES ARE BACK!!!! I'm so happy I'm crying!
posted by black8 on Sep 10, 2003 - 55 comments

Best. Festival. Ever? The Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival in Indio, CA is back this April 26th and 27th with a ridiculous array of talent...but the return of Manchester, TN's Bonnaroo Festival on June 13th, 14th and 15th could give Coachella a run for its money. [links via Pitchfork]
posted by boost ventilator on Mar 5, 2003 - 17 comments

And so it begins: while I've already seen half a dozen "best ___ of 2002" lists, the year end list I look forward to, Pitchfork's Top 50 Albums list is out for 2002. It's just the right mix between "so mainstream there are no surprises" and "so indie even your second cousin's girlfriend's brother in that band hasn't heard of them" though perhaps they're leaning towards the latter this year, seeing how I've only heard about a quarter of all the albums listed.
posted by mathowie on Dec 22, 2002 - 55 comments

Today, the music critics at pitchfork.com posted the first half of their "Top 100 Albums of the 1980s" feature.
posted by Pinwheel on Nov 18, 2002 - 51 comments

The Mailbox Bomber's band sucks , according to Pitchfork Media, one of the most intellectual and pretentious music review sites on the web. "Can you feel the pain?" Helder implores on "Back and Black," a passable stab at Incesticide-era Nirvana, albeit with horrendous lyrics and a gratuitous punk-rock stomp at the coda. "Stop the game!" Helder winces, as though squeezing out a fat one, and we really can feel the pain. Related issue: the band's webpage (also discussed here) has been taken by Angelfire down for "violation of terms of service." Still, Google's cache of the page reveals nothing objectionable. Is Angelfire right to take down the webpage of a nationally known criminal (the first time I can think of that the issue has arisen)? Or do their Terms of Service really have a "no domestic terrorism" clause?
posted by tweebiscuit on May 9, 2002 - 28 comments