Tonight's Radiohead Show to be Webcasted Live

By Mango Starr on 08-28-2008

I'm so sick of reading "criticism" from the usuals -- Pitchfork, Dusted, Coke Machine Glow, etc. I mean, they're usually a regurgitation of one-sheets anyway. So, where are we expected to go for the real nitty gritty criticism? The kind of honest criticism from THE PEOPLE? Amazon, of course! Despite the critical reception for No Age's new album, Nouns (TMT Review), here are some comments that'll make you question your favorite pro critics:

- Lovblad (Geneva, Switzerland): Avoid!!!! This is really pretentious and horrible. In the other reviews as well as elsewhere this has been treated very very reverentially whereas it is really a lot of talentless and pointless stuffing around on instruments...A waste of time and money. Buy the original innovative stuff such as My Bloody Valentine, Loop or Sonic Youth and when you are done with them...buy them again before this...No really, this goes beyond testing my patience and I have listened to a lot of bad stuff in my life (belive my friends, parents and wife!).

- Thomas Szabo "Cheater" (Charlottesville, VA): I always give a CD three listens before condemning it. This CD sucks. I listened at home. I listened at my desk. I listened in the car. I can listen to nearly anything and enjoy. This CD sucks. Most CD's have 1 or two songs that probably shouldn't have been published....Nothing on this CD should have ever leaked out. Sorry to be so negative but when I finally flipped off the 2ed song, when I couldn't stand it any more...I had to look and make sure that I had actually gone forward because the 3rd cut was as bad as the 2ed.

- S. D. Mason (Greenville, NC): The sound of these indie rockers is certainly a strange one, but the word that ultimately describes it is frustrating. The music itself is good, the instrumentation isn't groundbreaking and the band members aren't geniuses with what they have in their hands, but they at least make it fit. The production, however, is what makes the album dismissable. The vocals are pushed back to such an extent that it's extremely difficult to discern them from the rest of the music. Maybe that's the point. If so, I don't get it. It's not bad, and certainly none of it is unlistenable; their punk rock, indie, and electronica influences (most notably Boards of Canada) are all high-spirited. Next time, maybe?

Point being: don't buy the album. But I hear their live show is amazing:

$ Battles

% Free show courtesy of FUJIFILM!!!!!

By Petey V on 08-28-2008

Björk has called out journalists (and singled out Pitchfork) for spreading misinformation about credits for her albums. According to a post on her website, the Icelandic singer had been reading in various press sources, including the English-language newspaper The Reykjavik Grapevine, that composer and producer Valgeir Sigurðsson had written the entirety of her 2001 album Vespertine. Björk not only discredited this rumor by offering the Vespertine credits, but turned her correction into a slammin' attack on rockism in music reporting.

After an initial explanation that Sigurðsson's role was strictly as a programmer and engineer for two-thirds of the album, Björk launched into an enumeration of ideas about what may have caused the confusion. The four reasons that Björk suggested might have prompted the error included the fact that the "pop critics of this world have not totally yet worked out the difference between engineering, programming, writing, and producing electronic music." Unlike a rock recording session with a strict division between those playing instruments on one hand and engineers and producers on the other, "visually this appears very similar: a man/woman sitting in front of a computer."

Björk also discusses the role of sexism in the misreporting, comparing her situation to that of M.I.A., who confronted Pitchfork in an interview last year over similar issues of sexist reporting regarding Diplo's role in her music. Pitchfork, in the wake of Björk's reference to the M.I.A. issue, have denied that they ever credited Diplo with M.I.A.'s albums.

Björk's other two (far less incendiary) points include that critics have probably not read the album credits very thoroughly for albums that they may be reviewing or reporting on. She also notes that the misconception has had such a long life because neither her nor Sigurðsson ever publicly denied it. Björk also dispelled rumors that contemporary classical wunderkind Nico Muhly has written arrangements for her. Once more, all together now: "This is not true. Journalists: please read the creditlist before you write your articles." Done and done, Ms. Guðmundsdóttir.