Funny article from the Philadelphia Weekly called "The Trouble with Hipsters." Pitchformula® is mentioned numerous times. The cover illustration has a striking resemblance to me and my girlfriend, but I only scored a 27 on the quiz. PBR is for suckers anyway.

Heh..that article is hilarious. It reads like an Onion article.

"Sure, mainstream listeners are dross-loving scum, but...come on! Dress in Abercrombie and Fitch you hipster bastards! If something doesn't sound like Elvis it's not good! Besides, hipster people think they're above everybody else, completely unlike me, who *is*."

Favorite review sources:

All Music Guide

cokemachineglow

Reverb Central (surf instrumental/vocals)

Vernon Joynson's guides to US/UK/South American psychedlic music (in book form & whenever the reviews can be found online, though now they can't)

Disquarium (exotica)

IndiePop Spinzone

babysue

Pop Matters

Least favorite review sources:

Rolling Stone

Pitchfork Media

Favorites:

All Music Guide

cokemachineglow

Tiny Mix Tapes

The New York Times

Pop Matters

Least Favorites:

Pitchforkmedia

Rolling Stone

The Guardian

Playlouder

I come from the Richard Meltzer school of rock criticism and as such have a very hard time taking Christagau seriously. Nick Tosches on the other hand...

quote:

Originally posted by hal:
For years and years it was Robert Christgau. He seemed to like more of what I liked than any other critic.

Then, it was All Music Guide. Until recently, I visited that site daily. Lots of great info.

Recently, Metacritic. Why not pick a site where you can have all the critics lined up next to each other? Chances are, if they all liked it and I didn't (Hidden Cameras, for example), I'm probably wrong.

But my one surest bet over the last 20 years is, What is mark f buying? I have no better barometer for what I'm likely to enjoy than knowing that mark f has or wants to buy a certain LP.

You can take that to the bank!!!


hal

(With LinnTate's permission, I'm going to steal his line - it's a good one) Now listening to and its growing on me - Devandra Banhart.

Sorry, J, but I feel like a little plug, especially after that Christgau crack!

I can't take Christgau seriously after the way he talks about Eminem. He thinks that Eminem is particularly amazing a performer because he manages to contrive controversy and piss off the parents of the kids who listen to him.

He thinks Eminem is the best performer in the world right now based on nothing that has anything to do with the actual music.

First he falls for Eminem's blatantly deliberate media image that Dr Dre helped him stir up in order to sell albums, then he implies said media image elevates him above Outkast.

See Richard Meltzer probably has never listened to Eminem. I mean NEVER. Like ran out of the room when the guy came on. Or at least that's what he's done with REM and tons of other "important" bands. He never felt that being in a band made anyone more of an authority on rock than he was just being Richard Meltzer. He used to review stuff all the time without even listening to it. I know this seems like bad journalism, but if you read his reviews next to Christagau's 9 times out of 9 I'd trust Melz. I think he can walk through walls.
And Mark F. I agree. When I posted I wasn't that wild about the new BRMC I did so out of shock, because usually our tastes are dead on. (So much so I think I may be wrong about BRMC.)

quote:

Originally posted by J_Deighton:
When I posted I wasn't that wild about the new BRMC I did so out of shock, because usually our tastes are dead on. (So much so I think I may be wrong about BRMC.)

Yeah, I didn't like their 2nd album much but the new album is pretty dope. Though I can't help but think I like it that much more because they're far less popular than the White Stripes.

my favorite critics:

- The Onion (AV Club)
- Lost at sea
- Neumu.net (not all the time but...)

the worst critics:

- entertainment weekly
- popmatters
- New York Times
- Pitchfork, the less worst, but one of the worst ('cause they do "0/10" critics too often)

I like to look at Pitchfork just to see what the kids are into these days, but after their rediculous review of the new Impulse remix project- getting the history of the Impulse! wrong from start to back- it made me shutter. Also they just gave Brooce a perfect 10 for BORN TO RUN. Et Tu Pitchfork?

I've been reading Q Magazine since December '02, and so far, it's been great. I like their free CDs, and I've bought a few CDs based on their say-so. (Roisin Murphy, Do Me Bad Things, Interpol, The Darkness' new album, The Pixies). The other magazines that I read are New Zealand mags: Real Groove and Rip It Up.
Real Groove is a great magazine. Not only do they have Chris Knox writing for them (if you don't know who Chris Knox is, go to Wikipedia or Google, because I'm not telling you), but they cover a lot of genres, from hip-hop to reggae to electronica to metal, and more.
Rip It Up? Meh. It's OK, but it's fallen off a bit. It's been going since 1977, so some fall-off is all right. I still have a look because of their reviews, the editor and the letters section (which Real Groove has dumped).

I probably don't make enough use of online resources, only regularly using metacritic. I will have to check out some of the other ones mentioned in this thread, including/as well as those that make up metacritic's tallies.

In hard copy I regularly buy Q and occasionally get Uncut (which is just as good IMHO but doesn't jump out of the newsagent's shelf at me in the same way as Q).

I make sure to buy The Observer newspaper on the one Sunday a month it includes its free music mag Observer Music Monthly, which I would rate around the same level as Q but it has a slightly different perspective. Being a freebie with a newspaper it can also disengage more from the hype that some of the music press goes in for in order to further their own popularity by latching on to the most popular acts.

I very rarely buy Mojo, it seems stuck in the past (target market I suppose) but it's good within that segment.

I hardly ever buy NME but it has its moments.

The only reviews I trust 100 percent are Allmusic. The New York Times and New Yorker are usually pretty spot-on.

My rule of thumb for a record review is this: if it takes you more than 500 approximate words to say what you need to say, you're smart to the point of being a dumbass. Tighten it up.

If you can do it in approximately 300 and be satisfied, you can be a music journalist and then (AND ONLY THEN) are you allowed to write a 800-1200 word essay about how Sufjan Stevens' "Come On Feel the Illinoise!" represents a slow resurrection of leftist American patriotism through class warfare Americana and a strengthening locus of spiritual faith.

Those that are genuinely good write for Allmusic and The New York Times. Those that dwell in the mediocre and pointless write for Pitchfork Media and PopMatters.

quote:

Originally posted by Yay!:
The only reviews I trust 100 percent are Allmusic.
My rule of thumb for a record review is this: if it takes you more than 500 approximate words to say what you need to say, you're smart to the point of being a dumbass. Tighten it up.

Those that are genuinely good write for Allmusic and The New York Times. Those that dwell in the mediocre and pointless write for Pitchfork Media and PopMatters.

Umm...you do know there's a 400 word minimum in writing reviews for Pitchfork, don't you? They're not allowed to tighten it up past that. Not that I agree with that (I usually finish in 200-300 words), but that's the way it is.

Allmusic has blown ass for years now. The Spice Girls' first two albums are both 4.5/5 while the New Kids On The Block don't have an album under 3/5. Those people aren't critics; they write for a GUIDE. That's like saying the encyclopedia is the best review source.

Allmusic tends to compare within genres, therefore the higher than expected ratings for some. People like Stephen Thomas Erlewine and Heather Phares seem to be good reviewers IMO. Sometimes Stephen OVER-analyses, but he's professional. I don't like all AMG reviews, but a good many of them I like.

quote:

Originally posted by MattD:
I don't like all AMG reviews, but a good many of them I like.

I hate their ratings more than their reviews. I use the site almost every day and never once considered their shitty ratings. It's a shite guide that way.

It seems to me that more recent ratings have fit the reviews better. But I have had issues with their ratings, too. For example, the new Ashlee Simpson CD got 2 stars, but the review sounded like a 1 star. Also, with some of Johnny Loftus's 2 1/2 star reviews, he might as well rate it 3. I'm no fan of Loftus as a reviewer either.

quote:

While we're on the topic, feel free to suggest a music publication not currently listed at metacritic.com that you would most like to see added to the site.

Eye Weekly

Short reviews with 1 - 5 star rating guide.

Looks like the writers spent about 100 seconds on each of those year-end list entries. Good God how boring. The design is lacking and the writing is mediocre.

No offense, but I will not visit that site again.