The Difference Between Me and Pitchfork.com
I reviewed this album, The Loud Wars by So Many Dynamos, for the website I write for. And I gave it a 6/10, saying that it was fun but the vocal melodies lacked any sort of hooks and that it made the album as a whole fall a little flat. So indie website Pitchfork.com's review of the same album popped up today, and their reviewer gave it a 5.5/10. His review was more of a dissection of the band as compared to the indie rock scene in Washington DC circa 1999. Whatever, not my scene or one I ever cared about, but apparently this guy did. A whole lot.
Anyway, a comparison he makes near the end of the review brought it all home for me- "Stovall's voice seems to be veering a little farther from Travis Morrison (which is good!) and a little closer to that dude from Cake. That is less good." Off the top of my head, I have no idea who Travis Morrison is (turns out he's the lead singer for indie heroes The Dismemberment Plan, who I never got into) but I'm annoyed that the guy can't be bothered to find out that Cake's lead singer is named John McCrea. Or worse, that it was an intentional snub to make sure we know that Cake is not a cool, Pitchfork-approved band. That snobbish, we-are-the-arbiters-of-cool attitude is what has always turned me off about Pitchfork, even though it's much less prevalent now than it was, say, 3-4 years ago.
Anyway, a comparison he makes near the end of the review brought it all home for me- "Stovall's voice seems to be veering a little farther from Travis Morrison (which is good!) and a little closer to that dude from Cake. That is less good." Off the top of my head, I have no idea who Travis Morrison is (turns out he's the lead singer for indie heroes The Dismemberment Plan, who I never got into) but I'm annoyed that the guy can't be bothered to find out that Cake's lead singer is named John McCrea. Or worse, that it was an intentional snub to make sure we know that Cake is not a cool, Pitchfork-approved band. That snobbish, we-are-the-arbiters-of-cool attitude is what has always turned me off about Pitchfork, even though it's much less prevalent now than it was, say, 3-4 years ago.