Name	Pitchfork Media
Logo
Caption	Pitchfork's main page in March 2009.
Url	www.pitchfork.com
Type	Music webzine
Registration	No
Owner	Ryan Schreiber
Author	Ryan Schreiber
Launch date	1995
Current status	Active

Pitchfork Media, usually known simply as Pitchfork or P4k, is a Chicago-based daily Internet publication devoted to music criticism and commentary, music news, and artist interviews. Its focus is on underground and independent music, especially indie rock. However, the range of musical genres covered extends to electronic, pop, hip hop, dance, folk, jazz, metal, and experimental music.

The site, which was established in 1995, concentrates on new music, but Pitchfork journalists also review reissued albums and box sets. The site has published "best-of" lists–such as the best albums of the 1970s, 1980s, 1990s, and 2000s, and the best songs of the 1960s, 1990s and 2000s–as well as annual features detailing the best singles and albums of each year since 1999.

History

Pitchfork was created in Minneapolis, Minnesota in 1995 by Ryan Schreiber, then just out of high school. Influenced by local fanzines and college radio station KUOM, Schreiber, who had no previous writing experience, aimed to provide the Internet with a regularly updated resource for independent music. At first bearing the name Turntable, the site was originally updated monthly with interviews and reviews. In May 1996, the site moved to the domain PitchforkMedia.com, began publishing daily, and was renamed "Pitchfork", a reference to Tony Montana's tattoo in the 1983 film Scarface.

In early 1999, Schreiber uprooted Pitchfork from its Minneapolis base and relocated to Chicago, Illinois. By then, the site had expanded to four full-length album reviews daily, as well as sporadic interviews, features, and columns. It had also begun garnering a following for both its extensive coverage of underground music and its writing style, which was often unhindered by the conventions of print journalism. In October of that year, the site added a daily music news section. Early 2009 saw a complete renovation of the website's layout and a move to a new domain, Pitchfork.com.

In 2008, the book The Pitchfork 500: Our Guide to the Greatest Songs from Punk to the Present–edited and compiled by the Pitchfork staff and freelance writers–was released.

Influence

The Washington Post cited Pitchfork in having played a part in "breaking" artists such as Arcade Fire, Broken Social Scene, Clap Your Hands Say Yeah, and Modest Mouse.

Conversely, Pitchfork has also been seen as being a negative influence on some indie artists. As suggested in a Washington Post article in April 2006, Pitchfork's reviews can have a significant influence on an album's popularity, especially if it had previously only been available to a limited audience or had been released on an independent record label. A dismissive 0.0 review of former Dismemberment Plan vocalist Travis Morrison's debut solo album Travistan led to a large sales drop and a virtual college radio blacklist. On the other hand, as one Washington Post reporter wrote, "an endorsement from Pitchfork – which dispenses its approval one-tenth of a point at a time, up to a maximum of 10 points – is very valuable, indeed." Clap Your Hands Say Yeah member Lee Sargent has discussed the impact of Pitchfork's influence on their album, saying, "The thing about a publication like Pitchfork is that they can decide when that happens. You know what I mean? They can say, 'We're going to speed up the process and this is going to happen...now!' And it was a kick in the pants for us, because we lost control of everything." Wired magazine has attributed the success of indie rock band Broken Social Scene to editor-in-chief Ryan Schreiber's hype-generating review of the band. Frontman Kevin Drew said that, following the review, "Everyone was coming up to us, saying, 'We heard about you from Pitchfork.' It basically opened the door for us. It gave us an audience", and that the band "suddenly found [themselves] selling out venues."

Criticism

One common complaint is that the site's journalism suffers from a narrow view of independent music, favoring lo-fi and often obscure indie rock and giving only cursory treatment to other genres. Some critics have accused the site of rating albums from particular music scenes or artists more favorably in order to bolster its influence when the music becomes popular.

The majority of criticism, however, is aimed at the site's album reviewing style, with the site being accused of often placing the emphasis on the reviewer's own writing and personal biases over the actual music being reviewed. Pitchfork is also known to give "0.0" ratings, deeming the work utterly worthless. One critic wrote that Pitchfork's "0.0" rating of a particular album amounts to no more than a "cheap publicity stunt" for a website that "thrives on controversy."

Parodies

When Pitchfork asked comedian David Cross to compile a list of his favorite albums, he instead provided them with a list of "Albums to Listen to While Reading Overwrought Pitchfork Reviews". In it, he satirically piled over-the-top praise on fictional indie rock records, mocking Pitchfork Media's reviewing style. In 2004, comedy website Something Awful created a parody of Pitchfork's front page. Entitled "RichDork Media", the page makes reference to nonexistent, obscure-sounding indie-rock bands in its reviews, news headlines and advertisements. The rating system measures music on its proximity to the band Radiohead. A similar, more light-hearted parody was created by Sub Pop. On September 10, 2007, the satirical newspaper The Onion published a story in which Pitchfork Media founder and editor Ryan Schreiber reviews music as a whole, giving it a 6.8 out of 10. In Jeffrey Lewis' suicide-themed song entitled "So What?", after describing a failed jump from a bridge, he jokingly sings, "A large garbage barge comes and drops twenty tons of toxic waste on my face/And as I sink from the sun to whatever’s to come/My last sight is the bums who all change their signs into twos, threes, and ones/And after this discourse there’s a 3.6, of course it must be Pitchfork." On August 12, 2009, the pop culture website PopSense satirically reviewed an entire day's worth of Pitchfork content in the style of a Pitchfork review. In September of 2009, Steamroller Media launched a website, seemingly devoted to satirizing Pitchfork. It also seems to be on hiatus since March 2010.

Leaked music

In August 2006, a directory on Pitchfork's servers containing over 300 albums was compromised. A web surfer managed to discover and download the collection, which included The Decemberists' The Crane Wife and TV on the Radio's Return to Cookie Mountain, both of which had previously leaked to peer-to-peer networks. Allegedly, one of the albums on the server, Joanna Newsom's Ys, had not been available previously on file-sharing networks.

Deleted and changed reviews

Pitchfork has been criticized for deleting older reviews from their archive in an effort to keep up with the changing trends in indie music. One such example is the 9.5/10 review written for Save Ferris' album It Means Everything. Negative reviews of two By Divine Right albums were also removed from Pitchfork after members Brendan Canning and Leslie Feist became successful with the band Broken Social Scene.

The site has also removed its earlier reviews of three albums which it later rated 10.0/10: Boards of Canada's Music Has the Right to Children, DJ Shadow's Endtroducing, and Neutral Milk Hotel's In the Aeroplane Over the Sea.

Misinformation

Pitchfork has been criticized directly by artists for misrepresentation, most famously in 2007 by the artist M.I.A. for what they later described as "perpetuating the male-led ingenue myth" with regards to her work. Some have argued this is not isolated to Pitchfork in the music press, while this incident was later cited and similarly condemned by the artist Björk.

Music festivals

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Intonation Music Festival

In 2005, Pitchfork curated the Intonation Music Festival, attracting approximately 15,000 attendees to Chicago's Union Park for a two-day bill featuring performances by 25 acts, including Broken Social Scene, The Decemberists, The Go! Team, and a rare appearance by Les Savy Fav.

Pitchfork Music Festival

On July 29 and 30, 2006, the publication premiered its own Pitchfork Music Festival in Union Park, Chicago. The event attracted over 18,000 attendees per day. More than 40 bands performed at the inaugural festival, including Spoon and Yo La Tengo, as well as a rare headlining set by reunited Tropicália band Os Mutantes.

The festival has been held every year since, and has featured artists such as Animal Collective, Fleet Foxes, Bon Iver, The National, The Hold Steady, !!!, Spoon, Ghostface Killah, Dinosaur Jr., Cat Power, Spiritualized, Mastodon, Yoko Ono, Stephen Malkmus, Vampire Weekend, De La Soul, Yo La Tengo, The New Pornographers, Of Montreal, Band of Horses, M. Ward, Iron and Wine, The Mountain Goats, Clipse, Girl Talk, Grizzly Bear, No Age, Ted Leo, Les Savy Fav, Devendra Banhart, Liars, and Deerhunter.

The 2009 festival, which took place in July, featured Built to Spill, The Jesus Lizard, Yo La Tengo, and Tortoise performing setlists voted on by attendees, as well as performances by The Flaming Lips, The National, Grizzly Bear, M83, The Walkmen, Yeasayer, Blitzen Trapper, The Black Lips, The Pains of Being Pure at Heart, Matt and Kim, and Pharoahe Monch.

All Tomorrow's Parties

In 2007, the Pitchfork Music Festival was expanded to three days (Friday, July 13 – Sunday, July 15), with the first day being a collaboration between Pitchfork and the UK-based production company All Tomorrow's Parties as part of the latter's "Don't Look Back" concert series, in which artists performed the content of albums in their entirety. Performers that evening included Sonic Youth playing Daydream Nation, Slint playing Spiderland, and GZA/Genius playing Liquid Swords. The collaboration continued in 2008, with Public Enemy, Sebadoh, and Mission of Burma.

Pitchfork also collaborated with All Tomorrow's Parties to co-curate the ATP vs Pitchfork festival in Camber Sands, UK.

Rating system

Pitchfork's music reviews use two different rating systems: Album reviews are given a rating out of 10.0, specific to one decimal point. In addition, certain notable albums are rewarded with a label of "Best New Music" or "Best New Reissue". Individual track reviews were formerly ranked from 1 to 5 stars, but on January 15, 2007, the site introduced a new system called "Forkcast". In it, instead of assigning tracks a particular rating, reviewers labeled them: "New Music"; "Old Music"; "Video"; "Advanced Music"; "Rising"; "WTF"; their most favorably regarded songs, "On Repeat"; and for the least favored songs, "Delete". On March 12, 2009, Pitchfork switched back to an older system, rating songs in a range between 1 and 10 points. Since that time, Pitchfork has stopped using a numbered rating system for individual songs and has introduced a feature known as "Best New Tracks" which consists of a selection of notable recent songs.

Albums rated 10.0

Initial release: ...And You Will Know Us by the Trail of Dead – Source Tags & Codes 12 Rods - Gay? (EP) Bonnie 'Prince' Billy – I See a Darkness Bob Dylan – The Flaming Lips – The Soft Bulletin Robert Pollard – Relaxation of the Asshole (In the review, this album received rating of (1)0.0, giving it a dual rating of 10.0 and 0.0.) Radiohead – OK Computer and Kid A Amon Tobin – Bricolage Walt Mink – El Producto Kanye West - My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy Wilco – Yankee Hotel Foxtrot

Re-release and compilations:

Beastie Boys - Paul's Boutique

The Beatles - Abbey Road, The Beatles, Magical Mystery Tour, Revolver, Rubber Soul & Sgt Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band

Boards of Canada – Music has the Right to Children

Glenn Branca – The Ascension

James Brown – Live at the Apollo

The Clash – The Essential Clash & London Calling

John Coltrane –

Elvis Costello – This Year's Model

The Cure - Disintegration

The Dismemberment Plan - Emergency & I

DJ Shadow – Endtroducing.....

The Fall – This Nation's Saving Grace

Serge Gainsbourg - Histoire de Melody Nelson

Galaxie 500 - On Fire

Joy Division – Closer & Unknown Pleasures

Kiss – Alive!

Neutral Milk Hotel – In the Aeroplane Over the Sea

Pavement – Slanted and Enchanted, Crooked Rain, Crooked Rain &

Pink Floyd – Animals

R.E.M. - Murmur & Reckoning

Radiohead - The Bends, OK Computer & Kid A

Otis Redding - Otis Blue

The Replacements - Let It Be

The Rolling Stones - Exile On Main St.

Sonic Youth – Daydream Nation

Spiritualized - Ladies and Gentlemen We Are Floating in Space

Bruce Springsteen – Born to Run

The Stone Roses - The Stone Roses

Television – Marquee Moon

The Velvet Underground – Loaded

Weezer - ''Pinkerton

The Who - Odds & Sods

Wire – Pink Flag & Chairs Missing

XTC – English Settlement

Neil Young - After the Gold Rush & Everybody Knows This Is Nowhere

Various Artists –

Pitchfork.tv

On April 7, 2008, Pitchfork Media launched Pitchfork.tv, a website displaying videos and original content related to independent music acts. On March 12, 2009, Pitchfork.tv was incorporated into Pitchfork's new domain, Pitchfork.com.

See also

Internet Underground Music Archive

The Hype Machine

References

External links

Pitchfork sites

Official website

Pitchfork Music Festival

Other links

Giving Indie Acts A Plug, or Pulling It (The Washington Post, 30 April 2006).

Pitchfork e-zine tells indie fans what's hot and what's not (Chicago Tribune reprint, published 8 May 2005).

The Pitchfork Effect (City Pages, 14 June 2006).

Interview with Ryan Schreiber (The Chicagoist, 10 March 2006)

The Joanna Newsom Leak

Category:Companies based in Chicago, Illinois Category:Internet properties established in 1995 Category:Music publications Category:Music webzines

Name	Dan Deacon
Background	solo_singer
Born	August 28, 1981West Babylon, New York,
Origin	Baltimore, Maryland,
Instrument	Effects pedals, wave function generators, keyboards, trombone, tuba, voice, computer
Genre	Electronic, electropop
Years active	2003–present
Label	Carpark Records, Mistletone, Wildfire Wildfire, Psych-o-path, Standard Oil Records, Comfort Stand
Url	http://www.dandeacon.com
Time traveler	No

Dan Deacon (born August 28, 1981) is an American electronic musician who originates from Babylon, New York and Baltimore, Maryland.

Life and music history

Dan was born and raised in suburban Long Island, New York. Dan graduated from Babylon High School in 1999. Dan attended the Conservatory of Music at State University of New York at Purchase in Purchase, New York, where, in addition to performing his solo material, he played in many bands, including tuba for Langhorne Slim and guitar in the improvisational grindcore band Rated R, and had a small ensemble. He completed his graduate studies in electro-acoustic and computer music composition. He studied under composer/conductor Joel Thome and Dary John Mizelle.

In 2004 he moved to Baltimore, Maryland and moved into the Copycat Building and, along with friends from SUNY Purchase, formed Wham City, an arts and music collective.

His first two albums as a solo artist, Meetle Mice and Silly Hat vs Egale Hat were released on CD-R on the Standard Oil Records label in 2003 while he was a student at Purchase. The albums are both collections of computer music and live recordings of ensemble pieces. They are markedly different from his first popular record, 2007's Spiderman of the Rings, in that they contain almost no tracks where Deacon sings or uses vocal manipulation. Most of the pieces are instrumentals or sound collages.

Following those two albums came another set of records that were pieces of sine waves. "Green Cobra is Awesome Vs The Sun" is a 42-minute piece of six sine waves that slowly drift. "Goose On The Loose" is a 60-minute piece of Wavetek 180 signal generator being processed through a Digitech Whammy Pedal and a Line 6 Loop/Delay pedal.

His next two releases were the EPs Twacky Cats on Comfort Stand Recordings and Acorn Master on Psych-o-path Records. These were the first releases that contained material with which most of his current listeners would associate him.

Spiderman of the Rings was Deacon's first commercially distributed full-length album, released by Carpark Records in May 2007. The album was well received by the press and was included in the Best New Music section of Pitchforkmedia.com. The album was also ranked as number 24 on the website's "Top 50 Albums of 2007".

Ultimate Reality was released as a DVD in November 2007. It was a return for Deacon to composing music for others to perform. The pieces for percussion and electronics were performed by Jeremy Hyman of Ponytail and Kevin Omeara of Videohippos. The pieces were set to collaged and heavily altered video created by Deacon's long time friend and collaborator Jimmy Joe Roche.

Deacon has performed at several leading art centers including Whitney Museum of American Art in New York, Getty Center in Los Angeles, and the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden in Washington, DC.

Originally to be released in the fall of 2008, Deacon's new album entitled Bromst was released on March 24, 2009. It was produced by Chester Gwazda at Snow Ghost Studios in Whitefish, Montana and features live instruments including player piano and a variety of percussion instruments. It was also very well received. Pitchfork gave it an 8.5/10, and it made it to the "best new music" section. Bromst also ranked #46 in Pitchfork's Best Albums of 2009.

Live shows

Dan Deacon is famed for his live shows. When playing solo he performs on floor level within the audience, his musical devices being set up on a low table, and surrounded by the crowd.

In stark contrast to Deacon's electronic performances, the Bromst tour was with a 14-person ensemble of members of various Baltimore bands including So Percussion, Future Islands, and Chester Gwazda. He was accompanied by various acts including Nuclear Power Pants. This tour is also notable for the musicians' use of a veggie oil powered bus.

In the summer of 2009, Dan Deacon went on tour with two other notable acts, Deerhunter and No Age, on the "No Deachunter" tour.

In the fall of 2009, Dan Deacon was forced to cancel the small remainder of his North American tour, which included shows at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in Troy, NY and Connecticut College in New London, CT due to health complications involving a battle with acute sciatica, all of which were rescheduled in winter of 2010.

Viral video

Deacon recorded the track "Drinking out of Cups". In 2006, Liam Lynch created a video to accompany the piece. The compilation has been viewed more than 12 million times on YouTube. As the video spread, rumors of what the video was and how it was made quickly began forming. One popular rumor is that it is a recording of someone on LSD locked in a closet. Deacon has stated numerous times that this is "not true, in fact I've never done acid."

Discography

A Green Cobra Is Awesome vs. the Sun (single EP) (2003)

Goose on the Loose (2003)

Silly Hat vs. Egale Hat (2003)

Meetle Mice (2003)

Live Recordings 2003 (2004)

Twacky Cats (2004)

Porky Pig (Standard Oil Records New Music Series) (2004)

Acorn Master (2006)

Spiderman of the Rings (2007)

The Crystal Cat (single) (2007)

Ultimate Reality (soundtrack) (2008)

Bromst (2009)

Media appearances

July 23, 2003: performed on WFMU

February 21, 2004: performed again on WFMU

February 2005: performed "Ohio" on WSAV, Savannah, GA's local NBC affiliate

February 13, 2006: featured on Liam Lynch's Podcast Lynchland. Portions of Deacon's song "Big Big Big Big Big" are also used for Lynchland's opening and closing credits on each episode.

May 26, 2006: performed again on WFMU

October 25, 2007: featured on Public Radio International's The Sound of Young America.

April 5, 2009: featured on National Public Radio's All Things Considered.

May 29, 2009: featured on American Public Media's Sound Opinions.

December 4, 2009: named artist of the year by The Athens Blur Magazine in Athens, Georgia

Charts

August 1, 2006: Acorn Master hits #162 on the CMJ Radio 200 charts.

March 24, 2009: Bromst hits #199 on the Billboard Top 200 charts.

Awards

Silly Hat vs. Egale Hat #18 in Top 30 most played albums on WFMU in November 2003

Meetle Mice Third Best Album of 2003 on Top Ten Albums by OCDJ

Best Solo Performer 2005 Baltimore City Paper Critics Poll

Best Solo Performer 2006 Baltimore City Paper Readers Poll

Acorn Master #1 in Top 30 played albums on WFMU in July 2006

Spiderman of the Rings named Best New Music on Pitchfork Media in May 2007 with a 8.7 rating

Bromst named Best New Music on Pitchfork Media in March 2009 with a 8.5 rating

Awarded "Best Awesome" by COOL! Magazine

Spiderman of the Rings named one of the best records of 2007 by CMJ New Music Monthly

Crystal Cat Single listed in top 100 singles of 2007 by Rolling Stone Magazine

Spiderman of the Rings named one of the 25 best records of 2007 by Pitchfork Media

Festival Appearances

SXSW 2007, Austin, TX

NXNW 2007, Portland, OR

CMJ 2007, New York, NY

Virgin Festival, Baltimore, MD

Pitchfork Music Festival 2007, Chicago, IL

Laneway Festival 2008, Australia

Coachella 2008, Indio, CA

Future Days Festival 2008, Dublin, Ireland

Dot to Dot 2008, UK

Electric Picnic 2008, Ireland

Sled Island Music Festival 2008, Calgary, AB Canada

Bumbershoot 2008, Seattle, WA

TIM Festival 2008, Brazil

Fun Fun Fun Fest 2008, Austin, TX

Langerado Festival 2008, Big Cypress, FL

Fuck Yeah Fest 2008, Los Angeles, CA

Golden Plains Festival 2009, Australia

Transmodern Festival 2009, Baltimore, MD

Primavera Sound, 2009, Barcelona, Spain

Lollapalooza 2009, Chicago, IL

Villette Sonique 2009, Paris, France

Big Ears Music Festival, Knoxville, TN

Treasure Island 2009, San Francisco, CA

Campus A Low Hum, Bulls, New Zealand

Transmediale 2010, Berlin, Germany

MtyMx 2010, Monterrey, Mexico

Sperm Festival, Prague, Czech Republic

Donau Festival 2010, Krems, Austria

Bonnaroo 2010, Manchester, TN

Whartspace 2005-2010, Baltimore, MD

Haldern Festival 2010, Germany

Incubate 2010, The Netherlands

High Zero 2010, Balitmore, MD

Moogfest 2010, Asheville, NC

Iceland Airwaves 2010, Iceland

Museum and Art Institution Performances

National Museum of Contemporary Art, Bucharest Romanian, April 2010

Baltimore Museum of Art, Baltimore, MD USA, July 2009

Institute of Contemporary Art, Boston, MA USA, June 2009

Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH USA, June 2009

Contemporary Art Institute of Detroit, Detroit, USA, May 2009

Fort Worth Museum of Art, Fort Worth, TX USA, April 2009

The Hirshorn Gallery, Smithsonian Institute, Washington, DC USA, November 2008

Detroit Museum of Modern Art, Detroit, MI USA, October 2008

The Getty Museum, Los Angeles, CA USA, July 2008

Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, NY USA, February 2008

Model Arts Centre and Niland Gallery, Sligo, Ireland, December 2007

Corcoran Museum, Washington, DC USA, November 2007

The Walters Museum of Art, Baltimore, MD USA, February 2007

References

External links

Wham City video profile

Dan Deacon interview for the New York Times

Dan Deacon's electronic jungle — A June 2007 Associated Press interactive piece with Dan Deacon explaining his instruments.

Dan Deacon article April 2009

Pitchfork article

Music Towers article

Muso's Guide live review - Fabric London

Photo gallery of live performance

Channel 59 official band website

Category:American electronic musicians Category:State University of New York at Purchase alumni Category:Living people Category:People from Baltimore, Maryland Category:1981 births

Name	Kurt Vile
Background	solo_singer
Birth name	Kurt Vile
Instrument	Vocals/Guitar/Trumpet/Banjo/Keyboard
Genre	Rock, heartland rock, roots rock, lo-fi, indie rock
Occupation	Musician
Label	Matador Records
Associated acts	The War on Drugs

Kurt Vile is a guitarist and singer from Philadelphia. He was signed by Matador Records as a solo artist in May 2009.

His music has been likened to that of Bruce Springsteen, Bob Seger and Tom Petty. His first album for Matador Records is titled Childish Prodigy. In an interview with Women's Wear Daily, Sonic Youth bassist and singer Kim Gordon was asked, "Your guilty pleasure right now?" Gordon replied, "Listening to Kurt Vile's latest CD, Childish Prodigy. Guilty because I listen to it too much..."

Vile released two previous solo albums, God Is Saying This To You and Constant Hitmaker, on Mexican Summer and Woodsist, respectively. He plays solo shows as well as shows with a backing band called The Violators.

Vile's "He's Alright" is featured during the credits of Eastbound & Down in the second season's finale.

Discography

Albums

Constant Hitmaker (2008, Gulcher Records; 2009, Woodsist Records)

God Is Saying This To You (2009, Mexican Summer)

Childish Prodigy (2009, Matador Records)

EPs

The Hunchback 12" EP (2009, Richie Records)

Square Shells 12" EP (2010, Matador)

Singles

He's Alright 7" single (2009, Matador Records)

In My Time 7" single (2010, Matador Records)

References

External links

Interview with Kurt Vile

Category:American male singers Category:American folk singers Category:American rock singers Category:American singer-songwriters Category:American rock guitarists Category:Living people Category:Musicians from Pennsylvania