Pitchfork Media, usually known simply as Pitchfork, is a Chicago-based daily Internet publication established in 1995 that is devoted to music criticism and commentary, music news, and artist interviews. Its focus is on underground and independent music, especially indie rock.^[1]

History[link]

Pitchfork was created in Minneapolis, Minnesota in 1995 by Ryan Schreiber,^[2] 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.^[3]

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 June 2011, Mark Richardson was named the latest editor-in-chief of Pitchfork.^[4]

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[link]

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.^[5]

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."^[3]

Examples[link]

• Arcade Fire is among the bands most commonly cited to have benefited from a Pitchfork review. In a 2005 Chicago Tribune article, a Merge Records employee stated, "After the Pitchfork review, Funeral went out of print for about a week because we got so many orders for the record."^[6]
• 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."^[7]
• 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."^[8]

Rating system[link]

Pitchfork's music reviews use two different rating systems:

• Album reviews are given a rating out of 10.0, specific to one decimal point.^[9] 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.^{[citation needed]} 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.^{[citation needed]}

Pitchfork.tv[link]

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

Music festivals[link]

Intonation Music Festival[link]

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.^[10]

Pitchfork Music Festival[link]

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.^[11]

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.^{[citation needed]}

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.^{[citation needed]}

All Tomorrow's Parties[link]

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.^{[citation needed]}

Pitchfork also collaborated with All Tomorrow's Parties to co-curate the ATP vs Pitchfork festival in Camber Sands, UK.^{[citation needed]}

Criticisms[link]

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.^[12]

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.

Parodies[link]

• 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.^[13]
• In 2005, Aziz Ansari and Rob Heubel hosted an episode of the NYC TV indie music show New York Noise while pretending to be Pitchfork's editors in chief
• 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.^[14] A similar, more light-hearted parody was created by Sub Pop.^[15]
• 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.^[16]
• 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."^[17]
• 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.^[18][19][20]

Leaked music[link]

In August 2006, a directory on Pitchfork's servers containing over 300 albums was compromised. A person 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.^[21]

Deleted and changed reviews[link]

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.^[22] Similarly, the original review of Psyence Fiction by UNKLE received 9.8/10, but the review was later deleted and when the group released their next album 4 years later, the website gave it a score of 5.0/10 and described it as an improvement on their debut, calling Psyence Fiction 'one of the most anti-climactic and jaw-dropping disappointments of recent years' which 'came up short on little things like, oh, vitality, restraint, emotional resonance, and tunes.'^[23]

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 and their own solo work. Steven Byrd's deleted review of By Divine Right's Bless This Mess, on which Canning and Feist play bass and guitar, went so far as to compare the band to "retard(s) with a guitar" who "wouldn't know Rock and Roll if she broke into their house and beat up their children," rating the album 1.8 out of ten.^[24] After Belle & Sebastian's "comeback" in the mid-to-late 2000s, Pitchfork removed their 0.8-rated review of The Boy With the Arab Strap from the site.^[25][26] The reviewer lambasted the band for writing songs that were "so sticky they should be hanging from Ben Stiller's ear, and I don't mean that in a good way."^[27] Pitchfork originally gave the Flaming Lips album Zaireeka a scathing 0.0/10 in a review that also derided all Flaming Lips fans.^[28]

Interestingly, Pitchfork has also removed the 9.4/10 review for the album Things Fall Apart by The Roots, presumably because it specifically stated that Pitchfork "will not un-publish anything."^[29]

Misinformation[link]

Pitchfork has been criticized directly by artists for misrepresentation, most famously in 2007 by the artist M.I.A. for what one of their writers later described as "perpetuating the male-led ingenue myth" with regard to her work.^[30][31] 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.^[32] Pitchfork's articles on M.I.A. and her career since the incident have been noticeably negative and have attracted media commentary;^[33] an article titled "M.I.A. Uses Pitchfork Tweets to Diss Pitchfork" was printed by LA Weekly in 2010.^[34]

Pitchfork Album and Song of the Year winners[link]

Pitchfork Album of the Year[link]

Year	Artist	Album	Nation	Source
1999	The Dismemberment Plan	Emergency & I	United States	[6]
2000	Radiohead	Kid A	England	[7]
2001	The Microphones	The Glow Pt. 2	United States	[8]
2002	Interpol	Turn on the Bright Lights	United States	[9]
2003	The Rapture	Echoes	United States	[10]
2004	Arcade Fire	Funeral	Canada	[11]
2005	Sufjan Stevens	Illinois	United States	[12]
2006	The Knife	Silent Shout	Sweden	[13]
2007	Panda Bear	Person Pitch	United States	[14]
2008	Fleet Foxes	Sun Giant/Fleet Foxes	United States	[15]
2009	Animal Collective	Merriweather Post Pavilion	United States	[16]
2010	Kanye West	My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy	United States	[17]
2011	Bon Iver	Bon Iver	United States	[18]

Pitchfork Song of the Year[link]

Year	Artist	Song	Nation	Source
2003	Outkast	"Hey Ya!"	United States	[19]
2004	Annie	"Heartbeat"	Norway	[20]
2005	Antony & The Johnsons	"Hope There's Someone"	England	[21]
2006	Justin Timberlake featuring T.I.	"My Love"	United States	[22]
2007	LCD Soundsystem	"All My Friends"	United States	[23]
2008	Hercules and Love Affair	"Blind"	United States	[24]
2009	Animal Collective	"My Girls"	United States	[25]
2010	Ariel Pink's Haunted Graffiti	"Round and Round"	United States	[26]
2011	M83	"Midnight City"	France	[27]

See also[link]

• Internet Underground Music Archive
• The Hype Machine

References[link]

External links[link]

• Official website
• Pitchfork Media on Twitter
• Pitchfork Music Festival

Silver Jews
Background information
Origin	New York City, U.S.
Genres	Country rock, indie, alt-country
Years active	1989–2009
Labels	Drag City
Associated acts	Air Miami, Ectoslavia, Government Issue, Lambchop, New Radiant Storm King, Pavement, Stephen Malkmus and the Jicks, Palace, Rites of Spring, Scud Mountain Boys, Tim Chad and Sherry, Super Bowl Rocket Ship
Members
David Berman Cassie Berman
Past members
Tim Barnes Pete Cummings Tony Crow Duane Denison Doug Easley Jill Fantauzza Mike Fellows Matt Hunter Brian Kotzur Paz Lenchantin Dan Mackta Stephen Malkmus Davis McCain Rian Murphy Bob Nastanovich Paul Niehaus Will Oldham Peyton Pinkerton Andra Sherman Chris Stroffolino William Tyler Steve West J. D. Wilkes Azita Youssefi Tayna Small

Silver Jews were an indie rock band from New York City, formed in 1989 by David Berman along with Pavement's Stephen Malkmus and Bob Nastanovich. Berman remained throughout and was the only constant member. During the last few albums, Cassie Berman became a regular member of the band. They disbanded in 2009.

Background[link]

Early years[link]

Though often labeled as a Pavement side project, Silver Jews were actually formed at roughly the same time as Pavement. Berman has falsely quoted the band's name originating from the transcription of a billboard that he saw reading "Silver Jewelry", although he has stated in an interview that the name was actually intended to be a pseudonym for a conceptual art piece and later evolved into the actual band.^[1] Others claim, however, that the name pays homage to Silver Apples, The Silver Beatles, and slang for blonde-haired Jewish people.^[2]

Touring[link]

Though Berman had avoided playing live for most of the band's existence, the Silver Jews embarked on their first-ever tour following the release of Tanglewood Numbers in 2005. They toured North America, Europe, and Israel in 2006. A documentary, titled Silver Jew, was filmed during the band's time in Israel.

Breakup[link]

On January 22, 2009, Berman announced via the official Drag City messageboard that he planned to retire from music and that the Silver Jews would play their final show on Bluegrass Underground at Cumberland Caverns in McMinnville, Tennessee at 3 pm on January 31, 2009.^[3][4] The caverns are located 333 feet underground, and only 300 general admission tickets were made available. Berman stated that he would play his 15 favorite Silver Jews songs. He also wrote that his intentions are to move to "screenwriting or muckraking".^[4] He closed the entry by saying, "I always said we would stop before we got bad. If I continue to record I might accidentally write the answer song to 'Shiny Happy People'."^[5]

Berman originally planned for the concert to be recorded and aired sometime in February 2009 on Nashville's famed WSM AM radio station;^[4] however, the day before the show, Berman posted on the Drag City message board to say that he had "negotiated out of the WSM part out of the deal."^[6] The concert was documented by several 16 mm film cameras, and Berman has hinted at a possible DVD release of the show at some point in the future.

The last song that the Silver Jews performed live was "Smith and Jones Forever."

Post-Silver Jews Projects[link]

Brian Kotzur (drummer) is the front man/drummer for Tim Chad and Sherry and also plays drums for Super Bowl Rocket Ship.

William Tyler plays guitar for Tim Chad and Sherry as well.

Discography[link]

Albums[link]

• Starlite Walker (1994) LP/CD
• The Natural Bridge (1996) LP/CD
• American Water (1998) LP/CD
• Bright Flight (2001) LP/CD
• Tanglewood Numbers (2005) LP/CD
• Lookout Mountain, Lookout Sea (2008) LP/CD

EPs[link]

• The Arizona Record (1993) CD/12"
• Tennessee (2001) CD/12"

Singles[link]

• "Dime Map Of The Reef" (1990) 7"
• "Silver Jews And Nico" (1993) split 7" with New Radiant Storm King
• "Blue Arrangements" (1998) 7" available only with issue #7 of Stop Smiling
• "Send in the Clouds" (1998) CD/7"
• "Hot as Hell" (1999) CD/7"

Filmography[link]

• Silver Jew (2007)

References[link]

External links[link]

• Silver Jews website.
• Drag City: Silver Jews
• The Corduroy Suit, a comprehensive unofficial Silver Jews website
• Silver Jews on Myspace
• An Interview with David Berman at About.com
• Silver Jews' Dave Berman interview at musicOMH.com
• Interview with David Berman
• "From a Texaco Sign", PopMatters interview (11/2005)
• Interview at Cool Beans - reprint at Acetone Magazine (English-Spanish)
• David Berman interview on MonsterFresh.com

Fiona Apple
Apple performing in Seattle in 2006
Background information
Birth name	Fiona Apple McAfee Maggart
Born	(1977-09-13) September 13, 1977 (age 34) Manhattan, New York, United States
Origin	New York City, New York
Genres	Piano rock, baroque pop, alternative rock, experimental rock, jazz
Occupations	Singer-songwriter, musician
Instruments	Vocals, piano, optigan
Years active	1996–present
Labels	Epic
Website	Fiona-Apple.com

Fiona Apple McAfee Maggart (born September 13, 1977) is an American singer-songwriter and pianist. Apple met international acclaim for her 1996 debut album, Tidal, which was a critical and commercial success. At the age of nineteen she received a Grammy Award for Best Female Rock Vocal Performance for the single "Criminal" from that album in 1998.

After Tidal, Apple released the critically acclaimed, though less commercially successful albums, When the Pawn... (1999) and Extraordinary Machine (2005). A perceived shelving of Extraordinary Machine was met with vocal protests from her fans, who campaigned against her record label in 2005. Apple's musical style contains elements of jazz and alternative rock.

Early life and family[link]

Born in New York City, Apple is the daughter of singer Diane McAfee and actor Brandon Maggart. Her older sister, Amber, sings cabaret under the stage name Maude Maggart. Her half brother Spencer is a director and directed the video for her single "Parting Gift." Her half brother Garett Maggart starred in the TV series The Sentinel. In addition, her maternal grandparents were Millicent Green, a dancer with the George White's Scandals, a series of 1920s musical revues similar to the Ziegfeld Follies, and Johnny McAfee, a multireedist and vocalist of the big band era; her grandparents met while touring with Johnny Hamp and his orchestra. Apple was raped at the age of twelve, a trauma she would later allude to in songs such as "Sullen Girl."^[1][2]

Career[link]

[edit] 1994–1998: Career beginnings and Tidal

Apple was introduced to the music industry in 1994, when she gave a demo tape containing the songs "Never Is a Promise," "Not One of Those Times," and "He Takes a Taxi" to her friend who was the babysitter of music publicist Kathryn Schenker.^[1] Schenker then passed the tape along to Sony Music executive Andy Slater.^[3] Apple's contralto voice, piano skills and lyrics captured his attention, and Slater signed her to a record deal.^[4][5]

In 1996, Apple's debut album, Tidal, was released by Work. The album sold 2.7 million copies and was certified three times platinum in the U.S.^[6][7] "Criminal," the third single, became a hit and the song reached the top forty on the U.S. Billboard Hot 100. The song's controversial Mark Romanek-directed music video — in which a scantily clad Apple appeared in a 1970s-era tract house — played on MTV. Apple later said: "I decided if I was going to be exploited, then I would do the exploiting myself."^[8] Other singles from Tidal included "Shadowboxer," "Sleep to Dream," and "Never Is a Promise." In 1997, while accepting MTV Video Music Award for "Best New Artist" for her song Sleep to Dream, Apple said: "This world is bullshit, and you shouldn't model your life on what we think is cool, and what we're wearing and what we're saying."^[9] The New Yorker and NYRock characterized her MTV award show speech as ungrateful and "ridiculous."^[1][4] Apple was unapologetic. "I just had something on my mind and I just said it. And that's really the foreshadowing of my entire career and my entire life. When I have something to say, I'll say it," she said, responding to these criticisms in an article in Rolling Stone in January, 1998.^[10]

During this period, Apple also made recordings of The Beatles' "Across the Universe" and Percy Mayfield's "Please Send Me Someone to Love" for the soundtrack of the film Pleasantville. She later canceled the last twenty-one dates on a tour in support of her album due to "personal family problems."^[11]

[edit] 1999–2002: When the Pawn... and hiatus

Apple's second album, When the Pawn..., was released in 1999. Its full title is a poem Apple wrote after reading letters that appeared in Spin regarding an article that had cast her in a negative light in an earlier issue.^[12] The title's length earned it a spot in the Guinness Book of Records for 2001. However, as of October, 2007, it is no longer the longest album title, as Soulwax released Most of the Remixes, a remix album whose title surpasses When the Pawn’s length by 100 characters.^[13] When the Pawn was cultivated during Apple's relationship with film director Paul Thomas Anderson. When the Pawn, which was produced by Jon Brion, used more expressive lyrics, experimented more with drum loops, and incorporated both the Chamberlin and drummer Matt Chamberlain.^[14] The album received a positive reception from publications such as The New York Times and Rolling Stone. It did not fare as well commercially as her debut, though it was an RIAA-certified platinum album^[6] and sold one million copies in the U.S.^[7] The album's lead single, "Fast as You Can," reached the top twenty on Billboard's Modern Rock Tracks chart and became Apple's first Top 40 hit in the UK. The videos for two follow-up singles, "Paper Bag" and "Limp" (directed by then-boyfriend Anderson), received very little play.

After performing for forty minutes in a set hampered by equipment issues to 3,000 fans at the New York City Roseland Ballroom, a frustrated Apple left the stage without returning. Her performance saw Apple appearing distraught at the sound quality, apologizing numerous times for the sound and crying.^[15] The incident was described by AOL as "music's most infamous on-stage meltdown."^[16] After completing a concert tour in support of her second album in 2000, Apple relocated to Los Angeles. During her hiatus, Apple contemplated retiring from her recording career. Apple sang with Johnny Cash on a cover of Simon & Garfunkel's "Bridge over Troubled Water" that ended up on his album American IV: The Man Comes Around and was nominated for a Grammy Award for "Best Country Collaboration with Vocals." She also collaborated with Cash on Cat Stevens's "Father and Son," which was included in his 2003 collection Unearthed.

[edit] 2002–2010: Extraordinary Machine and second hiatus

Fans in support of Fiona Apple demonstrating outside the NYC headquarters of Sony BMG Music Entertainment in January 2005.

Apple's third album, Extraordinary Machine, was originally produced by Jon Brion. In spring 2002, Apple and Jon Brion, her longtime friend and producer on When the Pawn, met for their weekly lunch meeting. Brion reportedly "begged" Apple to make another album. Apple agreed, and Brion went to Apple's label, Epic Records, with strict stipulations (including no deadline), which the label eventually agreed to. Recording sessions began in 2002, at Ocean Way studios in Nashville, Tennessee, but later moved to the Paramour Mansion in Los Angeles. Work on the album continued until 2003, and in May of that year it was submitted to Sony executives. In 2004 and 2005, tracks were leaked on the Internet in MP3 format and played on U.S. and international radio. Subsequently, MP3s of the entire album went online. Although a Web site distributing the album was quickly taken offline, it soon reached P2P networks and was downloaded by fans.^[17][18] A fan-led campaign supported the album's official release.

Mike Elizondo, who had previously played bass on Pawn, was brought back as co-producer to complete the tracks he had begun with Brion and Apple. Spin later reported the following: "Fans erroneously thought that Apple's record label, Epic, had rejected the first version of Extraordinary Machine... in reality, according to Elizondo, Apple was unhappy with the results, and it was her decision to redo the record, not her label's."^[19] In August, 2005, the album was given an October release date.^[18] Production had been largely redone "from scratch" by Elizondo and was co-produced by Brian Kehew. Two of the eleven previous leaked tracks were relatively unchanged, and one new song was also included.^[20] Despite suggestions that the album had caused a rift between Brion and Apple, they regularly perform together at Largo, a club in Los Angeles, including a joint appearance with Elizondo on bass just before the news broke of an official release.^[21] Extraordinary Machine debuted at number seven and was nominated for a Grammy Award for "Best Pop Vocal Album". It was eventually certified gold^[6] and sold 462,000 copies in the U.S., though its singles ("Parting Gift," "O' Sailor," "Not About Love" and "Get Him Back") failed to enter any Billboard charts.^[22] Apple went on a live tour to promote the album in late 2005.

Apple on tour with Nickel Creek in 2007

In June, 2006, Apple appeared on the joke track "Come Over and Get It (Up in 'Dem Guts)" by comedian Zach Galifianakis. Galifianakis previously appeared in the music video for Apple's "Not About Love."^[23] Apple recorded a cover of "Sally's Song" for the 2006 special edition release of the soundtrack for the Tim Burton film The Nightmare Before Christmas. In May, 2006, Apple paid tribute to Elvis Costello on VH1's concert series Decades Rock Live, by performing Costello's hit "I Want You." Her version was subsequently released as a digital single.^{[24][dead link]} Apple toured the East Coast during August, 2007, with Nickel Creek.^[25][26] In 2008, Apple recorded a duet titled "Still I" with Christophe Deluy. In 2009, Apple covered "Why Try to Change Me Now" and "I Walk A Little Faster" for The Best Is Yet to Come - The Songs of Cy Coleman. In January, 2010, Fiona Apple and Jon Brion performed together at "Love and Haiti, Too: A Music Benefit," a charity concert for the people hurt by the Haiti earthquake. Fiona sang a cover of "(S)he's Funny That Way," composed by Neil Moret, lyrics by Richard Whiting, which is often associated with the singer Billie Holiday. In June, 2010, Fiona released a song titled "So Sleepy," produced by Jon Brion and written by children involved with the non-profit organization 826LA. The song will be included on a compilation album released by the organization titled Chickens in Love. Apple collaborated with Margaret Cho on her album Cho Dependent, which was released on August 24, 2010.^[27]

[edit] 2011-present: The Idler Wheel...

The Idler Wheel is wiser than the Driver of the Screw and Whipping Cords will serve you more than Ropes will ever do,^[28][29] Apple's fourth studio album will be released on June 19, 2012 in the US. The international release date has yet to be finalized.^[30] In late 2010, Billboard published an article stating that Apple was planning on releasing a new album in spring 2011, with musician Michelle Branch claiming to have heard some of the new tracks.^[31] Drummer Charley Drayton also told Modern Drummer magazine that he was co-producing the record.^[32] However, the album was not released in the spring and Billboard reported later that year that there was no record.^[33] On November 23, 2011, a music blog quoted an exchange between Apple and a member of the audience at the Largo Coronet in Los Angeles who requested she perform new material. She reportedly replied "I can't remember [how to play] any of my new songs because they've been done for a fucking year."^[34] In January 2012, after its new record label head, LA Reid hinted at new music from Apple, Epic Records announced that the album would be released later in the year.^[35] Apple announced performances at the South by Southwest Festival and a spring 2012 tour soon after.^[36]

Personal life[link]

Fiona has been dating writer and actor Jonathan Ames since 2007.^[37] As of March 2012, they remained together.^[38] In the mid-1990s, Apple dated magician David Blaine.^[39] Afterward, Apple was romantically linked to director Paul Thomas Anderson.^[40] Anderson directed several music videos for Apple's second album.^[41]

Public speculation about Apple having an eating disorder arose in 1997, upon the release of the music video for "Criminal," in which Apple appeared to be extremely thin. The New Yorker wrote that she "looked like an underfed Calvin Klein model."^[42] During the 1998 Rolling Stone interview, Apple admitted that she "had an eating disorder," and speculated that it stemmed from her rape as an adolescent. "I definitely did have an eating disorder . . . What was really frustrating for me was that everyone thought I was anorexic, and I wasn't. I was just really depressed and self-loathing . . . . For me it wasn't about getting thin, it was about getting rid of the bait attached to my body."

Apple is a vegan. "I'm not really up in the activist world right now [though] . . . I'm not really thinking about it. I'm a vegan, but I don't care if you're eating turkey in front of me. I'm not a preaching vegan."^[43]

Discography[link]

Albums[link]

Extended plays[link]

Singles[link]

Other contributions[link]

• "Across the Universe" (Lennon–McCartney) - Soundtrack to the Motion Picture Pleasantville (1998, Sony), lead vocalist
• "Please Send Me Someone to Love" (Percy Mayfield) - Soundtrack to the Motion Picture Pleasantville (1998, Sony), lead vocalist
• Magnolia (1999, New Line Cinema) - "additional instruments and odd pieces of musical business by jon brion and fiona apple" as stated in the film's credits
• "Bridge over Troubled Water" (Paul Simon) - duet with Johnny Cash from American IV: The Man Comes Around (2002)
• "Father and Son" (Cat Stevens) - duet with Johnny Cash from Unearthed (2003)
• "Frosty the Snowman" - from Christmas Calling (2003)
• "It's Only A Paper Moon" with Maude Maggart - available as a bonus track on some editions of Maggart's 2005 album With Sweet Despair
• "I Want You" (Elvis Costello) - live version from VH1's Live for Decades Rock Live!, released as an iTunes single (2006)
• "Sally's Song" (Catherine O'Hara) - from Tim Burton's The Nightmare Before Christmas Special Edition Soundtrack (2006)
• "Why Try to Change Me Now" (Cy Coleman) - recorded for the Then Was Then and Now Is Now: A Tribute to Cy Coleman CD/LP / "The Best Is Yet To Come: The Songs Of Cy Coleman" CD/LP
• "Angel Eyes" - a snippet of the song is available at Largo Film
• "Still I" - a duet with Christophe Deluy, hear a snippet of the song available on Christophe Deluy's blog
• "I Walk a Little Faster" (Cy Coleman) - recorded for The Best Is Yet to Come CD/LP
• "Loveless" (David Garza) - track available from Garza's Dream Delay
• "So Sleepy" included on a compilation album released by the organization 826LA, titled Chickens in Love
• "Hey Big Dog" (Margaret Cho) from Cho Dependent (2010)
• "Everyday" (Buddy Holly) with Jon Brion from Rave On Buddy Holly (June 2011)
• "Paper Bag" featured in 2011 film "Bridesmaids"

Music videos[link]

Awards and nominations[link]

References[link]