Pitchfork
 

Seemingly the most influential alt music news outlet currently. Has always had much uproar and criticism over their reviews, many finding them pretentious and giving out radical scores just for the sake of being different.

The go-to site for hipsters and elitest d-bags, however, i feel like as of late they have hired sold writers and done really cool video interviews, performances etc.

How do others feel about the site?

The thing about Pitchfork...is that I seriously go to the site, don't read the reviews, and just make the albums they mention into lists to go download and listen to.

That's what I use them for. And yes, I ended sentences with a preposition, which Pitchfork would certainly have pointed out.

I've watched one or two cool videos on Pitchfork of late, there is a fantastic one with The Antlers and Neon Indian playing together.

I'd agree with ThePhantasio, I just go there for a list of a few albums to download, if nothing else they make it easy for you to find recently released stuff.

I do frequently read Pitchfork, but I always keep in mind that they cater primarily to elitist hipsters (and impressionable entry-level hipsters, for that matter), and I view being outside of their audience and spectating their power to alter people's music tastes as kind of an in-joke.

That being said, I've made a habit of paying attention to Pitchfork when they review punk or metal albums (real punk, not that Jay Reatard/Wavves lo-fi shit), because as far as those go, Pitchfork writers do usually have a good sense of what has artistic merit. I also read Pitchfork for their news, tour updates, and interviews.

It's funny, quite a few years ago I used to literally read Pitchfork every day but I feel like at some point around 2006 or so they started veering into reviewing a lot of stuff I had very little interest in, which caused me to drift away. Now I can't even remember the last time I visited that site.

They actually give quite a few of my favorite albums a good amount of praise. Das Racist was the first group that I really enjoyed in Hip-Hop, and they gave Sit Down, Man (my favorite of theirs) a fantastic score. Amesoeurs - Amesoeurs, The Tallest Man on Earth - Shallow Grave, Xasthur - Subliminal Genocide, Burial - Untrue, Antony & the Johnsons - I Am a Bird Now, How to Dress Well - Love Remains, etc. all got good reviews. Am I a hipster? Oh no oh god oh no oh god oh no oh god.

meh, I agree with about 60% of pitchfork reviews. I use allmusic a lot more though if I want reviews.

I think I visited that site by mistake for about 30 seconds sometime in 2007

I have a hate love relationship with them; they like what I like, they hate what I like.

Browsing their lists is pretty useful when looking for some new stuff to listen to but I don't pay much attention to their reviews. The fact that it's practically impossible for a new band/artist to get serious recognition without getting a 'Best new music' from pitchfork is pretty irksome.