photo taken from http://www.janchipchase.com/
Is it just me, or does pitchfork need to open up a reader forum so I can occasionally complain about the crappy music they continually push. You know what I mean, this indie music with choruses full of rowdy/drunken/hopeful/defiant actual choruses of people shouting out over music that has had too many instruments added to it for its own good.
Maybe I woke up on the wrong side of the bed (or maybe I should stop reading pitchfork in the morning), but I was looking around at bay area music blogs like the owl, the bay bridged, and the deli and they all looked like mini pitchforks to me, even if they do focus on bay area music. I'm sure the people running these blogs are perfectly nice people just doing their thing (isn't everybody?), but it annoys me that pitchfork seem to be the tastemakers.
Poking around the deli a little more I came across this:
Mission StatementOk, cool. There are tons of bands in the city who could use more exposure. The band of the month contest is fun (I think). The list of bands is along the right hand side of the main page is great (but I can think of more than a few local staples that are missing). Same for the list of labels on the left.
The primary goal of The Deli is to expose SF based musical artiststhat have not yet reached a level of international fame.
But then I looked at the "HOT IN SF NOW" section and I saw Deerhoof listed. Ok, fair. Those kids are hot, they have it going on. And I think Deerhoof is a really great band. But I checked -- those guys definitely have an international level of fame. They're constantly playing those ATP festivals, they played with the Roots, Radiohead, the Flaming Lips (and many more I'm sure), Tomlab releases their records in europe, The Wire consistently writes about this band... oh need I go on? Maybe they should come down off the list for some other band who can't even get more than thirty plays a day on their myspace page. Can you imagine??
I also came across this:
CD Submission PolicyAnd this I don't get. Local album reviews are great, but they won't accept a CDR? I know its hard to wade through a pile of CDRs, but come on! If the mission is to expose bay area artists this seems counter-intuitive -- only bands who can afford a small run pressing of their music will be considered? Perhaps I'm being too harsh? Perhaps I don't know what 'proper' packaging is. Perhaps all these guys mean is stick a label on your CDR? Perhaps I'm too literal minded -- I know all my boyfriends say so!
The Deli SF only reviews music from Bay Area based artists. Please submit your CDs via mail only if they have proper packaging (we won't review CD-Rs with hand-written titles)
I don't know about all that, but you know what? All you bands with CDRs with handwritten faces send them over here to world famous, we'll try and review them!
15 comments:
Daymn Jeremy.
On about The Deli, I do think that their list of "Hot in SF now" needs to be updated. I personally do not see why bands like Black Fiction, for example, are still up there. They have been pretty inactive lately, and don't seem to be promoting any release or touring.
If we're talking about bands that are San Francisco staples, and are hot even if they aren't playing shows or promoting an album, then Gris Gris, Kelley Stoltz, Imperial Teen and countless other staples should be up there too. If we're talking about trendy acts then lots of those bands have expired already.
I really enjoy Avery's contributions to the Deli, and I don't say that just because we're friendly. I think he is driving that site in an awesome direction since Sean left. I am not sure the restrictions the Deli NY puts on the Deli SF, so we have to kinda think about that too. We hear at World Famous In San Francisco can say whatever we want because we're not affiliated with anything but our own already-damaged reputations.
I agree that Deerhoof does not fit into their mission statement - although I think it's good that they mention established artists for those checking the site not from our area. Otherwise all the artists look like nonames and it's impossible to connect the dots or approach the sea of sameish bands.
I just checked the staff under "about us" at the Deli. It looks like Avery is not there? Hum? What? Avery where are you? Did you leave a week ago and not tell anyone?
I think the writing on the deli is kind of spineless. A little bit of snark and a little less of slaver would help.
I think the writers are all volunteers? I'm picturing two 24-year-old indie-girl rocksters from the Mission that just love *everything* cause they don't know enough yet to be bitter.
Oh another thing. Pitchfork is totally annoying, and it's past time for the backlash.
You guys are all so Internet and Web 2.0 clever. Why don't you start a whisper campaign/Pitchfork backlash? I can see stencils in the Mission and a printed underwear campaign "Pitchfork Is so Over".
I am going to start writing for Deli SF so I'll be sure to bring the bitterness that I carry in my heart at all times to everything I write.
I think lots of people are already over Pitchfork so it shouldn't take much pushing to send folks over the edge.
I always thought that a Pitchfork website satire could be called Pushbroom.
Make it happen!
I like the Pushbroom idea. That's a great name.
I'd collab with any of you on a satire site.
This is Avery (formerly) of the Deli.
I agree with most of what you had to say about the blog. For many of the reasons you mentioned I decided to leave. Having a boss at a blog is an absolutely terrible idea, especially when the writers are volunteering about 30 hours a week of work. There was an enormous amount of pressure to be 100% positive all the time about EVERYTHING, and it started to take a toll on my bitter core.
As to "gin's" comment: I am not a 24 year old girl, and am in fact a very snarky gay man who knows a lot about music and does not appreciate being called spineless. Also, endless sarcasm and irony is actually not that funny, so go ahead and start Pushbroom, and we'll see how many people don't give a fuck.
laterz
Let me start with Pitchfork. I still check the website daily because it remains a tastemaker that I trust to a certain degree. I have, however, lost interest in much of the competing music blogs as at least 50% of their content is just cut-and-pasted from Pitchfork. I do think what we see happening is that as indie rock gains a higher profile, we see the original tastemakers - be their bloggers or college radio DJ's - relying more on what Pitchfork says is hot.
You would think that if Death Cab, Bright Eyes and Iron & Wine reached a level where your mom is totally into them, that the institutions that originally trumped them up would dig to find the next underground act in need of exposure. Instead, they go apeshit over the same singer/songwriters.
Well I do not claim to love much of what is happening in San Francisco musically these days, I would say there is an anti-California bias on much of the blogs. How many times do we see SF bands who aren't Deerhoof reviewed on the site?
so, wait. does that mean you don't want to write for this blog avery?
Hey. Emily from The Deli here. As much as I'd like to have a completely hard shell and just brush this all off, I had to post :)
So to clear up the confusion, yes Avery left and yes I'm the only editor left. I'm working on getting some great writers in to add some variety because I know no one wants to listen to just one person all the time (thanks Chriso!) I happen to not live in SF, so that affects my ability to meet a lot of you, but that doesn't mean that Avery was the only one running this show. I'm doing what I can, and spending a lot of time on it.
I appreciate all of the comments here, and have no idea where to start. Basically, The Deli is totally 100 percent volunteer, and like Avery said, it's rough. I'm doing my best. I'm now the only one who updates the site, like the "best of" list (which hasn't been updated in ages and I will now do that...), etc. and I really don't update the bands list unless someone emails me and wants to be on there. Frankly, I don't think that list does us any good and it was just too much of a task in the first place, but now that it's there, it's there. I wasn't the one who created it, so you know...
About the snark thing...I happen to be a 24 year old girl, but if someone wants to challenge my passion for music, feel free. I find it disheartening to be jabbed at when I'm making an effort to make the blog a happy place. I want to keep The Deli a place for people to access local music, not a place for people to trash bands and talk about what music they hate. If you want that, read Pitchfork or whoever else. And if the positive posts drive all of our traffic away, then so be it, but so far, luckily, that's not what's happening.
Also, I never read pitchfork for lots of reasons. So if you think we're trying to be Pitchfork, then that's just weird. Thanks again for everyone's input. Honestly if you email me your opinions on the site, I'll take them into account. Hope to meet those of you I've never met soon.
Oh, and I frankly didn't even realize that our submission policy says no CDRs. (I know, I know...but we've got a lot to do). We still get CDRs and I always listen to them, so I'll take that off. That was there from the previous eds. Thanks for noting that.
You seem to be missing a few SF music blogs: ipickmynose (that's me--shameless self promotion!), hearya, cameraphonic, hippies are dead, hard rock chick and probably even more that I'm not thinking of right now.
As to someone's comment: I personally find constant snarkiness pretty annoying. If you don't like something, just say you don't like it. But there are a ton of music blogs and other websites that deal almost solely in snark, so you can find what you want out there, I'm sure.
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