(Pic: screen cap of Radiohead on Pitchfork.tv)
I guess it's probably not kosher to bang on about a website that's not this one. Avert your eyes.
Pitchforkmedia is of course the sun around which the independent (I'm not even sure if I can use that word to justify it's meaning anymore, but for all intents and purposes) music community orbits. Whether they'd admit to it or not. It can jumpstart entire careers (Arcade Fire, Broken Social Scene, Clap Your Hands Say Yeah) and even put them to death (in an article titled
Gathering Wool: The Pitchfork Problem by Ryan Hecht for
The Carolinian Online he wrote: "Take for example former
Dismemberment Plan front man Travis Morrison's debut Travistan. The album received a Pitchfork rating of 0.0, effectively leading to a huge drop in sales and an immediate removal from college radio play.") It's also been a suspicious while since they've mentioned every blogs favourite band of 2006
Cold War Kids. Or at least since their snippingly titled news post last October,
"News Blurb: Cold War Kids Tour to the Delight of Some". This despite the Cold War Kids undertaking new recording sessions last December, an item even the smallest acts would generate, let alone a previous internet sensation. And we apologise for bringing up
Jet again.
Anyway, I digress. The reason for the hubbub is that this week Pitchfork launched
Pitchfork.tv. A site dedicated to providing exclusive video performances of the bands they feature and review. Which could sound like so much hot wind if they didn't launch with a specially recorded in-studio performance by indie-minnows Radiohead. Essentially it purports to be an Indie version of our beloved
Rage. (Back when
Rage would feature entire live studio performances of the likes of Grant Lee Buffalo, The Dirty 3 and John Spencer Blues Explosion anyway.) Or as they put it "Pitchfork.tv is the first-ever music video channel dedicated to the documentation of independent music."
Now I’m excited by this. As unhealthily as YouTube already sates the curious insomniac, I will forever be drawn to footage of musical equipment set up in a room. Or on stage for that matter. It could be Radiohead, Will Oldham, Maroon 5, Shania Twain or A Tribe Called Quest. I will watch it. Not sure why. The intriguing symmetry of all that gear? The curiosity? The tension or potential of it? I can't say. I just like it. For the same reasons I'll stop outside stores with music equipment in the window. Or pore over instrument catalogues. Or pawn shops and garage sales. Gear + Human = Fascination. I am drawn to it.
It will be interesting to see where Pitchfork take their new site. If it lives up to the claim of being a unique and devoted "24-hour music network" then all power to hipster night-owls the world over. But there are only so many "independent" (let's just defer to "interesting" for the sake of the argument. Radiohead are hardly independent.
Although...techincally I guess they are now.) bands to glean from.
Good bands I mean. The first days viewing did have performances from Liars, Man Man, Radiohead, The Pixies doco and an entire live gig from Jay Reatard. Alongside a couple of hundred regular Music Videos. Well alright.
People will kick and rant to their internet connection's content, but at least initially, Pitchfork have done it again.