hearsay

If I had any involvement in Pitchfork, I would (again) be embarrassed by their tracks of the year list. In a way their lists carry the same expected disappointment for me that new Nas albums have; you know how they will end up but you hold out a glimmer of hope that something will happen. I know the difficulty of pulling together such a list, but if I were to go off of their recommendations, I’d end up listening to some straight up kaka-poo-poo. For the past few years I’ve noticed their leanings towards the mainstream, but the makeup of the individual staff lists pretty much highlights up the problem. I think their writing is top notch and the layout of the site strong enough that they will continue to be a fixture for many years, but if they were ever to be eclipsed by another site, it will be due to the lack of personality you get from the staff in general. I think at some point somebody is going to either put a site together made up of the blogging ‘all-stars,’ or emulate the way that you get to know their personalities. In most fields of criticism there are celebrity critics, and I think the personal nature of Gorilla vs Bear, Nah Right, and You Ain’t No Picasso begin to develop such celebrity in the indie media. Save the Nick Sylvester fiasco, Pitchfork’s layout never allows you to get to know the staff well enough to have a real interest in any of them.

In other Timberlake news, don’t miss the SNL bit. Reminds me of this one.

Our end of the year lists are coming, well, at the end of the year. Videos will be Dec 28th, shows the 29th, songs on the 30th, and albums on the 31st.