Former Pitchfork music critic Chris Ott doing AMA on reddit

Former Pitchfork music critic Chris Ott doing AMA on reddit

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>not doing it on Sup Forums

this surprises you how?

>It's the first really imperious record they've done; the production is ridiculous, completely over the top. In terms of the songs, I don't hear much in it. I haven't liked anything they've done since Hail to the Thief. "Reckoner" was good, but they've made the same song, structurally, ever since In Rainbows, over and over. And it takes forever to to deliver any resolution or finale, it just runs on and on. At least here there's a new idea, in terms of the mix and punishing clarity of the instruments. Whether any of the songs will grow on me remains to be seen.
>I find it entertaining that one of the slowest-burning, most subtle artists of the last ten years is also the one the internet feels the need to react to immediately. There's no way I'll know what I think about A Moon-Shaped Pool for another eighteen months. I need to go through seasons, the songs need a chance to hit me in certain weather, certain times of stress, of ease, to inter themselves in my ongoing listening habits. Very few songs after HTTT accomplished that. I don't find myself reaching for any of them.

This guy is insufferable

>but they've made the same song, structurally, ever since In Rainbows, over and over.
lol wait, what is he on about?

>I find it entertaining that one of the slowest-burning, most subtle artists of the last ten years is also the one the internet feels the need to react to immediately. There's no way I'll know what I think about A Moon-Shaped Pool for another eighteen months. I need to go through seasons, the songs need a chance to hit me in certain weather, certain times of stress, of ease, to inter themselves in my ongoing listening habits.
he's right, but that's just the nature of journalism nowadays which sucks.

He wrote for pitchfork

does anyone actually care about this nerd

Sup Forums btfo

ask him why he's such a pretentious blowhard that even Pretentious Blowhard Magazine didn't want him

This man gave The Final Cut a 9, let's ruin it for him.

>but they've made the same song, structurally, ever since In Rainbows, over and over.
What?

Kinda interesting desu

>But in terms of musicians being rich kids or having privileges many of their fans won't, uh, yeah, it's something people really don't like to admit, but it's massively true across all genres. Think rationally for a second about the financial circumstances you would have to be in to go on tour when there is literally no way to make money as a musician. I've spoken publicly about Frankie Cosmos (who stands to inherit an actual Fortune, like a legastic multi-generational Fortune that is named for the surname of the person who controls it), her "twee" posture is pretty galling given how far from the literal definition of DIY her life is. Through no fault of her own, but, don't pretend - she did an AMA where she extolled the virtues of the "DIY" scene in the Northeast and it's like, "YEAH, THAT'S ALSO WHERE 80% OF THE WEALTH IN AMERICA IS CONCENTRATED, FUNNY HOW THAT WORKS."

He talks about this thing quite a bit actually.

There's definitely a socioeconomic divide among a lot of musicians with other musicians, and journalists/reviewers.

>Frankie Cosmos is Kevin Kline and Phoebe Cates' daughter

I've known for awhile but it's still weird

>I have no idea. It was suggested as the best home for it. I think the perception that /mu would be 6000 LELTHONY KEKTANO threads and zoomed pictures of my facial hair.
wew

>Is it true that Zachary Cole Smith and Ryan Schreiber chase the dragon together?

Kek

Chris introduced me to Mercury Rev once.

This guy seems like a reasonable guy.

thats a fancy way of saying 'they went to shit after 'thief and in rainbows is just 'pretty good'

but hes right

>but hes right
But In Rainbows is way better than Hail to the Thief and A Moon Shaped Pool is pretty good.

Wait what???

W E W
E
W

Insufferable

This is the best thing he said so far. He pretty much shat all over this board.

This guy lacks ZERO self-awareness. This is straight up Kid A review tier pretentious nonsense.

didnt expect this to be a real post

That's incredibly pretentious. There are assholes that only care about flaunting their taste but there are also tons of genuine people who just want to share their favorite music with others. You have to be either extremely stuck up or extremely paranoid to think everyone is an asshole.

>lol wait, what is he on about?
>What?

He explains himself.

>it takes forever to to deliver any resolution or finale, it just runs on and on

He's saying that structurally instead of big moments and changes songs sort of come in gently, with slow swelling crescendos, and slowly disintegrate back to silence. I sort of agree. Everything meanders, and dynamics only change over long periods of time.

Radiohead used to have energy. I don't hate their stuff, but OKC and Kid A are the only essential albums that I've listened to. Amnesiac is good but it's derivative of Kid A. For whatever reason he jettisoned compelling melodies in place of slow mumbled phrases that, again, swell in and out.

Maybe I need to listen to it more though. I don't think it's bad, it's just too meandering too much of the time.

>Sup Forums of all entities mad that someone can stand behind their opinions.

>You have to be either extremely stuck up or extremely paranoid to think everyone is an asshole.

Is this your first day on Sup Forums?

You know what I mean.

The difference is that modern Radiohead songs have a liner structure rather than verse-chorus-verse, which to me has deepened their work significantly, and allows them to go to places a standard pop structure wouldn't allow.

>used to have energy
They grew up.

>Sup Forums being this triggered by someone who doesn't like pushy socially maladjusted twerps pushing DG and Swans on them every fucking album cycle

>Radiohead used to have energy
Bodysnatchers is one of the most high energy songs I've ever heard and it's from IR.

No, I don't. Sup Forums is all the proof you need that everyone(well, almost everyone) IS an asshole. There's 1 genuine, devoted music enthusiast on this board for every few dozen cretins who use it as a meme or a fashion accessory or something to develop a superiority complex over.

>implying that a pop band with Hans Zimmer-tier orchestration (protip: that means pleb-tier) benefits from free-form structures

it's like putting a free jazz saxophone in the middle of an indie folk album - it is just crass and pretentious and completely in tension with everything else you're presenting

>people want to start a conversation about a band they just heard and share it with you because they like you
>'FUCK OFF NORMIE I DON'T NEED YOUR HIPSTER SIGNALING"
This is ridiculous

Raid this son of a bitch

The bassist is trained in jazz and the guitarist is a critically acclaimed classical composer who literally inspired Hans Zimmer. Radiohead crafts good compositions, and their free form structure allows for that.

>critically acclaimed classical composer
kek he makes film soundtracks you dunce

>who literally inspired Hans Zimmer
continuing to make my point for me

Sup Forums isn't a good representation of what your average music lover is like.

It'd be pretty silly to think that a band had a member who composed film scores and not utilize a composition for one or two songs.

he's right about swirlies being underrated. i had the cassette of pic related stuck in my car for like 6 months one time and didn't even mind

>implying film soundtracks' version of free form (responding to kinetic activity on the screen) translates well to a purely aural medium

>kek he makes film soundtracks you dunce
Like Wojciech Kilar and David Lang? By the way, Greenwood started as an art music composer who later moved on to film, then back to putting on concerts with the LSO.

>His favorite KISS member is Paul Stanley
I choose Ace, but at least it ain't Gene

I always wonder why MPP didn't get a perfect 10. Since it came out a year earlier than Kanye's 10, I have a theory that it would have escalated indie music into a golden era of unseen potential forever cemented by that score. Sure, hip-hop has taken that spot now (rightfully so) but the indie scene now pales in comparison to last decade.

Here's a fun drinking game

Take a shot everytime you see the Cure being mention

lol imagine getting owned by fjm like this dude

it's always nice to see swirlies appreciation

B T F O
T
F
O

indies always been shit retard

>>used to have energy
>They grew up.
They grew old, more like. Are you honestly saying energy and dynamics and pacing are in any way a sign of immaturity? I love it when a band can handle slow progression and long crescendos, but to only use dynamics and structure in that way is narrow.

As for your first sentence, having atypical structures does not in any way disallow big movements and energy. Not to mention, juggling between sections is used in music because it fundamentally provides pacing to a song. Sure, it doesn't have to be ABAB, but is that more interesting that aaAaAAaA? Sometimes, ok, but all the time? No. Radiohead, at least from what I can tell, has gone from a dynamic, eclectic band to an ultra refined version of themselves. Kind of like Kubrick was in Eyes Wide Shut. Extremely deliberate, but to a fault.

I still like their ideas, but I do think they're slowly slowing to an eventual halt.

Outliers aside, you know what I mean.

He's right.

Like any genre, there will always be artists you prefer to others. If nothing's clicked for you then keep searching, I'm confident you'll find something that will fit your taste user.

I mean he's obviously a douchey narcissist, but he does make some good points.

He's correct for being unwilling to let people share music with him?

>What's your least favorite album that pitchfork has given a best new music in recent?

>I honestly don't read the site. I mean I barely did for the last few years but once it was bought by Conde, I mean I don't read Vanity Fair either. There is no longer any difference between the two.

If I meet some jackass in a bar and all he wants to do is talk about music I've never heard, perhaps pull out his fagphone and tinnily play me some shit I don't care about...fuck him.

Yeah that type of person sounds annoying. Not everyone who talks about music does this.

That's just one scenario though. He's giving a blanket statement saying that ANYBODY who EVER asks if you've heard this or that is automatically being a douche about it. It's absurd.

Reddit disgusts me

loooool. Sad but true.

I would like to start off this rant by saying that Eyes Wide Shut is Kubrick's second best film, and entirely due to its deliberate nature. I think our sensibilities are just irreconcilable.

As for your point that modern Radiohead lacks any sort of dynamism or youthful energy, the post I initially replied to was specifically referring to In Rainbows. How anyone can say that 15 Step and the way its almost built off bridges leading to more bridges rather than a chorus lacks dynamism, or that Bodysnatchers, which is one of the heaviest songs Radiohead has ever written, lacks energy is pretty absurd. Sure, songs like Weird Fishes are more about texture and arpeggiating instruments that lead to crescendos, but Radiohead are able to pull it off by having enough changes throughout to keep it from sounding samey. Yes, the changes are more subtle than the pop structures of the songs on OK Computer, but that's an indication of a band that's becoming increasingly mature and nuanced with its sound. To me the moment the bass kicks in on 15 Step is as exiting as the more stadium-filling chorus. I live off those subtle changes, rather than the kitschy, obvious choruses you hear on HTTT. Again, I think our sensibilities are just different.

That's so strange. I always thought art was meant to be discussed and enjoyed as a community. This is borderline autistic behavior

this doesn't sound like a likely scenario you would come to face ever

I bet he gets that shit a lot though as soon as people hear he's a music reviewer. You would be sick of it too.

What's your favorite Kubrick film?

This is the worst thing i've read in like a month

the only major difference between indieheads and here is that they use slightly less racial slurs.

Both sites have their bullshit but there's still value to be found on both.

2001 obviously. The less narrative the better

Yeah I think it would get annoying, but why doesn't he just say he prefers not to talk about music, instead of being a child about it?

He's not being a child about it, you are by sperging out because something he said hurts your precious fee-fees. I'm guessing you are one of those assholes he talks about and your butt is now hurting.

What are his professional credentials?
MA or PhD in musicology? Music theory?

I'm glad this pretentious blowhard didn't want to come here. This board is bad enough without his stupid ass taking an excuse to spew his terrible opinions all over it.

lol

Seems like a cool guy, I like what he has to say.

Doesn't the second paragraph contradict the first if Grimes essentially just made music and put it out there too?

Anyways, I really like this post. What a unique perspective from someone who's seen the insides of the machine.

Reddit is like an unfinished retarded clone of Sup Forums that steals all of our danke memes, they have been doing it for ages.

lmao I bet you don't have many friends Chris

Ott is a pretentious windbag but he's completely right about pitchfork being Vanity Fair tier shit.

I think most would agree that when someone with good intentions is trying to share music with you and you shut them down on purpose because you prefer not to talk about music but don't just say that, you're being a child.

shit taste spotted

this post could literally LITERALLY be applied to any music reviewer ever,

this lol

It could just be the sentence "immdeiately cut them out of your life" that irks me. People have an immense objective worth brought by just being made in the same image as God that the idea of someone doing this, especially when it was asked with good intentions, seems cold . But you're right, we shouldn't get hung up on it because everyone has the right to include and exclude people from their lives.

Who's the guy on the right?

Skrillex

Matt Bellamy

Vanity Fair has the occasional good article. If anything they should be ashamed of being associated with Pitchfork rather than the other way around. He's just an anti-corporate hipster signaler.

Thom Yorke's brother

Darin

I like 15 step and weird fishes a lot. All I'm saying is that they've become too consistent, refined to the point where there are no surprises, and yea, the dynamics and structures have a lot to do with that. I think we could agree on a lot more than you're making it out, because you're obviously not listening on autopilot, but maybe Radiohead is one of those bands you love enough to forgive their shortcomings. I know AnCo hasn't been as good lately as their earlier stuff, but I still think there were great moments on PW and I've defended at least some of their decisions despite knowing they aren't currently what they were. But I also think it'd be a little rediculous to claim that IR has as much dynamic or energetic impact OVERALL to something like OKC or KID A. There's a whole lot of wading through the thick unmoving in at least IR and AMSP, I don't know HTTT very well, and the consensus is that TKOL is one of their worst so I've never actually listened to it. For perspective, I like Dreamers and Burn the Witch a lot, and they both have slow burning effects. The problem is not with individual tracks that make those decisions, but in the pattern that resides over them at large, where the more of that one thing you hear the less you care about it. Range of ideas is one of the most important things an individual artist or group can have over a lifespan, because to be narrow is to be redundant. Like I said, I don't think they're bad, they've just stagnated.
As for Kubrick, EWS probably would've been better without NK and TC, but yes, I think he squeezed some of the life out of it, and it's not as good as almost anything he did from Barry Lyndon on backwards imo. Barry Lyndon and 2001 are both slow and deliberate... Most of the time, until huge events take place and things topple like dominos. Deliberate pacing is good, but too much of a good thing, again, becomes monotonous.

reddit.com/r/indieheads/comments/4jc7k8/hi_im_chris_ott_ama/d35h7m4?context=3

XD

are you trying to filibuster me bro? it's going to look like I lost the argument because i'm not autistic enough to write a response as long as your's

spending too much time with this guy's thoughts makes me really hate music and myself. does this guy enjoy anything, truly?

>But you're right, we shouldn't get hung up on it because everyone has the right to include and exclude people from their lives.
This is very true.

SJW tumblerites need to learn this.

Sup Forums is a board of peace with many rich cultural traditions.

That we don't want to share with shitskins.

>2001 obviously. The less narrative the better

Me again. I agree, 2001 is his best, but to say "The less narrative the better" as though it's a low is absurd. Narrative is one facet of the medium, to say that it's inherently worse than something like, say, ambiance, is simply wrong. Neither is better or worse than the other, and they both have merit. The problem with narrative is that people at large focus too much on it. But you can make the same mistake in the opposite direction. 2001 is great because it has amazing tone, but the narrative is also amazing, regardless of the fact that it's understated.

Sup Forums BTFO
>Sup Forums BTFO
Sup Forums BTFO
>Sup Forums BTFO
Sup Forums BTFO
>Sup Forums BTFO
Sup Forums BTFO
>Sup Forums BTFO