The only time a piece of music writing is better than the music being written about is when the music being written about sucks.

This is the case with electronica band Owl City, which makes soulless music. Pitchfork, perhaps in an effort to seem current or some shit, reviewed “Fireflies,” the title track from Owl City’s new album.

Did they review it because it falls under the auspices of experimental music, and yet made it on the radio, providing them with crossover justification? Did they review it because they know what we all know, that you feel less dirty and less derivative when you talk shit about a bad band than when you talk hearts-for-”i”s about a good band?

At least Ian Cohen gave it a “1.”

All I know is that Scott Plagenhoef told me there is an unofficial moratorium on writing about emo at his site. Well, I can see now that this makes total sense: ban good music based on its shitty genre and review shitty music based on its great genre.

Goddamit, Pitchfork, behave!

Salome, one of the few metal bands that performed at this year’s CMJ.

For D.C. bands, the takeaway from CMJ seems to have been this: It will not pluck you from obscurity, but it can’t hurt. Also: Don’t believe the hype.

“The myth that you can land the perfect agent or manager at a place like that—I don’t think it pays attention to the reality that you’ve been talking to that person for seven months already,” said Jesse Elliott, whose polymathic alt-country band These United States played a handful of shows during this year’s College Music Journal Music Marathon. The annual industry gathering featured over 1,000 artists, close to 100 venues, and around a dozen acts from the D.C. area.

Elliott’s got a point: Most of the young bands I heard chatter about during the festival—like Florida’s Surfer Blood, New York’s Freelance Whales, and London’s Golden Silvers and Mumford and Sons—had recording contracts, significant blog buzz, or both going in, not to mention full management teams in place. These are not bands whose success lives or dies according to an industry festival.

“Most of the bands at these festivals are already signed,” wrote Todd Hyman, who runs the District-based labels Carpark and Paw Tracks and hosted CMJ showcases for both, in an e-mail. “Though this year there seemed to be a preponderance of unsigned blog bands. Seems folks were complaining about that.”

Read More “At CMJ, No Fast Track to Fame, but Plenty of IRLing” »

Yesterday, 13 music journalists convened at Georgetown University for the Future of Music Coalition’s Policy Summit panel, “Critical Condition: The Future of Music Journalism.”

Our ranks included reps from online-only (Scott Plagenhoef of Pitchfork, Maura Johnston of Idolator), old media vets (Greg Kot of the Chicago Tribune, Tom Moon of the Philadelphia Inquirer), and some in-betweeners.

While there were a few too many panelists for a coherent discussion, the ideological breakdowns were awkwardly clear: New media vs. old media, generalists vs. niche(ists?), and many, many iterations of “Kids these days don’t know how to write about music,” followed by, “We’re all fucked.”

After the jump, who said what and why.

Read More “There Will Be Blood: Notes from the Future of Music Coalition’s Journalism Panel” »

According to GalleyCat, the Federal Trade Commission will fine independent bloggers up to $11,000 if they fail to disclose that they’ve received a product for free. This means book reviewers who get books for free, music reviewers who get music for free, stroller reviewers who get strollers for free, have to say as much in their reviews or risk massive, disproportionate penalties.

The FTC has argued that this standard doesn’t apply to traditional journalism outlets because “the newspaper receives the book and it allows the reviewer to review it, it’s still the property of the newspaper.”

It’s an innocuous but offensive requirement, but I’m more interested in the FTC’s imagined relationship between publishers and record labels and journalists and newspapers.

Read More “The Federal Trade Commission Goes After Bloggers, Spares Journos Who Do the Same Thing!” »

In July,  Rohin Guha, a writer for the pop culture site Black Book, noticed that the music tastes of America’s top gossip blogger closely mirrored those of a UK music site: Perez Hilton had endorsed six different bands, none of them yet familiar to American listeners, immediately following endorsements by Peter Robinson, editor of  PopJustice. A Black Book commenter found that Perez embraced Britain’s Frankmusik, who Robinson has written about extensively since 2007, in the same timely manner.

Perez’s self-proclaimed “good ear” and subsequent blog endorsements helped him score a record imprint under Warner Bros.*

Read More “His Tour Is Overpriced and Underattended. His Ideas Aren’t His Own. So Why Does Perez Hilton Have a Record Label?” »

Dylan/Zimmy/Judas wasted no time after last October’s release of the sprawling retrospective, Tell Tale Signs: on April 28, Columbia will release his new studio album, Together Through Life, Billboard reports.

If label hype is any indicator—which, in this case, it sort of probably is—the record’s packed full of nostalgic, tumbleweed-y vignettes, Chi-town blues, and churning boogie. Plus: banjo, mando, and…accordion! Promo materials go on to explain that on his new record, Dylan’s aiming for a retro-minded fusion of Chess & Sun sounds. Which—correct me if I’m wrong—is what he’s been doing since about 1964.

Read More “New Dylan to Drop April 28; Weird Album Art Already Iconic” »

Which suggests that Birdseed Shirt 54% better than Thievery Corporation’s last album, but 5% worse than Fugazi’s The Argument.

But let’s not turn this positive moment into a snark-fest.

Says Pitchfork’s Chris Dahlen:

“With Matt Dowling primarily on bass, Chris Scheffey on guitar, and Brian Hospital on drums, the band is a well-worn quartet that takes risks in the arrangements but never gets clever for the sake of it. They do big indie rock, like the build-up to the horns and harmony vocals that punctuate the opener, “Turn to Sand.”

Anyway, nice to see a local band get some love. Read the rest of the review here and maybe check them out, if you haven’t already, when Deleted Scenes play the main stage at Black Cat on March 28.

Don’t call Benjy Ferree’s latest release, Come Back to the Five and Dime, Bobby Dee, Bobby Dee, a concept album. A tribute to Bobby Driscoll (the child actor who inspired Disney’s animated Peter Pan) Ferree’s new album celebrates life, reflects on death, and creates a brilliant sophomore LP in the process.

Black Plastic Bag had a chance to talk to Ferree (now touring) before he returns to D.C. this Saturday, Feb. 28, for his record release show at the Black Cat.

Read More “Interview: Benjy Ferree” »

Pitchfork slams the new Thievery Corporation album, Radio Retaliation. The reviewer gives it a 2.6. Ouch. There’s no mention in the review of the Chuck Brown cut. That alone is worth more than a 2.6! But here’s what the Pitchfork critic had to say in their first graph:

“Even at the height of their popularity in the late 1990s and early 00s, it was always difficult to imagine anyone getting worked up over Thievery Corporation. A watery cocktail of cul de sac genres like downtempo, lounge, and “world music” (more on that in a second), the Washington D.C. duo’s output has long worn its own inoffensiveness as a badge.”

It goes downhill from there. Pop Cesspool recently posted his own critique of the band.

Has the year in indie rock been this boring? Or do Pitchfork readers just have really predictable tastes? The website dropped their first annual readers poll yesterday. Here’s the top ten:

01. TV on the Radio: Dear Science
02. Fleet Foxes: Fleet Foxes / Sun Giant EP
03. Vampire Weekend: Vampire Weekend
04. Bon Iver: For Emma, Forever Ago
05. Deerhunter: Microcastle / Weird Era Cont.
06. Portishead: Third
07. MGMT: Oracular Spectacular
08. Cut Copy: In Ghost Colours
09. M83: Saturdays=Youth
10. No Age: Nouns

Some of these records I really dug. I loved both the Deerhunter and No Age LPs. But both didn’t make my top 10. Also interesting, not a single hip-hop album in the readers’ poll. What is up with that? No Kanye? No Flying Lotus? No Q-Tip?

Hopefully very soon, we will start posting our own top-10 lists, debating the year in music, and posting the opinions of local music types. Feel free to slam our lists, too.

*photo of TV On The Radio courtesy of Banquet Records.