Pitchfork.tv: On Your Internet On April 7
It's a hot week for Pitchfork/video news. The music industry's been buzzing about this one for the past six months, and today comes official word: Pitchfork has announced Pitchfork.tv, bringing "original mini-documentaries, secret rooftop and basement sessions, full concerts, exclusive interviews, and the most carefully curated selection of music videos online." That's some nice vertical brand building. May wanna set your pitchfork.tv bookmark now, looks pretty awesome. Although we're all going to have to wait until April 7th to peek at the the beta launch, Pitchfork's sent along some detailed info on the site's programming:
Via press release:
Also worth noting: The content's all on-demand, and they seem psyched about the site's resolution. Congrats, Pitchforkers. We're excited to see this.
- One Week Only makes Pitchfork.tv the first online video channel to screen full-length feature films, vintage concerts, and music DVDs free of charge: From the Pixies' 2004 reunion tour film LoudQuietLoud and Todd Phillips' notorious GG Allin documentary Hated, to Jimmy Joe Roche & Dan Deacon's acid-drenched visual art piece Ultimate Reality, Pitchfork.tv will highlight a different film each week in its entirety.
- You want full concerts? Pitchfork Live brings you on stage with your favorite bands, with intimate camerawork and carefully mic'd performances that put conventional soundboard mixes to shame, launching with a sweat-soaked night at NYC's Cake Shop with garage-punk maniac Jay Reatard.
- Ever wonder how artists spend their time off tour? Daytripping puts you in the passenger seat for a day out with some of the most vibrant personalities in independent music. The premiere voyage: A trip to the Man Man house and studio in Philly to witness the making of their forthcoming album, Rabbit Habits.
- Wish you were watching bands in your basement instead of fighting for a drink in crowded clubs? Welcome to Juan's Basement. Originally developed by upstart network Plum TV, the Emmy-nominated series is now exclusively booked and produced by Pitchfork. First up: Liars.
- What happens when disparate artists are chosen to spend a day recording together in a Brooklyn studio? Treefort Sessions documents the unique artistic collaboration process from start to finish.
- Ever thought the best place to see your favorite band would be as the sun was setting and the Empire State building glistened behind you? Don't Look Down brings artists to rooftops around New York and Chicago and says go. The series kicks off with a pitch-perfect set from Sub Pop rockers The Thermals, 24 stories high.
- And, finally, The Interview Show brings today's best and most respected artists face-to-face with the Pitchfork critics who write their features and review their albums, opening with a colossal dual interview between two of the world's greatest metal bands: Mastodon and Neurosis.
Posted at 1:44 PM
These bastards are taking over the world!
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I take it by the red + white audio plugs that this will be a "Stereo" affair?
Any word on if they will go HDMI with this in the future?
"oh tonight / I will retire"
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Zzzzzz...
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Possibly cool. Too bad Pitchfork = Pretentious Shitheads
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"The most carefully curated selection of music videos online" - OMG, FINALLY someone who can tell me exactly what to watch. Fuck off, Pitchfork.
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i prefer the green plug personally.
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Fuck Pitchfork and now fuck their sure to be pretentious, holier-than-thou shitbox web tv station.
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Wonder how they're paying for all this with those "lucrative" Google ads they've been running.
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wow, i feel sorry for yo people. this is gonna be pretty awesome.
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I had *NO* idea people dis_liked the prickfork.
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This will be uncensored, right?
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Those "Treefort Sessions" sound a lot like some of the "In The Fishtank" sessions/ recordings Konkurrent did, except those were in the Netherlands and the bands had two days together.
Not that any of the individual segments of P4K.tv sound particularly original to begin with.
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Still will only get a 6.1
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Don't know about you guys, but this really seems cool. You should stop all the Pitchfork hating, they own.
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when will ppl stop taking pitchfork so seriously? this looks pretty goddamn awesome.
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Oh no, expanded opportunities to watch live sessions / interviews / original material by some of your favorite bands! Sounds like Pitchfork is ruining your worlds!
Seriously, it isn't as if you guys don't enjoy a lot of the bands covered by the site. This looks to be coverage without much editorializing and scoring so stop your whining - you're sounding even more cynical and judgmental as the very website your critiquing.
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this sounds awesome
don't muck pitchfork!!
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"Pitchfork TV, The Most Pretentious Team On Television."
i dont know about you guys but i think it is a pretty acurate slogan. Should I send it to them to use?
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I hate Pitchfork as much as the next dude but this sounds fantastic
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yeah this is really stupid for people to be complaining about. i would be really impressed if someone could tell me a good reason to hate pitchfork. i'm not saying i agree with all of, or even many of their reviews, but they've helped a lot of good bands get exposure that they otherwise wouldn't have had.
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I hate Pitchfork as much as the next P4k hater for their pretentious bullshit, that's why I don't read their reviews or editorials, but I love them because they keep me abreast of records dropping and performances and interviews with artists that I would otherwise miss completely.
There is value in pitchfork (as much as it pains me to say it) and I guarantee everyone here who says ,FUCK PITCHFORK THOSE FUCKING FUCKERS, checks the site at least 1 x a day (me included).
I'll definitely check it out, and I hope they have some worth while programming, but we have to assume (guarantee) they will have at least some of their self-righteous idiocy on there. I feel sorry for those fools who can't separate the two.
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Yes, we realize that you think Pitchfork is pretentious - regardless of how many of their "best new music" selections you've illegally downloaded to your ipod.
Can we move on please?
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oh whoaaaa. they ARE taking over the world.
and i agree with roos. can we move on please
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pitchfork is turning into the ESPN of the independent music world.
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It's not just pitchfork that blows, it's critics of all kinds. Pitchfork just comes off as particularly pretentious and insufferable. However this internet TV business could be cool, provided it is uncensored and free.
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I hate pitchfork writers, but I don't see much room for their annoying one-liners and witty commentary. They get fast news which is nice, so I read the news. This may be cool. But I don't watch TV on my computer...
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Vice TV is better.
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I've mellowed on Pitchfork, over the years. People give them too much power, but they're decent. I find Stereogum and most of its readers much more pretentious than them.
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Holy crap this sounds awesome! Especially the access to music DVDs and documentaries.
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90% of you haters have PF bookmarked and eat it up along with your personal blog diet every morning. (anyway, shouldn't this tv thing be GOOD news for the haters--because it takes out the middleman (reviewer) you hate and just showcases your favorite bands directly??)
this is awesome! admit it and GET EXCITED! also the fact that it's in HD is wonderful. thanks forky!!!1
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shit yes!
this looks awesome, can't wait.
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You're all gonna be watching this so don't kid yourself.
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for the love of god, you only "hate" it so much because you read it daily.
now they're coming out with something 9 million times better than anything mtv has ever done, any you're going to bitch?
get over yourselves.
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its funny that everyone uses the word "pretentious" when acting in such a manner.
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^^^ The irony is so rich, you need a fork to eat it. (Ed Note: Seriously, that pun was not intended)
Did anyone else notice that the number of people needlessly defending their love of P4K *far* outnumbers the amount of people who actually said anything about P4K sucking? What's with that? You guys got a little preemptive insecurity problem?
I think people's main problem with P4K is exactly what everyone is praising it for. Here's what it sounds like:
"I don't really have time to follow, or really contribute in any way to, the bands and artists I love. I don't even bother reading up on them. I just go to pitchfork (where I don't read the reviews or editorials) and just skim through the bands and listen to whoever they mention."
It just seems really lazy.
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Oh, and let me be the first to say: I read pretty much every word that P4K publishes. The stuff isn't going to brainwash you.
Well, some of you are probably susceptible...
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Ryan Schreiber for President.
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@ huph (since you called me out directly)
I don't like P4ks writers because they typify everything I hate about indie music "scenes" (the elitism). I'm not a big part of that "scene", I don't have any friends who listen to indie, but I love the music that comes out of it, and I do go to shows that come through my area (Aloha, Destroyer, the Breeders, Johnathan Richman, to name a few coming up that I'm stoked about)hmm, kinda blows your "contribute" and "lazy" bit out of the water :(
But I like having P4k where I can go and read interviews and about books and charities my favorite musicians are involved in or whatever, without going to 100s of websites a day, or to a vinyl or coffe shop and having to talk to an indie-snob, who would look down their nose at me for being as excited about the Stone Temple Pilots reuinon as I would be for a Smiths reunion 20-years ago.
In short, I think you misread. I don't read anything that involves their opinion (unless I want to exercise my eye-rolling muscles), but it's great for following bands and labels while keeping my nose clean of having to deal with people like you.
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Oh yea, plus I can't stand how P4k laps up the nuts of any and every band who dubs themselves "experimental" and uses a synth board as their primary instrument. I could fart on a keyboard and if I named myself after a type of bear, I bet I'd have a top 50 of 2008.
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what about www.videogum.com? i hoped that you guys would beat them to it.
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@ johnnynormal:
Did I call you out? The "I don't read the written stuff" bit was actually aimed at a lot of people who say that (it comes up a lot). I didn't mean to single you out, although I can see how it seems otherwise. And I certainly don't begrudge people for avoiding indie-snobs (although, you're blind labeling of me with that term is really only exposing *your* snobbishness). I just don't understand why people think "I check out P4K, but I don't read the reviews" is some kind of defense for something a person really shouldn't be embarassed about to begin with.
Funny you mention STP, at a bar last night, the DJ played "...Paper Heart" and my friend and I talked about how STP really got the short end of the grunge stick. I think they wrote some pretty good songs. And "Big Bang Baby" still gets stuck in my head sometimes. I love the melody.
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See?! Now it's in my head again! Except it keeps turning into "Suffragette City" halfway through the chorus!
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BRING ON STEREOGUM.TV!!!!!!!!
C'mon guys you can do it!
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i would pay to watch this.
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Hey, Huph! Aww, leave 'im alone, i said...
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johnnynormal, methinks you stereotype indie kids a little more than maybe you ought. I would say a small portion of "indie" people actually hate on STP and such. And you hate on "experimental" stuff just as much. So you are just different sides of the same thing. Those snobs think you're silly for liking STP, and you snob think they're silly for liking "experimental" stuff. And most people are in between. But back to the P4k TV, I'm excited, though it won't mean much until I get back in to the US and have a computer.
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IT'S LIKE YOU GUYS DON'T EVEN TRY !!!!
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This will be good. Take the editorializing out and just let the bands' music/live show speak for itself. My only fear is that once the camera's turned on the artists, we'll all see how much more pretentious they are than the music nerds that write about them. Wouldn't that bum you all out...who would we all have to shit on, then?
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Coming to the internets, bands you've never heard of performing on top of buildings!
I'd rather stick my dick in an oscillating metal garbage disposal grinder.
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Lazy? Checking in a music journal for music is lazy?
A man works 40 hours a week, tries his best to be there for his wife and kids, you got baseball, church groups, karate, maybe you make it to a movie once a month, barely pay the morgtage, and still, he's expected to scour the internet/record shops/ and music venues for new music to listen to? Get some perspective man, it's music.
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My previous comment was pretentious. I'd like to apologize to my best friend's sister's ex-husband's nephew who records songs using a 4-track and a child's xylophone.
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from a quick skim - no one has mentioned the abundant ADVERTISING ops. that will cradle all that you see on said website.
It's most certainly not about the money [at all!].
"Tell you what, American Apparel Dom. If you buy a vertical banner on our MAIN site for 6 months - we'll go ahead and run the SAME banner on our NEW site! [on the left side, of course.. wouldn't want the kids thinking this is some kinda 'brainwashing game'].
» cue Dead Kennedy's "Kinky Sex (Makes The World Go Around)" :
"Now we know
there's an alarmingly high number of young people roaming around in your country with nothing to do but stir up trouble for the police and damage private property.
It doesn't look like they'll ever get a job
It's about time we did something constructive with these people
We've got thousands of 'em here too. They're crawling all over"
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"you're blind labeling of me with that term is really only exposing *your* snobbishness"
Yea, I had lost focus by the end of that rant and once i posted it I was like, mm, I shouldn't have said that, but whatever. Alot of times I just say shit to be provocative.
And it's not like I hate on experimental stuff, I really like some of the diamonds you find in that rough, but I just get the impression that P4k tries to take the most inaccessible music and hold it up on a pillar because they think it makes them cool, which maybe it does?
As for my lumping of scenesters into the elitsist category, it may be because I lived in the Omaha area circa 2000-2005 and was just discovering hardcore and indie music and was going to a lot of house/basement shows, and being an "outsider" there was like being a leper, and these people (for the most part) WERE the stereotype, and it wasn't like they were highschoolers, they were college age people and it really put a bad taste in my mouth.
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Please stop bitching about Pitchfork wanting to make money off of advertisements.
Would you rather them ask their audience for money? I have a feeling very few of us would spare anything over 5 bucks.
If you'd drop the cynicism for a moment, maybe you'd see that ad-revenue is one way a massive website like Pitchfork can continue operating, and providing awesome content... Like full live performances, n' such.
Sorry for becoming so uneccessarily defensive. I should just stop reading Stereogum comments if I don't want to be subjected to continuous complaints about nothing.
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Don is an idiot. Not just any Don, yet the Don above this text - idiot.
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please tell me why everyone is complaining about ads.
if anything, we need more scantily clad, bra-less girls in 1.7 oz. baby doll tees. especially in crisp high definition video.
i'm getting off just thinking about it.
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So I imagine episode one they will cover all the basics like how Radio head is the greatest invention since the wheel, and how Animal Collective is The greatest band that we are all idiots for not understanding. Screw Pitchfork, arrogant bastards. Pitchfork is killing music.
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Thanks K! and Dave.
What I was trying to say is that Pitchfork is going to supply the internet with a full screen music channel, focusing on many of the artists we like. And they're including full-length features and exclusive performances, etc.
So, I don't think it's a big deal if they make some money off of advertising.
In the real world, It gets a lot worse than a sidebar ad.
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Yr welcome. Naomi Klein says "hey".
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i can't wait to read pitchfork's similarly graciously complimentary article about videogum!
i haven't noticed hell freezing over yet though so i might be waiting a while.
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Hey K - Yr stealing my bit.
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I'm one of the Reads-But-Hates forkers, and I'm super-stoked for this. It's going to be pretty interesting...i hope
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"omg everyone who hates pitchfork reads it 10 times a day!"
Well, no. I read pitchfork for a while, then stopped. Because their reviews are really bad and there are other sites out there (Prefix, Stylus, etc) that are much better. And, BTW, there are other sites that have been providing video content of independent music for quite a while now. I guess they're just not that interesting because they're not "curated" by bearded guys who make their living off American Apparel ads and can't seem to distinguish between the act of writing an album review and the act of auto-fellatio.
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Joey,
Stylus doesn't even exist anymore. Hasn't since last Fall.
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This sounds awesome. I am really excited about this. Even though Pitchfork tends to shit all over good albums and music in general, this could be something that they can't be asshats about.
"Yes, we realize that you think Pitchfork is pretentious - regardless of how many of their "best new music" selections you've illegally downloaded to your ipod."
I have to marvel at the truth of this statement.
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I LOVE THAT GG ALLIN HATED DOCUMENTARY!!!! SHIT NEEDS TO BE RE-RELEASED!!!
"My mind is the gun...my body is the bullett...and the audience...the target."
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HUNTER! Holy Fuck_slots - I am honored. I am gonna go blow up some shit and think about you. Pretty, pretty widow as well. x+o.
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WHY DONT WE WAIT TILL THIS SHIT COMES OUT BEFORE HATING/LOVING ON IT! JESUS! YOU ALL ARE WORSE THAN THE PRETENTIOUS PFORKERS!!!!
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At least http://bohemiavisualmusic.com/ is still going. There are choices.
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i can't believe people on STEREOGUM are calling pitchfork pretentious
grow up, the live sessions will probably be awesome
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Clue: Those who hate Pitchfork are most likely to be in a band that didn't get their call returned or CV reviewed by Pitchfork.
Query: Why does a press release about a very fantastic idea (whether revolutionary or not) lead folks into such hate-mongering? It's disgraceful.
I am an ardent follower of Pitchfork recommendations (as are all of us who commented here), and fully understand that reviews are mostly personal reflections of people like us on stuff they check out. Hell, we do it everyday to Britney. We just don't have a cool website to do it on.
I WILL WATCH PITCHFORK TV. RELIGIOUSLY.
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