I Give the Pitchfork Review a 4.1

A while back I wrote about a review of the new Pearls & Brass album on Pitchfork. In said interview, the writer acknowledges not actually caring about classic rock and bands that assimilate that classic rock sound. And the reason? Because, “I want music to interact with the moment we inhabit now, and the most frustrating thing to me about modern classic rock is how closed and final it seems, how unavailable to the living, breathing moment.” Closed and final? If there was one thing that classic rock, and this record in particular, is not, is final. Rather, it’s a launching off point for explorations on a live date. But I digress…

What really is the point of having a writer who acknowledges that they don’t care about a type of music write about it? I understand that there have to be some quality-control issues over at Pitchfork – meaning, they basically have to pan some albums (Travis Morrison’s 0.0? Yeah, not that bad still…) and boost others so they seem to know what they’re talking about and aren’t just handing out gold stars to everyone. But the assigning of a writer that automatically will not care about a record? Come on. At least give it to someone who cares about the genre and has the knowledge to say something. Speaking in generalities about the genre is doing nothing and avoids the task at hand of reviewing the record.

One of the most ironic things about the review is that he says classic rock writers tend to reveal more about themselves than the music at hand. And what were you doing, Mr. Howe?

As for The Indian Tower: It’s good. No, it’s not the future of music (whatever that is), but as far as the blues go, and heavy music goes, you could do a lot worse. These dudes (and I mean that) never let their fingers rest on the fretboard, churning out rolling rock boogie much like Blue Cheer’s pyschedelia, but without the rough edges. This is bro rock, but not in a bad chest-thumping way, more of a long-hair, Budweiser, stand-in-one-spot-softly-headbanging kind of way. And there’s nothing wrong with that.