Pitchfork through the eyes of the artists

It would be bad form for sports writers to walk out on a team that is simply having an off game, or for White House reporters to snub a failing president. But for music critics, this is the vocation. They essentially make a living out of fair-weather fandom.

This is a major reason why musicians have always had a certain hostility toward the critic, or — as they’re often affectionately referred to — “the enemy. “For most intents and purposes, the relationship between the artist and the journalist is strictly business: You give me press; I’ll give you quotes.

That’s why Pitchfork Music Festival is such a unique event. The annual indie showcase, now in its sixth year, blurs the line between those that critique musicians and those that book them.

There’s certainly the possibility that this culture of hip ephemera will turn on itself, and umpires of cool like Pitchfork will one day be uncool. But for now, the media giant remains one of the chief gatekeepers to independent success.

While on the ground at last weekend's Pitchfork Music Festival in Chicago, A&E staged our own little version of "Trading Spaces," asking several artists on the bill to analyze their analyzers.

What is your take on “indie” or “hipster” culture?

Chrissy Murderbot: It’s not the world I come from; it’s not my main interest or anything, but it’s a lot of fun. When you can do something that overlaps [dance music and indie] and brings people from both sides together and exposes them to new things, that’s awesome. I love anything that mixes people’s crews up and exposes people to new things.

ST 2 Lettaz of G-Side: It’s cool because where we come from we don’t even have this scene. We didn’t even know this existed. So it’s really dope to be rappin’ to people that aren’t just in your [expletive] city or people that don’t look like you or act like you and they can just enjoy good music.

What does a good or bad review from Pitchfork mean to you?

Murderbot: I have no idea. Sometimes they’ll give an album a 10, and that’s like a news event and sometimes they’ll give an album a 0 or a 2 and that’s a news event. But anything between like 6 and 9.5 kinda blur out. It might just be the whim of that person; I can’t tell.

It’s like when a guy who’s sitting next to you sees a girl walking down the street, and he’s like “Oh she’s a 10,”“ that’s meaningful. Or like “Oh she’s a 0,” that’s meaningful. If he says that she’s a 6, it’s like, is she empirically a 6, or did you just throw that number out there? Mightn’t she be a 5 or a 7?

But [expletive], then again, it’s music; it’s not [expletive] physics. It’s like you can be empirical about it. They try; they do their best.

That answer would’ve been totally different if they would’ve given me a 3. [Laughs]. I’m totally biased.

Jon Barthmus of Sun Airway: I think it’s definitely helpful to get a good review, obviously, but I feel like you really wouldn’t be made or broken by Pitchfork. But it’s definitely been helpful for us. They just do so many things like this [festival].

But they have made and broken several bands.

Patrick Marceillof Sun Airway: You can make it without Pitchfork. There’s different routes you can take. Usually if you’re not on their list of best bands and you’re doing well then you are probably on an NPR channel or some major media channel.

How do you feel about Pitchfork being an outlet that both books and judges you?

Eric Cardona of Twin Sister:

Well they’re just ruling everything aren’t they? [Laughs]. I don’t know; it’s great. I mean, we feel so lucky that they wanted us to play here. It’s cool because there’s a lot of variety, so for them to pick up, it kinda feels like we have something to offer to the roster.

Murderbot: There could be a perception of a conflict of interest. But I know from my personal experience with [Pitchfork Music Festival] that the people who booked me and the people who are in charge of doing the lineup are very different people in a different time zone (because they have multiple offices) than the people who were responsible for reviewing my album. And I know the review was already scheduled before the [festival] thing happened. And it wasn’t written yet. I don’t think there was a, “We’re gonna give this guy a good or bad album review to either promote him at Pitchfork or give him a controversy that will bring him to Pitchfork.” I don’t think there was a plot like that. I don’t see cynical jockeying or conflict or interest surrounding it. But there is the question of, say, a guy works for Pitchfork and is charged with reviewing an album and sees that that person is on the lineup and will that affect his review? I have no idea. I mean, they gave me like a 7, a pretty middle-of-the-road review.

Barthmus: Yeah that’s a little weird. I mean it’s only a good thing because they obviously like you enough to book you. But I guess they wouldn’t write a really bad review of their own festival.

For awhile this hipster/indie scene was kind of an exclusive cool kids club, but, as evidenced by the wide range of people and demographics [at Pitchfork Music Festival], it seems to have really spread. Your thoughts?

Cardona: I think it’s great. To me that just sounds like these bands are getting into more people’s heads.

Bryan Ujueta of Twin Sister: There’s only so many cool people until you gotta get to regular people. What was the joke we had the other day? Like imagine going to Madison Square Garden and everyone there was like [expletive] cool. It’s impossible; there aren’t that many cool people, even in New York. I’m sure some uncle would be there and a bunch of girls from college — there’s only so many people. If you wanna grow, there’s no other way.

Is there anything you particularly dislike about the culture?

Murderbot: You know, I could say there’s so many trend-[expletive] hipsters who don’t have any genuine taste in anything and they pretend to like things because it’s cool and that bothers me. But that is everywhere. I just notice it in indie culture because it’s not the culture I come from. And I’m so used to it in dance-music culture that it’s passé to me, you know? [Laughs]. It doesn’t even show up on my radar anymore. The annoying [expletive] about every scene is the same annoying [expletive] about every other scene. There’s nothing exceptionally different; it’s just different instances of the same phenomena.