« Words would cheapen this | Main | After the Jump Fest: Spotlight on Donor's Choose »
August 22, 2007
This is Next: 0.0
[POTUS doesn't get it either]
Pitchfork's Matt LeMay reviews the new This is Next compilation and gets himself in a tizzy over why the record exists when most if not all of the songs are freely available online. Fair enough for a spokesman of the venerable Pitchforkian institution to be confused by such a release. Blinded is he who takes for granted the "joy" of downloading MP3s and perusing the Internets for tunes. Obviously this album isn't for him, or for most of us for that matter. With a tracklist that reads like the top 15 Elbo.ws tracks of the last two years, this is a compilation for the uninformed, the casual shopper; or, people with priorities that exist outside the musical underground - a term used very loosely in this context, but perfectly on point for the potential owners of the disk.
The coup de grâce:
None of which is to say that indie rock shouldn't be reaching a large audience. Nobody wants good bands to fail, just as nobody wants to be that insufferable asshole fruitlessly trying to protect his favorite music from the uncool masses. Even so, as a shoddy, transparent, and poorly packaged ploy to sell indie rock cachet to the "casual" consumer, this compilation is far more condescending than some dude who gets pissed off when he sees a Shins CD at Starbucks. Not every attempt to bring underground music to a wider audience is well-intentioned and praiseworthy, and the recent popular emergence of indie music is a product of circumstances that can't really be corralled or replicated. Ironically, these very circumstances stand to thoroughly undermine This Is Next. If nothing else, this album is a reminder that it's not the bands that sell out, it's the business.
Kudos for pointing out irrational fickleness from the indie folks, but then again the entire review can be summed up as so: "This is Next is shit. People should just buy these bands' albums." Which of course would likely be followed by another F-bomb laden tirade from the news desk should the Wal Marts of the world start carrying the latest Merge releases. Confused yet? So am I. Clearly Mr. Average Joe living his day ignorant of this little niche in the music world benefits by the availability of these compilations, because that guy is never going to purchase the Of Montreal album. However, after listening to "Heimdalsgate Like a Promethean Curse" (included in the comp.) he might just go out and buy the amazing Hissing Fauna, Are You the Destroyer? which of course is the point of these releases. Am I missing something here?
Posted by Merry Swankster at August 22, 2007 11:31 AM
Trackback Pings
TrackBack URL for this entry:
http://www.merryswankster.com/movabletype/mt-tb.cgi/1187
Comments
This is an excellent post. 100% OTM.
Posted by: Matthew Perpetua at August 22, 2007 04:01 PM
