No One Cares About Pitchfork Reviews (But Us)

I read THIS on losanjealous.com:

"On paper, it would have been so easy for you to not like them, another bloghyped Canadian band and another one with “wolf” in the name, at that. The early band pics revealed some irony, a few tatoos and a couple of muschaches. So, right out of the gate, before you even heard a single song, you’re not having it. Then, the whole Modest Mouse connection was not something you were sold on either. Next, this relatively-unknown band wrecks their hotel room at the Queen Mary at ATP like they’re Led fuckin’ Zeppelin. This was the final straw, as you loved the Queen Mary and it’s rich history. No one fucks with the Queen Mary. And so finally, the LP drops and it has many of the same songs from their pair of e.p.s. The camel’s back is broken when it gets the infamous 9.2 score handed out by the Russian judge. Surely the fix was in, and you were having none of it."

My question: WHY were you having none of it.

I am not attacking this article, this site, or this author. It is true, this does reflect what probably happened when Wolf Parade's target audience discovered its music. Jaded indiephiles yawning over Modest Mouse, feigning interest in a boat hotel. I agree with this article, but somehow it seems like they are allowing and encouraging this mindset which I find gross.

What is WITH all the aloof, non-committed cynical snobbery of this music scene. I can't even type a question mark here. I am baffled, period. Why are we immeditely turned off by the things that define us. Are we that stubborn. My message to hipsters: YOU HAVE NOWHERE LEFT TO GO. You are making fun of what you love, shunning good bands because it might be TOO cool to like them, you evade your own scene because clearly you are part of some OTHER scene, some UNbearded UNtattooed UNfashionable scene that lives in a hole, reading dead languages and drinking absynthe, or leading some equally inaccessible lifestyle that no blog could describe.

From time to time I do exactly what I'm describing. I'm wearing one of those caps right now, you know those caps? I listen to this music and I am part of this scene, yet I recently wrote about spotting one B-list actor at a Mountain Goats show, and I may or may not have sneered at aspects of her attire and haircut. Okay, I did. Because certain things are just absurd, and I won't tolerate retarded ensembles under the guise of some alternative style, have some pride!

Look, I may no better than the apathetic slack jaws this article portrays. But even though her clothing was atrocious, I DID embrace and give thanks for the fact that a young actress from the best television series ever to grace Fox came to a FREE show, that she had taste, that there existed this parallel... When I heard Wolf Parade I thought, oh god damn, this is good music. And when I heard Arctic Monkeys, I thought, mmm heard it before, I'll pass. (Well, there might have been a slight fuck this lame shit in there also.) Of course there will always be cheap imitations, in any arena of music, art, literature, etc. But if a band is getting great reviews, and you LIKED the EPs, and you like Modest Mouse, and CLAIM to like music, why not embrace Wolf Parade? Because once you start policing your niche to the point of discrediting it, you have nowhere else to go.

Wasn't that the whole point? That we would have some place to go? What are qualifications of this club?

Let's take a trip to the Boston of five years ago, me at a Milemarker show at TT's, wearing no social uniform: no chucks, no black rubber bracelets, no waxy hair, nada. I believe I had black eyeliner on, as I had done since age 14, but that wasn't getting me far. I showed up with an anticipation for live tunes and left with a new vocab word I have since used to describe the music scene goers in Boston: ttude. The ttude of vicious boys and girls dead set on perserving a culture they created. I used to really hate them.

But at least these scenesters had BALLS. Believe me I have welcomed the evolution of the freak folk, space rock, fusion of music of the last four years(you could argue longer)! I truly like having a community of people who dig Iron and Wine! That's rad! I am simply not willing to stab them in the heart for liking a "trendy" indie rock band, or disliking Sufjan Stevens!

All I see/read/hear about the all encompassing indie rock scene of Los Angeles is wimpy judgement based on fashion and timing. Cause not only do you have NOWHERE TO GO with these snide, seemingly astute rulings- I just want to point out- NO ONE CARES. I don't think you understand what a minority of people listen to this music in America, or the world, no matter how many songs Zach Braff can jam on a movie soundtrack. Our trends are but tributaries off the great river of music! Ask ten people on the street who Joanna Newsom is and do the math.

And doesn't it feel good? It feels good to be in this little collective, like a musical family.

Or maybe I'm wrong. Maybe I just assumed back there that you loved music. Maybe I assumed there was a club, when really, we're on our own. But that's not true, is it? You love music and you want to protect it. Take a note from the ttude in Boston and OWN IT. Don't act like you'd stab the members and fans of Wolf Parade in the heart and leave for dead before you'd hear the music.