OK, everyone knows that Stone Temple Pilots are majorly uncool, mad corny, and many other derogatory adverb/adjective combos, but jesus christ, Pitchfork writer Paul Thompson - pull the stick out of your ass and cut the attitude. By acting like this, you are only drawing more attention to the fact that you were, at some point, an unlovable loser - nothing wrong with that - and you might as well write OVERCOMPENSATING on an index card, fold it up into fourths, and stick it in your wallet next to your voting registration, driver’s license and insurance card (if indeed P4K offers such lavish extras), so that when you pass out from sanctimoniousness, the kind strangers who stop to assist you will know about your pre-existing condition. Even more painful are their hamfisted attempts at humor or snark, which often read like the snottiest kid at school’s class president stump speech, in which they try to throw in a few “laffs” in an attempt to make their personality less vile. Oh no - Candlebox is reforming, too?! My delicate aesthetic is being raped by these also-rans! Raped, I say! Someone, quick, put on Clipse so I can enjoy black culture from a safe distance and forget about this mess! OK, Pitchfork writes bad jokes, I write horrible, distended metaphors. Moving on.
Having read that bit o’ news, I quickly rolled my eyes and moved on to Idolator, where I found this.
‘scottpl’ is Scott Plagenhoef, an editor at Pitchfork. He has three comments on Idolator, all related to posts about his employer. Here, he comes off as exceptionally defensive and bitch-ee. We have Plagenhoef asserting that pertinent info, which Pitchfork omitted and was being slammed for, was not in the press release and that the “edit to the Pitchfork post merely points out that looking at every available This Is Ivy League band resource, which the writer/editor did, does not mention their other activities.” Actually, the fourth hit down when you Google “This Is Ivy League” mentions that the members are also in Cobra Starship. We have Anthony Miccio and a commenter saying that it was on the press release. Such intrigue!
While Idolator may have gotten a couple details wrong, like saying that TIIL was a CS spinoff and not just an associated act, the thrust of the post is still relevant if indeed this contested info was on the press release. If it wasn’t, Plagenhoef is still bullshitting when he says the Pitchfork writer couldn’t unearth any info on the band that pertained to this.
The story itself is pretty negligible; the point I really wanted to bring up was that Plagenhoef was able to respond to criticism because Idolator enables comments. Pitchfork doesn’t. I imagine this is because they think of themselves as above reproach, which is why one of their head writers throws a hissy fit when someone manages to respond in an outside forum. If they did, all this would be in the comments section on the STP post - except the part about not allowing comments, because that would then be false and Earth would implode.
I am really, really glad that I grew out of the hipper-than-thou attitude that I held when I was, oh, 19.
As long as I’m getting my shits and giggles talking behind Pitchfork’s back, this muxtape is also fucking hilarious, and was also brought to my attention via the delightful Idolator.