I have a love/hate relationship with Pitchfork. Their features and interviews are the best of any indie music blog, or maybe of any music blog in general, but their album reviews can be so off topic and elitist that I’ve stopped reading them. That’s all fine, whether or not I read their album reviews isn’t a big deal, what bothers me is the influence that one writer can have over the future of a potentially talented band. Leaving their album reviewing out of the picture and turning to their latest venture: Pitchfork.tv, I’m thoroughly impressed. The site features many different high-quality videos about music and the artists that make it, here are the sections it’s broken down into:
Featured
The featured section serves as the most-recent/best-of content gathered from all the other sections. It it basically a collection of the week’s (or maybe more, it’s only been live for two weeks) videos. Because it’s pretty basic, the featured section should be used as the first place you go to see new content (and it’s the first place the website takes you to).
Shows
These “shows” are what make Pitchfork.tv resemble a TV station rather than just a hodge-podge collection of music videos. Right now, the shows include Interview, Don’t Look Down, Juan’s Basement, Daytripping, and Special Presentation. Interview is self-explanatory; they interview an artist. For Don’t Look Down, an artist simply plays a few of their songs on top of a building roof. Juan’s Basement is both very similar and completely opposite to Don’t Look Down because here the artists are playing in… yes, Juan’s Basement. Daytripping is my favorite so far, it’s where a Pitchfork camera crew follow a band around for a day and engage in all the crazy things that go on. Special Presentation is just a section for Pitchfork to throw all their random features; there isn’t much organization here.
Pitchfork Live
For Pitchfork Live, you get to watch a concert at your desk. If you’ve ever bought a live DVD of your favorite band playing at some fancy (or grimy) venue and sat for an hour basking in the glory while wishing you were there, Pitchfork Live is the same thing.
One Week Only
While the other sections are cool, it’s the One Week Only section that really makes Pitchfork.tv worth-while. Here you can watch a video that is SO special Pitchfork can only show it for one week. Thus far, the videos have been documentaries (one about the Pixies and the other about AIR), and both were amazing. I’m not sure if these videos are rare, but I am sure that these will all be high-quality videos worth your 30-60 minutes.
Music Video
You really don’t need an explanation for this section. It’s full of music videos.
In review, I love Pitchfork.tv. I’ve always loved watching interviews and other shows about artists (XLR8R TV anyone?), and this is just feeding my obsession. Even if you’ve never heard of the bands featured on the site, go check them out; you’ll probably begin to expand your musical horizons, which is always good.