The Swarm

February 21, 2008

Urb vs. Pitchfork: The Great Steve Aoki Debate of 2008

TDS Editors

UPDATE: Aoki feud spreads.

Pitchfork: 2.5

Urb: In Defense of Steve Aoki

Pitchfork:

This mix, the first (and hopefully last) from Dim Mak major domo Steve Aoki, kicks off with Refused’s “New Noise”, a 10-year-old track that mixes Fugazi-loving ruckus with the merch-friendly electronic ambiance now heard on the quiet moments of your average Linkin Park single.

Urb:

The final verdict? 2.5, and a written tirade so spiteful and unsubstantiated that it pretty much decimates any credibility the indie rock monolith had left, especially when it comes to the world of “indie-dance” music.

Pitchfork:

That said, a broken dishwasher also has a beat to it, and sticking someone’s gussied-up 1987 Maytag front and center at the trendiest L.A. hot spot would undoubtedly get both scene-stealers and scene-makers on the floor in time for a Cobrasnake photo op.

Urb:

And if Steve is to take heat for progressing into a new sound, then every other hipster DJ in the country deserves the same flogging.

Pitchfork:

Har Mar Superstar fronts like Licensed to Ill is the be-all and end-all of hip-hop, Spank Rocker Amanda Blank manages to make a turgid remix of Does It Offend You, Yeah? even worse, and Santogold damages one of the mix’s more enjoyable tracks (“Licky [Work It Out]”), with her bargain-basement-Peaches turn at the mic.

Urb:

2005 also marked the high water point in Pitchfork’s impact and influence.

Pitchfork:

Peaches emerges relatively unscathed on their manhandling of “Boys Wanna Be Her”, but then there’s her turn atop a castrated version of Bloc Party’s “Helicopter”.

Urb:

Pitchfork may suckle at the teat of Justice and Daft Punk, but you know at their fundamental core, they’d rather be giving Arcade Fire the obligatory handjob while posted up in their Chicago digs (Chicago indie rock, btw, is the most pretentious smarter-than-thou scene in the entire country).

Pitchfork:

After 50 minutes of this tired nonsense, with the highlights (like the bloops and bleeps of Yelle’s thankfully untouched “Je Veux Te Voir”, or the bits of Datarock’s strummy “Fa-Fa-Fa” that aren’t beset by hot hot air) sorely outnumbered by the lowlights, the mix ends with another turgid rock-meets-dance-with-guest remix, this time a track by Dim Mak group (and post-punk aficionados) Scanners with additional words of wisdom offered by Justice labelmate Uffie.

Urb:

As for the CD itself? It’s OK.

Pitchfork:

By this point, whatever “new noise” Aoki seemed to promise at the start comes off as just futile sound and fury signifying the number of folks he has in his iPhone and/or under contract.

Urb:

But had Justice gone the other route, and mixed an hour’s worth of party-starting hits—then called up their top-shelf creative friends to add spice and character, well…let’s jut say most folks would have been quite impressed with that as well.


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15 Comments

#1 2RealEstateMidgets says:

So many pots and kettles wondering who is blacker.

#2 You Know You're Right says:

I'm waiting for BPM to jump in, with all their conflicts (one of the guys there manages Aoki). It's widely known that Steve Aoki is more famous for being famous, than for being good. Wonder why URB is so staunch in their defense. Makes you wonder......

#3 Steven Patrick Morrissey says:

i'm on urb's side on this one and i hate steve aoki's schtick. pitchfork is so far up their arses that have any of them realised they can't write? every review is at least two paragraphs laughing at their own inside jokes before they even intimate discussing anything of merit regarding the release.

urb is marginally better but at least they have a wider scope. that said, anyone who talks justice as if they are the saviours of dance music really need to stop writing about music.

#4 Benny Hannah says:

not defending aoki as i have never heard his shit, but p4k's class consciousness is just oozing out of this aoki rant. yikes.

#5 cool guy says:

They're both right, truthfully. Pitchfork is far, far up its own ass, and so is Steve Aoki. Honestly, he wouldn't be so insufferable if he didn't think he was Jesus. And Pitchfork could be tolerated if they didn't think of themselves as God.

I will say though, this particular observation is spot-on:

"That said, a broken dishwasher also has a beat to it, and sticking someone’s gussied-up 1987 Maytag front and center at the trendiest L.A. hot spot would undoubtedly get both scene-stealers and scene-makers on the floor in time for a Cobrasnake photo op."

#6 Lucky # 14 says:

Who were the 14 people stupid enough to pay for a digital copy of this thing?

#7 ugh says:

Sorry aoki. That's the nature of reviews. Some will be good and others bad. Pitchfork's opinions are not going to please everyone. This is just one reviewer of many on the web.

#8 mmm...make mine a Devon says:

All three have their heads up their own asses!
Except BPM, they're still waiting for someone else to show them where to put it.

#9 Jordan Catalano says:

OK, so let me get this straight:

URB: So like, it's cool if we get all snarky about Aoki and his whole deal. But eff those Chicago kidz for doing the same! Kid Benihana is OUR public whipping boy. Go find your own.

P4k: Whatever, you Left Coast loser still sucking at the neon teat of warmed-over early '90s culture. If you were REALLY cool, you'd be right here on your knees with us deep-throating Bradford Cox.

URB: Oh, eat me, snow hog. You're just jealous because we're all sexy, skinny, do rails of coke for breakfast on the beach in February after rolling on the floor all night to the sound of the neighbor lady washing her clothes.

p4K: What? we were too busy getting corn-holed by the Black Kids to hear what you were saying. See you in Austin!

The rest of us: Did you just hear something? I could swear that someone just threw a stack of Battles CDs down the stairs...

#10 A-Okay says:

Well, truth is, while Aoki's public persona is kinda silly, he actually plays pretty good music--most of it championed on pitchfork! I'm no Aoki booster, but he definitely got L.A. club music out of its prog-house yawn and allowed for other DJs to gain followings playing more current sounds. So the truth is actually... somewhere in the middle, where it always is.

#11 radio says:

Did URB just kinda compare Aoki with Justice? Are you fucking serious? Pull his cock out-of-yo-mouth so you can think straight, because that's just stupid.

#12 CL says:

wake me up when this catfight is over.

#13 Dave says:

Yawn.

Pitchfork is quickly becoming the indie Rolling Stone where damn near everything that's even half-decent grabs a 7-8 rating, which corresponds nicely to RS's mediocre 3* on everything ratings, with very rare and sometimes worthy (sometimes sponsored!) 4* ratings.

They're boring, their reviews are usually just nitpicky to the point of "oh god, whatever" and their tastes are VERY predictable, at least in the last 2 years. Just look at their top 50 albums of the year for the last few years and you'll see the nearly absurd "mainstream hip-hop artist at the top 10 that we gave a mediocre review to earlier". So why do they have people who are totally indifferent to the music review it, if clearly the vibe at the goddamn site seems to be jacking off to it every night?

It makes no sense, Pitchfork itself has no cohesive voice and I stopped reading their reviews years ago and so should everyone else. Let them die, and someone else will take their place, hopefully someone that's not mocking their audience while they do it.

#14 thelink says:

I just read this story while listening to the new mgmt cd straight through. dude its so trippy. you gotta do it.

I swear this cd was created for this story. or was the story created just for the cd?

#15 Mz. Piggy says:

This Pitchfork review is as fucking tarded as Pitchfork is itself.
Which is to say - snobbery for the sake of snobbery.

This reviewer - clearly someone who most likely hasn't set foot in a dance club since 1992, and probably whacks off to Feist videos - clearly based his review on the MUSIC by how much he hates Aoki. He also doesn't have a working knowledge of the electro/indie rock genre/scene.

Now - having said that, yeah - Aoki's ego needs to be knocked down about 100 pegs and it's a bit disgusting to see him raking in huge $$$$ being flown around the world to DJ -- because AS a DJ, he ain't nothing special. He doesn't SUCK - but he just happens to be the "we need a famous DJ" go to dude. So sue him - he's milking it and making bank and getting laid (again - something this reviewer ain't got going on, thus he sharpened the knives even more).

So, if this CD mix idea & execution/selections was by anyone else, say Win Butler or Paul Oakenfold or Kanye West, would this reviewer be licking their ass-sweat heartily? Well DUH - of course they would.

Stick a Pitchfork in them, they're done....OVER...>NEXT<


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