Man the points against Pitchfork being made here I don't agree with at
all.
I think the "they don't seem to realize they live in Chicago" bit is a red herring. As an international reader I can honestly say that I would get sick and tired of reading about Chicago band after Chicago band, just as I would stop reading Exclaim! if it talked about nothing but Montreal bands, or like I would spit on copies of Spin if they started covering L.A. to the detriment of other scenes. I think if they do any more than tacitly acknowledge Chicago's place in the current alternative landscape then they place upon themselves either one of these two things:
a) the unfortunate burden of having to do a survey of every other pissant scene in the nation, OR
b) yet more cries of "they just don't get us anymore" from the average reader due to their exclusion of other musical hotspots
Christ knows there's enough going on in Regina that if they didn't cover my scene I'd be pissed. But they're not covering Chicago to the exclusion of other locales, so I'm not really concerned.
And I also disagree with your assertion that the last few years have had Pitchfork set ablaze by majors. If we take a sample of the last six years of their top ten albums, an entirely different picture is painted:
200120022003200420052006And just for shits and giggles,
the individual staff member lists.
If you're simply insisting they should cover lower profile artists, then what does Pitchfork have to offer that Stylus, Cokemachineglow and Tiny Mix Tapes, along with all the other independent review sites, don't? They already do cover artists who aren't as well known by a lot of people - feel free to waggle your culture-awareness dick at me if you know who
this is, but I sure didn't. Frankly I wouldn't have bothered checking out Scott Walker's new album if it hadn't popped up in their top ten this year, simply because I didn't know about it.
I appreciate the balance Pitchfork attempts to have between smaller or lesser-known artists and the big ones like TVOTR (who, by the way, were already getting Pitchfork excited back when their
Young Liars EP was released on Touch & Go). Just like I don't approve of people dropping their support for a band as soon as they hit a major, I don't approve of publications setting an arbitrary exposure limit at which they stop covering certain bands.
Pitchfork is the sort of publication that people seem to be constantly demanding more from. Give them a break and just know what it is you're reading rather than complaining endlessly about it.