Since Hipster Runoff is the moral compass of electroblogville, it is my duty to react to Pitchfork Media's review of Steve Aoki's "Pillowface and His Airplane Chronies."

Please note: I haven't listened to the CD. Please stop reading now if you are interested in reading a qualified opinion.

Sure the CD is probably less than mediocre, obvious, forced, and gimmicky, and I'd rather download a free mix off the internet, but it's tough to get over the fact that Pitchfork used the review as an opportunity to deliver an an angsty middle-aged rant against the whole electro scene.

Let's get past feeling OUTRAGED about such a low Pitchfork Rating, since I think that's more of a formula of
[(LABEL x Hometown)^2 +/- previous album's standards + Obscurity Factor x Perceived Authenticity]= Pitchfork Rating

The Pillowface Review a rant that wasn't only meant to dis the artistic integrity of Steve Aoki, but also YOU. This is about you, the reader of music/mp3 blogs. This is about your best friend, the guy who downloads Popular Tracks at the Hype Machine every 3 days. This is about the 15 year old in Australia who you've never met, who started a music blog with the dream of getting on to the Hype Machine (he lost interest after 10 posts). This is about every single one of Steve Aoki's ex-business partners that he parted with on bad terms. This is about your ex-GirlFriend who got a DSLR for her 21st birthday, and planned to start a party pics website. This is about every blog who ever posted "D.A.N.C.E.", no matter what the self-aware blurb that justified why they are posting it was. This is about every French person who ever made a Tecktonic video. This is abou a 13 year old in Wisconsin who will wear American Apparel for the first time in 2008, and for the first time, she'll feel like she's worth something. This is about a 20 year old in his dorm room at a university in Oklahoma who has dreams of becoming the next big electro act since he just got a Mac, downloaded Ableton, and learned how to make GIFs for his myspace user pic. This is about the GorillaVsBearses, the PandaToesers, the DiscoDusts, and even all of the crappy blogs that just write reviews of the same stuff that Pitchfork writes about, since we're all getting the same information. This is about the next 1.7 years in Middle America, when more people start listening to even crappier imitations of the electro-dance glory days of today.

Let's get a few things straight: I don't know what makes a good DJ, or a good song. I'm just a blogger, not a student at the Berklee School of music. I only know that music is 'good' because a band is written about a lot, or because it sounds like a feel-good hit from my childhood. Or maybe I was really drunk the first time I heard it.

While I usually poke fun at the envious position that Steve Aoki is in (downing bottles of Grey Goose and getting paid for using iTunes DJ software), this Pitchfork Review is certainly dipping into the 'blog-style, buzz generating' content that they would probably put themselves above.

http://www.pitchforkmedia.com/article/record_review/48666-pillowface-and-his-airplane-chronicles

Bolded are some of the more memorable jabs from the review:

Steve Aoki
Pillowface and His Airplane Chronicles

[Thrive (Red); 2008]
Rating: 2.5

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. After two minutes of this enjoyable ruckus, the disc jumps into a 16-track mix of modern-day post-punk and indie-approved dance tracks that I assume by the incongruous Refused intro is meant to signify the "new noise" of a 21st century American Apparelled rock/dance zeitgeist that's not at all played out in the slightest.

Granted, this thing passes the American Bandstand test just fine, which is its primary purpose. 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. So we have a guitar-flavored version of the the boundary-busting credo offered in Green Velvet's "Shake and Pop"-- "I like electro/ I like retro/ I like ghetto/ House & techno"-- never mind that kicking those doors down in a Daft Punk world doesn't take all that much effort. That said, whenever Aoki tries to bring two (or three) purportedly great tastes together, the end result is the aural equivalent of mixing toothpaste and orange juice. In Aoki's mind, Mickey Avalon can offer a verse on a perfectly fine little electro squiggle like K.I.M.'s "Wet 'N Wild" without gumming up the works, while Pase Rock can pinch a horny-backpacker loaf on one of two Justice tracks and not sound like an assclown. For what it's worth, Pase does his business all over "Waters of Nazareth"-- take a wild G.U.E.S.S. what the other Justice track is (and guess which indie-rooted RMXGRP worked their magic on it).

Guests of similar quality pepper the disc, with only Kid Sister's turn atop "Shake and Pop" being worth a damn. Turns by the vocalists for Hot Hot Heat and the Faint come off more like extraneous cameos than the spotlight-grabbers they should be. If only other folks followed suit: 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.

If you're the sort that accepts no substitutes, then you'll be happy to know that the original shows up on this thing as well, thanks to Weird Science, a remix duo featuring a member of Moving Units and a certain Mr. Aoki. 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". Weird Science t
ake a perfectly fine guitar-driven track, strips out its frenetic drive, adds a lumpy sea-sick strobe-bass beat, and puts the track's focus entirely on Kele Okereke's and Peaches' vocals, because that's supposedly where the party is.

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. 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.

-David Raposa, February 20, 2008

I guess the problem with Pitchfork as it relates to 80% of Generation Y is that it is trying to preserve integrity and quality in both music and journalism. However, good journalism and good music aren't terribly important to a significant sect of young internet users these days. Music should be fresh and free. Online content is usually just a picture, and an easy-to-consume blurb.

Maybe the entire problem with Pitchfork is that they mismanaged their perception. I remember I found out about Pitchfork because it was 'a place that wrote really pretentious reviews.' Maybe that worked in the days when it was cool to network with indie record labels by becoming Programming Director at your college radio station, but I'm not so sure about today's zany landscape. It's also interesting to think that Pitchfork was probably one of the first places to be universally known as 'having an American Apparel ad.' How seriously did you ever take Pitchfork, and when did you give up the desire to have an ultimate authority on 'music worth listening to'?

The value of today's Pitchfork as a ' good source for good music' is questionable. No longer do we need a music 'magazine' to find out about new music. Doesn't every one know an acquaintance whose band was featured on the SPIN/Rolling Stone website as the 'band of the day'? Maybe Pitchfork was 'revolutionary' in that it was a magazine that linked you to an online music store, but the service just isn't valuable any more. In fact, I'd probably encourage Pitchfork readers to utilize the iTunes store and Amazon.com auto-recommendations before talking themselves into being influenced by a Pitchfork Review. I am more focused on fitting in, and making myself aware of what people are purchasing and talking about in both mainstream and alternative circles.

I trust the Hype Machine, LAST.FM, iMeem, iLike, and other web based services. I trust the algorithms that determine what's popular, and what most people are listening to, because most importantly, I want to fit in. I want to know what people are talking about. I find comfort in knowing about Vampire Weekend, but not having really listened to them, and knowing why it's alright for me not to like them even though I 'haven't given them a fair chance.'

In a world where Radiohead was force fed to me through way too many different media outlets, the only solace I can find is in the power of choice -- my own freedom to decide whether or not to like something for any stupid reason, how long I want to like it for, and most importantly, the freedom to determine whether or not I want these decisions to make sense.

Fortunately, the internet helps us perform this evaluation process this at a faster rate than ever, and with more information than we could ever need to make an educated (or unfounded) decision.

Anyways, I guess I'm just trying to say that a) Pitchfork is for people with receding hairlines and b) if any one is going to make fun of Steve Aoki, it's going to be us, because we've paid our dues by investing in the lifestyle (whether we are serious about it or not).

It's also probably good for Aoki that Pitchfork overwhelmed his douchey image. We'll see if it will be similar to the transition of the Green Ranger to the White Ranger.

But oh well. Most of the world doesn't listen to the most of the music on Pitchfork, and even more of the world doesn't listen to the top HypeM tracks. I guess we should all just give up our 'good taste in music' and start listening to The Fray.

Needless to say, this is a time to rally around Steve Aoki. Maybe you should leave him a supportive comment at his myspace (http://www.myspace.com/steveaoki), or send him a personal text message if you have his number in your cell phone. Tell him HRO sent you.

In conclusion: