Pointing out flaws in the mighty Pitchfork is pretty pase at this point and I have always tried to avoid it. Pitchfork was exciting and wonderful when I first found it but now it is the last place I look for new music. I would like to think that I was above the “Best New Music” section in all of its pomposity in shaping indie stardom but its still one of the easiest places to find quality new music as long as you are kind of familiar with the general tone of Pitchfork. However, a series of events and articles have finally pushed me over the brink. I have always been suspect of both the cult of fandom associated with PF and equally suspect of the rabid anti-PF crowd. The basis for my denunciation is that PF has the uncanny ability to hype empty bands, the top 100 or 200 lists are really getting stale, they have published reviews by Ms. Shepherd whom I can’t abide, and they continually give acts like (freakin) Justin Timberlake extremely high marks for no other reason, it seems, than to court the mainstream or not to be too indie (PC anti-rockism perhaps?). Instead of cursing the darkness it is time to light a candle. Here is a rundown of my favorite non-PF sites to catch a few good music reviews.

1) Give me CokeMachineGlow any day of the week. Its professional, they have great articles. They seem to avoid getting suckered in to a lot of the indie hype that killed so many debut bands. Its the savvy traveler’s choice. The only real beef I have with it is the complete lack of a search option. It kind of turns the whole web 2.0 feel upside down giving it a nostalgic “card catalogue 1.0″ feel. Definitely worth a read.

2) Dusted Magazine maintains a high rank for several reasons. One is that they publish their own customized music charts, which tend to be very interesting. Another is that they have awesome features ranging from How To Be A Better Music Director [for a radio station] to a lot of artists’ favorite music (and many other things) in their “Listed” section. However, their best feature is that they have a selection that might contain something that every other indie music blog on the planet has not reviewed… thrice… daily.

3) The venerable Tiny Mix Tapes has been around for ages by the timescale of indie music websites (take a peek). Word is they were a geocities website before that. Unlike their older cousin Pitchfork they have remained much less “professional” and eschew 5000 word reviews that are more akin to shotgun blasts of obscure verbiage and made-up words than they are to reveiws, in favor of concise , well written music reviews. Also, their news and articles have a certain flair not found elsewhere. If you are looking for some music politics then this is the place.

I hope that give people a good start. And as always you can find some things here on vdov.net that will hopefully be new and worth a read.