Noah & the Whale - Worst New Music, 2008 Tour Dates

Tell us how you really feel

from what little i've heard of them, they do kinda suck

i love their album. love it.

wow. that's pretty heartless. Is everything alright at home?

Marc Hogan wrote that quote. Who are you asking?

with a few exceptions, the album is pretty average

"Shape of my Heart" is a great single and music video though.

Amazing album, It's to bad Laura Marling isn't still with the band. I talked to Laura after her Minneapolis show, and she wouldn't rule out making another album with them.

Oh by the way, Marc Hogan is retarded and pitchfork sucks. Brooklyn Vegan and Chromewaves are the best national blogs. Noah and the Whale, The Envy Corps, and Friendly Fires are my 3 favorite finds of 2008. Check em out!

Pitchfork's such a joke. I'm not too familiar with this band but Pitchfork is just so obnoxious with their reviews.

wow. that's pretty heartless. Is everything alright at home?---

question was posed to Marc Hogan

"wow. that's pretty heartless. Is everything alright at home?"

Main Entry: crit·ic
Pronunciation: \ˈkri-tik\
Function: noun
Etymology: Latin criticus, from Greek kritikos, from kritikos able to discern or judge, from krinein
Date: 1588

1 a: one who expresses a reasoned opinion on any matter especially involving a judgment of its value, truth, righteousness, beauty, or technique b: one who engages often professionally in the analysis, evaluation, or appreciation of works of art or artistic performances

Pitchfork is a joke. That said, this band does SUCK.

it sounds like he barely listened to the record. and comparing laura marling to amelia fletcher is just lazy. they don't sound very similar, but i guess they're both girls...

does anyone still read Pitchfork?

ouchie-doodles

By his description, it sounds just like it would be right up Pitchfork's alley
I wish Brooklyn Vegan would just ignore Pitchfork sometimes, those aren't very nice things to say to about anybody. It doesn't help when other blogs spread their hype, positive or negative.

pitchfork likes whoever they are supposed to, and they are star-fuckers to the max. it's pretty easy to predict who they will give a good review to, and who they won't

That record is pretty damn good, if you dig stuff in the Belle and Sebastian/Neutral Milk genre AND can stomach super cutesy shit like Dexy's Midnite Runners. Is it excessive that EVERY song seems to have either "love" or "heart" in the lyrics of the chorus. Yeah, it is.

But that Union Pool show was fucking great.

Pitchfork is often really bad, but Marc Hogan, specifically, is the worst music writer I've ever come across. It's not that I disagree with him (I've never heard Noah and the Whale), but the only thing I'd ask from a critic is that he or she would know and care about music. A person who just knows about music and doesn't care gets the objective stuff right (e.g. discussing the details of arrangement/instrumentation/production, whether the song is in a major or minor key, etc.) but writes only to show how much he knows or how smart he is. A writer who cares writes about how the music makes him feel, whether or not he actually knows anything about music. A writer who cares and doesn't know is more interesting and exciting than a writer who knows and doesn't care. But the worst of all is when a writer neither knows or cares. Marc Hogan's comments about the objective stuff in music is constantly completely wrong. The subjective stuff he says sounds phony and like it's coming from a deluded, angry place or like he's laboring to show his coolness or smartness by claiming he can see through everything. He's so bad that Antony wrote him a letter begging him to never write again. Marc Hogan and Sasha Frere-Jones are the two writers that have always struck me as most reprehensible.

twee pop??....is there a lamer sounding "genre" of music out there?
me thinks not.

"Belle and Sebastian/Neutral Milk genre"? What's that?

Both of those bands, and Dexy's, are way better than this cloying garbage.

Pitchwork's reviews are nearly as idiotic as the comments of BV readers. Anybody who constantly uses expressions such as sucks, terrible, zzzzz, lame, etc. to describe music likely does not know much about music.

That review is bullshit. Pitchfork is just trying to flex its pseudo-intellectual muscles in that muddled, vocab-packaged review. They try so hard these days, their writing just comes off as pompous and jaded. I have no problem with cynicism, just as long as it is tasteful and on the mark - that review was not spot on.

hilarious

Pitchfork is a joke.

These guys are a good band that puts on a good show.

2:52, I liked your comparison btw BV commenters and Pitchfork readers, but BV commenters are really f*cking funny sometimes. The Pitchfork people are just trying way too hard to be cool.

Never listened to the album, but I did read the review. The thing that I find interesting is Hogan's need to separate himself from the "Gen-Y" everyman. In the middle of the review he states, "fill spaces with the word 'oh' the way us inarticulate Gen-Yers tend to say 'like' or 'you know.'" He uses "us", but you know he doesn't consider himself part of this inarticulate pool, no one who uses the word "nepenthe" could possibly have this opinion of themselves. Hogan's need to prove his intellectual superiority results in this overly-verbose and therefore clumsily written review.

The thing to remember about Marc Hogan is that he's a business writer who isn't much interested in music, but is very interested in getting a reaction. He wants people talking about him.

I learned very little about the record, but I now know a little too much about his netflix renting habits.

marc hogan is awesome

regardless of what you think about pitchfork or marc hogan. i agree wholeheartedly with the noah and the whale review. gave them a chance live and i hated myself for it. if you take your music seriously that is. hogan is a little too harsh but on point pretty much

this is the guy who gave black kids ep an 8.4 and called it "best new music"

the newest USA dates have been cancelled

Islam is a religion of peace