January 28th, 2024
Pitchfork is not defunct yet, but the indie music magazine is being repositioned (or gobbled up) by the bureaucratic big wig Condé Naste, a name synonymous with false hope and out-of-touch capital management.
Autocracies are roaring around the world, and the United States is right in with the action as former President Donald Trump sweeps the first two Republican caucuses, and critics (including Fox News) are calling for his only competitor to step down. This is the same Trump who was found guilty of rape against a former journalist, Jean E. Carroll.
On Friday, a New York City jury ruled Trump must pay Carroll upwards of eighty million in defamation damages and additional funds for her sustained harassment.
Democracy is dwindling in line with journalism. Just last week, The LA Times, Daily Mail, National Geographic, and, as I said, Pitchfork all announced significant layoffs or swaths of employees went on strike. Journalism is the bedrock of democracy. The world without journalism is a world without interpretation. Life becomes one mundane blob of sameness fed to us by people in positions of power: government and police and in-bred billionaires.
In honor of Pitchfork’s adieu, I give a 10.2 to Ann Peebles’ “I Feel Like Breaking Up Somebody’s Home” – not that she needs me to rate her music. But I’d like to think she would not have a problem. I mean, I awarded two points above perfect. Should I have given her an eight extra? Maybe 10?
That would be a discussion for Pitchfork. Alas. But what I would bring to the table is this: Peebles is a deep cut of outstanding American artistry. The song is sultry, commanding, sexy, funky — ahead of its time. The combination of chills crawling up your spine when she howls into the microphone, coupled with the begging blues rhythm, tells a foot-thumping tale that you’ll want to hear more than twice. And as Leonard Bernstein said, “Art doesn’t answer questions; art provokes them.”
To Ann Peebles! To democracy!
Ashley Elizabeth Miller 
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