Are you intimidated by Pitchfork? Afraid of its writers judging your taste with words to describe music you’ve never heard of? Relax, loser. Intern Anastasia is here to demystify their reviews.

This week: Fuck Buttons’ “Street Horrrsing”

Pitchfork says in part:

Rating: 8.6

Floating around the internet last fall before emerging on a 7" in November, Fuck Buttons' ‘Bright Tomorrow’ proved surprisingly resilient. The duo's blunt repetition of simple elements– metronomic drum-machine, chugging synth, blissful keyboard, and distorted screams– seems like a formula for tedium. But the song somehow gets stronger with each replay. For a noise group, Fuck Buttons are surprisingly welcoming– for noise music, anyway– and their mix of dreamy melody and abrasive climax evokes strange stylistic bedfellows: Yo La Tengo and Ministry, My Bloody Valentine and Prurient, Spacemen 3 and Black Dice.

Full Word Count: 503

Anastasia says:

A band named Fuck Buttons? How delightfully vulgar!

The same can’t be said of their music. It’s repetitive electro, with screamy borrowed-from-hardcore-punk choruses. Pitchfork tries to put a positive spin on how punishing they are, saying, “Where more traditional groups might worry that a part goes on too long, Fuck Buttons seem fascinated by what will happen if it does, riding it just past the point of expectation…”

Okay, they’re pushing the audience’s limits. But pushing the limits this way has been done before—it’s pointless.

It’s like shock art. In 1961, Piero Manzoni canned his own shit and called it “Merda d’artista.” He was the first to do this, so it was art. But if you did it today, you’d just have shit in a can. Quite possibly, you’d have Fuck Buttons.

Word Count: 132

Fuck Buttons [MySpace]