Hi – something that’s been on my mind for the last few days in regards to general discourse around our band but especially @pitchfork’s recent review of our record that I wanted to address and then hopefully move on from:
Addiction is a disease. It’s hard to view one’s own past living through the horrors of that disease as a type of scarlet letter that can’t be shaken even after many years of intense self-work in sobriety within a program of recovery.
The past is unchangeable, for sure, and much of any spiritual program of recovery deals in acceptance of that past, alongside a head-on confrontation of the defects of one’s own character which guided its construction.
Still, living today as a sober person, a husband and a parent, it’s difficult to see my own work met with an unwillingness to accept me as the person I’ve worked so diligently the last eight years to become, or an unshakeable desire to revel in the sick person I once was.
It makes me feel sad for my bandmates whose material livelihood is still at the mercy of a public tendency to root discussion of our band around a past that they personally suffered from as well.
It makes me feel sad for addicts who aspire to achieve a beautiful new life outside or in the aftermath of their disease but feel overwhelmed by the crushing weight of the wreckage they may have caused.
Recovery is possible. I’m learning to forgive myself, but it isn’t an easy task. Coming to terms with the shame and guilt of living in active addiction is a part of recovery but addicts, like anyone, are deserving of compassion, both from themselves and from others.
Musicians are people and addicts are people. People aren’t monolithic, one-dimensional caricatures; people are complex and capable of profound change. I wish this wasn’t something I felt I needed to say, but here I am saying it anyway.
the end
@DIIV @pitchfork This is so beautifully said. Sorry you even had to address it ❤️
@DIIV @pitchfork Music journalists are desperate to avoid focusing on the music, probably because they lack artistic insight and only have dull things to say. They may hold the (barbaric) belief that art & artist are inseparable and that it's proper to obsess about the artist. Lazy, cheap writing
@DIIV @pitchfork That Pitchfork review was genuinely disappointing. It's exactly as you said, and they truthfully should feel a little ashamed about writing off an entire album the way they did. Especially this one, considering anybody with ears can tell it talks about and reckons with much-
@DIIV @pitchfork They don’t build statues of critics ❤️
@DIIV @pitchfork Pitchfork always starts with a basic Wikipedia search entry on band members’ pasts to appear knowledgeable and insightful and then launch into self-indulgent interpretation of a few tracks. Not a lot of thought or care, and excessive thesaurus useage. Another great album ❤️
@DIIV @pitchfork man i never even listened to you guys but this thread is a beautiful statement read in the viewpoint from my recovery and being an artist. that review is awfully pretentious and awful. what a sad life to live with the career of being a music critic.
@DIIV @pitchfork As a group, we need to stop making Pitchfork the standard by which all Indie bands are judged. Their time has come and gone. Addiction is not a joke and to live through it is no easy task. Respect to everyone that goes on that journey. It’s a lonely journey that never ends.
@DIIV Well said! The album itself is phenomenal and your work over the last decade or so has been seminal. Your output is undeniable: you're one of the great modern guitar bands. If all reviews were centred around a low point in an artist's life, we'd not have much music to critique.
@DIIV @pitchfork Love you Cole 💖 I’m so proud of what you’ve achieved as a person and artist. You’re an inspiration to us all ✨
@DIIV @pitchfork Good for you for posting this. Hang in there & know that DIIV fans can cut through the BS. On another topic, it’s another great record. Y’all haven’t made a bad song yet.
@DIIV @pitchfork This sensationalist desire to view your work through the lens of your past is a lazy form of intellectualism that speaks nothing of you, the band or the rich body of work you have produced over the years. Keep up the great work that saved my life. 🩷
@DIIV @pitchfork Cheers for your recovery and thanks for helping push the conversation to end stigma and to revel in individual transformation. Pitchfork did the same thing to Jeff Tweedy after he got sober but some of his best work has been in recovery. Fans will see it.
@DIIV @pitchfork speaks entirely to the thesis of this album that a capitalist org. like p4k/conde nast couldn’t survive without sensationalizing & creating spectacle out of human suffering, conveniently ignoring the human capacity for change and the actual *art*
@DIIV @pitchfork I don’t know what pitchfork said about you (they’re almost always wrong) but new album sounds amazing!
@DIIV @pitchfork I didn’t read Pitchforks review, I never read their shit. But your response is authentic. You can hear it in the words you choose to use. The context clear and to the point. The past is not who you are now, no matter what others say or how they say it. Good luck w the NEW album
@DIIV @pitchfork Nicely said, but am I the only one who thought the P4k review was mostly positive?
@DIIV @pitchfork Beautifully said brother! IMO It’s hacky that they or other press outlets will continue to dwell on it. Love the new album btw! Can’t wait to see you guys in Brooklyn!
@DIIV @pitchfork That pitchfork review is so fucking lame lol
@DIIV @pitchfork This is such an important and amazing post on mental health and recovery. Thank you for opening up and celebrating your music. Love your album !
@DIIV @pitchfork Pitchfork trying to be edgy and it blows up in their face. No one reads them anymore, that’s why the result to slander and libel.
@DIIV @pitchfork well, I'm gonna listen to it now for sure. If it helps, I work with alot of 20something and under artists and whenever I mention PF they go 'never heard of it'. they are mostly on TikTok for what's new. TikTok, will also eventually be usurped, but that's another story!
@DIIV @pitchfork Wow! I couldn’t wait to head to @EarwaxRecordsNY to buy a copy so I pulled it up on Spotify and I am blown away at the depths of the music and the emotion and content. I haven’t studied the lyrics yet, but I feel it just the same. Awesome job, guys!
@DIIV @pitchfork Love you❤️ it’s really a shame you have to write something like this… but world is just bad in some ways
@DIIV @pitchfork @pitchfork is trash and always has been and always will be.
@DIIV @pitchfork Pitchfork stinks. Eating the smoking the mode-de-jour for years. It’s embarrassing.
@DIIV @pitchfork The only thing that matters is that @DIIV JUST RELEASED A NEW ALBUM!!🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥F @pitchfork
@DIIV @pitchfork love you guys. so fucking hype for july when i see you guys live, been listening for years.