The Alternative Number Ones: The Sundays’ “Here’s Where The Story Ends”

In The Alternative Number Ones, I'm reviewing every #1 single in the history of the Billboard Modern Rock Tracks/Alternative Songs, starting with the moment that the chart launched in 1988. This column is a companion piece to The Number Ones, and it's for members only. Thank you to everyone who's helping to keep Stereogum afloat.

Every story ends. It sucks, but it's the truth. I'm writing this a little while after Pitchfork, the site where I worked before Stereogum, laid off a huge chunk of its staff, including some of my old friends and co-workers. Condé Nast, the company that bought Pitchfork long after I left, decreed that it should be under the banner of GQ or some such thing -- one more example, among so many, of big companies not even remotely understanding the things that they buy and fucking them all up on apparent whims. In this corner of the music internet, Pitchfork was the closest thing to a durable legacy institution, one that had run for decades without significantly altering its approach. Pitchfork will continue to exist, but its story, in a very real way, has ended.

I've been thinking a lot about Pitchfork, reading reflections from friends and strangers about what it means or meant, and it's been a profoundly bittersweet experience. I felt the same way a few years ago, when the Village Voice, another former employer of mine and another formerly beloved institution, went through its final death-rattles. The Voice's story has really ended. If you live long enough, you'll see a lot of stories end.