Within a three-hour span this afternoon, music-news websites Stereogum, Idolator, and Pitchfork all posted the same recording of “G.L.O.W.” sourced from the song’s radio debut on Chicago’s Q101. “NEW SMASHING PUMPKINS” blared a Stereogum headline, with the accompanying article stating that “it finally hit the airwaves”. Shortly thereafter, Idolator promoted the recording as “Leak Of The Day”, declaring that today marks the song’s “WEB DEBUT”. Pitchfork followed, saying “Chicago’s Q-101 played it, someone upped a rip to YouTube, and now you can listen to it in rather abysmal sound quality.”

The YouTube clip of “G.L.O.W.” embedded and hailed as newsworthy by all three sites? It’s been on YouTube for a week. The Q101 debut featured in the clip? That happened two weeks ago. And the song has been in the top 40 at alternative radio for eight days now. Links to various recordings of the song (even to perfect-quality versions) have been appearing in comments on HU posts over that entire span, and of course similar links are all over Pumpkins messageboards.

It’s one thing for these sites not to cover the Smashing Pumpkins well and therefore not to have the story on day one; really, that’s fine and no one should much care. But for them to claim that they are right on it, to act as though the music world has shrunk to the size of a three-site circle jerk, is in every sense of the word…wait for it… pretentious.