Ariel Pink

i fucking love it

I've still not heard 'Ariel Pink'.

The fact that 'lo-fi' has been used NINE ZILLION TIMES in this thread with barely any answers...

... doesn't appeal.

But perhaps I am KNEE JERKING?!

i like The Doldrums A LOT, Worn Copy though, i don't know. It's not as catchy maybe, except for ' Jules Lost His Jewels'

-- mitch dub (w!mbis...), April 7th, 2005."
im not aware of the 50+ though.

In LA Weekly article, he says he has "easily 200" cassettes lying around of albums and "masters".

He's playing Knitting Factory on Friday I think; just wondering what the hell he's gonna do with himself on stage.

i would like paper thanks

Shit, I guess that works for pretty much everything.

xhowevermanyposts

saw him the other night. he's finally got a good band together, a few sloppy parts but they really nailed the vocal harmonies and the weird time signitures. it actually SOUNDED just like his records too, which was weird.

he was selling these homemade CD-Rs with different artwork for $20, i bought 3 of em and then found out they all had the same songs on them..

Can't say I'm surprised.

that sucks.

But cool that he sounded good :D

vudi from american music club is in this band now. which is weird. maybe I already said that upthread

there is some staggering kaleidoscopic talent lurking beneath the temporal hipster trappings IMHO

-- duke due, Thursday, September 2, 2004 6:45 PM (2 years ago) Bookmark Link

not that i mind the hipster trappings too much per se, but this is entirely OTM

Vudi?! No wonder he sounds so good now.

it's too bad about this bullshit "hipster" stigma surrounding him, because he's by far the best songwriter out of any pop/rock/indie/whitebread variety these days and he's actually pretty funky too.

i mean, if wilco or whoever were to record an album of ariel pink songs, it'd be the unanimous critic-wide rock album of the year, no doubt.

but less psychedelic and closer to reality therefore would prob. be dud

what are we coming to

now playing: "Jules Lost His Jewels"

Come on baby, let's dance!

new track is so good ("Can't Hear My Eyes")

keepin it smoooooth

Which one doesn't belong? - Lilly Allen, Pink Elln, Ellen Allien

revisited the doldrums lately and realized that i enjoyed their live show much more than that album. interested in hearing that new track tho ^^

revisited the doldrums lately? bleh. recently

flash player down at the bottom of this

http://space15twenty.com/ariel_pinks_haunted_graffiti

thanks!

1520: What are you thinking about how you want your next album to be like?
AP: The record will essentially be a formal reintroduction; me saying "hello friend. My name is Ariel Pink. You've probably read my name online somewhere, maybe your best friend burned you some of my older records, or perhaps you even think we've met at some time in the past. Baloney! Everything you think you know is WRONG- DEAD WRONG. THIS is me, naked, without the buffer of awful tape noise drowning out any lack of vision.

I dunno... That last sentence in particular sounds horrific. The noise must stay, damnit! Been listening to him alot again lately, so this smooth - it's what it is, indeed - sound comes as a surprise. It's a good song, but not as good as the best songs on this years Oddities Sodomies, I think.

does he sound more 'professional' live (could be in a good or bad way)? or does he still sound a bit shambolic, like on the album?

getting some fleetwood mac vibes, pretty cool. also sorta reminds me of gary wilson but a lot more listenable

fairly shambly, but in a unified sort of way. shamble tamble. they sang through some cheap reverbs, so it had some of the lo-fi vibe on their albums. played w/ 2 basses for a few of the songs too

I get the Gary Wilson comparison yeah, which is a good thing

Hey, wait a second! This new song doesn't have any farty-sounding beat boxing. WTF?!?

But seriously, this is a pretty great track. I don't think having a real studio recording hurts his sound at all.

Now this is starting to sound interesting...love Ariel but he needs to take it the next level...imagine Todd Rundgren producing...

^^^yeah you right

I have a horse in this race kinda but imo sooner or later he's going to have to just let the songs stand on their own. I think his songs are terrific so I think it'll be pretty great though, the only q for me is how his voice will go over unmodulated/unfiltered. Listening now, just on first hearing, I think it'll be just fine - the great sensibility that makes him interesting, that 70s-blender cinematic feeling, is intact.

I agree John. To me it's not a either/or question between modulated and naked songs, and letting the songs stand on it's own could get him moving again. But it's just that everything he's done, to me, is already of such utter beauty, I hopes he moves to the next level rather slow. That said, I'm really starting to dig this new song.

The song he did with John Maus "Written All Over Your Face" was a signpost of what could be achieved...love that new song as well

Best thing was I saw him do a tour a few years go where he played with a new band backing him up in each city. That was actually kind of dull but after doing a set with them he just brought out his 4-track, plugged in his mic, and mixed the songs live. It was brilliant!

Yeah this is excellent. If he keeps this balance of clear but lo-fi his fingerprint will stay on the material. It's like a more sophisticated weathered sound. Well done.

The keyboardist and the drummer from Lilys are in the Haunted Grafitti now? Wow.

By the way I've been trying to get into John Maus for the last two days. Talk about a poor man's Ariel Pink. It's like he's trying to copy every aspect of Ariel Pink and just blowing it. That's got to be a bummer to shoot for crappy and fail.

i think maus might be a rich man's ariel pink actually, but i like him too

Really? Yeah he seems to have his own following in his own right... Ariel Pink is very "new sincerity," with a keen sense of irony, but very genuine. The songs are well constructed, there's a process and a method, and he makes pretty well fleshed-out pop songs. John Maus just sounds to me like, "Hey I can do that! Synthesizers on tape with stupid joke lyrics!"

By the way one's from beverly hills and the other's a colege professor. That would make them both a rich man's R. Stevie Moore, wouldn't it?

Ariel Pink's recording an album with the guys from Vas Deferens Organization. They also did a side project called Shits & Giggles. Dunno who will release these things, but somebody really should.

Whoa, I'm really interested to hear this. I scrolled up the thread looking for any old posts I'd made on the subject but didn't find any, surprisingly. My favorite Ariel Pink songs - like "New Trumpets of Time" - were the ones where he played it straight, and I'd love to hear more in that vein.

John Maus rules.

That new "Can't Here My Eyes" is quite good, very straight and sober pop. Someone mentioned Fleetwood Mac upthread, it's pretty apt.

http://kimag.es/share/14770623.jpg

if that is a press photo, I consider it awesome

wtf that p4k review

Yeah I don't get that review, at all.

And I'm trying to explain why, but I keep ending up baffled.

Whoah... if the great Can't Hear My Eyes and the new single Flashback are any indication, the new album of Ariel Pink will be the best album in the history of music. Ever.

Flashback, on the 'Reminiscenses' (tour) EP, is fan-tas-tic. It starts out a cappela, and when the guitars (with crazy solo's) kick in, Ariel sings and scream and the song is a an 80s rocker. It's not hard to imagine this in an 80s episode of Miami Vice, during the part when Crocket & Tubbs are after the bad guys, when the race is on. Or something. The production is very clear (the sound equals that of 'Can't Hear My Eyes'). Then, at 3/4th there's a huge guitarsolo and the song ends with a euphoric crossing of hair metal and a jam out, it goes quiet for half a second and then FLASHBACK! It gets another round. So fucking great!
Rama Ya is a singalong punkrocker, and the title song is a gorgeous wobbly synthy instrumental. Pick this up on his tour or order it rom his website!

Is it only available on vinyl? I have had "Flashback" stuck in my head after hearing it only once!

xpost

But The Doldrums is already the best album in the history of music. Ever. I prefer my Ariel Pink murky.

I know Kevin, I prefer my Ariel murky as well, but have have you heard Can't Hear My Eyes? And this new one? They both can be the best album in the world! Ever.

@Metro, yeah it's a 7" ltd. to 1000. Mine came with the tour goody bag. But, y'know, there's always mp3's and stuff floating around.

http://pitchfork.com/tv/#/episode/1966-ariel-pink

^ Flashback

Thanks NickB!! They're cool as cats man.

I know Kevin, I prefer my Ariel murky as well, but have have you heard Can't Hear My Eyes? And this new one?

The latter only. I like it. But for me, the murk places a burden on his music that makes it ache more. See also other best album in the world ever candidate Belong: Colorloss Record.

I will try that album, haven't hear it!

And I totally know where you're coming from. I'm madly in love with the aesthetic of 'The Doldrums', it indeed aches and feels weird and unbalanced in a glorious way, golden harmonies from outer space.
Lately he's polishing his sound, it seems. I was at first a tad dissapointed (read earlier on in this thread), but have grown very fond of 'Can't Hear My Eyes' especially. But yes, he'll probably never top The Doldrums. I'm just mad excited 's all :)

I prefer the one that has Jools lost his jewels since that's the first one I ever heard

yeah me too. the opener, 'Trepanated Earth', is breezy, massive and totally desperate at the same time. For such a 70's "golden harmonies" type of songwriter he often comes up with the type of minor-key bleakness that could nicely fit on a Cure album.

was kinda let down by "can't hear my eyes" because while it was produced more 'cleanly', it wasn't really produced well. kinda like if you took out the reverb and blew the dust off those gas records. or watching ugly people on big screen hi-def

NickB, I kiss you! I can't believe that I simply missed that Belong EP. It is brilliant! Ariel Pink on downers, golden harmony onder a thick clutter of ambient noise. I like it very, very much indeed. Is their album equally good?

listening to worn copy tonight...man I fuckin love this record so much.

really want to see him live again. such a happy time. still don't know anyone these days who writes pop songs as good as him (but i'm way out of the loop.) if there was an albums poll, i wouldn't know what to pick; the first four that were (re)released are all 10/10 outstanding.

what a beautiful mess his live shows are!

worn copy better all-around than the doldrums but the first 1/2 of the doldrums is eye-poppingly great

I am happy with either "Bobby Pyn" or "Trepanated Earth" being considered his magnum opus...I also think House Arrest should have both those albums worriedly twisting their hair...

Artist of the decade. Seriously.

I think maybe I agree!

"Young Pilot Astray" from The Doldrums is a mixtape staple and one of my favorite tracks of the decade. Haven't heard enough of his other releases to have an overall opinion, but "YPA" (and "For Kate I Wait") are perfect in every detail.

remember when ilm was super skeptical about this?

guy

like this guy a lot, but flying circles is one of my top 5 songs of all time so it tends to dwarf the other stuff for me

Can't remember those times Plaxico (I wasn't around back then, surely is the reason)... Was ILM foul mouthing Ariel Pink?

Picked up the My Molly' 7" the other day on eBay. The man simply is incapable of dissapointing!

whoever OTM up there w/r/t Worn Copy >> Doldrums. Not always in the mood for this guy, but when I am I'm always amazed at how he can come up with an otherwordly bridge or coda out of nowhere.

Yeah back in 2005, everyone was like "Fucking trustafarian tosser bangin on about Nazis, been given all this reording equipment to play with by his parents, should go out and get a proper job..." etc. I never had a problem with it though and I'm glad people are giving Worn Copy some biggups as it was always my favourite.

I think it helps that he really seems like a genuine weirdo, moreso than someone with stevie-moore-fetishist acid fried schtick.

he's kind of a dick.

How so?

he's seven inches long and spurts piss and jizz.

I met him at a bar and he was very dickish. in his defense i guess it was like 3 in the morning and he had played a show that night, but when people are friendly to you you shouldn't be a dick to them.
still love his music though. I think House Arrest is my favorite. There are some killer tracks on that holy shit album, too.

Yeah he was selling merch after his London show and he seemed a bit miserable...like buy you're stuff and fuck off...do think he is a talent tho

isn't the dude's sister in a vegetative state, or something?...cut him some slack, he's probably got all sorts of issues...

The ethio jam on one of the newish 7 inches is great.

yeah from what I hear from my LA scenesters friends, dude's got some pretty serious issues. Anyway, the guy might be a fucked-up asshole, but his stuff never comes across as douchey or ironic, and way more emotionally engaging than any lo-fi hipster darling.

No, I totally agree on that front.

remember when ilm was super skeptical about this?

haha dude even the stuff from like 5 years ago upthread is largely positive!

also lover boy's finally out on vinyl, which is great, because it has some of his best stuff imo ("don't talk to strangers," "so glad," "let's get married," "i don't need enemies," although i wish it woulda included "new trumpets of time" because that shit is a jam and a half too).

this guy is awesome

http://mutant-sounds.blogspot.com/2009/07/debut-lp-by-ariel-pink-and-vdos-new.html

Anyone know the deal with this new project? This thing Ariel is doing with the Mutant Sounds dude? Sounds interesting...

his Invisible Jukebox in the new Wire is pretty hilarious.

i've stanned for Ariel since The Doldrums, and will continue to stan for him afterwards. he does have issues, but he's also *painfully* quiet and shy, and it isn't an affect. he was very kind to me the last time i hung with him, but then again, me and my friends were all coming down from ecstasy whilst petting him and smoking pot.

my faves:
"Gettin High in the Morning" <----because really, he gets the feeling down.
"Artifact"
"The Drummer"
"Alisa"
"Somewhere in Europe/Hot Pink!"
"Oblivious Peninsula"

also, the Gettin High in the Morning--->Helen--->Every Night I Die at Miyagi's--->House Arrest---> Alisa----> The People I'm Not section of "House Arrest" might be the best shit ever. never fails.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tzDXZQyS0i0

<3 <3 <3

wow
"Los Angeles’ notorious lo-fi pop oufit Ariel Pink’s Haunted Graffiti have been unveiled as the latest signings to 4AD. The group are currently recording their first record for the label, due spring 2010."

o_O

Ariel and 4AD... that's such an insane combination it can only work out brilliantly.

Seems like a great fit, though 4AD certainly isn't the label it used to be, after the Beggars Banquet merger.

OMG I LOVE THIS NEW SONG

http://gorillavsbear.blogspot.com/2010/03/mp3-new-ariel-pinks-haunted-graffiti.html

Would I like Ariel Pink?

good song, but i am almost tempted to run it through some VST effects to simulate the dirty cassette tape sound of the older stuff.

I am loving the clean sound tbh

I don't blame the dude for moving on from the lo-fi. The new production is pristine. But for me, that dense layer of reel-to-reel-track-bouncing in a wood-paneled basement studio, and his sometimes off-key caterwauling, sort of made it possible to listen to what otherwise is 80s style smooth rock. I know that there's a lot more going on here in terms of weird FX and drones drifting in an out of the foreground, but I'm not sure I could listen to a whole album of this, unless there are some pretty weird excursions. Guy does have a great ear for melody, though. Song is one of his catchiest.

that's cool, 80s style smooth rock is like my favorite tho.

just out of curiosity, are you old enough to remember that kind of stuff being on the radio at, like, department stores?

I hope that doesn't sound ageist or anything - I just wonder if my own distaste for 80s smooth rock is because I had to suffer through it (it seemed to soundtrack particularly miserable times such as being stuck in TJ Maxx type stores, or dentist offices, as a kid), as opposed to looking back on it as an artifact. All the wobbly tape phasing and artificial aging of his earlier stuff allowed me to think of it as an artifact more than something I grew up with. if that makes sense.

nah, you're right. i was born in 85, but grooving to some hall & oates in tj maxx sounds like my kind of party.

Cover is pretty funny
http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2754/4425828992_705c6161e1_o.jpg

there was a lot more to his better stuff than lofi fm pop schtick, i don't know how you'd see 'trepanated earth' in those terms

this new thing is not so good

what's I've heard of where he's going I like, but my fondness for his whole deal - his melodies, the conversational phrasing of his weird lyrics, the whole vibe - is high

Fuck Hall & Oates. Ariel Pink is 1000x better.

Ariel Pink needs to invest in a rhodes piano and a sax player for his new band.

Nevermind, there's the rhodes piano sound. 1-2 minute dreamy sax solo (or two!!) and now we're talkin.

Don't know if I posted this anywhere else around here, but the one time I saw him live was pretty hilarious. He stood on the stage for like five minutes, pointed at everyone, screamed XANAX and then just ran outside. His band just kind of stood there dumbfounded and then one of the dudes was like "...alright" and they all busted into this really tight return to forever-like jazz fusion track. I was pretty drunk and went outside at some point and he was all hunched up against a dumpster in an alleyway looking like that lord of the rings guy. I walked up to him and went "I...uh...your music is pretty good." He kind of blinked and I left.

Sneak preview of Ariel Pink's new single:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EFH5pN9MEok

nah, "baker st." iirc

liking the new song but I agree that there's more to the guy than underproduced breezy AM rock. Trepanated Earth is a good example of the haunting side a lot of his songs somehow carry

I like this song a lot!

lol @ Spectrum

are u who I think u are btw

ok i'm on board with this new stuff

Yes guy has chops that transcend fidelity.

Round and Round is so swank. loving this shit

first jam of summer. well, it's sunny today, anyhow.

I tend not to dig Ariel Pink when he comes out from under those layers of crud. But this, this is pretty stunning. And it's far from 1980s soft rock soi-même; it's a pretty demented take on said genre. Which doesn't mean it wouldn't be great to hear him have a "Chasing Cars"-sized hit with it. Good show!

I was around for 80s style smooth rock, didn't like it then, love it now

Let's hear it for the boy.

hey, seany here.
as every1 knowz, im such a fucking fan of the a pink h graffitti , i mean we're talking fuckn 'doldrmz is like the best album ever' smashn ur gf to 'kate i wait' but then taking acid and telling alan palomo to get tacos with you. you blast 'strange fires' and he just goes 'god damn' im like yeah- make an album dude. then you get to the taco place and hes like. dude. have no money right now. but you cover him cuz at the time ur working at a dry cleaners. and you just livn in a haze like his chosen aesthetic until u know.. he learns how to craft into marketability.

just saying... this song fucking is like turning on the radio and like ur friend jumps in ur car, as u drive off the wind blows through your hair and your just like 'man we own these streets' and then you wreck and glass goes through both of your 'beaner hair' and while blood is gushing out, yo ushit yourself. then wake up. and realize you dont have a job anymore

^^^^knob

That sounds like shock to me, if you get in a wreck and blood is gushing from your "beaner hair" and you're thinking about employment. That's like riding your bike into a concrete electric pole and getting up and looking around for the crumpled napkin you were going to throw out.

diggin' the fuck outta this
reelect smooth music in '10

really liking this but I don't really find it that different from his old stuff

When the shit does this new record drop? What is it called?

it's a mystery!

hmmm the pitchdorks list "before today" as coming out 6/8 on 4AD in their guide to upcoming releases today.....

can't find info about that elsewhere though.

Ariel! Oh, Ariel!

http://cdn.pitchfork.com/media/beforetoda452.jpg

Chillwave forefather Ariel Pink and his band Haunted Graffiti are ready to release their first album for 4AD, dubbed Before Today and due out June 8 on CD, LP, and MP3. According to a press release, some of the 12-track album was recorded in Tito Jackson's former home studio with Quincy Jones' grandson Sunny Levine and Rik Pekkonen, whose past credits include Iggy Pop, Brian Wilson, and Ricky Martin (!).

"first album"

"chillwave forefather"

uh first album for 4AD

that album cover is somewhere between o_O and ^_^

rather look at that cover than the one of a guy frenching a dog tbh

pretty psyched for this album

haha, I had completely forgotten that this used to have a different cover -- I was just commenting because the new one struck me as so... strange. it's like a pastiche of something that I can't quite place, and that may not have ever actually existed.

that was just the cover of the single (the one with the dog)

it's like a pastiche of something that I can't quite place, and that may not have ever actually existed.

Haha yeah totally, I'm mentally flipping through "iconinc" 70s classic rock covers to find the original.

i think "a pastiche of something that never actually existed" might be an interesting way to describe ariel...

i dig the leather pants. definitely gonna be an L.A. album...

xp tho what's with the glowing white witch?

"chillwave forefather"

― licorice oratorio (baaderonixx)

smh

He sort of is though?

yeah I get the meaning but its just pretty wtf to see this so-called genre already referencing its forefathers. Guess I'm just old.

The new album is really good.

man, i played a show with this dude like five years ago. i kinda liked the record, but his live show was alot of him slapping his ass yelling "pee pee doo doo."

If you would have pulled me aside and said, "In 2010, all indie rock will sound like this," I would have stared a dagger into your soul.

hope his full time band means the live show has improved (just bought tickets for the mercury lounge show).

actually last time i saw him, on the tour with cass mccombs, he was pretty good.

I saw him at SXSW in 2005 (I think) and the show was transcendent. His show next year at SXSW was awful (embarrassingly so since I dragged a few people to witness the glory). And so it goes...

Youtube evidence would lead one to believe that the band is pretty tight imo.

saw him with I guess the new band in Dublin last year, tight as fuck (apart from AP himself who was shambolic in a v charismatic way - apparently his rider called for an enormous quantity of weed, most/all of which was consumed pre-show).

If you would have pulled me aside and said, "In 2010, all indie rock will sound like this," I would have stared a dagger into your soul.

― swag surfer blood (Whiney G. Weingarten), Tuesday, April 6, 2010 12:18 PM

does all indie rock sound like this in 2010?

yeah I get the meaning but its just pretty wtf to see this so-called genre already referencing its forefathers. Guess I'm just old.

― licorice oratorio (baaderonixx), Tuesday, April 6, 2010 12:13 PM (1 hour ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

Yeah this is funny! Forefather meaning someone around 5-6 years ago...

he was good at Music Hall of Wburg last year, I was skeptical going in cuz his live reviews are pretty mixed but it was a tight show

Saw him in Miami and his band was really tight, as some people have indicated above, but they were also boring, and they concluded the show with the worst freak-out jam of all time. Ariel was really high, trying to compete with Ida No, who fell off stage into the bar.

Sound check was three hours and doors opened really late. You couldn't tell at all that they'd put so much work into it, and the bass hurt all the audience's ears.

I'd rather have seen him with a guitar and keyboard and sampler and CDr set up, going solo like in those early shows which have been described as terrible. Ariel's drummer carried a lot of the weight, and his voice seemed to be higher in the mix than Ariel's. Ariel looked really old and a bit like the troll under the bridge from "Three Billy Goats Gruff."

I liked the CDs, especially the pop stuff, despite the occasionally plagiarized tune, but that show put me off for years. To the present, really.

That single up above sort of reminds me of when Beck decided he was a real singer and had to sing pretty, and started putting out (even more) boring records The production and voice clash. Also, the production haze of the earlier recordings is like a trick to get around how harsh hi-fi recordings often sound. Only in theory do I like the AM smooth pop aesthetic.

What did I just do. Post stuff. Give opinions.

He was AWFUL at Primavera last year...still, pumped for the new record, 'Round and Round' sounds wick.

three hour soundcheck?

Yes. We put the chess board away, but could've played two more games. I was pissed!

Not that the sound guy and opening bands couldn't have been blamed. And the management.

disappointed to find out he's a stoner. weed is boring. was hoping he was either a pillhead or totally clean and just naturally mental.

WEED is AWESOME-

The cover kinda reminds me of Lou Reed's 'Take No Prisoners' album...kinda like it...

disappointed to find out he's a stoner. weed is boring. was hoping he was either a pillhead...

wow

"Gettin' high in the morning" iirc

<img src>http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_uB-0D-gV8mY/SFm0KyVUivI/AAAAAAAAJqk/O23jZ-92Fus/s400/killing+joke<;/img>

damn sorry for the wack html

Wait, how is it a surprise that he's a stoner?

he was terrific and totally pro when i saw him 3 years ago (with band). new single sounds ok. i agree w/bamquern re: the vocals. same situation with that recent-ish (?) glass candy single where ida no's vox are devoid of much reverbhaze and just don't mesh. weed is awesome, btw.

add lucifer's friend s/t to the stack of "waht does this cover look like"

i thought of Ramones meets Ziggy Stardust covers

disappointed to find out he's a stoner. weed is boring. was hoping he was either a pillhead or totally clean and just naturally mental.

this is some of the weirdest I-demand-a-certain-image-from-the-artist stuff I have ever run across

xposts didn't mean to out him as a stoner (if indeed i did), thought it was well-known/obvious tbh...

wow - he's the first person ive ever heard of who smokes weed!

everyone in california smokes the doobage. even your mom.

I really wasn't serious, no do U care what drugs the dude does tbh. I'm just saying Miley Cyrus is probably a pothead. It's so normal these days that to hear stories about how he smoked a dump truck full of weed before a show is just kind of... mundane. I demand juicier drug details from my weirdo artists!!

wtf? that should be *nor do I care*

no do U care

lol u were high as a motherfucker when you wrote that

i thought of Ramones meets Ziggy Stardust covers

I'm getting a sort of cross between Ziggy Stardust and What's THIS For by Killing Joke...

xposts
it was a pretty mundane story, sorry! :) anyway it was a superb gig, his band were seriously chops-tastic, and the new song is grrreat. love that moment about two minutes in when the multilayered voices singing "Hold on!" break thru the haze. to paraphrase what someone said upthread about the album cover, it makes me feel nostalgic for something that I can't quite place, and that may not have ever actually existed. excited about the new album.

Cover reminded me of Desmond Child and Rouge

http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51vINIsD7pL.jpg

ugh sorry so huge

oh man. wkiw ^ xp

tbh i hear AP is crazed w c0c@1n3 but more broadly i dont care

cocaine? pfft, nowadays i don't listen to anyone on anything less potent than dmt

just echoing the love for round and round

never really dug this dude before but this joint is ill

wkiw = ?

that song sounds like Washed Out
(and i like it)

would kick it with

ah thanx

never really dug this dude before but this joint is ill

agreed

never really dug this dude before but this joint is ill

― max, Tuesday, April 6, 2010 7:26 PM (2 days ago) Bookmark

have you heard Can't Hear My Eyes? u gotta

leaked, btw.

yeah, and the album is aswesome.
the production of it is the best thing i've heard in awhile, which i guess is even a bigger achievement for him as a lo-fi artist (till now).
as for the tunes: a little more accessible, but the weird-psych is still going on with full power for most of it, and thank god for that.

every song sounds a somewhat different, though they all share the same vibe as a whole:
animal collective, mercury rev (little wig), stereolab (bright lit), air, fleetwood mac/chicago (can't hear my eyes). actually 70's softrock all over the place.
gotta love it.

Hoping we get at least one Aeroplane remix of a track from this album.

well this album pretty much owns

excited!!

what is a butt-house blondie?

the last track on this is pretty ace.. it's like a weirdo kraut wire tune

There's a zip on 4chan but i that sounds like a bad idea....

This might be the best thing he has done. Either that, or I'm getting carried away. Time will tell.

This one is going definitely going to net him a new audience. The production is excellent, shimmering and hazy, and shows he can work just as well within a more "produced" setting. Late 70's Fleetwood Mac aesthetic is definitely in place, plenty of weirdo lounge-pop; this has "LA Record" written all over it.

what are the lyrics of the chorus of "round and round"?

today i've been singing "i'm goin baaaaaack/ goin baaaaaack/ to the maaaaaaaaall"

now is the time alloted for ariel pink, huh. is this just 4ad publicity? or ppl hate lofi more than i thought. not sure what else helps an act like this move up a division as it looks like is going on.

ariel pink is da best at basslines

s this just 4ad publicity?

partly, sure

or ppl hate lofi more than i thought.

hifi music is generally more accessible

not sure what else helps an act like this move up a division as it looks like is going on.

writing a single as good as "round and round"

xp OTM "alisa" por ejemplo

people like to think they're watching artists grow up and mature and grow, and this all fits into his whole narrative about shedding the bullshit and giving you the real, raw deal ariel pink.

chorus of the year so far imo

the raw pink

can't wait to see this dude live

@ the hollywood bowl

ogmor: i'm listening to this album pretty loud in my living room atm and my stepfather just asked what artist this is, and said he was groovin to it and would check him out. he's not a total grump but i'm pretty sure if it were any other ariel pink album he would have just told me to turn it down or off entirely.

this album will fill the niche this year that the girls album did last year

this album will fill the niche this year that the girls album did last year

Except I won't find it lacking.

unsure how much ilm head-types differ from the dads of the world in lofi tolerance. I spose 4ad is the biggest factor; pretty sure plenty of ppl digging this wld have no clue if he'd recorded anything this good before, quality is necessary, not sufficient.

I've been in and out of familiarity with Ariel Pink since the first stuff started coming out (way-too-hip weirdo music friends), and there's definitely been a shift to a more accessible songwriting style in that time. The lofi to hifi shift doesn't hurt things, but I don't think it really explains the sudden greater interest in the way the better/different songwriting style does. I mean, people went nuts over Times New Viking for a hot minute and they record things over a phone on an answering machine.

the songwriting seems more key, its more poised & elegant and less crazed rs moore, amateur fan in the bathroom. maybe I wish the relationship between those two sounds was more up for grabs for more ppl, but I am a guy that just wants to see more love from ppl all the time anyway

almost every song sounds like a direct pastiche for another band/song.

but it's a professional theft.

Album sounds good on one listen but nothing sounds as great as "Round and Round"

Round and Round is the sort of a song i usually likes at first, but after awhile neglect it in favour of the more sophisticated,less immediate stuff, that lingers longer

I'm having trouble figuring out why all of Ariel's previous albums were largely ignored and yet the leak of this one is an internet-wide musical/cultural event.

cause of THE PRODUCTION

and the single i guess

i'm having trouble figuring out why you've apparently chosen not to read any of this thread

in terms of songwriting - it's still kinda "difficult"
xpost

also apparently he is influential now iirc

ive listened to this on repeat all day and agree with zeno. even though "round and round" is more immediate, the other songs virtues are starting to really shine through. its def a grower and conducive to close listening. from what i can tell this album is going to please many different types of people. also the varied comment upthread is otm, but its still cohesive soundwise.

also lol at "beverly kills" sounding like a boogie/freestyle track and a stereolab b-side

it's like a trivia game: guess the origin of the song.
for example:

Little Wig = mercury rev's Syringe Mouth

I listened to this while working, so I wasn't entirely focused on it, but what hit me a few times while listening to this was a sort of deja vu feeling of listening to side 2 of the Cure's

Standing on a Beach/Staring at the Sea

lol @ formatting, those were supposed to be italics

haha - haven't heard the new one, but I always felt that there was a distinctive Cure thing all over his music. SoaB b-side is a good reference point, with that similar murky, underwater bass sound that permeates some of these songs

can someone point me to some places where this is an "internet-wide cultural event"? what internet are you on?

this is a serious question

new single posted on tons of blogs, reported on pitchfork, etc. It's not different from the media buzz around your average indie p4k band but I don't recall any of that for past Ariel Pink releases.

http://www.google.com/trends/viz?q=%22ariel+pink%22&graph=weekly_img&sa=N

my theory is that since dude released like a zillion albums from '04-'07 before going quiet for a couple years, he's getting a lot of "oh hey, ariel pink, I remember sorta-liking what I heard of that guy -- wonder what he's up to now?" general-interest clicks

Loving this. I think I like it even more since I'm already familiar with about half the songs.

(said clicks, of course, tending to alight upon his super-catchy, accessible, and just generally great new single, then proceed to show their approval through a series of retweets and complex interpersonal dance steps, and next thing you know dude's getting a thousand hugs from ten thousand lightning blogs)

xp

xoxoxo

my theory is that since dude released like a zillion albums from '04-'07 before going quiet for a couple years, he's getting a lot of "oh hey, ariel pink, I remember sorta-liking what I heard of that guy -- wonder what he's up to now?" general-interest clicks

― INSUFFICIENT FUN (bernard snowy), Friday, April 9, 2010 9:46 AM (42 minutes ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

he hasn't released anything on a label with any kind of presence since 2006, right? quite possibly the internet has changed a lot since then.

Thus the 'forefather' status.

He's been putting out some great singles on his own, which all turn up on Day Before. And there was the reissue of Loverboy on 2lp.
And there was a digital collection called Grandes Exitos that had an early version of Revolution's a Lie called Evolution's a Lie.

xxp yeah I guess most people got into this guy during these last 4 years and this is simply his first release since most people took notice of him.

I know it's probably a bad idea invoking Animal Collective on here but i think the situation with this album is not dissimilar to what happened with Merriweather Post Pavillion, it's being touted as his "pop" album, more accessible production etc. It's not hard to see why people are more interested in this than his previous stuff (which i love).

It's the HRO factor?

Damn this album is awesome! Gonna be some good jams for summer 2010 dance parties!

Fright Train is addictive.

Fright Night i mean

finally figured out what he's saying in Round & Round after about the 100th listen: AND WE'LL DAZZLE THEM ALL

not "and we'll dance at the mall"

(although I'm still hazy on the line before that ... "calling back to the boat?" "coming back to the Bowl," like the Hollywood Bowl?)

yeah, sounds like boat to me.
i was reading a book to the melody of the chorus yesterday.

The big difference with Animal Collective is that all of AC's albums were critically acclaimed during the buildup toward a more slickly produced "pop" hit. By contrast, Pitchfork gave Grandes Exitos a 7.0, House Arrest a 6.2, Scared Famous a 6.1, and Worn Copy a 5.9, and many other outlets didn't even bother to review Ariel's albums. The new record is not better than House Arrest yet it's going to get slobbered over by everybody. I haven't read any good reasons why it's as good as HA, let alone significantly more accomplished, or repudiations of previous negative writeups, but it's early. We'll see what the reviews say.

HA is rad.

Gotta agree. I hate to sound like an elitist old guard fan or anything, but I'm not hearing what makes this better than his other albums. The Doldrums, Worn Copy and House Arrest all sound much more interesting to me. I like the singles and a couple tracks like "Fright Night" and "Beverly Kills," but I'm painfully disappointed overall. It just doesn't seem like that big of a step toward anything to me.

i would agree that outside of round and round, most of these songs are not above and beyond what he has done in the past.

And I would argue that they're still on par with what he's done in the past, which means they're fantastic.

yeah, i agree

the songwriting is more or less the same,yes - but thats good.whay change something that worked so well in the past?
the differene lies in the production and the label.

The main issue here is production, its crisp, engaging and evocative, and more obviously, it functions; and quite well might I add. Many of the "elitist old guard" thought his work would be diminished by better production but this album proves the cynics wrong. As far as it being better or worse than HA is debatable but not really the point. It's a logical continuation of his earlier work and if one takes Ariel's word at face value in his interviews (he has repeatedly said his lo-fi approach was not one bourne of aesthetics but one of exigency) he would have made this record a long time ago.

I agree that "Round and Round" is kind of transcendent, which was not my original opinion, and perhaps the rest of the album will reveal its genius to me over time in a similar fashion. But that's not the kind of thing you can figure out on a snap judgment and it makes the frenzied ululating all the more ridiculous.

Round and Round is wicked - love that chorus. Very curious to investigate this guy. I doubt I'm the only one in this camp.

Listen to The Doldrums. I believe it's one of the very best albums of the 2000s.

this is such an LA album. he should cover this...fast.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fjO4vA_MxoU

And don't let the lo fi business keep you from enjoying the music. I think if you listen to any of his albums more than once, it'll be a distant thought.

that's the other thing: all his albums sound like LA albums to me. he is a very LA artist.

the lofi-ness is what got me to pay attention in the first place.

specifically, "Credit".

"he is a very LA artist"

why?

xpost teflon - yes shamelessly downloading now. I also listened to some of House Arrest on Spotify and it didn't disappoint. My favourite artist of the 00s (Max Tundra) had Worn Copy as his favourite of the 00s. Oh my here we go.

it's mainly the mix of bright sounds with foggy (or smoggy) production. he gives off a very hollywood blvd scuzzy vibe, just reminds me of driving past run-down buildings in a cheap convertible.

^Yes, compare the mellow, soft-focus glide of Round and Round to 'Warm Ways' by Fleetwood Mac, maybe the ultimate cali-pop band.

I want a girl that's beautiful like a sunset...
on a strip

y'know it makes me ... tick
cause I see you (see u) in a special way

specifically, "Credit".

That song rules. It's like the Village Green Kinks wrote a synthpop soundtrack to an 80s infomercial.

does the chorus of Round and Round creep anyone else out (in a good way)? I can't put my finger on it, but something about it strikes me as eerie. kind of surprised to see people saying that song is good vibes... to me it sounds like it is intentionally trying to channel those sort of crazy burnt-out 60s/70s phony good vibes, like Manson or Wilson trying to do happy pastoral. maybe I'm just reading too much into the whole persona that has been built up around him, or too much into the awesomely spooky production on this album.

Go back through his albums, richie. That's an effect he puts to good use frequently. He does this weird high pitched funny voice a whole lot.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=81LO9A4WR9A

round & round chorus sounds totally prom to me

xpost i can definitely see where you're coming from, it strikes me as sort of creepy and sad. its heightened by the fact that the lyrics (from what I can make out) don't seem to refer to much of anything outside of the song itself, yet the songwriting still works on the listener, making you feel the good vibes despite the negativity humming in the background of the song.

this is the first song i've heard by ariel pink that i've really gotten into, but from what i've heard (and seen) of him, i'm not surprised to be getting this vibe. i think its more effective for me in this song, though, because the production is cleaner and the good-pop feelings more pronounced.

How can you listen to Among Dreams and not here he already had it a few years back?

Or this:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=433lmLPr6Yw

Dude's just a talent.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R9yvRU8WMZY

I love that there's renewed interest.

Critics just seem naturally conservative and backward thinking to me. Back in the early 2000s when people were trumpeting Ariel Pink as an innovative artist, Pitchfork and others were totally trashing and ridiculing his work. Now all of a sudden ... it's great! ... now that lots of people are starting to appreciate him, and "the times" are safely within his style and perspective.

What do you do about that outside of feeling good you were there first?

write about what you like in a way that makes other people wanna hear it?

I've got this on now, I've been listening obsessively to his back catalogue over the last month so the timing of this is great. It may be more polished but it's as stylistically scattershot and hook-filled as his other albums so, yeah, I'm happy. The whole 'Godfather of Chillwave' thing is news to me, I have to say.

Ariel addresses the point about P-Fork giving him initial bad reviews due simply to the fact that they didn't unveil him to the world. All the other smaller online pubs followed suit( as they usually do) with "this guy's schtick, its trying-too hard to be weird, we don't like it",. Basically alot of critics didn't know what to make of him. He was given a very positive review via Rolling Stone and P-Fork snarkily felt that if a big middle brow pub liked this Ariel Pink dude, well we obviously don't because we are the indie-elite and know better that this guy really just sucks. To what extent all this is true, is anyone's guess, but thats how Ariel puts it in a nutshell.

ariel pink otm

kind of surprised to see people saying that song is good vibes

Round and Round IS good vibes

dudes trying to turn this into Pitchfork thread #457647981398645 is bad vibes

HOLD ON I'm callin, callin BAAAACK has been stuck in my head all day.

IMO R&R is the only track that really gains from the hi-fi production. More than a couple of these would be better lo-fi because you expend effort trying to pick out and hear the hooks, leaving less room for analyzing how good the hook itself is. More transparency isn't good when a passage is too simple or on the weak side compositionally. But maybe that's just me.

"Think autistic kids covering Brian Wilson or Tom Waits singing a nursery rhyme or Shakespeare eating shit in an alley or Jesus giving birth to a pack of bear cubs."

Gah, can't work out which early-'80s british pop singer the vocals on 'Bright Lit Blue Skies' remind me of... I'm thinking Nick Heyward but I'm sure there's someone else.

^current favorite track cuz it's GORGEOUS in Missouri today.

"IMO R&R is the only track that really gains from the hi-fi production. More than a couple of these would be better lo-fi because you expend effort trying to pick out and hear the hooks, leaving less room for analyzing how good the hook itself is. More transparency isn't good when a passage is too simple or on the weak side compositionally. But maybe that's just me."

I think "Butt House Blondies" and "Little Wig" are the glaring weak tracks on the album, and they both suffer from lack of hooks. But others like 'em, so maybe the hooks just aren't for me.

IMO R&R is the only track that really gains from the hi-fi production

The production may be more hi-fi than his other albums, but it still sounds like it's stuck in some strange time warp. It's better fidelity but the tones of all the instruments, the synths, and the vocals are all very much in the same spirit as his old recordings.

Also I really like the new version of Beverly Kills.

Gah, can't work out which early-'80s british pop singer the vocals on 'Bright Lit Blue Skies' remind me of... I'm thinking Nick Heyward but I'm sure there's someone else.

Pete Wylie?

agree about "butt house blondies", its the weakest link. is anyone hearing grunge in that riff ?

i'm hearing some butthole surfers there

round & round chorus sounds totally prom to me

to me it sounds like what someone who didn't go to prom would want it to sound like as an adult looking back

Pete Wylie?

I can sort of hear it but that's not who I was thinking... Eh, It'll hit me eventually.

you know its weird that in the this huge thread there's just one Todd Rundgren mention. because thats always the big thing that pops out for me. worn copy, which i love by the way, sounds to me basically like a re-do of A Wizard, A True Star.

i thought of Rundgren too! just didnt mention it..

i mean i agree with the LA thing; there's a creepy steely dan thing going on, some fleetwood mac bits, but far more Rundgren. but saying that i haven't heard the new one so things may have changed.

it's still Rundgren (wizard), even more than before

finally figured out what he's saying in Round & Round after about the 100th listen: AND WE'LL DAZZLE THEM ALL

Savagely disappointed that he wasn't in fact singing 'and we'll dance to Limahl'

Now this is starting to sound interesting...love Ariel but he needs to take it the next level...imagine Todd Rundgren producing...

― sonnyboy, Monday, December 8, 2008 9:45 PM (1 year ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

like not blowing my own Trumbone but for me it's been Rundgren all along and who should of produced the album...on first impressions slightly dissapointing...hasn't got that weird/hooky thing going on...not sure having a band has really helped things and not sure I'm gonna be able to convert the Catholics who don't get it but it's early days...certainly nothing approaching a 'Trepanated Earth' or 'For Kate I Wait' on there...

with all the cure talk, surprised no one has remarked some of the similarities b/t fright night and a forest

Ariel addresses the point about P-Fork giving him initial bad reviews due simply to the fact that they didn't unveil him to the world. All the other smaller online pubs followed suit( as they usually do) with "this guy's schtick, its trying-too hard to be weird, we don't like it",. Basically alot of critics didn't know what to make of him. He was given a very positive review via Rolling Stone and P-Fork snarkily felt that if a big middle brow pub liked this Ariel Pink dude, well we obviously don't because we are the indie-elite and know better that this guy really just sucks. To what extent all this is true, is anyone's guess, but thats how Ariel puts it in a nutshell.

The chorus of "Round and Round" sounds like "#9 Dream" by John Lennon to me.

Listened to it five times yesterday. Prettay, pretttay great isn't it.

"Sentimental, heartbreaking, everything is my fault"

Is this quoting a song? I swear it's quoting something but a lyrics search hasn't turned up anything.

i'm sorry to revive this thread for no good reason beside saying again how great this record is - and it's getting even better as time goes by.

the sort of record i'm pretty sure i'll also get back to in the future

The production may be more hi-fi than his other albums, but it still sounds like it's stuck in some strange time warp. It's better fidelity but the tones of all the instruments, the synths, and the vocals are all very much in the same spirit as his old recordings.

otm, this record sounds like it's been melted.

"Sentimental, heartbreaking, everything is my fault"

it's not the lyric but the melody that's quoted, i believe, came on here to see if anyone could figure it out

god round and round is so awesome

beverly kills is my current favorite.

Fright Night is my jam.

right now it's like this:

Fright Night+Round And Round+Menopause Man = great

Bright Light+L'estat = very good

Beverly Kills+Revolution's+Can't Hear My Eyes+Butt-House = good

Instrumental Tracks = ok

oh and Little Wig - very good

Bass playing on Reminiscences is unreal.

Beverly Kills chorus sounds like the chorus to Ago's "For You."

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VV9k--wqeOg

Bass playing throughout is pretty awesome.

no doubt

The sound of the album as a whole is something to cherish - very special,and done to perfection

WOAH

"the bottom line is this: ariel pink sucks. DEAL

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wiLqAu4s-_s

ariel has no talent, no emotions, he's just a carcass.
he is not even human, he's anti-human as far as i am concerned.
doesnt know how to write a song,
ariel couldnt write a song if his life depended on it.
he is just some hipster dude that does too much meth ( which confirms why he sucks ) .

i mean if you do meth and you are from la and pitchfork hates you must suck, right ?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gB65ENKm4AM

i mean listen to that song. its gay. all he does is talk about this chick called kate that he used to be in love with.
love, and chicks ?
what a douche. love and all that crap, fuck ariel pink.

what ?! your phazey guitar and avant vocals do nothing for me ariel. you are a sham and u must realize that fact
DEAL.FUCKER.
stop trying to use arthur lee/brian wilson melodies to entice me to buy your records bitch.
you are so clueless.
and stop talking about this ho called helen,
we dont care !
first you were all about kate, now helen !
make up your mind ! you are such an incorrigibe whiny ass..

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I5MqXPYE2P4

oh now, you are all about being smooth ariel, arent you ?
i kind of respected you when you were just making shitty songs about helen and kate with your gay ass 4 track but now that you are working with michael jacksons old producer, your dick feels bigger, doesnt it ?
guess what ? u still SUCK

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wiLqAu4s-_s

sure, your new track is OK, it kind of feels like a song i should have heard at prom but i didnt.
either way, you are a bitch. you know why ? because now people who never liked you before are going to talk about you all day and that shit gets mad annoying yo. plus, you arent even that great, you are just an internet meme that lazy critics with no SOUL, no HEART, no LIFE will jump on, because thats all they have left. the dregs of an alienated, existentially vacant cadaver."

i don't think he actually post here so do you like, want me to give him the message or what?

it has quote marks, so I'm guessing whoever wrote it won't get your message either. i lol'd at the rant though.

Maybe oscar can get a job blogging for the altreport.

never really dug this dude before but this joint is ill

― max, Tuesday, April 6, 2010 7:26 PM (2 weeks ago)

^^

did you know that Bright Lit Blue Skies is a cover? :

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LJLYq0tHAPk

I did not know that.

Anyone else thinks he is influenced by Alan Parsons Project? Was listening to 'eye in the sky' the other day on the supermarket and thought it sounded incredibly similar to Ariel Pink:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bMAGwMAXTpU

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OkuroIIKRps

Sheer magic.

whos goin to this tonight

this entire album is awesome

yeah to me it sounds like a cross between alan parsons and gary wilson

lol I see a bunch of people upthread said the same thing

Well, former Ariel Pink sideman Gary War covers Eye In The Sky on his first album... it all comes together!

from an interview with Ariel Pink:

What other musicians or artists are you excited about right now?

not complete by any means.....
wendy carlos
the ROHA BAND
getachew H/mariam
vahag sakadjian
yeshimebet dubale
mahmoud ahmed
kennedy mengesha
girma tefera
kuku sebesbe
getachew kassa
alameyehu eshete
the Wallias band
geneva jacuzzi
richard ross
john maus
concrete rubber band
popol vuh
olivier messian
julia holter
msr song poems (rodd keith)
icy spicy leoncie
gary war
coL
fancy space people
crooked cowboy
harry merry
nite jewel
black black
clang quartet
syrinx
peter thomas orchestra
freddy k
the germs
the cardiacs
girls
secret circuit
big business
rsm
cleaners from venus
arthur brown
james brown and the jb's just to name a few....

http://www.tragicallyhipster.com/2008/09/interview-ariel-pink-of-haunted.html

lots of ethiopian music here..

Heh! Leoncie!

<3 Leoncie - 'Killer In The Park'

yes ok wow this whole album is fantastic.

artists i like being able to list enormous lists of artists i have never heard of is a good sign imo

i really liked that list until it made me remember that ariel is associated with girls (blecch!)

has anyone else noticed that the rhythm on "round and round" kinda sounds like a slowed down "broken english"?

sounds like beck

*thumbs down*

Listening to Ariel Pink for the first time. Sorry, but do people seriously listen to this stuff and enjoy it?

he's no wilco

no i don't seriously listen to this stuff and enjoy it i just said that i did

Damn! I've been pretending to listen to and enjoy his stuff for years so I could act cooler than anyone who hadn't heard him, but now that he's on 4AD my cover's blown!!

Ilxor, perhaps you should attempt ingesting some chemical substance before listening.

Eh... I'll pass, those days are long gone for me.

ILX Poster Known As Ilxor, are you OK? somebody really seems to have shat in your FroYo this morning.

Hi dere I am doing great!

he's no wilco

― puff puff post (uh oh I'm having a fantasy), Wednesday, May 12, 2010 10:58 AM

^ this dude knows what's up

ok, just checkin

I have loved ariel pink records since 2004, have only heard a little of the new one but expect to probably like it pretty well too

Listening to Ariel Pink for the first time. Sorry, but do people seriously listen to this stuff and enjoy it?

but I mean...if you're actually curious about music that's clearly, audibly strange & different, you might wait until you have listened several times before arriving at your opinion, instead of posting during your first listen

free country obv., just a thought tho

isn't Ariel Pink a hauntologizer? O_O

he was just being a prick xp the new albumn is not that audibly strange and different.

This is the kind of album you will love if you think 80s pop coulda used more 70s soul production.

Listening to Ariel Pink for the first time. Sorry, but do people seriously listen to this stuff and enjoy it?

u realize yr in an thread devoted to ariel pink where you can confirm that people claim to enjoy it not yr fuckin livejournal

the man is a genius, the new record is brilliant, and like VU and The Stooges in the past, most people who don't realize it now - will realize it in the future.
or maybe they won't.

decent interview
http://www.factmag.com/2010/04/26/ariel-pink-russian-roulette/

What the hell is "hauntology"?

ghostbox.co.uk

Is the writer referring to this?

Hauntology is an idea within the philosophy of history introduced by Jacques Derrida in his 1993 work Spectres of Marx. The word, a portmanteau of haunt and ology, and a near-homophone to ontology in Derrida's native French, deals with "the paradoxical state of the spectre, which is neither being nor non-being", according to a professor at RMIT University.[1]

The idea suggests that the present exists only with respect to the past, and that society after the end of history will begin to orient itself towards ideas and aesthetics that are thought of as rustic, bizarre or "old-timey"; that is, towards the "ghost" of the past. In this, it is has some similarity with the cyberpunk literary movement. Derrida holds that because of this intellectual realignment, the end of history will be unsatisfactory and untenable.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hauntology

Not so sure I buy this. Pink's records are retro (looking back 30+ years or so) but not really any more than anybody else in the history of pop music. I mean the British psychedelic 60s were all Victorian/vaudevillian. And they used harpsichords for Christ's sake!

By 'by this' I mean "Ariel Pink was also central to hauntology (it’s now often forgotten that much of the initial discussion of hauntology was prompted by Pink’s records)"

Still, great article.

that's a real fancy description for steampunk isn't it

in music crit, hauntology concerns the ways in which recording technology can produce a haunted or nostalgic quality. originally related mostly to dub (right?) the ghosts of an original recording drifting through a new mix, evoking dislocation and disassociation.

http://www.4ad.com/sessions/

i've decided "can't hear my eyes" is pretty much as good as "round and round"

I like the Mexican Summer version of that one better than the 4AD version but probably just because of familiarity after I played that 7" so many times

high quality rip of this album leaked... sounds much much better than the previous version.

I've always been put off by the Alan Parsons Project, mainly because of the name. But I'm intrigued by the comparisons between the APP and this. What's a good place to start with Mr. Parsons?

I Robot

Eye in the Sky is one of the greatest songs ever, and the album is pretty good too.

Eye in the Sky is probably more Ariel Pink-ish too. I Robot is more electronic (but a better album, imo)

yeah, if you're put off by the name Alan Parsons Project, I'm guessing you're not big into prog, so the later albums are the way to go.

regarding APP i'd go with a greatest hits, but "i robot" and "eye in the sky" are pretty sweet albums... my favorite song of theirs is "TIME" though.

http://pitchfork.com/reviews/albums/14324-before-today/

9.0

2004 has arrived -- we are all down w/ hauntology now

http://pitchfork.com/reviews/albums/12909-grandes-exitos/ - 7.0
http://pitchfork.com/reviews/albums/10966-scared-famous/ - 6.1
http://pitchfork.com/reviews/albums/6555-house-arrest/ - 6.2
http://pitchfork.com/reviews/albums/6554-worn-copy/ - 5.9
http://pitchfork.com/reviews/albums/6553-the-doldrums/ - 5.0

"There's no way this Hollywood hillbilly called Ariel Pink knows who Stephen Merritt is"

for some reason i thought that ariel pink was related to the rapper who calls himself black nasty, whose music i don't like at all. and for that -- i suppose irrational -- reason, i've stayed away from ariel pink's music. now i wonder if i had ariel pink confused with someone else.

http://www.losanjealous.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/08/ariel_06.jpg

Any Ariel Pink fans wanna weigh in and say whether this is really his best record or not? I've only heard sections of one of his earlier records but it didn't grab me enough to make me listen to the whole thing.

im going to see him at the scala next week
quite excited actually
dont know every single song of his but i did love worn copy and the doldrums
hope hes better than some of the reviews on ilx suggest.

It's up there with the best of his work, for sure. May be my favorite, it's certainly the one I've been listening to the most lately.
Worn Copy may be my sentimental fave.

credit might be my most favourite song of his.

for some reason i thought that ariel pink was related to the rapper who calls himself black nasty, whose music i don't like at all. and for that -- i suppose irrational -- reason, i've stayed away from ariel pink's music. now i wonder if i had ariel pink confused with someone else.

― Daniel, Esq., Monday, June 7, 2010 11:41 AM (11 minutes ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

you are probably thinking of black nasty's sister, pink nasty.

yeah, that jogs my memory. thanks.

ariel pink appears on Mayonnaise Pen, a track on Black Nasty's Shark Tank album.

Its great but the disparity between the p4k ratings for (to pick one of my faves) Worn Copy and the new one is pretty crazy.

again, based on the (possibly misleading) soundscan sample, the vocal harmonies on the chorus of bright lit blue skies is precisely the kind of big, sweeping epic chorus i remember fondly from the 80s.

bright lit blue skies is magnificent.

Its great but the disparity between the p4k ratings for (to pick one of my faves) Worn Copy and the new one is pretty crazy.

Which is to say the new one should have a lower rating, amirite?

i'll be fuckin livid if there's a huge disparity between Cokemachineglow's review of his first record and the new one

I'd give Worn Copy an 8.5ish. New one a 7.9ish.

Worn Copy's more of a 8.52 imo

House Arrest and the Doldrums are still where it's at.

Bright Lit Blue Skies is a cover of a song by the Rockin Ramrods circa 1966.

<3 mark richardson

This is definitely not his best album. But it is good. The tracks are shorter, more confined and in a way this is not necessarily a good thing. I do like Butthouse Blondies a lot though.

Worn Copy is my fave. I should listen to his other stuff more, but it's all really hotchpotch. Even Worn Copy which I adore I rarely make all the way through. It becomes kind of exhausting.

couldn't disagree more, worn copy, doldrums, house arrest, and lover boy = all killer no filler

well ok 90% killer maybe 10% filler

Reposting Zeno's YouTube:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LJLYq0tHAPk

http://pitchfork.com/reviews/albums/12909-grandes-exitos/ - 7.0
http://pitchfork.com/reviews/albums/10966-scared-famous/ - 6.1
http://pitchfork.com/reviews/albums/6555-house-arrest/ - 6.2
http://pitchfork.com/reviews/albums/6554-worn-copy/ - 5.9
http://pitchfork.com/reviews/albums/6553-the-doldrums/ - 5.0

"There's no way this Hollywood hillbilly called Ariel Pink knows who Stephen Merritt is"

― gorilla vs burrr (Whiney G. Weingarten), Monday, June 7, 2010 3:37 PM (Yesterday) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

I was hoping for a repudiation, or at least a reassessment, of this long history of trashing Ariel Pink albums. Instead, we get a list of supposed improvements in performance/production and a glib "It turns out that these details make a big difference". What a copout.

idg all the yapping this morning about the disparity between before todays score and previous albums, i mean he addresses it in the review (for basically its entirety), and even admits that there's been a reevaluation of his oeuvre.

i think the review and score are a bit overblown, for some reason this album just doesn't feel huge to me, and i feel like great pop albums should be huge. good songs, though, and i wouldn't want to discourage anyone from getting super excited about it. glad that probably thousands more people will hear it now, too.

xp skip - the review is pretty obviously intended for people who have never heard (of) ariel pink before, though. and i think the little differences adding up to something greater than the sum of their parts is true, if not *revelatory*. a talented nut who got his shit together, i don't know, music isn't always that much more complicated than just that.

Just heard "Round and Round." Damn -- amazing.

Dear Pitchfork: you ain't talking your ass out of this.(Just watched Pulp Fiction again)

i dunno its like fair enough, pink has always been awesome but it really wouldn't have made sense for pitchfork to be into him back in like 2005 so like

wait, why not?

9. POINT. 0.

MUST. DOWNLOAD. DISC. IMMEDIATELY.

Daniel has never been the same since Lala's demise

i welcome it

it's true it's true. i am heartbroken.

actually i love bright lit blue skies song so much, i am downloading the disc tonight.

Besides an admittedly nice hook, I'm not sure what is so incredible about "Round and Round." What about it are fans attracted to? (As easy as that question is to be read with an angry, rhetorical tone, it is actually an innocently curious question. I like hearing about what makes music work for people)

It gives me hope

it make me happy. seriously.

are there a bunch of 70s pop/rock songs sampled in that track? it feels like it.

the value you mortals place on your happiness astounds me!

i think part of what is appealing about Ariel Pink has something to do with this DFW-esque idea of burrowing into self-awareness and irony until you come back around to sincerity. i guess he's always appropriated soft rock and new wave of the 70's and 80's, but up until now it was filtered through a layer of lo-fi noise and weird song structure that allowed it to be received with a sense of ironic distance. but now that it is actually well-produced and he has a band he comes across more as actually just really loving this particular sound and wanting it to be as effective as possible. it's perhaps only updated in the sense of having the perspective of history and a wider scope of influence, e.g. ethiopiques, etc. but i think a lot of people project a certain innocence and naivety and therefore maybe freedom onto unselfconscious soft rock pop of the past, so its appealing to see the trajectory of a guy working through the lo-fi bedroom sound to the point where he can afford to produce an actual soft rock album without the indie-ness (and maybe the implied self-wareness/self-deprecation) of lo-fi production.

speaking of a move from lo-fi production to a cleaner sound, there are certain sections of songs that remind me of Pavement, which might also have to do with the sound of his falsetto.

not that lo-fi production isn't appealing it its own right. and there is obviously a component of Ariel Pink's sound that is just straight up weird and fractured unlike most soft rock of the 80's.

Ariels, in the sky
When you lose small mind
You free your life

Life is a waterfall
We drink from the river
Then we turn around and put up our walls

i have yet to identify the ethiopiques similarities, but maybe because i'm so pleasently surprised by all the 70s/80s pop sounds i'm hearing baked into these songs.

two of these tracks are already among my favorits pop songs of the year. and something on here i haven't focused on yet sounded like the alan parsons project?

xpost LOOOOL i've been trying to do a display name out of that all day

nabisco pointed out on another thread that "reminiscences" is a cover of an ethiopian song off a compilation that he helped compile.

http://www.calliebowdish.com/Birds/TurkeyVultureShaverLake090606_7491.jpg

http://eatourbrains.com/EoB/wp-content/uploads/2006/12/vulture01.jpg

Why does Pitchfork need to reconcile this review with their reviews of other Ariel Pink albums, written by other critics at other times?

because p-fork is an institution and the readers demand critical consistency ;) how many other music message board threads do you see dedicated to online music review sites besides p-fork ?

xpost LOOOOL i've been trying to do a display name out of that all day

― ლ support our troops ლ (Whiney G. Weingarten), Monday, June 7, 2010 11:25 PM (Yesterday)

hahaha

You know that thread about bandnames that you instinctively dismiss... also that album cover with the fox kiss is repulsive imo, too soon for furrie irony i guess? seeing all the love he is getting here i will give it a shot, I like some of the youtubes upthread, though i really can't get by the wobbly tape fx on some.

I agree with some karl's post that some of the appeal of Ariel Pink's music is the "burrowing into self-awareness and irony until you come back around to sincerity."

I also agree that difference between his previous records and this has something to do with indie lo-fi production. Elements of the lo-fi production and weird song structure are still there on this new record, though. As someone mentioned above, the music still sounds "melted", and the production (maybe with the exception of Round and Round) still doesn't read as particularly high-value, at least not on good speakers.

I disagree, however, about the effect of the changes in his music, at least for me. While listening to songs of the previous incarnation, the underwater production and muffled lyrics made it feel possible for me to ignore the ironic distance and imagine the innocence and naivety and unselfconscouness of the music itself. I could project my own feelings/memories/fantasies onto it. With this newest record, with him working this particular sound to make it as effective as possible, he seems more of a japester, and the irony and thinness of the recording are more jarring. It's a little offputting to me.

As jokey as his song concepts and some of the lyrics are, I appreciate the ambiguity of the music and the slightly dark lyrics, so he hasn't completely lost me. The complex structure of the songs is fantastic.

To respond to Evan, Round and Round has a great chorus, yes, but I love how I'm never quite sure when it's going to come again, and the way he alters the instrumentation that accompanies it each time, ending with the bass dropped out for a good chunk. In addition, that one song (like several others) has so many components, interludes, and false starts that it takes a lot of listening to absorb. I wish he would evolve further on the sound of that song.

it sounds like he's not as lonely anymore, which is nice for him.

the intensity of feeling that comes from loneliness is tempered though

and something on here i haven't focused on yet sounded like the alan parsons project?

― Daniel, Esq.

i basically never get that DFW irony-coming-full-circle-to-sincerity thing from AP. though i accept that his enthusiasm for cheezy 70s/80s pop is legit, there's always this massive sense of ironic distance, and it has nothing to do with how clean or dirty the sound is. that's not a complaint on any level, as i genuinely love a lot of what he's done so far, and the new record is great, easily his best yet. his stuff is funny and smart, the tunes are often quite strong, and sincerity seems overrated in the 1st place.

could you please define where the ironic distance is? if it's not from the music, what is it from?

I agree with Contenderizer. He's always loved soft-rock, blue eyed soul etc and the lo-fi sound was simply down to technical limitations. It's others that have projected the ironic distance on to it, as if they can only listen to this off-limits music if it's filtered through lo-fi haze. One of the things Ariel Pink - and people like Gary War, James Ferraro and Daniel Lopatin - nails is the sheer oddness of so much soft-rock and early 80s MTV fodder. You've got all these prog journeymen like Alan Parsons trying to make pop songs, while retaining some of their proggy interest in texture, extended song structure etc. Add in brand spanking new digital technology that they haven't quite got the hang of yet and the result is some kind of avant-AOR.
The demented humour in Ariel Pink's music shouldn't be mistaken for irony either.

well, that isn't quite what i meant. my point was that one can feel a sincere affection for something yet still remain ironically distanced from it in expressing that affection. lots of people do this with their guilty pleasures. i mean, i don't doubt the sincerity of AP's affection for the music he's referencing and creating, but his entire presentation (lyrics, attitude, persona, production) is extremely arch. and no one makes and releases records that sound like worn copy & the doldrums without wanting them to sound that way. it's a mistake to pretend that his aesthetics haven't been the product of real choices all along, especially given how central they are to his artistic identity. after all, it's not like he's suddenly stripped away all the "melted" noise to reveal the pure pop underneath. the sound is still pretty bleary and warped.

my point was that AP's positioning relative to his inspirations strongly reminds me of the "ironic" embrace of sludgy 70s rock that emerged among post-hc bands in the 80s. the superficial sarcasm and irony = a defense mechanism cloaking and permitting the expression of a deeper, unironic affection. the distancing helps establish a context, admitting that this music is not of the now, and thus enhancing its otherness and nostalgic power.

it's sort of like ducktails. there's nothing insincere or particularly ironic about mondanile's music, but calling your band "ducktails" tends to put an box around everything you do. it's a way of saying, "look, i'm a giant dork. i not only grew up loving this dorky awesome crap, i still love it enough to name my band after it. and i know that you're a giant dork, too, and that you loved and still love the same shit, so you should totally join my gang."

ariel pink's doing something similarly self-effacing, but in a way that's fully integrated with the music he makes. it's proud, but very aware of its geekiness - sincere in its love, but preemptively obfuscatory about where it's really coming from.

Ok, I see your point about defence mechanisms. I don't really believe in guilty pleasures - I don't really care about what's cool anymore - but I suppose when I do share my love of, say, Yes or McCartney II with others, I do tend to point to the charming oddness of the music, as well as its melodic qualities. It's not defensive as such. I think with a lot of soft-rock, prog and blue eyed soul there's a certain transgressive thrill in embracing its sheer glutinous, oversaturated glory, particularly if you've come from a hairshirt wearing indie background where such things are frowned on.
You're quite right about wanting the records to sound that way - I was only really referring to the lo-fi recording quality, not the overall sound. One of the best things about the new album is that all the flange, phase, reverb and echo effects that gave the early albums that wonderful melted quality are still there. It's just the tape hiss that's missing.

It's pretty catchy, but just not as warped. There's no equivalent to "MANKIND IS A NAZI" 10 minute freakouts or "Life In LA" languishing or "Credit" boomboxery or "Drummer" hypnosis. It's really just good inventive pop.