The last two comments back-to-back are pretty funny.
― Emperor Cos Dashit (Adam Bruneau), Wednesday, 8 August 2012 19:11 (eleven years ago) link
This new stuff is great. I love his backup band on these studio records!
― Emperor Cos Dashit (Adam Bruneau), Friday, 10 August 2012 01:19 (eleven years ago) link
It's very stripped down arrangements and effects. It's alot more subtle than the older ones. It's not really as fun as the old ones, but they are cool songs.
― Emperor Cos Dashit (Adam Bruneau), Friday, 10 August 2012 01:31 (eleven years ago) link
I think the new album is musically pretty weak. With the last album, he compensated for the lack of lo-fi gauziness by writing good songs and having a punchy band, but this is a slick and lifeless studio record with half-arsed songs.The main problem though is the awful lyrics. All that moronic creepy bullshit he came out with in the Wire interview about beta male revenge runs through the album and the results are not pleasant. He seems to think he's being transgressive, engaging in acts of genderfucking, but he's just sleazy and wrongheaded. Transphobic lines about 'shemales' hardly help either.
― Poor.Old.Tired.Horse. (Stew), Friday, 10 August 2012 13:37 (eleven years ago) link
Yeah....i may have to listen to it again later. I kind of phased out after song 3 or 4 and got distracted w something else. On first listen definitely not as cool as "Before Today".
― Emperor Cos Dashit (Adam Bruneau), Friday, 10 August 2012 15:27 (eleven years ago) link
The main problem though is the awful lyrics. All that moronic creepy bullshit he came out with in the Wire interview about beta male revenge runs through the album and the results are not pleasant. He seems to think he's being transgressive, engaging in acts of genderfucking, but he's just sleazy and wrongheaded. Transphobic lines about 'shemales' hardly help either.
Weird. Kind of a further extension of "Menopause Man" then? That "castrate me, make me gay" lyric always bothered me.
― dmr, Friday, 10 August 2012 15:54 (eleven years ago) link
That line in Menopause Man made me lol when I first heard it.
I think the songs are tight on this release. I think it's poorly produced, though, and not in like before where it was intentional and for artistic effect.
I can really hear R. Stevie all over this release. I don't know if he had a hand in this record, but the songs sound like RSM songs -- so much so that I wonder if he wrote a handful of these. The lyrics sound just like RSM lyrics, too.
― 3×5, Friday, 10 August 2012 19:07 (eleven years ago) link
I like this dudes music. not all of it, but about 30%.
fame will destroy him though!
― Sweet Yin Yang ☯ (Latham Green), Friday, 10 August 2012 19:18 (eleven years ago) link
fame already destroyed him
― nostormo, Friday, 10 August 2012 19:26 (eleven years ago) link
I'm listening to Schnitzel Boogie now. There's a little sketch about a minute into the song, and even his spoken delivery is in an R. Stevie style.
― 3×5, Friday, 10 August 2012 19:42 (eleven years ago) link
In case anyone missed the Wire interview, I quote: 'Beta males have got it figured out so that they don't even have to chase or rape their prey, so to speak'. Urgh, what a creep.
― Poor.Old.Tired.Horse. (Stew), Saturday, 11 August 2012 11:32 (eleven years ago) link
dig the production on mature themes, and i like that a few of the songs recall 'menopause' man, mix and tone-wise. the "tried to be good, to be good, etc." song sticks in the head. ultra-blissed, even SAW II-like track 12 (nostradamus), and 13 is a summer-time-y treat
― braunld (Lowell N. Behold'n), Monday, 13 August 2012 01:07 (eleven years ago) link
if the songwriting is not good, nothing can save the record
― nostormo, Monday, 13 August 2012 13:12 (eleven years ago) link
I have no idea what I'm supposed to take away from this snippet. I guess I should read the entire interview.
― MikoMcha, Monday, 13 August 2012 13:20 (eleven years ago) link
He expounds this completely idiotic thesis about the ascent of the beta male. Now that the nerds have won, Ariel can get his revenge over alpha males and the women who wouldn't sleep with him. Revenge of the nerd stuff at its most vindictive, misanthropic and misogynistic. As a friend put it, 'Turns out, according to Ariel, you don't have to be a musclebound jock to be an asshole to women any more. It's a great time to be an asshole!' There are few ok songs on here, but nothing he hasn't done better in the past. And the R Stevie Moore homages are utterly charmless. His whole deliberately bored delivery is a real drag too.
― Poor.Old.Tired.Horse. (Stew), Monday, 13 August 2012 17:39 (eleven years ago) link
cripes, that's a bummer, but not a shock ... ariel seems like an oddball, though was hoping for something less vicious. why not just think everyone's got there place in society and move on. ::[]
― Spectrum, Monday, 13 August 2012 17:55 (eleven years ago) link
whole thing is on NPR nowhttp://www.npr.org/2012/08/12/158442302/first-listen-ariel-pinks-haunted-graffiti-mature-themes
― dmr, Monday, 13 August 2012 20:09 (eleven years ago) link
Eight tracks into this and the single's been the only really good song.
― Gavin, Leeds, Monday, 13 August 2012 20:47 (eleven years ago) link
I like it, but I feel like he should be putting these kinds of records out once or twice a year on Paw Tracks. It doesn't feel like two years worth of work.
― wk, Monday, 13 August 2012 21:21 (eleven years ago) link
tbf, he spent a lot of that time figuring out how not to rape his prey
― contenderizer, Monday, 13 August 2012 21:25 (eleven years ago) link
he's still probably looking for a girl who puts up with his shit and puts out just like a little girl scout.
― wk, Monday, 13 August 2012 21:30 (eleven years ago) link
I mean chick
― wk, Monday, 13 August 2012 21:32 (eleven years ago) link
I feel like he should be putting these kinds of records out once or twice a year on Paw Tracks. It doesn't feel like two years worth of work.
kind of agree with this. it's not awful but ... not very good either. I doubt I'll buy it. I went ahead and just got the "Baby" single (which is great).
― dmr, Monday, 13 August 2012 22:09 (eleven years ago) link
I'd rather listen to the original tbh
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ONIJXHvoynw
― pun lovin criminal (polyphonic), Monday, 13 August 2012 22:13 (eleven years ago) link
yeah, i don't see the point of the cover. the orignal is awesome, as is the rest of the album it came from.
― karl...arlk...rlka...lkar..., Monday, 13 August 2012 22:21 (eleven years ago) link
I wonder how much time he actually spent on this. Pink Slime must have been written fairly recently right?
― wk, Monday, 13 August 2012 22:22 (eleven years ago) link
You all realize musicians often have mood swings and may be under the influence of drugs or attention when taking an interview.
― Emperor Cos Dashit (Adam Bruneau), Tuesday, 14 August 2012 02:53 (eleven years ago) link
Once you are popular and fashionable you are not a nerd.
― Emperor Cos Dashit (Adam Bruneau), Tuesday, 14 August 2012 02:59 (eleven years ago) link
That's my point - he's the nerd who's become popular and with his new found sense of power all his seething resentment floods out. I'm sure Mr Pink is no stranger to the devil's dandruff, but the pish he comes out with the interview is backed up by lyrics on the album. Plus it's in the Wire, hardly known for its sensationalist approach.
― Poor.Old.Tired.Horse. (Stew), Tuesday, 14 August 2012 10:23 (eleven years ago) link
The album definitely picks up a bit towards the end but, no, I doubt I'll buy this. 'Schnitzel Boogie' followed by 'Symphony of the Nymph' is the low point.
― Gavin, Leeds, Tuesday, 14 August 2012 11:39 (eleven years ago) link
Symphony of the Nymph is the creepy nadir, plus it manages to rip off Kraftwerk and Telstar and still be shit.
― Poor.Old.Tired.Horse. (Stew), Tuesday, 14 August 2012 11:51 (eleven years ago) link
― Poor.Old.Tired.Horse. (Stew), Saturday, August 11, 2012 7:32 AM (3 days ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink
URGH. Total creep. I haven't read the interview in The Wire, but I did read a really dopey interview in Bomb and I was trying my best not to let affect my opinion of the music.
― America's Mobile, Tuesday, 14 August 2012 15:01 (eleven years ago) link
I'm really enjoying the record in spite of myself.
― America's Mobile, Tuesday, 14 August 2012 15:06 (eleven years ago) link
The one with Cass McCombs? Just looked this up. Good lord, bisexuals are castrated? Young people defining themselves as bi is 'a mutation'? This guy is a fucking moron.
AP It’s a good point, so the people that go to action are the kids. Therefore music is targeted to a youth audience. The youth are castrating themselves. Willingly. That political correctness thing. Everybody’s bi now. Have you noticed that?
CM Outside of San Francisco?
AP Everybody under 27 years old. Every girl I’ve ever met who’s under 27: bi. Call me old-fashioned. That did not happen in my generation. I find it very disturbing, frankly. The Millennials are what I’m talking about—they have no gender. Their gender is a biological imperative. It can’t be a choice, of course. They’re just born bi. Maybe it’s a mutation or something like that.
― Poor.Old.Tired.Horse. (Stew), Tuesday, 14 August 2012 15:09 (eleven years ago) link
i have no idea what he is getting at there. maybe its a joke? he's being ironic?
― karl...arlk...rlka...lkar..., Tuesday, 14 August 2012 17:40 (eleven years ago) link
still doesn't make sense
― karl...arlk...rlka...lkar..., Tuesday, 14 August 2012 17:41 (eleven years ago) link
He's just trying to get some transgressive millennial groupie action.
― Emperor Cos Dashit (Adam Bruneau), Tuesday, 14 August 2012 17:58 (eleven years ago) link
i really love this record after 5 or 6 listens. was not super impressed after the first
― bluelips, Thursday, 16 August 2012 17:24 (eleven years ago) link
wtf
The Entertainment Law Digest has posted details of a lawsuit filed by former Ariel Pink's Haunted Graffiti drummer Aaron Sperske, who claims that he was illegally "squeezed out" of an "oral partnership" agreement established between the band members in 2008.Sperske alleges that he and the three remaining Haunted Graffiti members-- Pink (real name Ariel Rosenberg), Tim Koh, and Kenny Gilmore-- wrote the songs for the upcoming record Mature Themes together and that he's entitled to 25 percent ownership. He claims he's "entitled to profits from royalties and future shows," writes Entertainment Law Digest, and is seeking $1 million in punitive damages. (Cole M. Greif-Neill was originally part of the partnership as well, but "left the partnership of his own accord in 2010," according to Entertainment Law Digest.)According to the lawsuit, which was filed on August 12 in Los Angeles, Sperske was removed from the band in spite of performing "diligently and competently."
― mizzell, Friday, 17 August 2012 22:34 (eleven years ago) link
I agree with a lot of the sentiments expressed so far. I'd be willing to bet RSM wrote Symphony of the Nymph and dared AP to put it on the album. It's definitely the least charming thing Ariel's ever released.
I doubt Ariel Pink was ever a nerd. I remember the real nerds in high school. They had visible plaque in their teeth and sat by themselves at lunch, and were genuinely ostracized. There's a difference between feeling like a nerd in high school and actually being one, and adults should be able to look back and recognize the difference.
― 3×5, Saturday, 18 August 2012 19:32 (eleven years ago) link
Also Ariel's arrested development was kind of cute when he was 26, but at 33 it's kind of gross.
― 3×5, Saturday, 18 August 2012 20:11 (eleven years ago) link
this guy has always sucked </shakey mo>
― turtwig greenturty (Matt P), Saturday, 18 August 2012 20:34 (eleven years ago) link
Listened to this yesterday and liked it more than I expected. Definitely a return to his earlier work and very goofy throughout. I can understand why it isn't getting much love. It doesn't really measure up to the last one, but I think I'll still listen to it a bunch.
― Moodles, Saturday, 18 August 2012 21:08 (eleven years ago) link
Self-described Beverly Hills yuppie in saying dumb shit shockah
maybe he's just trying to compete with his homeboy john maus
fuck both of these guys with a doo-doo covered stick
― If Assholes Could Fly This Place Would Be An Airport, Sunday, 19 August 2012 02:19 (eleven years ago) link
love both of these guys and also doo-doo
― Thanks WEBSITE!! (Z S), Sunday, 19 August 2012 02:46 (eleven years ago) link
Ariel Pink is actually my great-grand-nephew. I think he's done a fine job here; I like this almost as much as the Chess soundtrack, which happens to be the only other CD I have in the house, though I'm sure I must have bought some others at some point and then just mislaid them. Symphony of the Nymph is the standout track on the album (I mean Ariel's album; One Night in Bangkok is the standout on Chess) with its deft rhyming of "discotheque" and "bibliotheque", "Lothario" and "Ariel", "synth" and "nymph". It's hella catchy; when I sing it at my local bakery they give me free bagels. To go.
I can just imagine the video, with Ariel recreating Nijinsky's role (a sort of graceful brindled cow) in L'Apres Midi d'une Faune. But wait, Nijinsky played the faun in that! Lydia Nelidova was the nymph! Well, okay, Ariel would have to play Lydia's character. But considering his tirades against modern bisexuality in recent interviews, Ariel would find that role reversal really fucked up, and a bad example for the youth of America. Hmmm.
Here's what I suggest. Ariel plays a really butch lesbian bitch of a nymph, in the cow suit, with, you know, udders everywhere. Then some crass cisgendered rock chick groupie with pink hair comes along and milks him in this really suggestive way, with her mouth, in this disco-library-type milking stall, until out spurts... not milk, not spunk, but pure 1960s-grade alpha-methylphenethylamine. Some of it spills on the ground, and seven librarian sluts get down on their knees and snort it up. Then they strap on guitars and recreate Robert Palmer's Addicted To Love. But instead of Palmer, there's Ariel, still dressed as a cow, on the mic.
I'm going to email him right now and suggest this. He's still got about eight weeks before he hits the obsolescent scrapheap, so with a non-union crew it could just be possible.
― Grampsy, Sunday, 19 August 2012 05:50 (eleven years ago) link
What kind of fucking high brow trolling is this?
― Evan, Sunday, 19 August 2012 16:51 (eleven years ago) link
not his best work imo
― karl...arlk...rlka...lkar..., Sunday, 19 August 2012 18:14 (eleven years ago) link
high brow?
― pun lovin criminal (polyphonic), Sunday, 19 August 2012 18:39 (eleven years ago) link
― 3×5, Saturday, August 18, 2012 12:32 PM (Yesterday)
i don't know whether ariel is real or faux nerd. either way, it does seem like he's competing with maus and adam from girls to be some new kind of "real (gross) nerd" icon.
― contenderizer, Sunday, 19 August 2012 18:49 (eleven years ago) link