Ariel Pink

Woebot

Woebot

Well-known member
Been listening to Haunted Graffiti almost solidly the past three days. This is a really special record.

Critics seem mainly confounded by it:

http://www.dustedmagazine.com/reviews/1712
http://www.pitchforkmedia.com/record-reviews/p/pink_ariel/doldrums.shtml

(neither which are particularly illuminating)

this interview is excellent though:

http://www.tinymixtapes.com/interviews/ariel_pink.htm

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My take initially was that this was a brilliant idea: a low-fi Moraor (thats my latest coinage BTW, middle of the road adult oriented rock TM) Cos of course Low-fi Moraor is a contradiction in terms, a radical formal heresy. Moraor has to be ultra-slick and sheeny.

When I read the interview I realised (congratulating myself) what a thoroughly great idea of mine it was because of course Ariel Pink proclaims he's trying to put Beverly Hills on the map. He's trying to make a folk music from the gutter at the centre of the media universe (Hollywood innit).

I like the (mine again) idea that if Bonnie Tyler and Meatloaf were left to their own devices, and they too were scuffling around the malls and back-alleys of Beverley Hills (presuming that they were in fact natives there), that their home-made demos would sound like this.
 
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ryan17

Well-known member
i really tried hard to get into that record (i trust animal collective). but it never managed to do it for me. there was always something missing or lacking. i know its a little unfair to say this, but it is kind of an "anyone could do this" thing to me.


i did see a 40 second clip from a video of his recently and actually quite enjoyed both the video and music. so i guess he does do something i like occasionally, but i just could not get into the record at all.
 
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blissblogger

Well-known member
worn copy

the new one Worn Copy is just as good, the opening track, the near 11 minute 'trepanated earth' song-suite, is just like, ooooh, probably the most transcendent thing i've heard this decade

got a thing on Ariel and AC and the paw tracks famo in may wire

eerilyy the tape with Ariel got fucked up and picking out what he said was like picking out the melody lines through the fog of echoplex and hiss on his records
 
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Mika

Active member
The Most Photographed and Least Remembered City in the World...

Great interview - but what's up with all the random fragments at the tail end of each reply - Kurt Heasley non-sequiter. Future Pigeon?? Strange.

Some of his comments about LA remind me of that Intro dialogue from Gregg Araki's Nowhere, or even Norman Klein's book History of Forgetting: Los Angeles and the Erasure of Memory. That idea of a culture-less, permanent amnesia produced through proximity to Hollywood; a mediatized wasteland.

Can't wait to hear the new album, The Doldrums is a great record!
 
Woebot

Woebot

Well-known member
blissblogger said:
got a thing on Ariel and AC and the paw tracks famo in may wire
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cool. i'm looking forward to that.

Mika said:
Great interview - but what's up with all the random fragments at the tail end of each reply - Kurt Heasley non-sequiter. Future Pigeon?? Strange.
Click to expand...

bizarre isnt it!

i like the bit where he talks about don bolles and 'the true rock'n'roll sound'
 
J

jwd

Well-known member
r. stevie moore

it was good to see some discussion of r. stevie moore in that interview - also check one of the images on the cd cover, our man pink is wearing an r. stevie moore t-shirt - it's a totally apposite reference, if you pick up a record like stevie's "what's the point???" you'll find it nestles quite nicely w/the ariel pink vibe - esp. the touches of mor/aor... plus stevie has a big, biiiiig back catalog of cassettes etc. a la what ariel pink may well have stocked in the cupboard...
 
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blissblogger

Well-known member
r. stevie moore

i'm ashamed to admit i'd never heard of r. stevie moore until reading interviews with ariel pink (he namechecks and bigs him up a lot, also on the web there's an interview with r.s. moore by ariel that's quite interesting), or at least i might have seen the name but for some reason thought he was like a blues guitarist! (it's the 'stevie' that throws me off i think)

so what's the story, jwd? is he actually good? he's supposed to have made 300 or 500 albums and put them out over the last three decades, right, but this is just a fraction of what he's recorded.

ariel himself has made dozens or scores of albums, some relesaed in very limited form, most not. apparently doldrums is #2 in the original sequence and worn copy is #8
 
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daren

Well-known member
I heard of Ariel Pink through paw-tracks a few months ago, and I decided to give it a listen. Initially, my reaction was how ridiculous he was vocally, but this style grew on me. I find his wide range of vocals to be used very well, especially the doubling of vocals in octaves. A few days ago I caught myself singing to myself "Gray Sunset" while walking to class in my comfortable range and falsetto.

That interview was enjoyable. I will be seeing him next month in Chicago.
 
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In Moll

Active member
Maybe Hourse Arrest isn't the best place to start. The Doldrums is excellent, and perhaps even better is Worn Copy. I like those two albums straight through but found House Arrest to be a bit hit-or-miss. <i>Worn Copy</i> is actually available here: http://www.rhystop.com/news.html
 
jenks

jenks

thread death
after reading this thread i went and downloaded House arrest of iTunes Music store. the first couple of tracks had me shaking ny head - had i really wasted my money on this? and then it started to make sense to me, by track seven i thought i'd have to get out of the bath to replay the first track and hear it properly. thanks for the tip woebot. this is a real find
of course you do realise that now i have contributed to this thread it will die - just look at my track record!
 
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Woebot

Woebot

Well-known member
jenks said:
of course you do realise that now i have contributed to this thread it will die - just look at my track record!
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tsk! glad you dug this too jenks. it's a grower innit.
 
jenks

jenks

thread death
too right woebot. just got hold of blissblogger recommended trepanated earth - in a long sprawl like this he makes even more sense as his influences really start to mutate with is odd taped moments and oddly affecting cheap synths, there'e something deeply late sixties about the aesthetic whilst at the same time beig ultra modern nd i am fully aware that the fall are the nom de jour to drop but i get the feeling that for all teh LA vibe it couldn't have been made without a little ME smithery
thanks in moll for the link
and thanks once again for the heads up woebot, it's so rare to come across a true original.
 
Woebot

Woebot

Well-known member
jenks said:
too right woebot. just got hold of blissblogger recommended trepanated earth - in a long sprawl like this he makes even more sense as his influences really start to mutate with is odd taped moments and oddly affecting cheap synths, there'e something deeply late sixties about the aesthetic whilst at the same time beig ultra modern nd i am fully aware that the fall are the nom de jour to drop but i get the feeling that for all teh LA vibe it couldn't have been made without a little ME smithery
thanks in moll for the link
and thanks once again for the heads up woebot, it's so rare to come across a true original.
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you're determined to have the last word here jenks ;)

also i want jwd to tell us about stevie moore
 
S

SMorlighem

Well-known member
WOEBOT said:
you're determined to have the last word here jenks ;)

also i want jwd to tell us about stevie moore
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Got a few copies but never really dug deeply in his massive output.
My dutch mates (who introduced me to the Homosexuals et al. galaxy a few years ago) are HUGE R. Stevie Moore fans ; maybe I could ask them which records/tapes are essential, and set up some kind of compilation ?
{London : I'm coming !!!} :p
 
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Omaar

Guest
I downdloaded a few tracks, 2 I can't remember the names of which weren't too exciting, but also one called 'For Kate I wait' which is one of the most catchy things I've heard in a while. It is so murky I get the feeling I am imagining melodies rather than hearing them.
 
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kingofcars

Well-known member
the video snippets on the paw tracks website are pretty good... funny...
seems like it'd probably make more sense in the setting of an album..
 
Benny Bunter

Benny Bunter

Well-known member
One thing I like about Ariel is he's not afraid to make a tit out of himself. Maybe he's gone a bit too far this time, but this vid did make me laugh (but no i didn't actually sit through the whole thing)

 
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