January 7 street date. Haunted Graffiti wasn't the first time a bedroom-cloistered Ariel Pink revolutionized his own sound and persona by taking to the stage with a band. The creator of 2013's reissued Thrash & Burn (HEMK 001CD/LP) -- a psycho-delic sketchbook of vibes so sequestered as to be damn near claustrophobic in their intimacy -- concurrently kept more than a few bands going in the late '90s and early '00s. Two of those projects our dear listener will find compiled here: Gorilla and Appleasians. This two-disc archival restoration was salvaged from the same scratchpile of crumbling CD-Rs and 8-track cassettes as Thrash & Burn. Given a thorough mastering treatment, this collection makes a fitting conceptual counterpart to Thrash & Burn, while shedding some much-needed light on the origins of Pink's mystifying, often volatile stage persona. More than just an academic study, Early Live Recordings holds gems like the hooky "Tractor Man" the chugging "Inside Looking Out" or a stunningly efficient cover of The Shaggs' "He's Still My Cutie" -- which could easily be contenders for some of Pink's most effective pop moments. What's more fascinating than the myriad web of mutated punk, garage, noise and pop references quoted throughout this compilation's music, lyrics and track titles, is how the breadth and scope of Pink's nods to the Brutalist phalanx of his heroes seems to suggest that the rawness of these early tracks comes not from Pink's musical nascence, but rather, may indicate an altogether more calculated affair.
November 18 street date. "pom pom" marks the return of Ariel Pink. His first album for 4AD without the Haunted Graffiti moniker
that graced "Mature Themes" (2012) and "Before Today" (2010). The record sees the Los Angeles native strike it out alone, returning to the solo moniker he has adopted for well over a decade. Across its 17 tracks and 69 minutes, "pom pom" is unfiltered Ariel Pink, featuring infectious tales of romance, murder, frog princes and Jell-O. From demented kiddie tune collaborations with the legendary Kim Fowley (songs such as ‘Jell-O’ and ‘Plastic Raincoats In The Pig Parade’ were written with Fowley in his hospital room during his recent battle with cancer), to beatific, windswept pop (‘Put Your Number In My Phone’, ‘Dayzed Inn Daydreams’), scuzz-punk face-melters (‘Goth Bomb’, ‘Negativ Ed’), and carnival dub psychedelia
(‘Dinosaur Carebears’), pom pom could very well be Ariel Pink’s magnum opus. Speaking about the record, Ariel says that "although this is the first 'solo' record credited to my name, it is by far the least 'solo' record I have ever recorded". "Ariel Pink has left a deep impact on the brains of an entire generation of indie musicians" - Stereogum. "Undoubtedly one of the most influential musicians of his generation, Ariel Pink's ability to slice through styles, trends and time has been much mimicked" - Clash Music. "The guitars are sunlit and soft, the chord progression yawns open like a Cheshire cat smile, and Pink's mannered vocal take is a little ode to British psych-pop. Like all his best work, it feels like a graft of two slightly incompatible-but-similar pop songs" - Pitchfork Best New Track.
August 18 street date. (7" single, in anticipation of the upcoming full-length, due September!!) Ariel Pink sets a serene but complicated scene for the next chapter in his curious career with “Another Weekend,” the first solo material heard since the prog-pop opus pom pom. Contrary to the lyrics of “Another Weekend” (and fortunately for both fanatics and the newly initiated), Pink is neither too shy or humble to have brought his singular style of pop music beyond the bedroom for the befuddled masses over the past two decades, but returned to the formative, familiar setting to craft what will surely live as another shimmering moment in an unrivaled canon. Encapsulating the lingering euphoria of a regrettable weekend over the edge, “Another Weekend” speaks in morose volumes while whispering sweetly, the dichotomy of Pink’s pathos once again on display.
September 15 street date. Ariel Pink will release his new album, Dedicated to Bobby Jameson, on September 15. The recording is his first solo album since his highly acclaimed 2014 prog-pop opus pom pom, and first full-length release with the Brooklyn-based independent label Mexican Summer. The new release’s title makes a direct and heartfelt reference to a real-life Los Angeles musician, long presumed dead, who resurfaced online in 2007 after 35 reclusive years to pen his autobiography and tragic life story.
September 15 street date. Ariel Pink will release his new album, Dedicated to Bobby Jameson, on September 15. The recording is his first solo album since his highly acclaimed 2014 prog-pop opus pom pom, and first full-length release with the Brooklyn-based independent label Mexican Summer. The new release’s title makes a direct and heartfelt reference to a real-life Los Angeles musician, long presumed dead, who resurfaced online in 2007 after 35 reclusive years to pen his autobiography and tragic life story.
September 15 street date. Special limited DELUXE version, Includes black vinyl LP, Bonus 12” picture disc, Non-Sequitur Segues, containing four tracks available only on vinyl; 24”x36” fold-out poster. All housed in translucent PVX slipcase. (also available on standard black & indie-store-exclusive Blue vinyl) Ariel Pink will release his new album, Dedicated to Bobby Jameson, on September 15. The recording is his first solo album since his highly acclaimed 2014 prog-pop opus pom pom, and first full-length release with the Brooklyn-based independent label Mexican Summer. The new release’s title makes a direct and heartfelt reference to a real-life Los Angeles musician, long presumed dead, who resurfaced online in 2007 after 35 reclusive years to pen his autobiography and tragic life story.
October 25 street date. (Vol 1 to be reissued in the next installment) Ariel Archives revisits Ariel Pink’s historic run of albums as Ariel Pink’s Haunted Graffiti with a series of definitive reissues and new collections. The first installment begins with Odditties Sodomies Vol. 2, a long-awaited second volume of outtakes and non-album tracks, Underground, the inaugural album in the Haunted Graffiti series, and finally Loverboy, an exemplary disc recorded between October 2001 and July 2002, at which time Ariel also recorded House Arrest. Later installments of Ariel Archives will include The Doldrums, House Arrest, Scared Famous, and Worn Copy. Additional surplus material from this period to the present day will be highlighted in new volumes of collected outtakes and non-album tracks, with Odditties Sodomies Vol. 3, plus a new edition of Odditties Sodomies Vol. 1. Twenty years on, Ariel’s music still stupefies. The quantity of ideas and moods expressed through a modest recording enterprise seems supernatural, not human. Indeed, Hedi El Kohlti, in his superb new liner notes for Underground, compares Ariel’s explosive creative period between 1998 and 2004 to a character in Phillip K. Dick’s A Scanner Darkly who has all of 20th century modern art beamed into his brain at flash cut speed. Did Ariel Pink, at the age of 20, receive a similar instantaneous “download” of all of the secrets of pop music?
October 25 street date. Ariel Archives revisits Ariel Pink’s historic run of albums as Ariel Pink’s Haunted Graffiti with a series of definitive reissues and new collections. The first installment begins with Odditties Sodomies Vol. 2, a long-awaited second volume of outtakes and non-album tracks, Underground, the inaugural album in the Haunted Graffiti series, and finally Loverboy, an exemplary disc recorded between October 2001 and July 2002, at which time Ariel also recorded House Arrest. Later installments of Ariel Archives will include The Doldrums, House Arrest, Scared Famous, and Worn Copy. Additional surplus material from this period to the present day will be highlighted in new volumes of collected outtakes and non-album tracks, with Odditties Sodomies Vol. 3, plus a new edition of Odditties Sodomies Vol. 1. Twenty years on, Ariel’s music still stupefies. The quantity of ideas and moods expressed through a modest recording enterprise seems supernatural, not human. Indeed, Hedi El Kohlti, in his superb new liner notes for Underground, compares Ariel’s explosive creative period between 1998 and 2004 to a character in Phillip K. Dick’s A Scanner Darkly who has all of 20th century modern art beamed into his brain at flash cut speed. Did Ariel Pink, at the age of 20, receive a similar instantaneous “download” of all of the secrets of pop music?
October 25 street date. Ariel Archives revisits Ariel Pink’s historic run of albums as Ariel Pink’s Haunted Graffiti with a series of definitive reissues and new collections. The first installment begins with Odditties Sodomies Vol. 2, a long-awaited second volume of outtakes and non-album tracks, Underground, the inaugural album in the Haunted Graffiti series, and finally Loverboy, an exemplary disc recorded between October 2001 and July 2002, at which time Ariel also recorded House Arrest. Later installments of Ariel Archives will include The Doldrums, House Arrest, Scared Famous, and Worn Copy. Additional surplus material from this period to the present day will be highlighted in new volumes of collected outtakes and non-album tracks, with Odditties Sodomies Vol. 3, plus a new edition of Odditties Sodomies Vol. 1. Twenty years on, Ariel’s music still stupefies. The quantity of ideas and moods expressed through a modest recording enterprise seems supernatural, not human. Indeed, Hedi El Kohlti, in his superb new liner notes for Underground, compares Ariel’s explosive creative period between 1998 and 2004 to a character in Phillip K. Dick’s A Scanner Darkly who has all of 20th century modern art beamed into his brain at flash cut speed. Did Ariel Pink, at the age of 20, receive a similar instantaneous “download” of all of the secrets of pop music?
Please note new street date: May 29. 2nd installment of Ariel Pink collections/reissues from Mexican Summer; The Doldrums, Worn Copy, and House Arrest, three of the signature records from the Haunted Graffiti era. Recorded during a sleepier era in Ariel’s native Los Angeles, it’s easy to hear The Doldrums as a response to a feeling of under-stimulation or malaise, a mood that had been angrily mined by Gen X in the 1990s but which Ariel treated with some ironic distance. Songs like “Gray Sunsets” and “Let’s Build a Campfire There” articulate a longing melancholia with arresting lyrics that blend the juvenile and poetic. Ariel Pink’s public profile at the time was limited to Los Angeles. It wasn’t until 2004, after Ariel Pink’s music began reaching wider audiences through releases on Animal Collective’s Paw Tracks label that he began touring the U.S. in support of The Doldrums, House Arrest and Worn Copy. Live reviews from the tour mention Ariel changing the format and feel of the show night by night. Oddly, albums such as The Doldrums, Worn Copy and House Arrest were not widely embraced initially, though their inventiveness and strange beauty was usually recognized by reviewers, if not begrudgingly. Critical opinion was divided: Ariel Pink was either a self-indulgent “weirdo” or a pop music genius. Twenty years on, Ariel’s music still stupefies.
Please note new street date: May 29. 2nd installment of Ariel Pink collections/reissues from Mexican Summer; The Doldrums, Worn Copy, and House Arrest, three of the signature records from the Haunted Graffiti era. Recorded during a sleepier era in Ariel’s native Los Angeles, it’s easy to hear The Doldrums as a response to a feeling of under-stimulation or malaise, a mood that had been angrily mined by Gen X in the 1990s but which Ariel treated with some ironic distance. Songs like “Gray Sunsets” and “Let’s Build a Campfire There” articulate a longing melancholia with arresting lyrics that blend the juvenile and poetic. Ariel Pink’s public profile at the time was limited to Los Angeles. It wasn’t until 2004, after Ariel Pink’s music began reaching wider audiences through releases on Animal Collective’s Paw Tracks label that he began touring the U.S. in support of The Doldrums, House Arrest and Worn Copy. Live reviews from the tour mention Ariel changing the format and feel of the show night by night. Oddly, albums such as The Doldrums, Worn Copy and House Arrest were not widely embraced initially, though their inventiveness and strange beauty was usually recognized by reviewers, if not begrudgingly. Critical opinion was divided: Ariel Pink was either a self-indulgent “weirdo” or a pop music genius. Twenty years on, Ariel’s music still stupefies.
Please note new street date: May 29. 2nd installment of Ariel Pink collections/reissues from Mexican Summer; The Doldrums, Worn Copy, and House Arrest, three of the signature records from the Haunted Graffiti era. Recorded during a sleepier era in Ariel’s native Los Angeles, it’s easy to hear The Doldrums as a response to a feeling of under-stimulation or malaise, a mood that had been angrily mined by Gen X in the 1990s but which Ariel treated with some ironic distance. Songs like “Gray Sunsets” and “Let’s Build a Campfire There” articulate a longing melancholia with arresting lyrics that blend the juvenile and poetic. Ariel Pink’s public profile at the time was limited to Los Angeles. It wasn’t until 2004, after Ariel Pink’s music began reaching wider audiences through releases on Animal Collective’s Paw Tracks label that he began touring the U.S. in support of The Doldrums, House Arrest and Worn Copy. Live reviews from the tour mention Ariel changing the format and feel of the show night by night. Oddly, albums such as The Doldrums, Worn Copy and House Arrest were not widely embraced initially, though their inventiveness and strange beauty was usually recognized by reviewers, if not begrudgingly. Critical opinion was divided: Ariel Pink was either a self-indulgent “weirdo” or a pop music genius. Twenty years on, Ariel’s music still stupefies.
May 14 street date. An absorbing look at Ariel Rosenberg's early musique concrète epic. Thrash and Burn dates from a time when Ariel Rosenberg, then a few years from turning "Pink," first proclaimed himself a "20th Century Composer" without a trace of irony in his voice. Appropriately, this early work takes the form of a musique concrète epic forged from Rosenberg's late-'90s faux-primitif, garage-punk, and tape-loop experiments. At 94 minutes and 36 tracks, Thrash and Burn displays the symphonic ambitions of his genre-devouring pop saga, Haunted Graffiti, but with little in the way of fastidious album-oriented constructions. Rather, Thrash and Burn is a free-form tape ramble that uses gauzy atmospherics to strike up a wicked dialogue with the likes of Rosenberg's non-pop influences, like Iannis Xenakis, Pierre Schaeffer, and Luc Ferrari. Thrash and Burn was discovered in 2005, in an ankle-deep pile of cracked cassettes and scratched CD-R's in Rosenberg's Beverly Hills flat. Grier and Rosenberg then made an initial reconstruction attempt, and Thrash and Burn became a 4-cassette box set for the inaugural release of Human Ear Music, in 2006. The Wikipedia page for Thrash and Burn places its origin sometime in 1998. It was remastered in September 2012 in Berlin, Germany. The final master was brought up to 24-bit resolution, dynamically and tonally balanced on an Apogee Rosetta and two solid-aluminum monoblock amps.
May 14 street date. An absorbing look at Ariel Rosenberg's early musique concrète epic. Thrash and Burn dates from a time when Ariel Rosenberg, then a few years from turning "Pink," first proclaimed himself a "20th Century Composer" without a trace of irony in his voice. Appropriately, this early work takes the form of a musique concrète epic forged from Rosenberg's late-'90s faux-primitif, garage-punk, and tape-loop experiments. At 94 minutes and 36 tracks, Thrash and Burn displays the symphonic ambitions of his genre-devouring pop saga, Haunted Graffiti, but with little in the way of fastidious album-oriented constructions. Rather, Thrash and Burn is a free-form tape ramble that uses gauzy atmospherics to strike up a wicked dialogue with the likes of Rosenberg's non-pop influences, like Iannis Xenakis, Pierre Schaeffer, and Luc Ferrari. Thrash and Burn was discovered in 2005, in an ankle-deep pile of cracked cassettes and scratched CD-R's in Rosenberg's Beverly Hills flat. Grier and Rosenberg then made an initial reconstruction attempt, and Thrash and Burn became a 4-cassette box set for the inaugural release of Human Ear Music, in 2006. The Wikipedia page for Thrash and Burn places its origin sometime in 1998. It was remastered in September 2012 in Berlin, Germany. The final master was brought up to 24-bit resolution, dynamically and tonally balanced on an Apogee Rosetta and two solid-aluminum monoblock amps.
July 9 street date. Ariel Pink and Jorge Elbrecht have teamed up for their first ever collaborative split 7", written and recorded over one weekend at Gary's Electric studio in Brooklyn. "Hang On to Life" is heavy on heartbreak and high on melodrama, with Elbrecht's gentle tenor proving a perfect complement to Pink's raspier croon. Loping, soft-rock verses give way to a mid-song consolation phone-call ("she did what? ... I can't believe these girls, man...") sending the pair into a soaring canon. On the flipside, "No Real Friend" plays out in total soft-focus, taking cues from sugary J-Pop, lite rock balladry and televisual muzak (After School Special, and '70s family sitcom resolutions come to mind). There's certainly a winking awareness across this 7", but also a very real sincerity which comes through in its meticulously authentic execution. It should come as no surprise that this pair are drawn to these lesser trodden pop territories, and manage to appropriate them in the most imaginative way possible.
July 15 street date. LIMITED EDITION VINYL ONLY RELEASE. Psych-Pop masterpiece from 2 of the best to ever do it. LA native and weirdo-pop enthusiast ARIEL PINK joins forces with lo-fi pop pioneer R. STEVIE MOORE in a crazy freak-out extravaganza! Back in 2012, 2 leaders of the modern psych scene colluded together in making a 60-plus track album. Here, we have the definitive collection of songs from "Ku Klux Glam". Remastered & compiled by R. Stevie Moore, this is a presentation of this record in it's clearest form.
January 27 street date. In the middle of March 2016, over a week-long musical residency in the desert, two weird planets went conjunct. Both bore a bright color palette: Ariel Rosenberg (aka Ariel Pink), an underground icon known for his stylized, subversive pop, and Natalie Mering (aka Weyes Blood), bold bringer of a future cosmic folk realm. Under the mystic lights of Marfa, Texas, they composed and captured Myths 002. As West Coast singer-songwriters with a shared sensibility for mood, Natalie and Ariel have been collaborating artists, mutual admirers, and friends for years. Mering appeared as guest vocalist on Pink’s 2013 album Mature Themes, Pink produced the infectious Drugdealer song “Suddenly” featuring Mering. Mering’s third album, Front Row Seat To Earth, was recently released to great appraise. Pink’s first album for the label is set for “sometime 2017.” The atmospheres and auras of these two pop artists assemble as new hues on Myths 002, their distinct voices inexplicably, effortlessly folding into harmony. The four songs capture musicians at play — speak-talking dramatic interludes, twisting up songs strangely before releasing them assuredly in New Romantic resolves. Check out one of the new tracks, as featured on Pitchfork; http://pitchfork.com/news/70802-listen-to-ariel-pink-and-weyes-bloods-new-song-tears-on-fire/
March 8 street date. Vinyl reissue. Backorders have been cancelled. Originally released in 2002, House Arrest, much like every other Ariel Pink release so far, provides a small sampling of Ariel Rosenberg's self-recorded compositions, laid down on a trusty eight-track at home. Unlike so many warbling troubadours who seem to think the recorded-in-a-bedroom approach means a license to be maudlin, Rosenberg brings an exuberant joy to his work, finding something that a full band recording might actually kill the spirit of. Though his connection to personal hero R. Stevie Moore is often mentioned, Rosenberg's role model here often seems to be Andy Partridge.
Compiling selections from Ariel Pink's massive bank of half forgotten cassettes can seem like an effort in vain, or a pyrrhic victory at best, as what is left out is equally deserving of a listen as what's included. The tracks selected for Scared Famous were all recorded at a key moment in Ariel's recording adventure, dating back to, or immediately following the recordings on "House Arrest."
June 8 street date. 4AD are very pleased to release the label debut from Ariel Pink’s Haunted Grafitti, "Before Today". For the best part of a decade, Los Angeles native Ariel Rosenberg has been carving some of the most intoxicating music going, a reclusive pop surrealist whose productions have led to a cult following that has often been difficult to keep up with. Six months in the making, "Before Today" was recorded in part in Encino at the House of Blues (once Tito Jackson's home studio) with Sunny Levine (Quincy Jones' grandson) and Rik Pekkonen (Bill Withers, Seals & Crofts, Bread) as well as at the band's home studios. The result is a beguiling mix of glam rock, West Coast funk and Merseybeat harmonies with a high-production sheen; a contrast to the corroded bedroom recordings that have formented a fervent following over the past decade. Available as a US import CD, the album was mastered at Abbey Road.
June 8 street date. 4AD are very pleased to release the label debut from Ariel Pink’s Haunted Grafitti, "Before Today". For the best part of a decade, Los Angeles native Ariel Rosenberg has been carving some of the most intoxicating music going, a reclusive pop surrealist whose productions have led to a cult following that has often been difficult to keep up with. Six months in the making, "Before Today" was recorded in part in Encino at the House of Blues (once Tito Jackson's home studio) with Sunny Levine (Quincy Jones' grandson) and Rik Pekkonen (Bill Withers, Seals & Crofts, Bread) as well as at the band's home studios. The result is a beguiling mix of glam rock, West Coast funk and Merseybeat harmonies with a high-production sheen; a contrast to the corroded bedroom recordings that have formented a fervent following over the past decade. Available as a US import LP, the album was mastered at Abbey Road, and it includes complimentary MP3 download coupon.
August 21 street date. Ariel Pink’s Haunted Graffiti will release its new album, Mature Themes. This is the band’s second for 4AD and the official follow-up to its 2010 breakthrough album, Before Today. Installing themselves at a studio space in downtown-LA, Haunted Graffiti began a lengthy process of writing and recording. Mature Themes is a self-produced affair, with former member Cole MGN drafted in to provide some drum programming and additional mixing duties. Far removed from Ariel’s early bedroom recordings, Mature Themes is a product of a more collaborative process, with the often-overlooked virtuoso musicianship of the band bought to the fore. Ariel recently told Spin magazine. "It's so diverse but so different from anything I've done before. In a sense, it’s really the record I wanted to make back when I made Before Today, but couldn't. We had time to let our hair down and try new things." While the creative process was new, familiar Ariel Pink signatures remain. In fact, Mature Themes feels like the definitive Haunted Graffiti record, a patchwork of modern America, its esoteric reference points and
moments of lyrical lucidity a twilight excursion through backwater LA and late-night TV channel hopping. "Sonically, it’s comparable," Pink says of the new work, 13 songs he’s only recently penned. "(But) there are definitely not any links to my lo-fi origins." Pink was able to bring in a large cache of vocal melodies and song foundations he’d previously recorded
to his new phone. "Getting my first Android phone changed my life," he explains. "I don’t have to memorize everything. I can put ideas down on the fly and save them for a rainy day, which is something I never had the luxury of doing in the past. I’ve got this great talent for coopting memories at random - this time I’ve got a hundred ideas on a moment’s notice."
January 29 street date. What began two years ago as informal jam sessions for ARIEL PINK, NEIL SCHUH and CROOKED COWBOY evolved into a collaborative recording project with one rule to each session: no one was allowed to say no to an idea. Using whatever they could get their hands on to record, they finally went into the studio, and within three sessions the birth of "Cloak & Dagger" emerged. The Los Angeles trio's satisfaction with the single led them to ask friend, AARON FRANKEL, to remix the track for the B-side. 2012 brought on difficulties for the group when Crooked Cowboy suffered a massive heart attack, delaying the trio's release. At last, "Cloak & Dagger" is released on LA's Origami Vinyl. The 7" is limited to a onetime pressing of 500 copies on transparent orange vinyl.
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