his eccentric/melodic lo-fi recordings utilize some of the most unconventional instruments to date: namely creating drum sounds with his mouth and armpit.  his music reminds me of  1970-80’s pop rock idols david bowie, john lennon, the bee gees, frank zappa, brian eno and roxy music.

in mid 2003, ariel hooked up with animal collective, passing them a cd-r of his work.  a few weeks lapsed before john dibb of animal collective finally listened to it.  “it sat on the floor of the van for a week or so,” said john.  “finally we played it and we were just like ‘woah!’”

a few weeks later john contacted ariel and signed him to their label, paw tracks.  the next year, the label reissued his self-recorded lp, the doldrums. since then, they released worn copy and house arrest.

ariel dropped his latest lp, before today, under the band name ariel pink's haunted graffiti (tim koh, aaron sperske, kenny keys) on june 7, 2010.

“having recently broken the scenery of his storied in-house lo-fi factory, rounding up the haunted graffiti and recording in a more traditional studio environment, one could rightly expect a turn of the tide,” wrote kyle mackinnel.  “with before today, ariel achieves congruence in the album’s construction, but does so without sacrificing his peculiar flamingo flair.”

because ariel’s music isn’t designed to be played to live audiences, his live gigs historically aren't well received by fans.  in fact, he said “people boo me everywhere.  they don't even hide their contempt.  i'm used to it now.”  however, touring with the same lineup has allowed his live music to become more digestible and tighter.

click here for ariel pink's blog.  click here for a video of an interview.  click here for a link to ariel's original drawings, available for $10,000 each; which to me seems a bit high.  don't forget, the album cover image always links to sample songs and the band's image to their website.

check here to see if ariel pink's haunted graffiti have any gigs scheduled near you.

as always, please buy this album from your local independent music store by people who know and love music and not from retailers like wal-mart (soulless, globally-homogenizing, community-killers) or i-tunes (albums should be listened to as an entire composition with album cover and liner notes in hand).  incidentally, these two companies sell more music than any other retailer in the united states.  that my friend, bites.

ariel pink are way bright.

if you agree, please spread the word (about the band and this site).

jason

don't worry if you missed the fol chen profile from last week: here it is.

sub pop


dave ma