Ariel Pink

[Head Gardener]

Worthy of his own thread and with his new album is out soon (indeed it leaked today)
I have plenty of time for him, how much love out there?
new tune : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AYtsUdD921E

[Bazooka]

Love me some pink, I won't lie though I haven't followed him as much as I did around Mature Themes release, will definitely check out the new one.

[mrpupkin]

Pom pom is pengaleng

[the science eel]

I liked the breakthrough album (can't remember the name right now) but thought Mature Themes was really annoying in places.

He's a kid, really - petulant, childish, imaginative. Storming off stage for the smallest reason. But anyone who can come up with a song like 'Fright Night' has to have something special going on upstairs. I don't know if he's got it in him to do that again.

Remember Bobby Conn? Same sort of thing.

What's the deal with that new album cover? is it just a pisstake?

[Avril Lavigne]

I'm a huge fan, even after going to a live show where he seemed to be in a bad mood with the audience throughout & sent the drummer out afterwards to inform us Ariel would only do an encore if one of us would provide the band with a joint.

The new singles are growing on me, I just hope the whole album isn't so straightforward (in relative Ariel Pink song terms) and has moments like Pom Pom did that remind me what elevates him above all the artists his sound has influenced.

[Head Gardener]

Good to feel the love, I saw him in Camden a couple of years back & stood on the steps at the side and held my camera by my side - I wasn't waving it in the air like a cunt!

probably best played loud

and ages ago I had him in session too - if you've not heard it the mix is here

[imitationleather]

First time I ever listened to him was walking home from a party in 2005 where I'd pulled a stranger (an amazingly rare event, part of why I can recall it in such detail). He'd (as in Ariel Pink, not the person I pulled - who I can confirm with almost total certainty was a woman) been sat on my iPod for a while and I chose the trip back from the party as the time to give him a whirl and the album House Arrest just fitted how amazingly hungover I was with no idea how I was going to get home to Bow from Tottenham (for non-Londoners, this is a long, long, long fucking journey) with no money so perfectly it was like my brain and the trauma it was going through was somehow making music and playing it to me.

Amazed he's managed to get so big. I genuinely did not think he ever would, despite loving his stuff.

Also don't try to talk to him at gigs, he's a complete cunt. I never have because I don't talk to people in bands unless I already know them but I have overheard fans talking to him and my word... If I were in their shoes it'd certainly destroy my evening.

[PaulTMA]

I have almost no memory of it, but apparently Ariel Pink was nice to me when I sheepishly told him he RULED after a gig in Cologne.  He gave me a fist-bump and apparently said something like "I hope you can get Uber over here" in reference to how shitfaced I was, upon everyone was leaving the venue.  When Ariel Pink jokes about you being in a bit of a state, it should probably be taken as some kind of wake up call.

[PaulTMA]

beta-male double-post

[Avril Lavigne]

Good to feel the love, I saw him in Camden a couple of years back & stood on the steps at the side and held my camera by my side - I wasn't waving it in the air like a cunt!

probably best played loud

and ages ago I had him in session too - if you've not heard it the mix is here

Thanks for these, the Scared Famous era mouth-drums version of Beverly Kills made me wonder if there would be another remake of an older track on this new album and sure enough, 'I Wanna Be Young' is listed right there on the cover & I can't wait to hear it.

[Tikwid]

groupp chat goals

[SteveDave]

Also don't try to talk to him at gigs, he's a complete cunt. I never have because I don't talk to people in bands unless I already know them but I have overheard fans talking to him and my word... If I were in their shoes it'd certainly destroy my evening.

My wife found this out after he played the Scala a few years ago. Or maybe even last year (EDIT- 2014! Time flies). He sort of made a face and, whilst looking at her after she'd said something about how much she'd enjoyed the show, said to the people he was with "See? I get this all the time" and then made a disapproving face. She called him a prick and stalked off.

[McQ]

Remember Bobby Conn? Same sort of thing.

We need to have a Bobby Conn thread. I might start one in a bit.

[Head Gardener]

I just checked and I have 6 Booby Conn albums! but it's The Golden Age that is the one - I saw him at The Garage in London once, all the band wore lime green jumpsuits

[Avril Lavigne]

I just checked and I have 6 Booby Conn albums! but it's The Golden Age that is the one - I saw him at The Garage in London once, all the band wore lime green jumpsuits

When I went to see him live I was expecting something like that but it was just him by himself singing along to a CD of his songs (not even instrumental versions) being blasted out of a portable CD player.  I jumped onstage as soon as he requested a girl to sit and have a song sung/dedicated to her, I forget which song it was but I'm pretty sure it was Whores.

[Avril Lavigne]

Does Oscillations have a policy re: leaked albums?

[imitationleather]

My wife found this out after he played the Scala a few years ago. Or maybe even last year (EDIT- 2014! Time flies). He sort of made a face and, whilst looking at her after she'd said something about how much she'd enjoyed the show, said to the people he was with "See? I get this all the time" and then made a disapproving face. She called him a prick and stalked off.

Hey, I was at that gig!

I also saw him at Bethnal Green Working Men's Club and he was manning the merch stand beforehand and looked fucked. As though if you'd tried to buy something you wouldn't have got an ounce of sense out of the man. During the gig he started banging the heads of the people in the front row together. Which seemed very cuntish, and even worse than when I saw him at The Garage and during a solo he went down to the front row and got off with everyone stood watching. So glad I was in the second row. Both times. Anyway, after the Bethnal Green one I was outside and some fan kid talked to him and his response to whatever he asked was, "Now there's a question that could be answered by just looking at my Wikipedia page." Ouch. I mean, I appreciate it must be tiring having people you don't know talking to you all the time but there's still no need to be a bellend about it.

Love the guy's music though. New single is boss. Policy on leaks is we can talk about them but can't post them.

[Head Gardener]

you know what? I bet he does drugs

[holyzombiejesus]

I have heard that he's an utter cunt who likes to rape.

[Head Gardener]

is this the face of a raper?

[Porter Dimi]

Not a huge fan, but I might say that 'Round and Round' is easily one of the best songs of the decade.

[imitationleather]

Listened to the new album a few times now. It's good, but nowhere near as outstanding as Pom Pom.

His best album ever is House Arrest, anyway.

[Head Gardener]

agreed

[Brundle-Fly]

I just checked and I have 6 Booby Conn albums! but it's The Golden Age that is the one - I saw him at The Garage in London once, all the band wore lime green jumpsuits

I loved that album. File next to other early '00's oddballs: All Night Radio, Fort Lauderdale, Cody Chestnut, Pop Levi, Pepe Deluxe, Jack Planck...

[Head Gardener]

vinyl edition comes with an exclusive flexi, can't... resist.......

[BlodwynPig]

His ex (Geneva Jacuzzi) played in Toronto a week or so ago and she was excellent aside from sounding like Gary Numan for a bit and only doing vocals over a backing track.

I tried to be cool and talk to her after her set but she was very odd but not totally hostile. I felt like a fish out of water to be honest and only found out about the link with Pink later that night when looking her up on the web.

Anyway, I'm a casual listener to Ariel Pink, drawn to the underground sound reminiscent to the UK underground festival scene of the 80s, but his latest seems to have more polish and is a straight up great record.

[garbed_attic]

I'm not very keen but I enjoy Soko's impression of him in their joint track 'Lovetrap':
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n-kuDCSWloo

(pretty sure they've fallen out since then)

[Phil_A]

is this the face of a raper?

He does look alarmingly like Mark Heap in some kind of probably very upsetting lost Jam sketch.

[alan nagsworth]

The leak of the album is a shitty transcode - and the copy I obtained sounded dreadful, and I gave up after the third song - so I won't be bothering until it's officially out. I am really looking forward to this record, since when I saw him in Texas last December, he played a set of entirely new unheard material and it was all excellent.

I love the dude, he's one of those performers like Ween where the potential for greatness was always there but they seemingly deliberately hid it behind walls of brown noise and slowly became more and more polished and pop-perfect. Pom Pom seems to be his magnum opus in that respect (especially since Mature Themes aimed at it but had around 50% filler), and I adore it; Lipstick is one of his best tunes IMO. Before Today is also something of a masterpiece to me, and House Arrest is fucking excellent too.

I've never had any personal experience of him being a shithead either on or off stage, but I kind of wish I had. That said, I saw him after Pom Pom was released at Electric Ballroom on my birthday, and he played a flawless set ("we're pretty much gonna play our new record in its entirety", plus peppered it with classics from Before Today) and seemed in high spirits throughout, even if he didn't move from the same spot onstage in his glittery high heels for the entire gig.

[imitationleather]

I too have a lot of love for the man, as I hope my previous posts have demonstrated. (Despite pointing out he can be a dick quite often.)

I find a lot of his early albums totally impenetrable bar the odd song, but I appreciate the fact he's just doing whatever the fuck he wants. As I said, House Arrest is the only one from that era which stands up as something you'd actually choose to listen to. I was very surprised when suddenly he had a proper band and was putting out polished stuff. Surprised, but pleased for the guy because he's an incredible talent who deserved a wider audience. The early "proper band" albums, bar a couple of tracks such as Fright Night (Nevermore), are largely forgettable, though. Pom Pom was where it all really came together and is basically peak Ariel Pink.

I remember being at a gig just after he went proper band and he played Gettin' High in the Morning (one of his best tracks, surely). Obviously, none of the n00bs around me knew what it was but were loving it. I was like "Ha! You fools! I must have racked up well over 100 plays of this on Last.fm!"

This new album, I am liking it the more I listen to it. What it's lacking which Pom Pom had in abundance (and makes it one of my favourite albums evaaaaah) are the funny and WTF?! tracks.

I've seen Geneva Jacuzzi live twice. I think she is great, although she does have the aura of being utterly terrifying as a person. The epicentre of LA hipsterdom. I went on her online shop a while ago to buy a t-shirt but she'd taken them all offline and was only selling her worn underwear now. The price increased based on how many days she'd had them on for. Sorry, Geneva, I really just wanted a t-shirt.