This could be my favourite track of the year. It's like something from a crappy lo-fi experimental art rock band that only put out tapes in like the mid 80s (that's not a bad thing in my book). I dunno if Thug and Jay are just lazy, bored wasted or just fucking funny. Probably all of the above. Florida Water is from Young Thug & Bloody Jay's 2014 gem Black Portland.
Young Thug & Bloody Jay's Florida Water made me wanna listen to this. I dunno if there's a connection or if my brain's just on random. Anyway this is an Ariel Pink classic from Mature Themes, I wish this song would go for an hour. I just can't get enough.
Created a little controversy on Twitter and over at The Quietus all about Ariel Pink. I just think he's had all these theories thrust upon him and in one interview was quite frustrated by it all saying he just wrote songs whether they were retro, now or future he couldn't care less. Finally got the vinyl of Ariel's Mature Themes today and there is a lyric sheet but I have not read it yet. Geneva Jacuzzi co wrote Kinski Assassin with Ariel which I didn't know. I may check out out what he says about North Korea in Farewell American Primitive but that's about it.
*Listening to Lucifer by Peaking Lights I was thinking they sound like no one else really which is incredible in this day and age, but there was one tune on the last record that had a little keyboard interlude (of like 25 seconds) that had me flashing on Laika's Sound Of Satellites record. Then there is another one on Lucifer which had me thinkn very vaguely of Moonshake/Laika, all very tenuous links. Like saying someones similar because they use the same guitar. They are very allusive group! You kind of think surely there's been 10 groups like this before but there haven't.
**Been listening to both the Gary War LP and The Human Teenager one and they are both fantastic. The way they try to be Chrome but just end up sounding like a kids version which is even better because we've already had one Chrome. I think it's pop music. Gary's Pleading For Annihalation could be from a prime era Chrome LP. This Ilitch10 Suicides record that I only discovered this year seems to have been a secret influence on a lot of this American underground stuff. I think I said at the time Oneohtrix Point Never must be a fan and you can add Gary War and Oneohtrix and War collaborator Taylor Richardson as fans. Then I put on Lamborghini Crystal's Roach Motel and well they got a little closer to Chrome's dementia and Human Teenager were probably listening. Fuck me Roach Motel is one of Ferraro's best efforts, really grimy (not in the D.Rascal sense) and mental.
Fuckin young journo wannabees, how annoying are they? This Joe Kenedy over at The Quietus who reviewed the Ariel Pink Mature Themes LP was so off the mark I nearly fell off my chair. I couldn't give a fuck about cultural theorising. I like Ariel Pink because of his music which is mostly fuckin' great. It sounds good to my eardrums! My eardrums like it a lot. Joe do you like sounds in your eardrums or just theorising about stuff to try and get a name for yourself ? My brain says to my eardrums or vice versa, 'Mature Themes again please!' and so I put it on again. That's how listening works for me. I imagine this is how it works for others as well. In on a joke? Are you being paranoid about missing the point? What joke? Snore! Wow you slagged off Ariel Pink, feel better now. Why did I even read this review? Because usually I check The Quietus to see if the great David Stubbs has done anything lately. Joe I can't foresee you joining the ranks of such greats but you are a knob just not a great knob.
This is quite good i'spose. I can't tell if it's offensive or not. Who cares?
Real Men
The Go-Betweens
Spring Rain
Ariel you're not the only one using that guitar sound as a reference point. Hello Dick Diver, Real Estate et al. At least AP's not basing a career on it. I always liked it when they both sang on the same song. They should have done it more! Err.......Rob & Grant that is.
'Australian made something or other'
'Suicide dumplings dropping testicle bombs'
'Bring on the bogan she-males hopped up on meth'
I know he spent some time in Australia this year but even I don't know about bogan she-males!
When i finally get a physical copy of this record I hope there is no lyric sheet. I like the mystery. Something on Before Today was ruined because I read the lyrics in the cover. Anyway then there is the title track Mature Themes which sounds to me like a Joe Jackson song if Joe was good, maybe he was, I only know that one radio song. What is it? Real Men which always seemed a bit wrong to me can't remember why. Does it say something about fags? Anyway Ariel's version I suspect is a bit dodgy too.
'I wanna talk about Mature Things/Taboo things.'
God knows what he wants to talk about and maybe I'd rather not know. Maybe he should have called The LP Taboo Things. On one of the tracks I think he says something about the bad breath of a cross eyed goat. Seriously I haven't dropped acid and well I didn't know it was back in fashion and seemingly readily available on the streets in LA. God knows what Pink Slime is about. What does he say about North Korea in Farewell American Primitive and what the fuck is it about? I like not knowing and just chuckin in my own theories. And fuck me if it's not Robert Forster guitaring on some tracks or whoever played guitar on The Go-BetweensSpring Rain. The ghost of Grant McLennan for all I know and it wouldn't surprise me. He could do entire albums of shit like Nostradamus & Me or slow Jamz like Baby and I would lap it up. I am starting to think it's better than Before Today just maybe.
*Pre-Fab Hearts by The Reels was a single for Polygram in 1979 and it was the follow up to their debut single. So Quasimodo's Dream was 2 years after that and their 2nd LP, with Beautifull being the 3rd. Right!
**Alan Lamb was the experimental telephone wires guy and had this record Primal Image. There might be another one but I don't have that.
***Wasn't there a cricketer called Alan Lamb in the 80s?
****Thought I'd mention Ariel Pink again just to say that perhaps Mature Themes is better than Before Today, just maybe.
*****Probably the last issue of Smash Hits I ever bought was this one with Michael Hutchence on the cover and it was a special on the filming of Dogs In Space. Anyway I remember there was a little article on the little bands scene. Then thought 'what there's more people like The Primitive Calculators? That's fucking mental!!' Suffice to say first time I ever heard of Too Fat To Fit Through The Door and Thrush & The Cunts. The later turning up in the movie singing diseases. This was in Smash Hits. I wish I still had that copy, I remember holding onto it for a while. It didn't end up in the incinerator with the rest of The Countdowns & Smash Hits. Although some articles were removed before their fiery death only to die somewhere else later on.
******How about incinerators and that we used to just burn everything!
******* "a rats toss bag" was a Malcolm Blight tongue.
Here's the only track off the new LP that I can find on the youtubes, it reminds me a little of The Go-Betweens well instrumentally anyway because nobody sings like Ariel does. Just listening to the album again and is it Tina Turner on Baby? I'm thinking now these tracks could've been recorded anywhere between The Doldrums and Before Today. It's more upfront in it's new waviness ie. not swathed in so much hiss or noise but also not as overtly Hi-Fi or reverby as Before Today.
*What I meant by it not being his In Utero (Nirvana's follow up to Nevermind) is that he wasn't trying to go back to street cred/noncommercial roots due to a loss of nerve ala Cobain Stylee. You know second guessing himself and all that and being torn between mainstream and indie culture. I don't think Before Today sold that many units for Ariel to be having such an artistic/existential dilemma of this kind. It was probably good in the end that it wasn't his Nevermind (Before Today that is) now.
*And what I meant by it not being Ariel's Dirty (SYs 2nd major label LP) Sonic Youth's follow up to Goo their first LP for a major label. On Dirty is where Sonic Youth went off with budgets and production and everything. They went OTT and it was a brilliant move but a hard one to come back from. I think at the time time Thurston was calling it their Aerosmith LP. They had the opportunity to make a massive budget album so they just said why the fuck not?! Ariel going way more Hi-Fi would have been good too or ending up with something like a Tusk (Fleetwood Mac's follow up to the multi-platinum Rumours) which was great but weird and well Mr Pink already ticks those boxes.
*I had this whole theory a couple of years ago now that Before Today was his Nevermind. But instead of him pilfering from ten years of the whole of the American underground you know Flipper, Husker Du, Sonic Youth, Wipers, Mission of Burma, Black Flag, Scratch Acid, Big Black, Dinosaur Jnr, Meat Puppets, UK Post Punk and Metal, that Ariel Just pilfered from his own 10 years (at least) of underground activities as he really was the only happening thing in the US in the 00s bar a couple of misc. artists. I really thought that's what Before Today was his very own Nevermind. You know a cleaned up radio friendly version of the past 10 years for the masses to consume in vast quantities. Then when he was on Jimmy Fallon I thought yeah he's gonna do it! It was weird after like 8 or 9 records that all of a sudden someone was willing to throw money at him. He was nearly forgotten then all these acolytes turned up, swarms of them, and putting out good records as well (just before the signing/recording of Before Today). I had all these other parallels that I can't remember now something about gender issues Rape Me/Menopause Man similarities, the effeminate, being a female identified male heterosexual........... was the gist of it. So maybe it was happening in reverse-now there's going to be ten years of other groups underground activities inspired by A.Pink (we'd already be in our 4th or 5th year anyhow) I don't know how many units he shifted of his last LP. I suppose he got halfway......well probably not even that far. You know what they say in showbiz 'better to be lukewarm than hot.' He's always been hot with me but you know what I mean?
There were even image parallels. That's Ariel not Kurt!
*When I said his other classic 8 I meant from The Doldrums onwards including Oddities Sodomies Vol 1. & The Holy Shit EP. Haunted Graffiti 1:Underground is good but it's not in the same league as the rest.
I just noticed on the blogosphere some group claiming Stereolab to be a big influence on their new LP wow was I ahead of my time by 10 seconds or what? Well I didn't mean it. I'm not sure of the move here with Ariel, this new LP could have been recorded anywhere between House Arrest & Worn Copy really. It's neither his In Utero nor his Dirty. There are no coordinates with Mr Pink and who needs em. I'm loving this great new LP as much as the other great 8. Particularly Nostradamus & Me, Schnitzel Boogie, Symphony of The Nymph and Farewell American Primitive er......and the rest.
Just scored these two it's like fucking Christmas! Let's hope it's a good Christmas. Very Excitement!
Gary War's new LP! I loved his previous one and this years
collaboration as Human Teenager. Cant wait to hear this!
Jared's Lot is its title
Mature Themes is the most anticipated LP in living memory, probably since Before Today (for me anyhow). 3/4 of the way through my first listen it sounds very good. Perhaps not as Hi-Fi as Before Today and on some tracks his vocals are quite upfront. Can he do it? Can he top the best LP of 2010s?.....er.....that being the one he released before this one. I've gotta get up early but now I'm too excited. How old am I? Is that Tina Turner guesting on the last track Baby? I think he Ariel and his Haunted Graffiti have done it again.
