Review: Ariel Pink - "Pom Pom" (4AD, 2014)

Sometimes I feel weird being another guy on the Internet writing about Ariel Pink. But despite all of the ridiculous Twitter controversy, Ariel has a new record out today–and debut as a solo act–and I'm excited about it.

Ariel Pink is notorious for his gender-bendy, gothic, lo-fi synth pop. His new double-album release Pom Pom is 67 minutes of weirdness: somewhere between whimsical and sordid, sporadic and punkish. Produced by the infamous Kim Fowley (Alice Cooper, KISS), this record seems much more spastic, flamboyant, and upbeat compared to previous recordings with his Haunted Graffiti. According to the 4AD website, songs like "Jell-O" and "Plastic Raincoats In The Pig Parade" were written with Fowley in his hospital room during his recent battle with cancer. Instrumentation across the record is generally synthesizer and guitar heavy, featuring bored vocal embellishments on top of sampled recordings of bells, slide whistles, flatulence, and applause. Lyrical topics include songs about frog princes, sex, the color pink, strip clubs, and Jell-O.

I think many would agree that Ariel Pink has mastered the art of the style pastiche. These songs are immediately reminiscent of an early 80s nightclub scene, British new wave, and that one scene from Dumbo that gave you nightmares. He consistently saturates his music with a series of obvious clichés, which at first seem kitschy (they are), but Pink manages to exaggerate them to the extent to which it becomes oddly creepy. It's parody–sure, but with Ariel Pink you just never know. I admire his ability to ride the line between parody and originality so thinly that he effectively challenges both spectra. Is he just another asshole trying to bring back 80s goth-pop, or is this all a big joke? ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

These lyrics are as strange and silly as they've always been, "Nude beach a go-go / Fram-a-lama ding dong / Surfer Billy bing bong." Azealia Banks actually debuted a nice cover of this song last week on her new record, Broke With Expensive Taste. Other lyrics featured on Pom Pom are more unsettling, "Where a handful of love goes down where you got fed / And now it’s time for pain, that’s right!"

Pom Pom lands at record stores everywhere today. Catch his performance at the Crofoot Ballroom in Pontiac, MI this February.

Stream "Put Your Number In My Phone" below via YouTube, courtesy of 4AD records. 

Review: Deerhoof - "La Isla Bonita" (Polyvinyl, 2014)

Listening to the new Deerhoof record is the closest I've come to actually encountering physical contact with sound.

The CD was serviced to WIDR last week from Terrorbird Media, so I had my interim Music Director take a look at it while he was covering for my time away in NYC. When I asked him afterwards what he thought, he didn't have too much to say. "Uhh, this one's sort of unpredictable," he said, the same way one might refer to a small animal or a poorly behaved child. 

He wasn't wrong. This totally wonky noise-punk record is 32 riotous minutes of pure nonsense, and truly the most refreshingly disorienting record I've heard in a while. The first track, "Paradise Girls" is characterized by high-strung electric guitars and an energetic, distorted drum kit. The whole tune only uses 12 different words, which are often interrupted by a most outrageous guitar riff – its notes are totally off beat, random yet repetitious – and somehow it works. After that, each song is more whimsical, delightful, and confusing than the one before. Classic Deerhoof.

The whole record acts as though it's playing some game with the listener. Every few minutes the band chucks a musical curveball aimed for the face–be it an out-of-place stereo pan, a sudden tempo change, or a surprise cowbell solo. The listener has no prediction power here.

The band does this intentionally. La Isla Bonita was recorded DIY-style in the basement of guitarist Ed Rodriguez over the course of a week, celebrating the band's 20th anniversary. According to this interview with DIYmag,

We recorded this record by accident. Those 10 days in Ed’s Portland basement were meant to be for writing and recording demos. It wasn’t till the last day we put it together that the rehearsals should be the album. That’s the way we always did it when the band started out as a lo-fi noise side project so we were super game to go again.

The spontaneous nature of the album's production is not hidden by the music. Lead singer Satomi Matsuzaki is both playful and aggressive in her singing, goofing along with mostly nonsensical stripped-down lyrics and bouncing her syllables off the guitar riffs. These lyrics seem particularly stripped down, "Baseball is cancelled / E.T. is running late / New from America / I cover all of the walls with sad dollars / Ta-da!"

Behind all the noise, these songs are really catchy. Co-produced by long time band member and Pitchfork writer Nick Sylvester, La Isla Bonita showcases the band experimenting on a whim, exploring noisier punk sounds, and having a blast.

La Isla Bonita arrives at record stores tomorrow. Don't forget to catch these weirdos live in Kalamazoo at Louie's Trophy House on Wednesday, November 11th.

Stream "Last Fad" hot off the new record below via YouTube.