This is Why They Call Him "Loverboy"

As promised, here is a hard-to-find Ariel Pink release, and overall one of my favorites of his - Loverboy, in the last moment I can listen to his music for about 24 hours (as I do follow that vital rule of rock.

This album is perhaps his most electronic and has some of his most catchy and unique moments. Really, this is a great step two with Pink, preferably after House Arrest (the two were actually packaged together int he original self-release). The title track is a catchy little number, his cover of R. Stevie Moore's "Hobbies Galore" bests the original, "So Glad" is a perfect cheesy 80s ballad with an intro that tops Alphaville's "Forever Young", and "New Trumpets of Time" is completely unlike any other Ariel Pink track you'll ever hear.

As intimidating as some of his albums not released by Paw Tracks can be, this one is quite pleasant and I think great surpasses his widely released Scared Famous. This is a perfect find for anyone looking for more Pink.


Ariel Pink's Haunted Graffiti - Lover Boy (2003)

Mr. Los Angeles' Worn Copy

In light of the big show at T.T. the Bear's Place Wednesday night I though I would put up some Ariel Pink's Haunted Graffiti for the uninitiated. Most Likely there will be some more tomorrow, but for now I'm putting up one of his more available albums jsut because... I'd put it ont he web already... tomorrow most likely Lover Boy.

Worn Copy, though his second release on Paw Tracks was actually his last recorded album to be released. Though it is not his most solid, IMO, it has some of his strongest work I have heard so far and has his best use of long song structures, which in earlier work can get tiresome. In addition to songwriting and arrangement his playing is tighter, but the true star is the lyrical content on this album which ranges from the frighteningly relevant and foreboding "Trepanated Earth," "Artifact," and "Credit" to a look on Pink's distinctly Los Angeles persona in "Life in L.A." and "Jules Lost His Jewels."

Overall his sound is pure L.A. - a unique blend of all of that city's diverse musical history: Sunset Strip Hippiedom, Yacht Rock, L.A. Punk, Deathrock, Paisley Underground, and Hair metal are all well represented in his Lo-Fi sound. Outsider musicians like R. Stevie Moore (with whom Pink has collaborated) and Bobb Trimble are also unmistakable influences.



















Ariel Pink's Haunted Graffiti - Worn Copy

The Three O'Clock

Recently I've been getting into any music I can from Los Angeles and with that at last the "Paisley Underground" scene which has clearly been up my alley for years. The term, used to describe a batch of musicians who reacted against the extreme violence and anger of that city's punk scene with peace and love via 60s-style music was actually coined by one Michael Quercio of the Three O'Clock. So far I have found them to be my favorite of the bunch. Their music, which I would describe as the sound of a sixties psych-pop group who had acquired a synthesizer from 15 years in the future fit as well into the mod clothing the prepubescent-looking Quercio would wear as it did in 1980s Los Angeles. It is not hard to imagine many of their songs in a movie like Fast Times at Ridgemont High.

The songwriting is phenomenal as is the production, which on the first two records was done by LA rock guru and former Sparks guitarist Earle Mankey. It is downright shocking that the group neither acheived mainstream success, nor became well-remembered. The group's music is as lovable and accessable as their more successful scenemates the Bangles (whose Susanna Hoffs was at the time dating The Three O'Clock's guitarist Louis Gutierrez), and Quercio certainly had teen idol potential. Perhaps it was his bizarre lyrics to tracks with titles such as "A Day in Erotica," "Her Head's Revolving," and "With a Canteloupe Girlfriend" that kept audiences away.

Regardless, their first three records (Baroque Hoedown, Sixteen Tambourines, and Arrive Without Traveling, and Ever After)

are superb, and as my friend Sheldon who recently downloaded this package agreed, they need to be heard to gain this great band the legacy it deserves.

In the meantime here are some of their videos:

Likambo Ya Ngana

Here's a great song I was just sent by my friend Sam who heard the song on the legendary New Jersey radio station WFMU. Even though I am about to write another entry I felt the need to share it. The details on YouTube are very informative, so there is no need for me to attempt to sound knowledgeable on this subject.

"The Music From and Inspired By..." Reversed

Last evening when working with my screenwriting partner Alphonzo Stein I for the first time got the opportunity to describe the ending to one of my favorite films, Werner Herzog's Heart of Glass, which I will not spoil right now. Either way, it is maybe the most powerful end I've seen in cinema. The topic came up as I played the Popol Vuh album of the same name (albeit in French (and German to clarify?)), which has a lot of the same power as the film itself.

The music, however is hardly included in the film itself which, is more dominated musically by classical, however in the essay that Herzog wrote for the liner notes of the Popol Vuh reissues he discusses the level of inspiration he took from his closest friend Florian Ficke's music, all of which had been composed and recorded before the production of the films he scored (Aguirre: The Wrath of God, Heart of Glass, Fitzcarraldo, Nosferatu, and Cobra Verde).

Popol Vuh was one of the first krautrock groups to heavily use the Moog, but they moved further into world music in some of their later work. This album and it's building instrumentals not unlike followers Sigur Rós could only be described as "transcendent."



















Florian Ficke on the set of Herzog's The Enigma of Kaspar Hauser