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Haunted Graffiti and R. Stevie Moore at the Mercury Lounge
An Ariel Pink Concert Review
Maudlin hipster party-boy, Ariel Pink, came to New York’s Mercury Lounge last week, performing a warm-up show to his coming international tour. The show sold out in just a few hours, as the artist’s cult sadness has permeated the local art-school crowd. His band, Haunted Graffiti, is an instant success with legions of college-aged middle class who are also fans of the psychedelic dance-party Animal Collective counted as fans. Pink was initially championed by Animal Collective, who released some of his earlier work on their label, Paw Tracks.
Much has changed for Ariel Pink since touring with Animal Collective in 2006. Now he has signed with 4AD, which will undoubtedly make him hugely successful in the realm of faux-outsider bacchic psychedelia. Contrary to his current trajectory of success, as an opening act for Animal Collective, Ariel Pink’s set was a bit like being stuck in traffic on the way to the mermaid parade. The previous crowd’s overwhelming lackluster reaction then was mainly due to the fact that his live show was bad. Then, the show consisted of singing over samplers and pre-recorded material, as Pink stumbled around the stage mumbling through the melodies that he lifted from partially remembered jingles. Now, he is touring with a band that reproduces his lo-fi recordings. And although he still stumbles through material, faking British accents, insulting the already self-loathing hipster audience, and dancing badly, the reverb-drenched eighties pop-element of his music really shines with a live band.
In general, Pink still performs as if he is singing karaoke, but the backing band blasts phased guitar tones, sentimental synth chords, and energetic drums, which partially redeem the lead singer’s apathetic approach. The band’s competence was seen in their opener, “Strange Fires”, one of Pink’s most intriguing tracks, and also one that seems difficult to perform. The musicianship of each Haunted Graffiti member sunk the audience into drunken tone tweaked psychosis, which is the part of Pink’s music that catches. Something like watching the vibrant Bollywood favorite, Disco Dancer, after a mild break-up and six cans of beer, the music of Haunted Graffiti is eerily satisfying.
Although the live band has helped actualize Pink’s otherwise shaky material, it was R. Stevie Moore who turned the show into a gem. Moore is Ariel Pink’s self-proclaimed mentor, and it is here that Pink learned to snap his neurons so as to affect lunacy. R. Stevie Moore has been obsessively making home recordings since the early ’70’s, releasing hundreds of albums. As he takes the stage he looks like a hobo applying for a job as Santa Claus, complete with music stand and a decrepit hippy bongo player. This set was much more intimate than Ariel’s, including many inspired spoken word rants that got the audience chuckling, at times nervously. The irksome drug-drenched mood was set by Moore repeating, “times square rhymes with bomb scare” as he patiently tuned his guitar. In the un-air conditioned hipster club, the irony of this performance resonated, temporarily relieving thoughts of the looming, steamy New York summer. The lunacy increased as Moore added punctuation marks to certain songs by crumpling up his sheet music and throwing it into the crowd as he yelped “breadcrumbs!” During another impromptu rap session, he repeated “Employees must wash hands before returning to work” causing the bongo player to go into an energetic solo that got everyone cheering. When it came to the songs themselves, R. Stevie Moore didn’t mess around. He knows what he’s doing; he’s been doing it for a long time, and as a result there was absolutely no flubs. One gets the impression that the music stand may have been a front.
Pink’s act has problems. Largely it is that it contains little besides bacchanalian revelry with a very sad undertone. The music is addictive, granted, but substance is faked with affected lunacy, which is likely to lead many listeners to unsatisfying conclusions. However, with the addition of R. Stevie Moore on the bill, political satire and a better-realized insanity made the pre-tour Mercury Lounge stop a memorable night. For more info on the man and the band, please visit www.arielpink.com.