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Ariel Pink in 2015 at a concert in Toronto, Canada
Photo: Emma McIntyre / Getty Images
“New Weird America” is a collective term that music journalists have assigned Ariel Pink's sound to.
New strange America.
After the indie musician took part in the Pro-Trump rally on January 6, the term could also have been used as a headline for the events in Washington: What led to a mob storming the US Capitol that day were new, Images from the United States never seen before in the dramatic,
weird
look.
In the worst possible way. Insane.
What was Ariel Pink, a kind of favorite hipster playlist hippie, doing at the Pro-Trump rally?
Ariel Pink, whose music had also stood for the beautifully strange - just for the good kind of
weird
?
"People are so mean"
Ariel Pink
The 42-year-old musician from Los Angeles, whose real name is Ariel Rosenberg, is famous in the global indie scene.
Since last week, however, he has been the focus of widespread attention after a photo made its rounds on social networks.
The photo that filmmaker Alex Lee Moyer is said to have posted on Instagram shows Ariel Pink not far from his musician friend, John Maus.
As several US media reported unanimously, Pink confirmed on Twitter that it had attended the rally in front of the White House to "peacefully" support Trump and then went to the hotel for a nap.
His previous record company tweeted that they were ending their collaboration with the musician "due to recent events."
Ariel Pink has now been interviewed on camera by Tucker Carlson, a Fox News presenter and supporter of Trumpism.
"Musician
wrongly canceled
after
Capitol Hill Riot
," said the belly band, while Pink hung his head a little and shortly afterwards said he was now on the street after being kicked out of his label.
"People are so mean."
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Tucker Carlson in an interview with Ariel Pink
In the interview, Pink says he was there for a peaceful rally.
"That's all that was for me." Even if the musician himself does not want to have taken part in the storming of the Capitol, he does not explicitly distance himself in conversation with Carlson from the mob, which consisted of conspiracy theorists and right-wing extremists and five after the storm People were dead, including a police officer.
What may initially be irritating about all of this is Pink's reputation as an influential musician, as a lo-fi player in an alternative music scene, which one would not assume to be close to Trump.
For example, if you undertake the experiment of listening to Ariel Pink's Haunted Graffiti album "Before Today" and looking at recordings from January 6th, sound and image only come together with difficulty;
At most as material for a meme that tries to
capture
the
weirdness
, the strange madness of the day.
"Before Today" became a favorite with critics in 2010.
The reasons for this lay mainly in a sound that crossed style boundaries.
The bizarre was a unique selling point for Pink's music: Without a certain distance from reality, an aversion to the world, this music seemed hardly conceivable.
It was experimental pop that didn't seem to come from local radio but from a pirate station that was playing a cassette that had been heard a little too often.
It seems as if Pink has declared crossing borders a principle not only in his music, but in his appearance.
Not just in what stands as art, but in what he gives as a type.
What he stands for.
Homosexuals on par with pedophiles and necrophiles
The fact that Ariel Pink is a figure who seems to be looking for controversy, someone who surrounds himself with it, is already evident from the photo from Washington: John Maus, the musician near Pink, was already noticed as a supporter of the BDS movement, Alex Lee Moyer as the director of a documentary about the incel subculture that has been criticized for keeping too little distance.
For the documentation, Mouse and Pink took care of the soundtrack.
In the past few years, Pink has repeatedly drawn attention to itself with provocative statements.
He has put homosexuals on a par with pedophiles and necrophiles, and has expressed his love for Westboro Baptist Church, a
hate group
.
He has said that it is not against the law to be racist.
After Grimes accused him of misogyny, Pink called the musician "completely stupid and retarded."
The music website »Pitchfork« recently reported that Pink was accused of abusing an ex-girlfriend.
The hype generator »Pitchfork«, which is likely to have contributed to Pink's fame with exuberant reviews, once asked in one text whether the musician was a visionary or a charlatan, and in another text provided a kind of answer to the question: » Ariel Pink's 'Joke' Isn't Funny Anymore, ”was the Op-Ed, which said the musician embraced his role as a troll.
Weird
in the sense of confused
From the Tucker-Carlson interview, there is either simply confusion.
Or a troll is speaking who is no stranger to confusion.
In the Fox News conversation, Carlson characterizes Pink as an apolitical person, which he does not deny, where he said in an interview published in April 2020 about himself that he thinks of politics "all the time".
In the same interview, Pink also said that he was not voting, whereas in an interview with Carlson he spoke of not having voted for Trump as much as he did against Cancel Culture.
On the other hand, Pink tweeted a few months ago that Trump and his team were "THE geniuses of our time".
And even if he does not question Joe Biden's victory towards Carlson and emphasizes the peaceful nature, he recently published a podcast on January 20, the day of Biden's inauguration as US president, the less peaceful "day of the guillotine" called.
What is true and what is not, what is meant seriously and what is staged as crossing borders is difficult to say with Ariel Pink.
The boundaries are blurred, like in Pink's music.
But it no longer seems
weird
in the sense of beautifully strange, but in the sense of confused.
In the sense of contradicting itself.
And considering that Ariel Pink as an indie pop star may be a role model for many fans, also in the sense of dangerous.
Icon: The mirror
