old songs/bands to listen to if you like ariel pink?

i love this at the moment -
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bMAGwMAXTpU

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LQVPqcOcKIY

i read he has a thing for old ethiopian music but assumed it was just typical indie elitist more obscure and broader in my listening habits than you shit. listening to that youtube clip, i wasnt wrong.

Aren't you so sure of yourself.
The instrumental "reminiscences" on Before Today is all ethio.
It's just one of the influences at work in his music.

ha. :) i dont have before today yet.

Thanks to ilm for tipping me off to the original Bright lit Blue skies
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LJLYq0tHAPk

Well, the instrumentals on Before Today have a definite Ethio vibe.

My exposure to Sir Pink is limited primarily to his earliest releases. Based on that, I might recommend Todd Rundgren especially Runt, A Wizard A True Star, Todd & Something/Anything.

Something is also compelling me to mention Lee Hazlewood, but that may be a total brainfart.

i didnt think of rundgren but yeah thats a good one.

i kind of love the soundscans to this new ariel pink disc. sounds like a lot of 70s acts whose names escape me at the moment. anyway, glad for this thread. i'll happily take any excuse to listen to those 70s acts again.

"Reminiscences" is actually a cover -- apparently the original is on a compilation Pink helped put together. I think it's called "The Derg Comp": Ethiopian music through the regime in the 80s.

MORE IMPORTANTLY: there are a lot of ways to be influenced by music beyond just the notes and the scales. With Pink, I think it's more the sound of the recordings, the production and the arrangement -- his aesthetic sounds like wobbly VHS recordings from state-run television in the 80s, or like wobbly degraded cassette dubs that got passed on to immigrants in the U.S. (I kinda doubt that's entirely Ethiopia-specific for him, because it's the same sound you could get on a recording from, say, Cambodia, right?) And of course he connects that sensibility with similar stuff from the 70s, and from UK/US new-wave, and so on.

So yeah, titchy, you may really be wrong here -- seriously, the first times I listened to Ariel Pink I was weirded out by this sudden feeling of being 9 years old and visiting relatives. He's definitely working a recording aesthetic that matches that, just not always a "musical" one (in terms of actual writing/playing).

http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/news/music/la-ca-ariel-pink-20100601,0,5202710.story

john maus - love is real

(I mean basically there's a particular combination of VHS dubbing, mushy synths, and wobbly recording that connects a ton of stuff. It might remind someone of 1976 incidental film music, 1981 BBC bumpers, 80s records from Ethiopia, early-80s Cure albums, Korean pop from some year I don't know because I don't know about Korean pop, etc. etc. etc.)

Nabisco SO otm.

so basically, for ethiopian, we can just say 'anything that sounds old/fucked up/bad fidelity/degraded/10th generation'.

which is basically like saying, hes not very influenced by ethiopian music very much after all.

beck

...well no more than anything else with that aesthetic. cos its not actually a specific ethiopian aesthetic.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uNHlQS37PGI

Something about the post-This Heat project Lifetones who I am just now hearing for the first time, reminds me of Ariel Pink.
Pink is just as influenced by Ethiopian music as dub or krautrock or punk, imo. xpost
Does the fact that he's covering Ethiopian songs not make it more reasonable to think he was influenced by that music?

when I was a kid listening to music my mom used to always piss me off by figuring out a way to point out exactly how the shit I listened to sounded like alan parsons

to this day I still don't know why

"Does the fact that he's covering Ethiopian songs not make it more reasonable to think he was influenced by that music?"

sure, i was just responding to nabiscos reasoning.

I haven't heard the whole album but Brightly Lit Blue Skies reminds me of early period Creation bands like Biff Bang Pow or Felt.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tmBBuin8lpA&feature=related

Pink Floyd - See Emily Play

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F94vHO7okZQ

Syd Barret's PF have a couple of songs that remind me of Ariel Pink.

Also musically-wise Marillion's Kayleigh sounds similar to Ariel Pink.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cwNVfNc1IQM

Todd Rundgren comparisons upthread are OTM. Also might recommend Joe Jackson and Arthur Russell as similar sort of sounds.

anyone say Neon Indian yet? shit came out last summer, so it's basically like a fuckin caveman whackin a rock w/ a stick

AP's little wig totally reminds me of rundgrens heavy metal kids a bit.

Well, OP asked for old songs/bands. If we cite current bands the list would be immense... there's Gary War, Neon Indian, Lamborghini Crystal, Teen Inc., Washed Out and over 570 chillwave bands who share influences with Ariel Pink or who have been influenced by the man himself.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xa_jJDEnIt8
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=53VLQoe4xpc

over 570 chillwave bands

O_O

list plz

thomas leer - "don't", "letter from america", "mr nobody"
r stevie moore
r stevie morre
R STEVIE MOORE

r stevie more feels like a very good call.

Also - and this is a 'maybe' - Free Design might fit the bill, as well as some of the Curt Boettcher (sp?) projects like Sagittarius.

"Pink cites R. Stevie Moore--friend, mentor, and "father of home recording"--as one of his major influences."

i don't know if this really sounds like ariel pink but it still rules
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-8j-kOY2Fms

That would sound a bit like Ariel Pink if you were listening to it on an old transistor radio. On AM.

Flo and Eddie

Flo & Eddie is OTM IMO. Tyrannasaurus Rex (and to a lesser extent t. Rex) might be worth looking into as well.

john bender

i only know the one track (and that thanks to lovefingers), but "on the beach," nick nicely

titchy, I know what you're saying, but your reasoning upthread is like if I said "I was influenced by the Beatles to play the guitar," and you said "you weren't influenced by the Beatles, lots of bands have guitars"

in other words, I don't know precisely where Pink gets his aesthetics from, but if he says it's partly from 80s Ethiopian stuff, and he helps put together comps of 80s Ethiopian stuff, and he covers 80s Ethiopian stuff, I am pretty willing to conclude he might have some genuine level of interest in that music!

whether this is relevant to anyone's enjoyment of his records is a wholly different story

(for the record, the era of music we're talking about is not at all the era those Ethiopiques comps tend to be about -- it's more of that worldwide "after the arrival of digital keyboards" era)

and hey, in answer to the thread question, there are several tracks on Jilted John's True Love Stories (produced by Martin Hannett) that sound alarmingly like what Pink does (including the B-side of Gordon the Moron's response single)

i've only heard a handful of ariel pink stuff, but it reminds me of gary wilson.

the eagles ('king of hollywood' 'i can't tell you why')

and anything listed on bumrocks.com

Similar to Butt-house Blondies, esp. middle section
<object width="480" height="385"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/jzrUqAtUcpU&hl=en_US&fs=1&rel=0";></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/jzrUqAtUcpU&hl=en_US&fs=1&rel=0"; type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="480" height="385"></embed></object>

Damn, how do you do that? Back to Google.

Similar to Butt-house Blondies, especially the middle section
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jzrUqAtUcpU

Also: the weird vocal melodies remind me of some songs from Mr. Bungle's Disco Volante and California.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TwWQYg7aS5o

^ amazing fan video btw if you havent seen it yet.

I hear traces of weird 80's/90's Asian pop in his music, like dangdut or something. Similar to the discussion upthread about how Pink doesn't sound exactly like the Ethiopian music he cites but just shares a few key aesthetics.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TAuu7JQ-I9E

the list is endless, cause he take different influnecs for each song. beside stuff mentioned here,with no particular order:

brian eno, david bowie, michael jackson, butthole surfers, fleetwood mac,guided by voices,syd barrett,xtc,60's garage and easy listening bands,devo,james brown,Can,Stereolab,Duran Duran,Ween,Mercury Rev,Air,Rundgren,New Order, Phil Collins..

also, here's a copy paste of some Pink's favourites, including interesting Ethiopian stuff you can find in youtube:

wendy carlos
the ROHA BAND
getachew H/mariam
vahag sakadjian
yeshimebet dubale
mahmoud ahmed
kennedy mengesha
girma tefera
kuku sebesbe
getachew kassa
alameyehu eshete
the Wallias band
geneva jacuzzi
richard ross
john maus
concrete rubber band
popol vuh
olivier messian
julia holter
msr song poems (rodd keith)
icy spicy leoncie
gary war
coL
fancy space people
crooked cowboy
harry merry
nite jewel
black black
clang quartet
syrinx
peter thomas orchestra
freddy k
the germs
the cardiacs
girls
secret circuit
big business
rsm
cleaners from venus
arthur brown
james brown and the jb's just to name a few....

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lcMUTsvFwHg

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_L886mjb0O8

For me, this is the most obvious reference..

Found the R. Stevie Moore lp "What's the Point?!!!" at my community station and the influence is pretty huge.
Skewed pop, sometimes with bizarre themes (thinking "Credit") and those weird deeply-voiced overdubs all seem to come from him.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o9M6gaFCcbw

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jc_QW2IK_7s

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R-qpKEjGmRU

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8XGXHDMIJw4

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kQOqf3lVPfc

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=elTdMo0Vxqc

he also reminds me of old radio and tv commercials.
in face - i think he would make an awesome writer of commercials/jungle hooks!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-_IN7uNVgbE&feature=related

Wubshèt Fisseha, Exception Five Band – Mariyé marwèlèla

I want to eat some alpha bits

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mJjEncIqHmI

Pedo-pop!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7MlWRCGW400
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lRS4wb6Gyms

Did I ever say Alan Parsons? Because I'm serious.

Also dont know if it was mentioned upthread but Reminiscences is based off of this one:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YjFe0tq5Yc4

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ONIJXHvoynw