Ariel Pink

Ariel Pink is a Los Angeles-based one-man band. His lo-fi, Baroque music was first discovered and then distributed by indie group Animal Collective, who began releasing volumes of Ariel Pink home recordings on their Paw Tracks label. In 2008, Pink formed a new band with keyboardist/guitarist/backing vocalist Kenny Gilmore, drummer/vocalist/guitarist Jimi Hey, and guitarist Cole M. Greif-Neill, who became known as Haunted Graffiti. Drummer Aaron Sperske later replaced Jimi Hey.

Ariel Pink was born Ariel Marcus Rosenberg in Los Angeles on June 24, 1978. By age 10 he was writing songs. His early influences were pop acts such as Hall & Oates, Michael Jackson, 10cc, Fleetwood Mac, and David Bowie. After a stint studying visual art at the California Institute of the Arts, Pink switched his artistic focus to songcraft for good, recording over 500 songs for a vault's worth of music. In 2003, while attending an Animal Collective show, he passed a disc of his recordings on to the band via future Graffiti drummer Hey. The group soon began releasing Pink material on their Paw Tracks imprint. First up was 2004's warped The Doldrums, which gained Pink both critical acclaim and a cult following. Worn Copy (2005) and 2006's House Arrest followed. After the Paw Tracks releases, Pink emptied his backlog of recordings on various limited-edition/low-profile releases: Lover Boy in 2006; Scared Famous and Underground in 2007, and the compilation Oddities Sodomies, Vol. 1 in 2008. As the lo-fi movement became more fashionable and gained popularity, Pink's influence grew. He signed with indie label 4AD late in 2009 and, the next year, released his first album for it, Before Today — his highest-fidelity recording — as a four-piece band. It's Pink's highest-selling effort to date. In 2011, Pink released the 16-minute song "Witchhunt Suite for WWIII," which was previously featured on 2007's tour-only album YAS DuDette, as a single to commemorate the tenth anniversary of 9/11. He also reteamed with R. Stevie Moore on the double album Ku Klux Glam, which appeared early in 2012. In August of that year, the third Haunted Graffiti album, Mature Themes, arrived, boasting a darker, more eclectic approach that spanned '60s bubblegum homages and a cover of Donnie and Joe Emerson's 1979 soul-pop song "Baby." In May 2013, Human Ear Music reissued Thrash and Burn, a 94-minute long collection of musique concrete pieces Pink recorded in 1998 (the label had issued the set as a cassette-only release in 2006). The double album Pom Pom found Pink returning to his solo moniker and featured songs co-written with Kim Fowley.