Ariel Pink will release his new album, Dedicated to Bobby Jameson, on September 15. The recording is his first solo album since his highly acclaimed 2014 prog-pop opus pom pom, and first full-length release with the Brooklyn-based independent label Mexican Summer. Today, he shares “Time To Live,” a potent pop anthem in the spirit of The Buggles’ “Video Killed the Radio Star” that promotes survival as a form of resistance.
The new release’s title makes a direct and heartfelt reference to a real-life Los Angeles musician, long presumed dead, who resurfaced online in 2007 after 35 reclusive years to pen his autobiography and tragic life story in a series of blogs and YouTube tirades. “His book and life resonated with me to such a degree that I felt a need to dedicate my latest record to him,” Pink states.
Dedicated to Bobby Jameson begins at the end and ends at the beginning. “We follow the protagonist through a battery of tests and milestones, the first of which sees him reborn into life out of death,” Pink explains, referencing the opening track, “Time to Meet Your God.” “From there, he seesaws his way between the innocent love and the rock-solid edifice of childhood-worn trauma that together constitute his lifelong initiation into the realm of artifice and theatrical disposability.”
Ariel Pink’s previous solo release, pom pom, received a Best New Music designation from Pitchfork; The New York Times described it as “a delightful, typically schizophrenic collection: wickedly dark and funny one moment, sweet and sentimental the next, and at other times as gleefully unhinged as Pink has ever been.” SPIN noted that it’s a record “full of unforgettably kaleidoscopic melodies.” Pink has prolifically written, recorded and released his singular brand of pop music for well over two decades. Dedicated to Bobby Jameson sees Ariel Pink returning to the setting of his first recordings: his bedroom.
Raised in Beverly Hills, Ariel Pink started out as a visual artist before becoming a recording artist in the late ‘90s while attending Cal Arts. Though critically misunderstood at the time, Pink’s early, lo-fi recordings wielded an enormous influence with insiders and outsiders, including Animal Collective who signed him to their Paw Tracks imprint in 2003. In the late 2000s, Pink’s fortunes with critics began to reverse, and his resulting single, “Round and Round” (off Before Today), was named the #1 Record of 2010 by Pitchfork.
Dedicated to Bobby Jameson Track Listing:
1. Time to Meet Your God
2. Feels Like Heaven
3. Death Patrol
4. Santa’s in The Closet
5. Dedicated to Bobby Jameson
6. Time to Live
7. Another Weekend
8. I Wanna Be Young
9. Bubblegum Dreams
10. Dreamdate Narcissist
11. Kitchen Witch
12. Do Yourself a Favor
13. Acting (feat. Dam-Funk)
Ariel Pink North American Tour Dates
Oct. 13 – Joshua Tree, CA @ Desert Daze
Oct. 14 – San Francisco, CA @ The Chapel
Oct. 15 – San Francisco, CA @ The Chapel
Oct. 16 – San Francisco, CA @ The Chapel
Oct. 19 – Portland, OR @ Revolution
Oct. 20 – Vancouver, BC @ The Venue
Oct. 21 – Seattle, WA @ Neumos
Oct. 23 – Salt Lake City, UT @ Metro Music Hall
Oct. 24 – Denver, CO @ Bluebird Theater
Oct. 26 – Minneapolis, MN @ Fine Line Music Cafe
Oct. 28 – Chicago, IL @ Thalia Hall
Oct. 29 – Detroit, MI @ El Club
Oct. 30 – Toronto, ONT @ Phoenix
Oct. 31 – Montreal, QC @ Le National
Nov. 2 – Boston, MA @ Brighton Music Hall
Nov. 3 – Philadelphia, PA @ Union Transfer
Nov. 4 – New York, NY @ Le Poisson Rouge
Nov. 5 – Washington, DC @ 9:30 Club
Nov. 7 – Atlanta, GA @ The Earl
Nov. 8 – New Orleans, LA @ Tipitina’s
Nov. 10 – San Antonio, TX @ Paper Tiger
Nov. 11 – Dallas, TX @ Tree’s
Nov. 12 – Austin, TX @ Sound on Sound Festival
Nov. 14 – Phoenix, AZ @ Crescent Ballroom
Nov. 15 – Tucson, AZ @ 191 Toole
Nov. 16 – San Diego, CA @ Belly Up
Nov. 17 – Los Angeles, CA @ TBD, more info soon
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