On Ariel Pink and R. Stevie Moore‘s “Ku Klux Glam”…
Ariel Pink recently revealed that his outfit, Haunted Graffiti, would steer clear from his signature bedroom crust-pop, and it’s really no surprise because of the fame that stampeded in after the release of Before Today. But something in me felt so sentimental for Pink’s House Arrest or even Foibles Follies days. After listening to Ku Klux Glam, the new self released CD-R whatnot from weird pop superstar of today Pink and lo-fi forefather, inner rockstar mentor Moore, I realized that my favorite type of Pink will never go away, or at least not until Stevie defriends him on Facebook. This album is pretty interesting: as much as Pink shows departure from his past, Stevie pulls him back in, slapping him back into his old lo-fi stomping grounds. So for every song where Pink plays glamorous front-man, like the rambling, heavy riffed “Isis”, there’s a song that is so comfortable and so reminiscent, like the remake of “Stevie Pink”. Even more, evert song has both parts. Most egregious is “Dutch Me”, which really walks the line between Robert Plant cock-shaking glam and that weird 80’s cover of “Puttin’ on the Ritz”. While Pink’s upcoming August release should be interested, “Ku Klux Glam”’s 30+ tracks will fool me into memories of Pink’s glory days.

-Alison K