by JOHNSON CUMMINS

The term “lo-fi” has become synonymous with the familiar tape hiss and Dolby-defying buzz on recordings by the Mountain Goats, Sebadoh and home-taping godfather R. Stevie Moore. Thanks to computer programs like Pro Tools, people are still recording at home, but with much more professional results. Somewhere along the line, though, the immediacy and innocence stored on the older four-track recordings were lost.

Los Angeles home-taper Ariel Pink has kept recent recording advancements at arm’s length, retaining the beloved fuzz and hiss emanating from his Yamaha MT8X eight-track—with over 500 songs recorded, and still counting. “I actually wore out my first eight-track,” says Pink. “After it broke, I got a computer and Pro Tools, but I just couldn’t get comfortable with it. When I hear songs in my head, I don’t hear them in lo-fi, necessarily. It’s just that I really don’t know what I’m doing.”

Pink’s latest record, Haunted Graffiti 5, is a 2002 re-release that’s been given more marketing muscle by Animal Collective’s Paw Tracks label, and although rife with sonic shortcomings, his pop-craft shines through the mud. More comfortable as a home-taper than a performer, Pink fills his tracks with multi-layered harmonies and instrumentation, stop-on-a-dime arrangements and resourceful use of guitar-pedal effects, all hanging off beats served up human-beatbox style.

For his upcoming tour, Pink moves even farther away from the comfort zone his home recordings provide by asking a different local band to back him up following his first, solo set in every city on his upcoming tour—with only a quick rehearsal at sound check before the show. “I want a band in Montreal that knows my songs and are able to play them. I just thought it would be a hoot if I could front my own cover band—and my publicist said it’s too late to call it off.” In Montreal, the privilege goes to members of Duchess Says and Intercom, no doubt speed-typing champs.

With Psychic Ills and Miracle Fortress at
Zoobizarre on Tuesday, Feb. 21, 9 p.m., $10

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