Donald J. Trump’s ill-fated rally in Washington, DC, has caused a downturn in the music industry: the relationship between indie rocker Ariel Pink and his label, Mexican Summer, which announced on Thursday that it was removing him from the list.
“Due to recent events, Mexican Summer and his team decided to end our working relationship with Ariel Rosenberg, aka Ariel Pink, going forward,” said the label in a concise one-sentence ad on Twitter.
Due to recent events, Mexican Summer and his team decided to end our working relationship with Ariel Rosenberg also known as Ariel Pink in the future.
– Mexican summer (@MexicanSummer) January 8, 2021
Pink was an object of fury in the indie rock world after confirming that she was in DC for the rally, although she denied having participated in the riot that descended on the Capitol after Trump teased the crowd.
Subsequently, incendiary comments that Pink made on a podcast in December surfaced and may have further jeopardized her relationships in the music community. Pink said of anyone who can “still be a Democrat at this point … to me it’s like, all of a sudden, all of your intelligence turns out to be a complete scam. All the intelligence they had in the world, all their fucking artistic genius … it was just a facade. “
In the podcast, Pink also stated that the vaccination COVID does not prevent the disease and casts doubts about climate science “because literally everything that Democrats defend, every platform, is bullshit. So Trump to me is an accusation of any bullshit … I’m so gay to Trump that he would let him fuck me in the ass. “
Pink was a little more circumspect this week, but still openly supported the president, when fans on social media – most unaware of his political beliefs – asked why he was at the rally.
“I was in DC to peacefully show my support for the president,” he replied via tweet. “I attended the rally on the White House lawn and went back to the hotel and took a nap. Case closed.”
Asked by another follower if he was concerned about attending an event where few were masked during the pandemic, Rice invoked protests from Black Lives Matters, suggesting hypocrisy. “Everyone at these events deserves what is happening to them,” he wrote. “They took the risk, knowing very well what could happen. Have BLM protests in the past 6 months not been reported about the pandemic? “
The uproar began after Pink and her fellow Trump supporter, John Maus, were photographed on Instagram at a hotel in DC with the caption: “The day we almost died, but we had so much fun.” The photo, now deleted, appeared because of the supposed “red-pilled” filmmaker, Alex Lee Moyer, who recently made Pink and Maus score the film for a dissatisfied youth in the 4chan community, “TFW No GF”.
In the recent Wrong Opinion podcast, instigated by a host whose opinions seemed even more extreme than his, Pink referred to Maus as being politically related and said, “John is, by the way, 1001% of the Trump team now.”
Pink’s arguments in favor of Trump and the willingness to express support, even after the rally, have led to widespread contempt among other musicians in the past two days.
“Now I have nothing boring to hear,” wrote Phoebe Bridgers, quoting a Pitchfork tweet about the controversy over Pink and Maus.
Going much further, Pink had previously alienated fellow musicians with irreverent comments that some have condemned as homophobic. “I am very old-fashioned, very traditional in my values. I don’t understand what this whole gay marriage business is about, it really pisses me off, ”he said in a 2012 interview with Pitchfork. “I don’t even support marriage, per se … I am totally deviant, totally deviant and proud. Don’t pretend you’re Betty Crocker. I love gays, by the way … I love pedophiles too, and I love necrophiles and all these other people. When do they get their marriage and guidance, when can they talk about their sexual repression and how does society not accept them? “
In a New York profile two years later, responding to the growing criticism of her comments in a New York profile, Pink said: “Everyone is a victim, except for the cool little white boys who just want to make their mothers proud and touch some breasts. “
It was shortly after that, more than six years ago, that Pitchfork published an unsigned opinion article, attributed to the team, accusing him of trolldom, with the title: “‘Joke’ by Ariel Pink is no longer funny.” “As an extension of alternative rock by a self-satisfied 4chan user, Ariel Pink continues her episodic public relations campaign to offend. … Pink is profiting, embracing the role of the troll; he is playing with us and being rewarded for it. The point is that Ariel Pink won nothing. While he brings a lot of attention to the headlines, he is actually bringing the spotlight to the very real and widespread racism and misogyny that is deeply rooted in the surface indie rock. All that needs to happen now is for all of us to recognize this. “
Notably, Pitchfork once named Pink’s “Round and Round” as the best song of 2010, and Entertainment Weekly described the “coronation” of a “modern king”, in the days when widespread acclaim for his music overcame the tremor that would end up most normally greets your name. Pink hasn’t released a new album since 2017.
On Wednesday, seeing unrest build over her support for right-wing views, Pink tweeted: “Welcome to panoptigan (sic). They wasted no time … save yourselves, friends, cancel me now and hand me over before they come to get you. “
Variety was unable to immediately contact representatives of Mexican Summer or Pink to comment on the record company’s decision to release it.