A Round of Applause for Mexican Summer
The indie label dropped Ariel Pink after he attended last week's Capitol riots
Last week’s attack on the Capitol has put an exclamation point on the constitutional crisis this country has been in for the previous few years. As new horrifying details trickle out at a clip, it’s clear that there are many layers and in a bizarre turn, the indie world has also been sucked into this terrible day.
Ariel Rosenberg, aka Ariel Pink, was photographed with fellow musician John Maus in a DC hotel room last Wednesday. Pink noted he was there to “peacefully show [his] support for the president,” and “i [sic] attended the rally on the white house lawn and went back to hotel and took a nap. case closed.”
Although I continually see “nobody knows who this guy is” on Twitter, that is not the music world's case. He had a good run in the first half of the decade and Pitchfork ranked his song “Round and Round” as the Top Track of 2010 (number two was Kanye…), but his moronic remarks have become more known than his records over the years.
Everything from race to police brutality to misogyny, Pink has been on the wrong side with his 4chan basement troll takes. As recently as last month, he was supporting the baseless claims that Donald Trump won re-election, doubting climate change, and disagreeing with the effectiveness of a Covid vaccine.
Following the post, Pink’s label, Mexican Summer, sent out this statement:
Is it fair to make these decisions on someone who was only at an event as far as we know? In this case, the event was a Y’all Qaeda rally with the intent of storming the Capitol and killing elected officials. It’s the white nationalist plague that infects the country coming to a head. As we find out more about this being a preplanned event, the Nuremberg defense of “I was only there” doesn’t cut it. People are dead and the day will be investigated, possibly taking years.
Pink didn’t help his case when he sent the below in a fan Facebook group, per Stereogum:
Like the president inciting this behavior, Pink cannot come to terms with the fact that he is an asshole. Instead of taking personal responsibility, he blames everything on bots and “paid actors.” (The reply is from his mom…)
Here’s the thing: we’ve been told corporations are people for the last 40 years, and this is the private sector making its stand. It isn’t a First Amendment violation. If we insist on letting firms and corporations run our country, they have every right to make these decisions. I vehemently disagree with corporations having an ultimate say, as we have seen this last week with the tech industry, but that is the situation this country finds itself in.
This isn’t the first time this has happened as the music industry finds its place in the 21st century. In 2018, the always controversial Morrissey came under fire for his support of Ann-Marie Waters, an anti-Islam candidate for Britain’s far-right For Britain party. It resulted in his new album being pulled from the shelf in many places.
Artists being dropped by their labels for sexual and emotional abuse is a fairly regular occurrence. Just this week, “wannabe Paul Westerberg” James Alex of Beach Slang was accused of emotional and psychological abuse by his longtime manager. As a result, Polyvinyl has pulled his catalog. I’ve also got Ryan Adams’ entire vinyl output for sale if anyone is interested.
Mexican Summer made the right decision. Maybe they were already looking for an out, but Mexican Summer was also about to rerelease Pink’s older catalog later this month. It’s not cheap for a label to press physical copies and promote releases, only to recall it at the last minute. Yesterday, Pitchfork obtained court documents that show Pink being accused of abuse by a former bandmate and ex-girlfriend, including a letter she wrote to Mexican Summer this past July.
But how far do you let someone go who’s schtick amplifies hate and lives in a bizarro other world that? Corporations spoke when they supported the LGBTQIA movement and BLM this past summer, no matter how cynical the reasoning. They have a duty to not cater to sniveling little shits in their military cosplay who insist on fighting for a loser from Queens, running from his post-presidential consequences.
Mexican Summer is a small label that doesn’t need this distraction. They’ve been a model indie outfit for the past 13 years and this was their moment to drop a toxic artist. Please show them your support by checking out the other artists on their fantastic roster. I’m a huge fan of Jessica Pratt and Jess Williamson.
Fellow Denverite Bree Davies best sums up this entire episode:
Can you really separate the art from the artist and is it even really worth it? Let me know in the comments!
Stay safe and keep fighting the good fight.
Kiley ✌️🕶️
Yes, this artist getting dropped from their label was the right move. But I think a "round of applause" is giving Mexican Summer far too much credit. They always knew the kind of person Ariel Pink was, and they gave him a platform for years to make racist, sexist, and homophobic comments in the press, all for the sake of promoting his albums to make them money. Looking at their roster, Pink was arguably one of the biggest artists they had, which indicates why it took so long for him to get dropped, and it was only in the face of mounting pressure from the public. Reading through the recent Pitchfork piece, Charlotte Ercoli Coe's letter to co-founder Keith Abrahamsson detailing her abuse from Pink seemingly had no influence on them. Which is ironic, since they chose to let go of another artist during this period, Part Time, due to allegations of abuse against him. Once again, their separation from Part Time came after public pressure increased. I think it is pretty clear that this label was hoping to continue working with Pink, purely for the fact that for so long he has gotten away with his "troll" persona, and there were seemingly no repercussions that they actually cared about until now.
It's a shame that Mexican Summer has chosen to align themselves with Ariel Pink and other associated acts for so long, rather than working to build a roster of more deserving artists that reflect a more progressive world.