Indie rock label Mexican Summer has announced that it’ll soon be cutting ties with lo-fi musician Ariel Pink, with Consequence Of Sound noting that the label tweeted out last night that, “Due to recent events, Mexican Summer and its staff have decided to end our working relationship with Ariel Rosenberg AKA Ariel Pink moving forward.” Said “recent events,” obviously, being Pink’s attendance at the Washington D.C. protests that swiftly transformed into the Capitol Building riots earlier this week, with Pink and fellow musician John Maus both being photographed during the earlier portions of the day’s events.
Mexican Summer previously published Pink’s latest album, 2017's Dedicated To Bobby Jameson, and was reportedly in the process of putting together three “Ariel Archives” projects, with an eye toward the first arriving later this month. (As CoS also notes, it’s not clear whether “moving forward” means the label is canceling the projects outright, or intends to finish out their current commitments.)
Pink responded to critics of his decision to attend the opening stages of an armed attempt to subvert the democratically elected government yesterday, essentially saying it really wasn’t like that, okay? To be more specific, he noted on Twitter that, “I was in dc to peacefully show my support for the president,” and denied any involvement in, or support of, the storming of the Capitol Building. He then retweeted someone speculating about how this behavior was reflected in his star chart, which does not appear to have been the compelling defense against critique that Pink may have hoped it was.
Meanwhile, this isn’t even the most high-profile consequence to hit the music world today in the wake of Jan. 6's events: Per TMZ, Iced Earth guitarist Jon Schaffer is currently being sought by the FBI, after evidence surfaced allegedly showing him actually invading the Capitol along with the rest of the mob.