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BILLY JOEL The Stranger ... Even Stranger

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This is a really annoying loop from Billy Joel's The Stranger.  Kinda grows on you for a bit, uplifts, and then terrorizes.  I made the loop along with this creepy drawing a while back, whilst having a very bad day.   The loop was longer.  If you listen, please loop the loop.   Probably shouldn't even share this kind of thing, but it's all too easy now!

The Stranger (abbreviated version) by Psychobuildings

- Peter Schuette

Keyboard Magazine, 1995

It takes me a long time to read a magazine.  This one's from 1995.  I've had it on my nightstand for 16 years and am just now unlocking its glitter-ous contents.  As a teenager, there was little way of telling what any of this gear did.   Some pages are a total confusing mess.

I think I would just read the interminable music theory articles or the Nine Inch Nails concert report.  (still used reel-to-reel for their live show, and DX7's as Midi controllers!)  Years later, the gear reviews make a lot more sense.  A couple of my particular favorites, the Novation Bass Station and the Studio Electronics SE-1, both came out in 1995 and are reviewed in this issue.  (We've used both on Psychobuildings tracks.)   Then there's one of the first ads for my favorite live keyboard, the Nord Lead,

and all the amazing / mildly nauseating mid-90s clip art illustrations.

I may have to pick up some more back issues.

- Peter Schuette

Stevie Wonder Feelings

I'm a huge Stevie Wonder fan along with the rest of the band.  More Psychobuildings posts on Stevie to come!  

I love the simplicity of this song's structure.  Very few lyrics-- the power of the performance really makes the song work. 

I try to keep Stevie Wonder in mind when working on Psychobuildings music.  As a songwriter and singer he often communicates very direct, unguarded emotions.  It can be scary thing to put yourself out there like that.  Stevie does it time and time again and I find it really inspiring.  You get the sense that he really feels it making it easier as a listener to feel it and be moved too:

- Peter LaBier

WonderSound Studio, Tracking

 

photo by faith silva...............

We're getting really REALLY excited about the new Psychobuildings material we're working on with Peter Wade at his studio. It's amazing to hear demos/new ideas come to life, and with our EP coming out now, we're looking forward to the new batch of songs. They are bigger and more clearly pop than the old stuff, but it still has the rhythmic and synth backdrop that got us excited in the first place. It's been great tracking guitars too, love using that Jaguar....

Watching The Bachelorette right now, sickened by it.

- Juan Pieczanski

Terror Management Demo Videos

Psychobuildings music video for the song Terror Management is underway!  The song is on our new EP coming out next month on the label All Hands Electric.  Check out these demo videos director Yoonha Park put together.  Wild experiments with effects here:

- Peter LaBier

PUERTO RICAN WOMAN IS AN EXTRATERRESTRIAL-HUMAN HYBRID

http://www.agoracosmopolitan.com/home/Frontpage/2007/03/16/01405.html

it's really interesting that a woman who is convinced she's involved in alien breeding then turns out to have this rare dna. its like people who are convinced they have alien implants and then it turns out they have these odd metal-like (they often contain compounds that are very complex and puzzling to scientists) objects implanted into their nervous systems.
this guy dr david jacobs (temple univ professor who has studied abductions for 40 yrs) shows slides of patient drawings, and the similarities in the details of the descriptions is very convincing. just amazing details about the sperm/egg retrieval procedures, the kinds of doors/tables found on the ET crafts, etc.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P84XdgMoIDE

this is a new thing for me, it's like yea i know they're visiting, but i think through the memories of abductees jacobs is starting to understand what the alien agenda is. and he is pretty convinced it is a programmatic hybrid/genetic manipulation breeding program that is well under way, perhaps even reaching its later stages/endgame. jacobs also insists we have to look at abductions as physical events, not just psychic ones. it's real, it's happening, and when you look at the overwhelming testimonial and physical evidence, it's hard not to find this issue compelling.

perhaps 2012 is a date aliens gave our ancestors upon their early encounters for when this new era of beings on earth begins. i hope they don't ice the rest of us though. i want to live! i accept you hybrids, grays, and other ETs!

PSYCHOBUILDINGS WELCOMES YOU AND WE HOPE TO BE ABLE TO WORK WITH YOU ON A HIGHER PLANE VERY SOON!

-Juan Pieczanski

Grace Jones Karaoke Medley

Sorry for the repetition, but Psychobuildings DOES love Grace Jones. A while back my friend Jennifer was hosting a performance art night and asked me to make a Grace Jones karaoke medley for the show. Here's my cheap MIDI-fied version of Sly and Robbie's incredibly tasteful production. Nightclubbing, Warm Leatherette, Pull Up To The Bumper...

Grace Jones Medley by Psychobuildings


- Peter Schuette

Steve's Tape

I was playing a show 4 years ago at West Nile and a 50-something year old man named Steve gave me a dubbed tape (recorded over a Luther Vandross album) as payment for the show. We talked about his old band in the 70s, a sci-fi funk, Herbie Hancock and the Headhunters inspired group. The tape is even better than that sounds, and way stranger. It's a mood piece with some really nice keyboard hooks, abstracted and collaged together. There are three repeating motifs on the tape. Each appears and reappears, with variations and nice Casio improv. Really glad to share this, and I hope Steve gets in contact. I really want to play him some Psychobuildings.

Steve's Tape at Psychobuildings

-Peter Schuette

Nirvana Talking

Psychobuildings appreciates Nirvana for being such goofy pranksters in their band interviews.  The don't take themselves too seriously which is rad.  Here are a few I like:

-Peter LaBier

Talking Nirvana

I've been listening to Nirvana's records lately.  They were a very tight band: powerful sounds!   Talking about them a lot with the whole Psychobuildings gang. 

I've always loved this performance-- Cobain detunes his guitar and sings insanely off key.  Really crazy shit.  It's basically performance art punkness:

   

-Peter LaBier

Miss Jones

Psychobuildings loves Grace Jones!  Lately I've been dancing to her record "Island Life"-- the one with the fantastic, iconic cover art-- (picture below).  

No matter how many times I listen to it, "My Jamaican Guy" always puts me in a special mood.  There are so many great elements at work in this song: the slick, strange, futuristic production of Sly and Robbie, the minimalist lyrics, and of course Grace Jones unique vocal delivery:

-Peter LaBier

Spacey Jam

Bill Murray made some video shorts in the 1990s about basketball and how he was going to try out for the NBA.  They are funny and mysterious in that they don't seem to be  promoting anything in particular-- it's not an add campaign for a specific product.  Supposedly the NBA did not ask him to do it or pay for the videos.  For a strange slice of Americana from the 90's Psychobuildings recommends ordering a pizza and watching Space Jam.   

-Peter LaBier

Art Shows in May

Three friends of Psychobuildings are having solo shows this month.  I'm super excited about their work.  More info below.

Christian Maychack is having a show of his scuptures at Gregory Lind Gallery in San Francisco.  It opens May 3rd.:

http://gregorylindgallery.com/exhibitions/2011/maychack/

Van Hanos is having his first solo show of paintings at West Street Gallery, opening is May 7th:

http://www.weststreet.info/longacre.html

Jackie Gendel is having a show of new paintings opening May 20th at Bryan Miller Gallery in Texas:

http://bryanmillergallery.com/artists/jackie-gendel/

-Peter LaBier

Neutral Milk Hotel-- Naomi

I think Jeff Mangum of Neutral Milk Hotel is an incredible songwriter.  I hadn't thought about or listened to his music in a while.  For some reason the other day I put on the first Neutral Milk Hotel record, On Avery Island.

I love this song-- so beautiful and grimy:

-Peter LaBier

Basstronic

This song, "Basstronic"  rules (and the tv show is awesome too-- a lot of head jerkin' here):

-Peter LaBier

Voynich

I could say a lot about the Voynich manuscript but here I'll keep it brief.  Basically, it's a medieval text written in an unknown language (perhaps encrypted) and in 2009 it was carbon dated to the 15th century.  The manuscript is named after the book dealer, Wilfrid M. Voynich, who acquired it in 1912.  

Cryptographers and linguists haven't been able to crack the language of the text -- or explain it's images.  Some scholars speculate that the words might even be gibberish.  

Regardless of the intended purpose of the Voynich manuscript I find the images striking and delightful.  Below are a few pictures I selected from the manuscript:

The pictures are beautiful, playful, and at times crudely drawn.  I find the imagery of tubes, tubs and bathers bizarre and provocative.  Altogether it is an inspiring work to look at even if it means absolutely nothing.

-Peter LaBier

"P.S.K. What Does It Mean?"

This is one of my favorite beats:

- Peter LaBier

Live Wire

Wire-- I love this band.  This particular song, The 15th, makes me feel happy and sad at once.  Strange performance setting-- looks like a German TV show for teens.  The discontinuity between the banal location and the biting music adds to the overall magical and menacing quality of this clip:

- Peter LaBier

Art Shows

Some friends of mine have solo shows up in New York.  Talia Chetrit has a new group of photographs up in her second show at Renwick Gallery.  Marc Handleman has paintings, an artist's book, and a film piece up at Sikkema Jenkins & Co.  Check these shows out if you can.

If you're not in town you can take a look online here:

Talia Chetrit at Renwick Gallery, March 12--April 23:

http://www.renwickgallery.com/?q=Exhibition&ID=7

Marc Handleman, at Sikkema Jenkins & Co., March 17th- April 16th:

http://www.sikkemajenkinsco.com/marchandelman_viewexh2.html

also I have a piece in a big group show of drawings at Sue Scott Gallery:

http://www.suescottgallery.com/exhibitions/view/paper-a-z

-Peter L.

Spirit Moves

I have been obsessed with this footage for some time: the overexposed, white, infinity extending room contrasted by the hard edges of the dancers.  Incredible steps and moves here.  It is a great documentation of another time and place.

 Watching these post war dances one can get  a sense of where James Brown's showmanship comes from.  The elements that he absorbed, synthesized and built upon are evident in the footwork, glides and spins of the various performers.   

Even today it is apparent that these dances are still alive and present in popular culture having evolved into break dancing, popping, locking, krumping, etc.

Looking back into the past we catch glimpses of the future.

- Peter LaBier

Kippenberger at Skarstedt Gallery

There is really great Martin Kippenberger show coming up at Skarstedt Gallery, March 3- April  16th.  The show is titled "Eggman II" and it includes a fun bunch of paintings, some hotel stationary drawings and a motorized sculpture.  More info/images here (the dinosaur is wild!):

http://www.skarstedt.com/exhibitions/2011-03-03_martin-kippenberger/

-Peter L.

Hold Me Fleetwood

Psychobuildings is a big fan of the Fleetwood Mac album, Mirage.  This is a pretty great, trashy and perhaps classic video from the 1980's for the song "Hold Me".  Sand, sun, portraits, and mirrors-- lots to chew on here.

- Peter LaBier

Lil' Buck

 Lil' Buck (aka Charles Riley) has been one of my favorite dancers for a while now.  If you haven't seen him dance before I recommend you check out some of his youtube postings.  I chose this video somewhat at random (there are too many good ones to choose from), though I do think it demonstrates some of his skill and personality as a performer.

  I don't mean to downplay how talented the other Memphis Jookers are: Tarrik Moore (teacher), Lil' Daniel, Rico, Ladia Yates, G-Nerd, the list goes on and on (take a look if you aren't familiar with them--there are many more I haven't named here).  Still, Lil' Buck is one of my personal favorites in large part because of the character that comes through when he's performing.  

  Most of the Memphis Jookers have confidence by the truckload, but Lil' Buck has something else: a great sense of humor.  Somehow he manages to pull off comical hijinks while still looking cool.  Watch for his cartoony slow motion exaggerations and knowing winks to the camera through many of his videos.  He's so good he doesn't have to worry about appearing goofy.  He plays with slapstick as just another tool in his repertoire.  Lil' Bucks' persona pulls you in.  Despite his size he seems like a giant.

-Peter LaBier

Wonder Hand

Psychobuildings song lyrics on a scribbly piece of paper.  The imagery overtook the words.   It is now a drawing of and for the shadow people.

-Peter LaBier

The Fall & Clark Company

I've gone through some phases of deep listening to The Fall.  

This clip is from their album I Am Kurious Oranj-- a collaboration with the dance troupe Michael Clark & Company.  I like how loosely the band is integrated within the stage set and the dancers.  I love the playful costume design too.

Psychobuildings appreciates a nice checkered floor. 

Good 80's Fall, fall fall…

-Peter LaBier

Hello Jupiter...

Hello Jupiter!  This picture, taken by the Hubble Telescope, has been my desktop backdrop in the "tile" format for a while.  Our base player Emily thought it would look cool on a t-shirt.  It's time to silkscreen!  

I like the minimalism and the strange palette of this image.  With their surprising color and interplay of basic geometric forms, some of the designs that artist Ryan Johnson has made for Psychobuildings (7"s and upcoming EP) have a similar look and feel.

The picture's up on the Hubble website under Jupiter.  If you're curious about the neon pastel colors or the weird dark spots it's worth the read:

http://hubblesite.org/newscenter/archive/releases/2004/30/image/a/

- Peter LaBier