All posts by paisleyb

Paisley Babylon VS. Henry Rollins

Well not really. But the whole reason I’m blogging here is because of
my very first exposure to the former Black Flag frontman’s tour diary
Get In The Van and all the subsequent diaries he’s published over the
years. Henry Rollins, from a musical standpoint, is about as far away
from Paisley Babylon as it gets. Rollins writes in-your-face,
confrontational, aggressive music, whereas my stuff (while equally
introspective in places) is a lot more about taking strange mental
journeys. Music to listen to while trying not to be eaten by
zombies…that’s what I’m about.

I take a lot of inspiration from all that diary writing…especially
the tribulations of travel, performing, etc. So what if it has nothing
to do with power chords and hollering?

This morning, I woke up on my own at 6:30 and plowed right into the
shameless self-promotion. (Like writing this). Every book I’ve ever
read by Rollins has some kind of recurring theme about not wanting to
sleep the day away when there’s a mountain of work to get through to
keep your head above water creatively speaking. That is basically my
life here. It’s like when I saw Fight Club for the first time–I
cheered because somebody else GOT IT during those scenes where Ed
Norton is talking about waking up in a laundry list of airports. I’ve
lived it—you wake up in LAX, O’Hare Airport, Boston-Dulles,
JFK…this is your life and it’s going by one layover at a time and
you’ve eaten far too many hotel mints for your own good.

Inspiration to keep going creatively comes from the strangest places.
I’ve been reading a biography of Alister Crowley lately–did you know
“The Beast 666” AKA the world’s wickedest man started off as a
mountain climbing English lit obsessive? Crowley was obsessed by
poetry in his college days…not the mental picture you had of the
dude who inspired Ozzy to sing Mister Crowley, is it? Heh.

Paisley Babylon Live Shows

Paisley-Babylon-Transistor-

Paisley Babylon performs live at Transistor at 5045 N. Clark Street in Chicago. This performance, as the flyer indicates, features five turntables, five echo boxes, multi-media madness on video screens, it’s a total sensory barrage. The show is called Beautiful Chaos and definitely lives up to its name.

Those who have heard advance demos of this show seem particularly impressed by the sounds of Roddy McDowall reading H.P. Lovecraft mashed up with the voices of Genesis P. Orridge, breaks from Coil and Gary Clail, plus a bewildering assortment of Isaac Hayes, Italian disco, Chicago industrial, children’s records and ominous rumblings from a live mashed-up collection of Turntabling Records artists. It’s a turntabling freakshow–all vinyl, all mad.

Transistor is Chicago’s hippest, newest indie record store with an amazing collection of art, electronics and vinyl records among many other music-related material. Come for the Paisley Babylon but make sure you check out the merch here–this is one HELL of a store. Very hip, modern and plugged in to what’s what. Paisley Babylon definitely shops at Transistor and believes you should too.

For more information on Paisley Babylon, Turntabling Records and upcoming performances, check back here but don’t miss the Turntabling Records official site for additional details on show dates, appearances and CD releases.

The Paisley Babylon Blog

Most decent bands & performers have a blog detailing the excruciating
details of their daily lives for fans, stalkers, PR flacks and other
interested parties, so I figured it was high time I did the same. I’ll
start off by giving a bit of background. Paisley Babylon is basically
me–Joe Wallace, the only permanent member. I am a freelance writer,
editor and social media manager when I’m not doing Paisley Babylon
stuff or running the label Turntabling Records…or working on the
vinyl blog Turntabling.net. Yeah, I have quite a lot going on.

I am ramping up Paisley Babylon into a more full time concern…it’s
been an ordeal to get things moving but since it ties into
Turntabling.net and TurntablingRecords.com are all part of this thing,
I figured it was high time to give PB the light of day in a major way.
This is the start of all that, so the blog will basically see Paisley
Babylon developing more or less from scratch in Chicago.

So keep watching this space, the blog will chronicle all things
Paisley Babylon as unpretentiously as I can manage…this is the
ground floor of the whole thing, basically. Here we go.

New Paisley Babylon Tracks

Preparing to unleash brand new Paisley Babylon tracks on the world…another trip to the chemical drive-in. When the lights go down the hallucinations you see will be in stereo. Brace yoursleves for "All the Policemen Turned Into Zombies" and 'Android Sex Farm" due out next week as a pre-release sneak preview. Paisley Babylon is scheduled to play a live-mashup in-store performance at Transistor in Chicago on October 15 at 8PM. Don't miss it…the mind you infect may be your own.

Paisley Babylon Beautiful Chaos Shows

Paisley Babylon is about the unleash Beautiful Chaos upon the great
city of Chicago. Beautiful Chaos is Paisley Babylon’s electronica/live
mashup multi-media happening–five turntables, five echo boxes, two
mixers, video and a whole lot of retro/future sounds mashed up live
for a full consciousness reboot.

Details are being finalized for three shows in the Chicago area and
more to come. Paisley Babylon has played live from Texas to Iceland
and now Chicagoland is about to get a taste of Babylon, too. Full
details are coming once dates and times are firm. Look out, Windy
City!