Tag Archives: Paisley Babylon

Paisley Babylon Booking

October 6, 2014 paisleyb

I’m aggressively booking gigs for Paisley Babylon again…it’s time to unleash the power of not one, not two, but THREE theremins, all run through an insane maze of stompboxes, echo machines, and loopers upon the world.

Did I mention the video display that accompanies the music? A fast-paced visual journey through the wasteland of exploitation cinema, Italian giallos, and ancient, crumbling go-go dancing film footage.

Paisley Babylon is at times surreal, sexy, psychedelic, sinister, dreamlike, ethereal, floating, and menacing. Think of a one-man version of the Legendary Pink Dots but with stage directions whispered by the ghosts of Hunter S. Thompson and William Burroughs.

Behold the trippy strangeness that awaits you at a Paisley Babylon show–samples below. PB wrapped up the summer of 2014 by playing a packed house at Comfort Station, providing the unusual soundtrack to a Russian silent film called Aelita, Queen of Mars. Now restless and looking for more on-the-road kicks, Paisley Babylon wants to play a record store, unsuspecting coffee house, art gallery or more traditional venue near you.

Contact me to book this multi-media experience by e-mail: jwallace242@gmail.com

PAISLEY BABYLON SAMPLES:

Gear, Paisley Babylon news, Theremin

Adding The Moog Theremini To The Paisley Babylon Live Show

October 3, 2014 paisleyb

So yesterday (October 2 2014) I took delivery of the Moog Theremini, which is a fun and intriguing re-boot of the traditional theremin. I am sure traditionalists would be violently ill at the prospect of a tone-lockable theremin that features built-in presets, effects and a USB interface, but I had a lot of fun recording with this yesterday and it definitely has a place in the Paisley Babylon live setup.

Pros–it has built in effects which can be bypassed, it has a CV out, and can be manipulated on the fly while performing with it. Cons–it requires some fussing to calibrate, the presets range from really cool to massively cheesy, and the built-in speaker feels a bit “training wheels” to me, but no matter. Paisley Babylon has, so far, found some inventive and fun uses for the Theremini in the recording studio.

Next time I plan on outputting the CV to the Paisley Babylon Moog Little Phatty to see what that does to for the recording process. Add some echo boxes and an Electro-Harmonix Memory Boy and you have the makings for some spaced out fun in the studio.

Also, I’ll be working on some demonstration videos of the Moog Theremini–stay tuned for that.

–Joe Wallace

Paisley Babylon news

Paisley Babylon Back in the Studio

September 25, 2014 paisleyb

It’s time for Paisley Babylon to get into recording mode once more and I’m doing it entirely at my art space at Bridgeport Art Center….Paisley Babylon is exploring new sonic territories and you might just see a bit more PB on social media and elsewhere…PB hasn’t really taken part in the social media explosion and I am probably wayyy behind the times on that one.

There is no working title or preliminary track to tease here yet–this announcement usually comes after some creative work has been done, but this time it’s hitting the site as I set up my recording gear and get ready to move forward again.

Paisley Babylon has long flirted with film soundtrack work, and indeed has actually made it into some projects and videos…but I am looking foward to doing more work for visual media in the future. Stay tuned for news and developments on that front.

Live Shows, Paisley Babylon news, Theremin

Paisley Babylon Joins Comfort Films and The Logan Square International Film Series “Silent Films + Loud Music”

May 9, 2014 paisleyb

Paisley Babylon is proud to be a part of the film series “Silent Films+Loud Music” presented by Comfort Station Logan Square in Chicago, and the Logan Square International Film Series. On August 6, Paisley Babylon will be bringing live sound design, vinyl mash-ups and original music/atmospheres with theremin, sythesizer, melodica and more to accompany the silent film Aelita Queen Of Mars, a silent movie made in Russia about three years before the release of Fritz Lang’s Metropolis.

This is a pretty interesting experiment for Paisley Babylon and if the performance goes well, I’ll be looking to take this show on the road to perform in other spaces with the film and others like it. Silent films like this, depending on the print, exist in the public domain and it’s a great opportunity to take a work that hasn’t gotten much love (as opposed to Nosferatu and Metropolis) and bring a new dimension to it using technology old and new.

Stay tuned for details, I’ll provide times and location information closed to the event…

–Joe Wallace

Blog, Live Shows, Paisley Babylon news, Theremin

Paisley Babylon Performs @ CIMMFest 2014

May 3, 2014 paisleyb

Paisley Babylon was added as a last-moment stand-in act for a group that couldn’t make the Friday night CIMMFest Shorts From The Winnipeg Film Festival show at Comfort Station in Chicago.

Paisley Babylon has been absent from the stage for a variety of reasons lately, but last night marked a much overdue return. The show included the usual theremin performance, but added spacey harmonica and melodica into the mix–something that’s been needed for some time.

PB has been active at StudioLab in a variety of ways…more on the strange intersection of art and PB music there in another blog post…

Theremin Babylon