I made a rap remix

I made this remix of the clipping. song “Get It.” Juiceboxxx did a guest rap.

This is only the second time I’ve done a remix; the first was this one I did for Simo Soo a while ago. I really don’t know what I’m doing but it’s fun and now I want to make more. Anybody is welcome to send me stems. I’m ready to party.

Filed under: geoff geis, mp3, clipping, geoff geis, juiceboxxx, remix

the Termite Sound

I’ve decided to “go reggae.”

Filed under: geoff geis, mp3, vanity projects, althea and donna, bob marley, geoff geis, reggae, termite sound

This will be exciting: Saccharine Surreality

Do you know about Saccharine Surreality?

It’s an exciting art show opening at Pehrspace this Saturday, January 12. Curated by Sarah Cisco, it features approximately 10,000 amazing artists who have created work in celebration of mankind’s “most innocent vice” (tell that to Lil’ Wayne!), candy. There will be lots of free candy and there will also be amazing candy-inspired cocktails.

The show will be up at Pehr until March. But there are special reasons for you to attend the opening. First, there will be a wonder-tent. Don’t ask me what it is, but know that it is a “one night only” thing and AWESOME. Second, I’ll be performing a few candy-themed cover songs at certain points during the night. I’ll never be playing these again, so if you want to hear me do a slowed-down, reverb-drenched, synth-heavy cover of Bow Wow Wow’s “I Want Candy,” this is your only chance. Hint: you do want to hear that!

Anyhoo, feel free to RSVP on Facebook so that everybody knows you’ll be there. The 100th RSVP gets free candy (just kidding, everybody gets free candy).

Here’s Ms. Cisco working on the tent:

Filed under: Events, geoff geis, Human Interest, candy, pehrspace, saccharine surreality, sarah cisco

Call me maybe

Kyle Mabson, my roommate, just made his second compilation featuring interpretations of a single current hit. Last time it was Gotye’s “Somebody that I Used to Know,” and this time it’s Carly Rae Jepsen’s “Call Me Maybe.” Two number one hits. Two sick jams.

This is what I made for “Call Me Maybe.” I based my interpretation off of a cover by an 11 year old on Youtube. I knew that a lot of kids use youtube this way, but I was kind of mortified when I actually went searching for one to use for this video. Maybe parents should monitor their kids’ Internet usage more. I’m glad this technology didn’t exist when I was a pre-teen.

I call my version “Mom’s Medicine Cabinet REMIX.”

Listen to the entire compilation here. It’s got sick tracks from Maston, Dan Deacon, Fudge Dredd, Sean Carnage, Your Mom/Your Dad, 333 Boyz… the list continues. It’s 43 tracks and about 2 1/2 hours long, so go crazy.

Filed under: Art, geoff geis, mp3, Video, call me maybe, carly rae jepsen, kyle mabson

Patches in the museum

On Saturday, Sarah (aka Disco Cisco) was part of a group show at Pehrspace. She made miniatureMUSEUM for PAIR, a diorama show with the theme of “parallel worlds.”

The girl’s got a unique artistic vision and a knack for turning her aesthetic into reality. For this project, she made a seven-story dollhouse full of theme rooms and curated a miniature art show to go inside of it. I got to see her go through the different stages of developing the piece slowly over a little more than a month and I was really impressed with the final piece. I’m excited for the next project she undertakes!

Sarah’s miniatureMUSEUM will be on display until August 31; if you want to see it online, there are pictures at her website, Intergalactic Fantastic.

I actually participated in the piece as well. I contributed a video, which we displayed in one of the rooms. Here’s the video that I made, entitled “Travels of Patches:”

I wanted to do something sweet and simple while experimenting with techniques I’d not previously used. I had fun making this little video collage. I filmed all of the stuff with Patches, and the backgrounds were sourced from Youtube.

Here’s what the movie looks like in the museum. Photo by Adrian Zaw.

In addition to contributing the video, I wrote about Sarah’s museum and several of her fellow dioramists’ works for seancarnage.com. Here’s that article.

Filed under: geoff geis, ipod touch, Video, disco cisco, intergalactic fantastic, miniaturemuseum, pehrspace, sarah cisco, travels of patches

This Saturday at Human Resources

On Saturday, June 23, I’ll be playing my songs at the illustrious Human Resources in Chinatown. The bill was put together by Dylan Doren and features him as well as fantastic friends Michael Nhat, K the I???, Paper Slag, Orbless, and C Will. You can RSVP on Facebook!

Filed under: Events, geoff geis, c will, dylan doren, geoff geis, human resources, k the i???, los angeles, michael nhat, orbless, paper slang

Porn reprise

A few years ago, in ’09, I was a bored, unemployed collagist. So, using a few old porn anthologies and an Xacto knife, I made some pornographic collages of the president and called the set “Obamaporn.”

In 2010, when Echo Curio asked me to do a solo exhibition, I chose to display Obamaporn (for some reason) and Sarah and I actually made a big giant Obama dick out of toilet paper rolls and burlap. You can check that out here.

Now it’s re-election year and I’m displaying the original pieces once again. You can see them as part of this porn-themed group show at Temple ad Hoc that is running for two weeks starting tomorrow, June 8th. Why not RSVP to the opening party on Facebook?

Temple Ad Hoc is a really cool temporary space that will be open all summer at 1218 1/2 Temple Street in that area between Echo Park and Downtown. Check it out!

Filed under: Art, geoff geis, obama, obamaporn, porn, temple ad hoc

Somebody that I used to know

I made this cover song for my housemate, the esteemed Kyle Mabson, who came out of his room a couple of weeks ago and announced that he was going to use Facebook to solicit covers and remixes of Gotye’s #1 super-hit single “Somebody That I Used to Know,” which sounds like Sting singing over Manu Chao.

My version is kind of country but also kind of “not country.” There are some airhorns and distorted guitars too. I also used the Latin beats MIDI preset on my computer, to make sure that it would be Geiswave. Dalton Blanco sang the Kimbra part and he really kicked its ass.

UPDATE (7/1/2012): Somebody at Gotye’s stupid record label had my version taken off of Soundcloud for violating their copyright. I’m flattered that they viewed my cover version to be such a threat to their bottom line. You can still get it on Bandcamp.

In total, 26 artists submitted tracks to Kyle’s mix! You can, and should, get the whole thing on Bandcamp! There are so many cool jams on here.

Filed under: geoff geis, mp3, geoff geis, gotye, kyle mabson

This Friday, May 11 at Home Room

Wow, I’m really excited about this one. Home Room is one of my favorite spots in town, and I’m playing with groups I really admire!

Body Parts is headlining the show and will be debuting the video for their song “Doing Things.” In celebration, they’ll playing an acoustic set rather than an electric one. Everything Body Parts does seems so meticulously crafted (their debut album is even called “On Purpose”), so I’m interested to see how they translate their tunes without electricity. I’m confident that it’ll be excellent.

Joining us on the bill is Norse Horse, a relentlessly-catchy guitar driven project that last year released the excellent Grids EP on Family Time Records.

Opening the show is iloilo, a project from ex-members of Pek Pek. This is their first show, and I couldn’t figure out how to embed their tracks, but they sound good! Lots of hazy, hypnotic acoustic guitars and reverb-drenched mystery.

Home Room is located at 3121 Beverly Blvd, in that area of town that could alternately be called “South Silverlake” or “North Koreatown.” The show starts at 9PM, and I go on second. It’s all ages and $5.

Filed under: Events, geoff geis, mp3, body parts, geoff geis, home room, iloilo, norse horse

Cover song: “Rockin’ Around with You” (Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers)

Download “Rockin’ Around with You” (Tom Petty cover, featuring Sarah Cisco)

Boy, do I ever love Tom Petty. During the summer between fifth and sixth grade, it was a chance encounter with the “Into the Great Wide Open” that first inspired me to start paying attention to pop music. That led to a blossoming over the summer of ’94 and my discovery of groups like Nirvana, R.E.M., Beck, and Green Day. But while I loved “alternative music,” Tom Petty was my favorite. I had three of his albums before I had any albums by anyone else.

One of my earliest vinyl LPs was the band’s self-titled debut from 1976 — the one that’s got a picture of Tom smirking and wearing a bullet belt over his shoulder. That album, along with a story I read in the Rolling Stone Encyclopedia of Rock N Roll about how the band withheld the masters of the Hard Promises LP in a game of high-stakes brinksmanship with MCA over sticker price, was the proof that I used when my friends who liked Green Day and the Offspring called me a “poser” for liking Tom Petty so much. Bullets and a smirk are pretty punk, and so are the rockabilly grooves and odes to teenaged abandon on Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers. “Into the Great Wide Open” may have introduced me to Tom Petty, but it was this album that made the long-term impact on my taste.

So, here’s a cover of “Rockin’ Around with You,” the first song from that album. I recorded it a couple of weeks ago with the indescribably fabulous Sarah Cisco, my love and a damned fine musician who will hopefully continue to share her talents with the world. Sarah sang with me, and I did the drum machines, guitars, bass, and synth parts. It’s a pretty straightforward, shuffling jam that doesn’t stray too far from the original.

Filed under: geoff geis, mp3, sarah cisco, tom petty and the heartbreakers