Category Archives: Visual Arts

Throwback December: A Sample of the Late Garageband Period

These three tracks come from the later garageband period. We still worked at Monterey Market, the produce market down the street from Peter’s parents house, where we recorded. On off days or after work we’d work these tunes out.

 

Shades of Green started as a jam over the guitar effect heard at the beginning and then revolves around a chord progression: E minor, F major, D minor. There’s a bridge on A major and some strings provided by V that finish the track up.

Shades of Green

 

taquito-hoope-sweesh-donke is a four piece track with various elements coming together to form our arrangement. We were messing with the idea of mixing distorted electric guitar and synth strings and brass which comes out around 1:40. We threw in some slide guitar to mix it up after that section to mix it up.

 

taquito-hoope-sweesh-donke

 

Complete Darkness comes from a chord progression that we wrote before the garageband days. This track has most of the components of this period of growth: guitar solos by P while the bass, keys, and synth strings are held down by V.

 

Complete Darkness

 

-Reflection and Response (even in progression)

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Throwback December: Rainy Day Freestyle

Rainy Day from 2005 and Freestyle Beat from 2006 to close out the year. Thanks for all the support, and Happy New Year to all of the LIFESTYLE fam!! See yall in 2012!

Rainy Day

Freestyle Beat 01

Reflection and Response.

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Throwback December: Brunch

Whatup LIFESTYLEfam!! We hope everybody’s enjoying the holiday season with family & friends!! Throwback December continues with these two tracks that formed from some of our early improv sessions … the Brunch series!!

Paris to Cairo.

Breakfast in Paris

Lunch in Cairo

Reflection and Response.

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Throwback December: Vamos! & Chan Chan

2004-2005. We moved up to garageband and started putting more influence on composition. These tracks reflect the influence of working at Monterey Market, a local produce store in Berkeley. Peep!!!

Vamos!

Chan Chan

Reflection and Response!

-P and V

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Throwback December: Kickin’ It

Once again, BIG shoutout to all the LIFESTYLE fam for the love since Day 1 back in August. This month, we’re pushin through the end of 2011 with Throwback December: A Retrospective — we’re takin it back to the good ol days, the foundation of the LIFESTYLE. For the next few weeks, we’ll be rediscovering a number of tracks from the P. Muller and Sneaky V archives; The Musical Revolution era, circa 2002-2007. As far back as when we were 14 year old youngsters, we put in countless hours creating music in our makeshift studio, usually taking breaks only for eating globally at local joints, skateboarding at “the Ledge,” and punching the clock at Monterey Market grocery store around the way, with the occasional *extracurriculars. Be on the lookout for original recordings, along with remastered versions, and some 2011 remixes. To kick off this series, we take a look at our old-school sound from “Kickin’ It”… Throw it back! Stay tuned on this RR storytelling session til we hit the new year!

2004.

I slide through a verse/ Smooth like a curse/ Quenches my thirst/ But then I go berserk on ya/ Take joy to destroy ya/ I’ll coy ya/ Don’t know if I’m serious I’ll toy ya

The back room/guest room/laundry room of Peter’s parents’ house in North Berkeley. The setup was basic; what we had was one Boss BR 532 4 track recorder, one Miracle Piano Teaching System (A Midi keyboard with 8 sounds released in 1990. courtesy of Peter’s grandmother), one Fender Stratocaster that we used as a bass using the 4 track recorder’s “bass” setting, and our lyrics:

Kickin It (2004 Original)

Kickin It (2011 Remaster)

P.Muller and Sneaky V/ Hitting it like Chucky D/ P.Muller and Sneaky V/ You can’t touch me

So I went out bombing and the night was fine/ Straight chilling the wine was divine/ Was a crime/ The way we lied/ And made you cry/ But that’s how we do it/ That’s how we do it on the Northside/ Me and Voko going loco/ Chillin with the folk yo/ No smoke yo/ Just yay the Bay/ Where people play/ Hit it every night and everyday

P.Muller and Sneaky V/ Hitting it like Chucky D/ P.Muller and Sneaky V/ You can’t touch me

So!

It’s the end of the week/ Straight 3:15/ Walkin home trippin off e can’t you see/ Almost wanna call your girl up on the phone/ Not bouta be alone now that we’re grown/ Life is perfect/ Gonna make a purchase/ I’ll make you worthless/ I make em surgically remove your brain/ End your pain of being fake and lame/ cuz

P.Muller and Sneaky V/ Hitting it like Chucky D/ P.Muller and Sneaky V/ You can’t touch me

So The Musical Revolution’s taken to the top/ B’s getting popped/ You know we never stop I electrocute/ End disputes with the flows that I hit in my burgundy suit/ I’m a balloon filled up with tunes/ Got the beat V cuz its time to groove/ Lose yourself I’ll make you lose your health/ When I come to your house with my leather belt

P.Muller and Sneaky V/ Hitting it like Chucky D/ P.Muller and Sneaky V/ You can’t touch me

Who rocks the shit/ 06

Who hits your mom/ 06

Who got the niche/ 06

Whose hecka bomb/ North Berkeley

I slide through a verse/ Smooth like a curse/ Quenches my thirst/ But then I go berserk on ya/ Take joy to destroy ya/ I’ll coy ya/ Don’t know if I’m serious I’ll toy ya

P.Muller and Sneaky V/ Hitting it like Chucky D/ P.Muller and Sneaky V/ You can’t touch me

One more time said

P.Muller and Sneaky V/ Hitting it like Chucky D/ P.Muller and Sneaky V/ You can’t touch me

2004

 

-2011 Remix-

Bonus material: the back cover of our album “The Musical Revolution of P. Muller and Sneaky V.”

Reflection and Response.

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Tuition Well Spent: A Progression

(Visuals by Vicken Donikian. Audio by Peter Muller and friends)

Ideas progress.

I wrote The Rain in 2007 in Seattle during a bout of particularly bad weather. A few days later my bandmate from Tuition Well Spent, Mike, wrote the lyrics for the tune which would become “The Love.”

The Rain

The Love

We then performed the song live at the Ethnic Cultural Theatre at UW in 2007 and had our friend Ben do some drumming and Whitney Killian added some harmonies.

The Love (Live)

I then asked V do to some art for the Myspace page and I sent him some pics and he sent back the two visuals that accompany this post.

Progression on a multi-medium level.

Reflection and Response

-P and V

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Coffee Shop Sketches

These are three separate sketches of individual folks on their coffee shop grind. I positioned them all on the same page, where they come into closer contact with each other, but stay distant at the same time.

Reflection and Response.

V.

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