Psyche Corporation

Psyche Corporation combines art, fashion, dance, and science within the framework of an imagined technomythological world.

Psyche Corporation has performed regularly around the East Coast, and her work even captured the attention of BBC News!

What, pray tell, is the “Psyche Corporation”? The name itself describes a futuristic dream manufacturing group. This Orwellian service allows people to jack their nerve endings directly into the internet and download dreams. As a performance group, Psyche Corporation has incorporated robot exhibitions, steel origami cranes, contortion, corsets, flashlights, and old radios. The music spans across genres; a recent song has mixed tribal singing with classical piano while embedding the DNA of deadly polio virus into its percussion. Be sure to catch Psyche Corporation at Steampunk World’s Fair – they will transport you to an entirely different plane of existence.

 Because Steampunk Wasn’t Weird Enough?

It’s easy to define Steampunk music.  All you have to do is open the portal in your wardrobe that leads to an imaginary, steam-driven semi-Victorian future-past, and check out whatever’s playing at your local music hall.

But for those of us who don’t have hidden portals in their wardrobes or, even worse, don’t have wardrobes, it’s a bit harder to define.  And that gives us the freedom to offer you quite a lot of variety, and let you chose what’s Steampunk (and, secretly, even if you decide something isn’t Steampunk, you can still enjoy it at our Fair.   We won’t tell on you…)

Here’s what I say:  Whether it’s Steampunk or not, we’d like to give you the chance to enjoy a band whose percussion is Tupperwear, whose sound is kind-of like maddened folk-rock, only catchier, and who write songs about, say, pirates, metaphorical hats, Steampunk monsters, being kicked in the head, being someone’s nose, alien invasions, Sesame Street characters, and seventies clothes – to name a few.

A Halo Called Fred is one of the most fascinating groups we’ve ever worked with.  If you’ve got a few minutes to spare, try listening to a song or two.  Possibly “(Hat) [note that this link plays automatically, and includes a word you can't say on the radio]“, or “Barry The Steampunk Monster“.

Or, you know, check out their whole website at www.AHaloCalledFred.com, to find out about a band that’s been making unusual music for nigh-on two decades!

Amour Obscur somehow managing to perform in daylight and not melt. Photo by the talented John Black.

“With pockets empty as my heart / I swallow only rhymes / With each new place they promise us, we get a guarantee / But I know that I’m in the band, and at least I drink for free!”

-Amor Obscur, “The Band Drinks For Free”

My dear maternal forebear always told me not to get into event business, lest I associate with a bunch of drunken ne’er-do-wells, the very dregs, the true nadir of society.

And she’d never even met Amor Obscur when she said that!

It’s kind-of as if the cast of The Threepenny Opera* beat up the cast of “Cabaret”, acquired a wicked sense of humor, and decided to go to a Steampunk event.  Which may have been exactly what happened; I never ask Amor Obscur how they got in, and they never tell me.

You can find them at http://www.reverbnation.com/amourobscur.  My favorite song there is probably “Elegy For The Mars Bar”, but that’s just me.

Come check them out!  And possibly buy them drinks.

*  ”The Threepenny Opera” is pretty darn cool on its own.  I am going to randomly give you a link to Eartha Kitt singing “Barbara’s Song”,  because I was listening to it incessantly when I wrote this, and wanted to share.

“Come listen to me, you gallants so free / All you that love mirth for to hear / And I will you tell of a bold outlaw / That lived in Nottinghamshire”

-Francis James Child, 1888

Robin Hood, that trickster bold!  He come to us from times of old!  He brings us joy, and steals our gold!  Except none of us are actually carrying any gold, so we don’t really have to worry.

You’ll find Robin making his merrie way through our Midway, engaging in all manner of puckish jests.  Beware his mighty steam-crossbow!  I mean, you don’t have to beware it, since it’s not actually a functional weapon, because that would be terrible for our insurance costs.  But still.  This waggish jester’s always fool of sport and joy.  Let him share some with you!