new Stray Palace is out — free Mp3

hey folks, as you may know, my side project with Deej Hofer has been working on a new collection of songs. after much delay (collaboration is like that…), Stray Palace’s the Diamond ep is up and ready for purchase at iTunes and AmazonMp3.

Stray Palace came about because Deej (and now our friend Alex Kemp) started making awesome instrumental tracks for me to sing over. these tracks became a place for me to do something different than what I do in black lab — that is, more straightforward (i.e., not work so damn hard on the lyrics), more positive (i.e., not so dark and pain-wracked all the damn time), and more cold wave (i.e., I get to sing like Bowie and the Ian’s Curtis & McCulloch, which is a lot of damn fun).

the result is, I think, also a lot of damn fun. it’s catchy and bright and yet dark in all the right places, modern and trendy with just the right touches of classic rock in there. anyway, I really hope you’ll dig it, that you’ll come to the Facebook and/or MySpace pages to let us know what you think, and that you’ll tell your friends.

we’re featuring one more Stray Palace track as the free Mp3 of the Month at blacklabworld.com, so stop by, grab “best there is” and let us know what you think.

[cover art by Bhu Sullivan]

meanwhile, thanks to everyone who found us through last week’s episode of Pretty Little Liars — welcome to the lab! the episode is up at itunes. our song “say goodbye” from Two Strangers comes on at around 29 minutes. it’s a pretty nice scene, actually.

ok, hope you’re all having a great summer. Andy and I are busy at work getting another treat put together for you all. hope to have it by christmas.

take care!
paul

‘say goodbye’ on ‘pretty little liars’ tuesday 7/8c

hi all, just a heads up that our song, “say goodbye,” will be featured on ABC Family’s Pretty Little Liars this tuesday night, 7/8 central.

you can catch the whole episode right now at Hulu.com. our song starts around 29 minutes in.

of course, “say goodbye” is from our new album two strangers, available here on CD and via CD-quality download, as well as iTunes and AmazonMp3.

our video for the song can be found at youtube and vimeo.

check out the episode at hulu. we’re about 29 minutes in.

here’s lyrics: how am I supposed to feel? you strike at my achilles heel with everything that’s wrong I can’t make right. if I wait another hundred years the whispers set against the tears I’m never gonna be that shining knight. I find it hard to be down in this hole now I find myself walking down a hard road. if I can’t say it — if I can’t say goodbye. if I can’t say it — if I can’t say goodbye I know you never will. now I’m waiting for that setting sun to burn me down the day I’m done and spread my ashes out along the beach. but I find these days are pretty long this war with you goes on and on and I love you as I’m lying through my teeth. I find it hard to be up on this wall now I find myself trying to make a hard call. if I can’t say it — if I can’t say goodbye. if I can’t say it — if I can’t say goodbye I know you never will and twenty years of hell will rain down upon us like frogs upon the pharaohs. I have to say goodbye. I have to say goodbye. goodbye

new video for “this ship goes down deep”

hey all,

our excellent video contest for “this ship goes down deep” has borne fruit! taking our sun-blind performance and cutting it up with original shots & effects, the directors came up with some very cool stuff.

our winner is Bhu Sullivan, a good friend of mine (she played the waitress in the “ghost in your mind” video) and excellent photographer & filmmaker who turned the song into a kaleidoscope of fairground images, like a wild dream featuring a public domain Ava Gardner. I guess if I could have absolutely anyone star as “the girl” in a music video, it would be the stunning Ms. Gardner, so thanks Bhu!

anyway, you can see it right now at vimeo (yes!) or youtube (be sure to watch in HD). I think you’ll really like it.

while you’re there, check out submissions by Christy & Steff, Luca Ferrari, and Matthieu Segot as well. thanks to everyone who participated for all your hard work. of course, if you do make a video featuring Black Lab’s music and put it on youtube (which everyone is always welcome to do!), please shoot us a link, as we are going to start featuring more of these videos each week and it would be great to get them from you instead of going and hunting them down ourselves.

ok, in other news, you might want to tune in to ABC’s ‘Pretty Little Liars.’ I can’t really tell you why. it’s just a hunch.

meanwhile, we’re going to radio next week with “this ship goes down deep” and “say goodbye” (depending on the type of station), so stay tuned and give me a shout if you work in radio or have friends who do.

thanks everyone!

paul

Black Lab Video Contest Extended

hey all,

we’re not quite ready to go with our ripping radio campaign so we’re giving everyone another week to get that video made for “this ship goes down deep.” we really need your help getting the best video possible so if you’re out of school now and want to go for it, please do!

click here to download the footage of me lip-synching, mix it up with some of your favorite personal stuff — iphoto movies, slo-mo surf movies, whatever looks cool! — and send it back to us using yousendit or dropbox at contact AT blacklabworld. com. best video gets t’s, signed CDs and mystical stuff lying around the studio.

speaking of videos, a friend of mine at the local university here had his film classes make videos of the songs from the new album and we’ve picked a few of the best to show you, starting with ‘say goodbye,’ written and directed by Danny Donahue and his crew. definitely enjoyed the evilness of the girl in this. it’s better at vimeo of course (always wait for vimeo to load the whole video first), but check it at youtube if you must.

I was watching this show recently and started thinking what pretty little liars these girls are.

also, what do you think about an acoustic version of “this blood?” that could really rock, right? I think it could really show my cold, hard macho side while also revealing the sweet, sad singer-songwriter locked inside. don’t you think? huh?

and everyone should definitely go over to the facebook page and check out Feral’s custom black lab t-shirt, with lyrics from “something you don’t know” framed in a unique and meaningful way. let us know what you think!

ok, thanks everyone.

paul

Credits:
Writer/Director/Editor – Danny Donahue (vimeo.com/​dannydonahue)
Actors – Mackenzie Reed, Dolan Personke
Cinematographers/Editors – Logan Triplett (vimeo.com/​loganthomas), Adam Kirschhoffer (vimeo.com/​akirschhoffer)
Crew – Jim Menkol, Brandon Watson, Caitlin Maldonado, Paul Quigley, Sam Hedlund, Chad Dawson

video contest for “this ship”

hey, we’re inviting everyone to use some footage we shot last week of me lip-synching to “this ship goes down deep” and edit together a music video. in fact, we’re having a little contest.

click here to download the zipped up hi-res .mov (about 150mb) file of the video and import it into your video editor. then cut it up with something cool — phone videos, animation, your own movies, anything compelling — and send it back to us. send it via yousendit or a dropbox link (keep it smaller than 200mb please) to contact AT blacklabworld. com.

we will decide which is the final video for the song — best vid gets t’s, signed CDs and some on-of-a-kind BL stuff I have lying around here that you’ll like. I might even record your voice mail’s outgoing message if you ask nice. it’s cool to make a vid using copyrighted stuff (movies, TV shows, video games) but it won’t be eligible for the contest as I won’t be able to use it for certain things (and I’m in enough trouble with youtube as it is). all videos will get posted to our youtube channel so everyone can check ‘em out. deadline: June 1. that’s 2 weeks to get your video on, k?

you can check out what the rough footage looks like at youtube. we’re super-psyched to see what you can do!

thanks!
paul