The Importance of Motorpsychodelic Visuals

[Hans Boller]

I was really happy when MP started reintroducing projection screens into their performances a few years ago. Psychedelic music and trippy images that maybe even surprise and challenge the mind just go hand in hand so well, in my opinion. There is certainly a strong visual aspect to MP's music, and by exposing the listener to songs coupled with certain images, the artist is given a whole reign of possibilities to let the audience's mind wander. I've always been interested in MP's relationship to projected images (I mean, they took their name from a movie!), and I found it quite fascinating that they chose not to get too involved in the production of their promotional video clips. But surely they must have put some thoughts into what was/is going on behind their backs on a video screen? I think I read somewhere that during their early performances they'd screen parts of crappy biker flicks, which had been edited by Killerkjell. Did they continue using any video material after hed had been kicked out? I think that at least by the late 90s they started using projections again ("Vortex Surfer Girl"). Does anyone know who helped/helps the band choose the shown images? Or did/do they maybe outsource that job to a friendly visual artist?

Also, I have recently rewatched the "This Is Motorpsycho" documentary, and during TGC we are shown some images that might have been projected on a screen during their performances. The images form some kind of a poem, that goes something like this:

I was food in a hungry world

Eaten by many, digested by few

I was a sweet nightmare for every woman

I became the sound of high heels where everyone went barefoot

I was the dice; thrown across an empty flat

I only gave numbers too high to count

I died famous

That's possible

Anything's possible

I was the Devil's loudspeakers

Tryng to wake up god

I became a Holy War against Sleep

I possessed the power

I said; "Life sucks"

And it sucked me real good; sucked me dry

I was everything anyone ever wanted to be

I became traces of lipstip deep in the jungle

Became the Prostitute that bought You and took You home

I left the planet

I said; I will miss the good things

Yeah, I will miss both of them

Is that another one of Matt Burt's poems?

[Author]

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