Crushing Krisis

Comic Books, Drag Race, & Life in New Zealand

Archives for May 2006

Out From Under My Skin

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If you’re up for a quick chuckle at my expense, have a read of an interview with me from Freshman year where i dish about my songwriting and the deeeeep meaning of my songs.

Actually, in re-reading that i realize that i’ve forgotten where some of those songs came from, originally. They’ve had so many other meanings ascribed to them over the years that their original intent sometimes gets a little lost.

I love that i have so much of my old website archived; my first soundclips were uploaded in 1998. It’s amazing how far i’ve come in just eight years! I don’t know if the then-me would even recognize the songs the way i sing them now.

(An interesting side-note, i have “Under My Skin” as my 84th song on the old site’s discography, but in my spreadsheet it’s 59th. Where did those other 25 songs go???)

Whatever you do, don’t listen to any Real Audio clips. If you think i have my moments of bad singing now…. well, you’ll see for yourself ;)

Memorial Day Intake

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I’m in much more of an output phase than an intake one right now, but sometimes output involves manic consumption of a lot of things in a brief period of time to keep me fueled.

As such, here are the albums i’ve acquired over the holiday weekend, physically or via allofmp3. It remains to be seen how many will be listened to beyond this weekend.

Built to Spill – You In Reverse. I haven’t listened to this yet – i’ve grown a little reverential w/BtS first listens. I’ll probably do it downstairs in surround sound.

Dixie Chicks – Taking the Long Way. Basically i was seduced by all the Fleetwood Mac comparisons in the media, which seem to have been entirely between the title track and “Say You Love Me.” Total cop out!

The Dresden Dolls – Yes, Virginia… Much better than i anticipated, although Amanda Palmer definitely has some remedial vocal moments. I’m forgiving to female vocalists, though, cause the rock deck is stacked against them. “Backstabber” and “Shores of California” highly recommended.

Frou Frou – Details. I already love this disc from my digital copy, but i found it on sale. I would have bought a physical copy of Speak for Yourself too, but the first time i bought the disc it had creepy copy-protection, and now they have it in a slip-case to obscure whether or not it has creepy copy-protection.

Gnarls Barkley – St. Elsewhere. I thought the awesomeness of the single was a fluke and was incredibly wrong.

Gossip – Standing in the Way of Control. Like Yeah Yeah Yeahs, but without the leap of faith it sometimes takes to buy into Karen O’s vocals. This woman could make a deep run on American Idol. Listen to “Fire with Fire.”

Jewel – Goodbye, Alice In Wonderland. I love that Jewel is actively mining older songs that she never got a chance to record, because it’s something i would do. Also, the sample track i picked was “Only One Too,” which is an awesome rock song.

Matt Nathanson – Live At the Point. A songwriter i enjoy at my former favorite Philly room to hear music. What’s not to like? Well, in the absence of fuller arrangements and his wonderfully layered harmony and guitars, Matt and his 12-string come off as a little hapless.

Nirvana – In Utero. Review here. “Heart Shaped Box” is my favorite Nirvana song, partially because I remember being however old i was, watching MTV, and marveling at the audacity of a line like “I wish I could eat your cancer when you turn black.” I’ll eventually get Bleach, too.

Pearl Jam. I can’t explain it. We all know i hate them, but i kept hearing catchy songs from this disc. I think it’s cold in hell right now.

Daniel Powter. American Idol’s systematic brainwashing aside, i think he’s on the slightly more bearable side of the Maroon Five / James Blunt coin.

Snow Patrol – Eyes Open. This one is with trepidation – they’re a little on the sappy side for me, but i do like his voice. And, at least they’re not Coldplay, ya know?

U2 – War. Slowly but surely i will compile all of U2’s discography, one sale at a time, and then they will be promptly remastered.

The Wreckers – Stand Still, Look Pretty. Much more country-fried than the new Dixie Chicks. Probably shouldn’t have bought it, but i still inexplicably adore Michelle Branch and lead single “The Good Kind.”

Lest you think i buy every disc i encounter, here’s the list of my rejected albums for the weekend:


Amadou & Mariam – Dimanche a Bamako. I might come back to this one – I’m a little too focused on songwriting right now to appreciate something slightly more abstract (and not in English).

Brendan Benson – The Alternative to Love. The catchiness there, but why must he be so squeaky? He’s not even singing that high. I just have little patience for bad singers. Maybe i’ll try it some other time.

Broken Social Scene. When the first three songs i randomly choose from your album are unintelligible, that’s not a good sign.

Flaming Lips – At War With Mystics. You let a freaky band have two hit songs over the course of ten years and suddenly they’re unassailable critical darlings. Give it a rest, indy media.

Mono – You Are There. I barely have the patience for five-minute pop songs. Thirteen minutes of atmosphere is pushing it; i can just borrow Erika’s Sigur Ros albums.

Mountain Goats – The Sunset Tree. What is with this guy’s voice? Does he do musical theatre, or something? It’s just not a rock voice, and it pulls me away from the songs.

Red Hot Chili Peppers – Stadium Arcadium. Despite the best efforts of his compatriots, Kedis still can’t do more than four or five good songs per album cycle, which makes a double album a lamentable idea.

The Zutons – Tired of Hanging Around. I can understand why people are all wound up about this band, but they just make my ears tired. I know it’s somewhat blasphemous to say this, but i’d pick a Strokes disc over this every time.

Never Again To Enter the Cabbage Patch

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With the Lyndzapalooza landmark passed on my yearly calendar i’m in a bit of a drift. Bonnaroo, maybe, St. Louis in July, and then my birthday and Christmas and the whole thing starts all over again.

It’s a bleak outlook on the rest of a pretty good year, but i can’t seem to help that i’m starting to understand why everyone loves to complain about their jobs and longefor their weekends. You know what i mean; as a child they’re half the grownups you know and the majority of the adults on sitcoms, and even now it’s half your friends and half your co-workers.

My job is actually enjoyable, and it’s not that i like Saturday or Sunday any more than any of the other five days of the week. It’s just the centripetal force of circling around and around each week in the year. If you work a 9 to 5 job you can help but be drawn to the weekend like water circling a drain.

But what’s in that weekend? If you’re some people i know, the weekend is so packed full of activities – otherwise unachievable on a weeknight – that it’s just as much work as work. If you’re me the weekend is the same wasteland of exhaustion and listlessness as any weekend, just without intermittent workdays to break it up.

I’m starting to think that the key to adult happiness is staying away from both of those poles: don’t waste your weekend, but don’t lay yourself across it like a martyr either. Because, those fifty consecutive hours of “off” aren’t any different than the sixty-some non-consecutive hours of off you get during the week, which aren’t even that much different than the forty-some hours of work except that you get to do exactly what you want to do with them instead of what you should do with them. Except, maybe if you did what you should do they’d be more satisfying.

What do i know? I’m still pretty new at this grownup thing.

The Day That Was

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I take for granted that i have all this audio equipment, and microphone stands, and mixers, and, well, all the stuff i’ve accumulated over years of supplying equipment for Blogathon, Lyndzapalooza, and the Treblemakers. I take it for granted up until it’s the end of Lyndzapalooza and people are marvelling at all the equipment i have to pack or complimenting me on a job well done. I never feel like either is true, but i suppose the beauty is in the eye of the beholder.

Today was a very awesome Lyndzapalooza, that classic all-day musical party and barbecue -in honor of our one and only Lindsay- that has supplanted Blogathon as my major yearly holiday.

It truly is a holiday. I look forward to it all year, i get excited to the point of distraction when it’s upcoming, and i’m drained as soon as it’s over. And it’s not even a holiday about me! You could argue that it’s about me because i get up on stage and perform, but with every year that passes that becomes increasingly more incidental. Hell, today i ditched half of a meticulously planned setlist for Kelly Clarkson covers and bringing random friends onstage to sing with me. I’m not picky.

My true role at Lyndzapalooza is to be completely and totally unobtrusive – i shouldn’t get in the way of bands when setting up their sound, and when i’m playing for someone it should be all about them and not at all about me. That way, if i do eventually take the stage myself, i can be enjoyed or ignored as my own phenomenon rather than as “the sound guy we have to listen to.”

We sure have come a long way from the first year of scrounged equipment scattered across the yard of an abandoned house and microphones affixed to broomsticks. I’m happy to say that, despite a handful of desperately grumpy moments during the day, i left this ‘palooza stress-free and without regret. I played as good as i can play, i mixed as well as i can mix, and i still somehow managed to drink and socialize while i was doing it.

Mayyybe i need more of a sound reinforcement committee next year, though. Especially if we’re going to have it on a farm or a mountain rather than in Dante’s back yard.