Crushing Krisis

Comic Books, Drag Race, & Life in New Zealand

Song of the Day

Song of the Day: “Love Me Down” by Jason Derulo

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It’s often the case in my insular little world of no TV or radio that I’m aware of an artist for years before I hear a single note of their music.

That was the case for Jason Derulo. I knew he was an R&B singer and a good dancer, but hadn’t heard a single song of his before the band tackled “Want To Want Me” when it exploded as a song of the summer in 2015. I don’t know what I was expecting from him, but it wasn’t the sparse, slightly campy, almost retro vibe of that tune.

(We discovered it medleys perfectly with Blondie’s “Heart of Glass”as we tinkered with the arrangement to save me from singing the entire thing in falsetto.)

I was enamored enough to check out the entire Everything is 4 LP from which the song was plucked. I liked a lot of the LP and its breezy, synth-filled, 80s R&B vibe, but no song hit me as squarely as “Love Me Down.”

[Read more…] about Song of the Day: “Love Me Down” by Jason Derulo

Song of the Day: “It’s Over, Isn’t It?” from Steven Universe

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Heading into my life as a parent, one of my initial hard and fast rules was “no children’s music.”

It was a rule I held to pretty firmly, not only for my own sanity, but because there is no such thing as “children’s music” or “adult’s music.” There’s just music. Yes, you can scientifically construct a tune that might more easily earworm its way into the brain of a child compared to the typical pop song, but if you can get a kid to like The Beatles, Michael Jackson, and Sia, why bother with anything that’s watered down?

As a part of my rule, I tend to be avoidant of most kid-oriented musical movies and TV shows, because those songs are some super earwormy little fuckers. I watched what parents went through with “Let It Go,” and that wasn’t happening in my house.

(We also have a, “no song more than once in a day unless we are learning to play it” rule in place to protect us in those situations.)

Then came Steven Universe.

Steven Universe is a cartoon about a matriarchal society of planet-conquering inorganic gems whose bodies are hard light projections and who have a tendency to break out into genre-bending song and what happens when one of them rebels against her home world and also gives up her body in order to have a half-human/half-gem, ukulele-wielding, sensitive pre-teen son named Steven with her solo rock songwriter boyfriend Greg.

Got it?

Not only does that sound scientifically constructed for me, but it also came with heavy recommendations from sources I trust as an appropriate show that doesn’t rely on the crutch of crude jokes and traditional gender roles, and teaches positive lessons about sexual orientation and consent.

(At least half of the prominent couples on the show are same gender pairings; when couples feel especially connected and cooperative they can fuse to form a more powerful gem form.)

Like I said, scientifically constructed for me.

Thus, when EV6 turned three and gained the rights to watch TV once a week, Steven Universe was amongst the first things we screened for her.

She was instantly addicted – to the show, to its charming and dynamic characters, and to its mind-blowingly awesome songs.

Seriously: these songs. They carry the story like the best songs in musical theatre but with all the heft of the catchiest pop song, usually in two minutes or less (since each episode has an 11 minute run time).

They thwarted my rule about children’s music, because they just aren’t. And, they skate around my rule against repeats because EV6 wanted to learn to play them herself on piano and ukulele! Like, I wrote out the chords to the theme song to match stickers on her piano and she taught herself how to sight-read the song so she could hear it whenever she wanted.

Mind: blown.

Last week the show finally released an official soundtrack album so we didn’t all have to rely on YouTube rips and occasionally SoundCloud posts for our fix. Of course, we had all the songs already, but having them perfectly edited and with an optimized frequency range got us listening all over again!

I debated mightily on which song to share with you to turn you on to the wonder of Steve Universe, and while I was tempted by one of the many brief pop songs in the show’s oeuvre, I went with what EV6 would play for you first and chose “It’s Over, Isn’t It?”

(Note that this is very much a “Musical Theatre” type song, which is its character Pearl’s style. For a Wonders-like retro pastiche, try “Steven and the Stevens,” for acoustic songwriter try “Be Wherever You Are,” and for indie pop try “Tower of Mistakes.” I’d link to Garnet’s “Stronger Than You,” but it’s a heavy spoiler for the first season!)

Seriously: are these the sorts of lyrics you expect to hear in most children’s cartoons (especially as sung by a female character)?

I was fine with the men
Who would come into her life now and again
I was fine ’cause I knew
That they didn’t really matter until you

I was fine when you came
And we fought like it was all some silly game
Over her, who she’d choose
After all those years I never thought I’d lose

What can you even say to that? [Read more…] about Song of the Day: “It’s Over, Isn’t It?” from Steven Universe

Song of the Day: “Fresh Eyes” by Andy Grammer

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When I hear a song for the first time my brain does something special.

It’s like the song is made of sand and my mind is a special sort of sifting pan. With each passing second I am sifting through the writing, the performance, and production to find something hidden inside.

The influences.

Sometimes I don’t even realizing it’s happening until my brain starts spitting out information, readouts printed on mental ticker tape. I think this only works the first time I listen to a song because afterwards I’m hearing it more as a single, gestalt creation. I might still be able to identify its influences, but it’s something deliberate I’m doing with my conscious mind.

Listening for the first time is different. I’m trying to make sense of the whole of the song out of its parts, and it’s easier to sift out an obvious pinch of another song. A certain melody. A vocal tone. And, just like the mental sand I sifted them from, if I don’t jot them down right way they’re lost forever. The next time I hear the song, I’ll just hear the song.

Last week I was setting up my weights at the gym before a workout when the little ticker tape printer in my brain started working overtime. My mind buzzed non-stop, spitting out the names of other songs and performers.

Weirdly – because this never, ever happens – one of the names it spit out was mine. And then, just as unconsciously, I started singing along with the song as I was hearing it – first with the melody, and then the high floating harmony on the chorus.

The cause of all that buzzing was Andy Grammer’s late-2016 single, “Fresh Eyes.”

Now, I’m not saying Andy Grammer was influenced by me or nicked one of my songs. I heard so many hints of other artists in this song. [Read more…] about Song of the Day: “Fresh Eyes” by Andy Grammer

Song of the Day: “It Don’t Hurt” by Sheryl Crow

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Today I woke up late, skipped my breakfast and run to barely make it to the gym with EV in tow, returned home to read to her and practiced our French, and managed to serve us both a fresh lunch while planning out meals for the week.

I’m exhausted.

I don’t want to be writing a blog post. I want to be laying in the middle of the floor and falling asleep while watching Drag Race. 

Yet, here I am. That’s because, while my frequent mantra of achievement may be “WWMD?“, when it comes to the words that motivate me to make it through my day it’s not Madonna I turn to.

It’s Sheryl Crow.

Those words are from “It Don’t Hurt,” a rather marginal, Dylanesque single from Crow’s third LP, The Globe Sessions. It’s a song about fooling yourself into feeling something.

The electric man looks good today
Maybe not, well I’m trying hard
Trying hard to feel that way
The electric man’s a good place to start

Stick with me for a minute here. This is about more than fucking the electric man, but it’s absolutely about arousal.

Sometimes nothing feels good. You don’t have to suffer from clinical depression to feel that way. Maybe you’re exhausted. Maybe you’re bored. Maybe you’re heartbroken. Maybe it’s just one of those days when your brain feels completely drained of all intent and motivation. A lying the middle of the floor sort of day. A playing idle games to pass the time sort of day.

No one can be Madonna – or, to use a more modern example, Beyoncé – every minute of every day. Especially because we don’t have massive empires to take care of things like our meals, our laundry, and our taxes.

On those days when I can’t get up the interest in anything, I think about Sheryl Crow and those lyrics.

Electrician by Stephanus Riosetiawan

“Electrician” – Stephanus Riosetiawan, 2006. Some rights reserved.

The electric man was not looking particularly good that day. He might not have ever looked good. Not to her, anyway. Maybe even if he did look good he didn’t look good to her because he’s the exact opposite of her type – too thin and wiry if she likes a muscular guy, or too short and stout if she likes her men tall and long-limbed.

It doesn’t matter. She is going to convince herself the electrician looks good. She is going to to subvert the flow of the chemicals in her body, little hits of dopamine, and instruct her brain to get interested in the electric man as he squats low to repair a broken outlet.

She’ll do it because you have to start somewhere, sometime. You have to put your stake in the ground at some point, and no one patch of sand is better than the next. If the electric man is in front of you, you go with the electric man. Maybe if you can feel aroused looking at him you can feel aroused about something you really care about.

I use the electric man litmus test on myself when I am feeling hopelessly listless. Can I get excited about something utterly mundane? Can I throw myself into organizing our DVDs or building an awesome race track with EV? Can I find a little passion in my body for something inane, since I can’t seem to summon it for something important.

The answer isn’t always yes. That’s fine. We’re in command of our bodies, but we’re not always in total control of those chemicals in our brains. If we can’t get excited about the electric man, maybe we’re missing something – a bite to eat, some more sleep, or even intervention from a professional.

But if you can get aroused over that electric man then, damnit, you know you can find your way back to your passion.

Was the thing I was most looking forward to today writing a blog post about a Sheryl Crow song I don’t even really like all that much? No. Yet I’ve been meaning to write a post about that specific verse for at least three years now. Now that I have, my listless brain is awake and alive and I’ve managed achieve something.

And that’s why the electric man is a good place to start.

Song of the Day: “If You Harden On The Inside” by Hezekiah Jones

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This post makes me absolutely giddy with joy: I’m debuting a song by my favorite band in Philly, who I also interviewed for this post, and if you buy it all the proceeds go straight to Women’s Law Project.

The song is “If You Harden On The Inside,” the first new tune from Hezekiah Jones since after their 2016 EP Har Har Har and a track on December’s Vilomahed project curated by Michele Lynn. You can get it for as little as $1, although I encourage you to donate more!

Hezekiah Jones is the folk collective formed by and around Philly-based songwriter Raphael Cutrufello. He pulls a peculiar double-duty while fronting the band, acting the entire time as Hezekiah, with each one of the band’s rotating cast of musicians presenting themselves as another fictional member of the Jones clan.

(My favorite: Dow Jones.)

That little touch of mythology goes a long way to contextualizing Cutrufello’s songwriting. When you hear Hezekiah Jones’ music, you have the profound sense that a weird band of back-country geniuses have briefly descended from their cloistered home on a hill to play for you, like a roving band of thespians in Shakespeare.

(It may be a hill in an alternate timeline.)

The songs are full of piercing observations on the human condition, always tinged with optimism. There’s also a smattering of details that place them in a vaguely post-apocalyptic landscape full of endless roiling wars and the Mississippi river expanded out to a sea.

Hezekiah Jones, photographed by Lisa Schaffer.

Hezekiah Jones, photographed by Lisa Schaffer.

“If You Harden On The Inside” could easily be a handclaps-and-harmony 60s pop song if it was dressed up with a full band arrangement. Instead, a whimsical chorus of Hezekiahs sings “blah blah blah” as backing to the track, later joined by a swell of electric pianos. As the song whirrs to life with its halting rhythm it gives serious vibes of Dirty Projectors.

Cutrufello AKA Jones plays everything on this track save for drums by Daniel Bower (AKA Roy G. Biv Jones) and bass by Philip D’Agostino (AKA Pepe Jones), a Philly music scene legend and touring member of Get The Led Out.

Half your saints
Are playing video games
Or they’re out doing meth
Or too depressed to get out of bed

All these bodies
What a delicate make
If you harden on the inside
You’ll be easy to break

If someone
Gave into love
Their guard would be down
We could steal all their stuff

That is the paradox of our human fragility in three stanzas, each repeated to make sure the message sinks in. [Read more…] about Song of the Day: “If You Harden On The Inside” by Hezekiah Jones