Comic Books, Drag Race, & Life in New Zealand
by krisis
In a few short hours it will be the tenth anniversary of my first post on Crushing Krisis.
As you might expect, I have a lot to say about that. Before I do, I wanted to share ten of my favorite posts from this past year. (Actually, it’s 13 posts, but the pairs are pairs for a reason – not out of indecisiveness).
[Read more…] about 10 posts from Year 10 for my 10th anniversary
by krisis
OMG you guys, you missed the best night ever. But don’t worry – I recorded it all for you!
Last night I supported Mieka Pauley at our first ever house concert, which was also ostensibly the CK 10th Anniversary Show. It was amazing. I had a great time playing songs I usually think are pretty hard, and Mieka was both flawless and real several feet away from my sofa.
Here’s two highlights I will treasure forever…
I cover “Ray of Light” for the first time ever, on my baritone guitar, which I had only figured out how to do about 24 hours prior.
.
Mieka plays her spectacular tune “Colossal” with impromptu, unrehearsed harmony from Elise, my wife and lead singer of Filmstar.
.
There’s way, way more where that came from. Also, my blog turns 10 in three days.
Did I mention that all happened IN MY LIVING ROOM.
CRAZY.
by krisis
Here’s a brand new HD video of “Icy Cold” with beautiful hi-fi multi-track soundboard audio. It comes with a story.
Okay, story-time.
Ten years ago (less 24 days) I was a freshman in college, and I wrote a song called “Icy Cold.”
It was an odd one – very oblique lyrics in one of my more unusual alternate tunings (at the time) made it a challenge to sing and play. I left it off my 2000 demo CD Other Plans and, curiously, also did not consider it for my 2001 studio disc Relief. It remained bound to my apartment, where it factored in to a few of my favorite Trio recordings.
Around the same time I wrote “Icy Cold” – 86th in a rapidly-expanding list of songs – I decided that it was time for me to start playing shows.
Being rather ignorant as to what that entailed, I assumed that I would just phone up a local, mostly-acoustic venue where people I liked frequently played and explain that I wrote tons of awesome songs, and then they would invite me to play. (Later, after my initial flush of success, I could upgrade to playing the TLA or the Electric Factory).
The Tin Angel being the only local mostly-acoustic venue that I knew of at the time, I sussed out their booking information and rang them up.
That was the extent of my year-2000 booking experience at the Tin Angel. No follow-up. No booking. No flush of success.
To be fair, I would have been an utter disaster. I know some people so wonderful that their first ever show was at the Tin, but I was not that kind of wonderful in 2000. Sure, I had the awesome songs, but I could just barely sing, and I was playing a guitar that didn’t even especially stay in tune!
Over the course of the past ten years I’ve done a lot to rectify my singing and guitar-playing issues, and I’ve played in a lot of amazing Philly venues – including the Tin Angel, as part of a showcase with Arcati Crisis. Yet, I’ve never fulfilled that original goal of ten years ago – being featured solo on the bill at the Tin.
Well, that’s going to happen on Friday at 10:30 p.m., so when it came to choosing the first song to post in 2010 in this glorious new HD audio/video combo format it seemed natural to choose “Icy Cold” – especially given the slights it experienced in 2000 and 2001.
Plus, it’s really freaking cold out.
That’s my story.
PS: I owe the hugest possible shout-out to Tim Jahn for explaining Adobe Premiere Pro compression codecs to me via Twitter at the eleventh hour (literally) to make this beautiful video possible. Tim writes a blog of occasional, thought-provoking bulletins that I have been enjoying for months. You can also follow him on Twitter.
by krisis
A few weeks ago Gina and I convened to brush up on our originals for the impending annual Shubin Theatre Holiday Revue, and in the process caught one of our newer covers on virtual tape.
The song is “Falling Slowly,” the Academy Award winning tune from Once.
Gina saw Once early in its theatrical run – before I had even heard of it. The next day she came to rehearsal and said, “I have to play you this song.” She proceeded to unfurl a beautiful, played-by-ear version of “Falling Slowly.” She narrated her way through: “Here the woman starts singing a higher harmony part.” “And, you see, in the chorus he goes up for falsetto -the lines cross.”
I was enamored with the song immediately, though less so when I heard the warbling official version from the soundtrack. I filed it in the back of my head as something to try as Arcati Crisis at a later date.
That later date came this summer, as we were casting about for some new covers to learn. “What about,” I queried with caution, “playing ‘Falling Slowly’?”
Gina was all over the opportunity, with the caveat that this was to be my chance to sing a song without playing guitar. Which sounds like a nice vacation, but it is actually TERRIFYING – partially because the song is tricky and I sing better harmony while I am playing guitar, but also because I’m simply not used to singing without an instrument (aside from karaoke, which is a different beast).
This live @ rehearsal demo of the song finds us at a late stage of the rehearsal process – we’ve worked out the road-map and harmonies, but we’re still fine-tuning the blend between our voices. We’ll debut our performance of it this Saturday at the Shubin Theatre.
by krisis
Cover: Crazy for You (live demo)
Last recorded fall 2002.
There are no Madonna songs released before 1990 that I don’t like. Well, except “The Gambler,” but I don’t think I heard that until I graduated college.
In the 80s there were no iTunes downloads or mix CDs, and the Vision Quest soundtrack that originated “The Gambler” and “Crazy For You” was pretty frigging obscure. While sister soundtrack single “Into the Groove” made an appearance on You Can Dance, “Crazy For You” was a 45-only delight for me.
Until The Immaculate Collection.
Sure, I had all the other songs already (yes, including “Vogue,” it’s on I’m Breathless)(and, no, not “Rescue Me,” but that wasn’t such a big revelation), but suddenly I had “Crazy For You” at my fingertips – on a tape!
Oh, the pleasures of a simpler time – when songs were actually obscure.
As Madonna covers go, “Crazy For You” was always high on my list of tricky songs to achieve along with “Lucky Star” and “Vogue” – it’s boring as a series of half-barres in standard, and it’s impossible to accurately play the intro riff inside of the chords that way.
For the guitar nerds out there, keep reading for chords and instructions on how to play my alternate tuning arrangement.
(In other news, the backing vocals from this are the same as the ones in Tori’s “Tear In Your Hand.”)
[Read more…] about Daily Demo: Crazy for You (Madonna cover w/lyrics & chords)