Crushing Krisis

Category Archives: my music

Master topic for all singer/songwriter activities

Open Mic-ing: Crossroads to McGillin’s, and the distance between

Friday, March 12, 2010

Last night I got it in my head to undertake a feat that I have only succeeding in once before – attending two open mics in one night.

This is especially tricky for me, since I turn into a very unmusical pumpkin if I stay out past midnight, but this week I had motivation – I was determined to get my new tune “Dumbest Thing I Could Do” out of my living room (where I blurrily video-demoed it earlier this week) and into the ears of as many people as possible.

Thursdays present a perfect non-pumpkin opportunity to do just that. First, hit the early open mic at Crossroads hosted by my dear friend Victoria Spaeth. Then hit a standard-timed one, playing in the first half. A popular choice is to hit nearby Buckets bar & Grill after Crossroads, but that puts me farther from home. Instead, I substituted McGillin’s, a super-popular pub in Center City.

Crossroads Coffee
Crossroads is an unpretentious coffee shop on Ridge Avenue in Roxborough/Manayunk. The counter at the front the shop opens up to a two-story, all-wooden room complete with a wrap-around balcony on the second level.

While I wish it had more of their comfortable armchairs and that the balcony was given more attention, I love the space for its golden natural acoustics. You barely need amplification. Also, the staff is super-friendly (shoutout to MIKE!) – full of suggestions of pescetarian food and their favorite drinks (last night: chai latte with a shot of espresso, which would have turned me into a human squirrel, so I just had tea).

The open mic was front-loaded with a lot of my favorite Philly performers. Vicky is quickly becoming one of the best singer-songwriters in the entire Philly scene, and now that she plays with a band it’s a rare treat to see her solo – especially doing newer tunes like “Electric Love.” (I’m still hunting a solo version of “Breathe & Release,” which may wind up being my song-of-the-year if she finishes recording the damn thing).

After our back-to-back sets I caught up with Joshua Popejoy (disclosure: client; awesome acoustic rocker) who is putting the finishing touches on a solo record bearing the title After the Ash. I have been dying for a studio version of at least half of the tracklist, so I encouraged him to FINISH IT ALREADY! (I can shout these things because I actually finished my own long-promised solo record.)

I also chatted up my open mic buds Bill McConney and Alec Stewart, both in fine form. Plus, Aaron Brown, who I’ve rhapsodized over previously. He’s got a songwriters-in-the-round show coming up at Tin Angel on 4/15.

Crossroads Coffee House. Thursday night open mic, signup ~6:30pm, music ~7:15pm. Usually limited to ten acts, two songs each. 6156 Ridge Ave., Philly, 19128. (Hint: Take the 9 bus from Walnut up Ridge Ave.)

After another songwriter (whose name I missed! I’m lame!) I had to excuse myself to bus down to CC, though in retrospect I could have spared another half hour. Deposited at Broad & Chestnut (by a Septa bus that did its best to run me over while I stood INSIDE THE BUS STOP), I wandered in a circle trying to remember which street leads to the special Underland occupied by McGillin’s.

McGillin’s
McGillin’s is the oldest continuously operating tavern in Philadelphia. It’s tavern in the classic sense – not dive-y in the least, a menu full of hearty, affordable food, and a lengthy beer list.

The best time you can have there is with a big crowd – either of your own making, or during one of their famously great karaoke nights. However, it’s a Philly open-secret that they also host an open mic night on Thursdays in their upper level, with its 20-foot antique oak bar.

The McGillin’s open mic is cool for a few reasons. The aforementioned food is high on the list. The setup includes a raised stage, sturdy stools, and a spiffy pair of wireless mics. The room can be still packed from happy hour, which gives you an audience happy to sing along to covers. And, host Mark is the friendliest possible dude in the world – affable, knowledgeable, and he makes me feel like I’m playing Madison Square Garden.

Last night the lineup was sparse, which meant mega sets for all. I played a monstrous five songs, including “Bad Romance” (HUT!) and a slinky, sweaty, rocking version of “Dumbest Thing I Could Do” (YES!).

While Mark played I got to know Philly bassist Mitch Beer. Mitch splits time between his supergroups BAM! and Soulfatronic while gigging with other local and national acts. He toured with Diggable Planets last fall, and might be heading out with them again soon! A very cool dude I hope to meet again.

McGillin’s Old Ale House. Thursday night open mic, signup from 9pm, start varies. 1310 Drury St., 19107. (Hint: Walk south on 13th from Chestnut; Drury is on your right.)

All in all, a great night of music. I even made it home before pumpkin time!

Also filed in performance, philly music | | Comments (1)

Open Mic-ing: Time, and the stuff that happens there

Thursday, March 11, 2010

Tuesday night Gina and I went out to our first open mic in a while as Arcati Crisis. Between a holiday break, my never-ending February malaise, and a death in her family, we’ve probably seen less of each other so far in 2010 than we have in any year since early in college.

As a remedy, our first order of business was to head to one of our favorite open mics – at Time Restaurant on Sansom Street.

Time is one of the nicest rooms hosting an open mic in Philly at the moment. Beautiful atmosphere, great wines and beers, an actual stage(!) with drums and an upright piano, and an always chill audience who actually listen. Plus, a super-cool pair of attentive hosts in Mark and Pete G.

Then there are the artists. Time tends to be a hub of cool musicians, and you never know who you’ll run into. Tuesday it was Cris Valkyria, Casey Alvarez, Dante Bucci, Victoria Spaeth, and a lot of other familiar faces. New ones too – Benn Rabb visiting from Connecticut, and the nicest possible dude named Nathan, whose CD (and last name) is still in Gina’s possession.

Unusually, there was only a single microphone stand around for the night.

If you’ve ever seen (or even heard) Gina and I, nearly every one of our tunes has heavy duty harmony throughout. When I saw the single stand, I had a prima donna moment where I was like, “How can we even do this? WTF?”

I decided to turn a weakness to a strength. What if we did our hardest core of hard core harmony tunes together – face-to-face on a single mic? Wouldn’t it just make the spectacle of us a little more spectacular?

Well, I think it did. And, honestly, it was a lot of fun. We’re so used to our unamplified, unmodified voices that many times striking a perfect blend through a PA system can be more than a little daunting. What better solution than to just put the two of us into a tiny space and let us feel things out?

We played a good set, and had a good time. If you’re a Philly songwriter – or, a Philly wine-lover who also digs singer-songwriters – Time on Tuesday nights is prime destination.

Time Restaurant. Tuesday night open mic starts around 10pm. 1315 Sansom Street, Philly, 19107.

Also filed in arcati crisis, philly music | | Comments (2)

Funk-Breaking with Katie Barbato

Monday, March 1, 2010

Well, here we are in March, with any February funkiness finally shrugged (even though the streets are still not quite cleared).

I have so much weekend to tell you about (Presenting at TrendCamp! Our first Arcati Crisis show of 2010! Another performance upcoming at Tin Angel!), but first I want to focus on my funk-breaking.

Even the cheeriest, most pro-active person (i.e., me, possibly you?) can fall prey to a crummy mood – where nothing we do seems to be worth doing. That was my February Funk.

Of course, funk is not exclusive to or contained within February. Nay, THE FUNK can capture you at any time of year. We’re just most susceptible when it’s dark and icy and we haven’t had a garbage collection for 16 days.

When you are me, and spend your spare time opening up your head and letting art out, THE FUNK is a pretty crippling condition. My internal editor is vicious enough already without any added incentive!

Luckily, I have the good fortune to be friends with many other people who have art inside of their heads, one of whom is Katie Barbato.

I’ve blogged about Katie before. She is an outstanding songwriter, a typically flawless singer, and leader of The Sleepwells, one of my favorite local bands.

Katie, too, had fallen prey to THE FUNK, and invited me over to her apartment for a serious funk break-up session. There was fresh hummus, sugar cookies, a stunning view, and Katie and her amazing songs.

And calling it quits with THE FUNK.

Over several hours Katie and I curated our own special mashup of VH1 Storytellers and Rock Opera, following a narrative from the dumbest things we could do to contending with the apocalypse to the stories of what we had lost in 2009.

Sometimes I can be so insular in my shared songwriting space with Gina that I forget that there are others out there channeling their feelings into songs – and that their feelings can be pretty similar to my own.

Not only did Katie share feelings, but she shared some stunning tunes. A few familiar ones, as well as some brand new ones being birthed. Katie writes with such beautiful, intuitive voice-leading – it was a special treat to follow along from across the couch instead of from across the bar. I should have been jotting down the names of tunes as we went, because I came away with several new favorites.

By the time we made it to our last songs and I played the mated pair of “Shake It Off” and “Regenerate” their equal parts rage and resignation came hurtling through me so strongly that my whole body was trembling for minutes afterwards.

As I wrapped myself up for a walk home through twinkling flakes of snow, I realized that Katie and I had shaken off THE FUNK. It was replaced with the purpose and self-respect I had been missing.

Every day since then has been awesome. Thank you, Katie, for sharing your songs and having the sense to shake us out of THE FUNK!

Gentle readers, if you too find yourself mired in funkiness you should seek out the coolest person you have interests in common with and have them BREAK YOU OUT!

I have a bit more news about Ms. Barbato and The Sleepwells, but that will have to keep for another few days. Let’s just say, you’ll have a chance to see a version of our funk-breaking shtick for yourself very soon…

Also filed in introversion, malaise, philly music, songwriting | | Comments (2)

Trolls Under the Bridge

Wednesday, January 27, 2010

As I spend more time working on Social Media projects at work and at home, one of the most recurring topics is “Trolls.”

It’s a broad topic. Trolls can be anything from vociferous-but-reasonable dissenters to people with an agenda of annoyance and an axe to grind. Each species merits a different reaction.

The Air Force created a terrific Web Posting Response Assessment – effectively, a Troll Taxonomy Tool & Decision Tree – to aid in selecting a response. (Here is a PDF of a recent version, for your reference.)

It’s a great tool – it distinguishes between several layers of negative responses. There are true “Trolls” (negative purely for the sake of it), but also responders are who “Misguided” (negative based on incorrect info) and “Unhappy” (negative based on a corresponding negative experience).

This simple, one-page chart has been a sanity-saver on a few projects in 2009. It forced my teams to stop a cycle of second-guessing – evaluate, respond if-needed, and move on.

That’s why my thoughts went to the assessment last night, when I received a comment notification on one of my videos. The comment was to the effect of “this dude can’t hit a note.”

I tried to objectively place my responder in the tree. Clearly he had a negative experience listening to me. He’s also misguided, because I’m definitely hitting many notes quite well in the video, and his comment wasn’t subjective.

Ultimately, though, he’s just a garden-variety Troll – spreading negativity for some intangible reason it’s impossible to dispute. So, per the Air Force, I’ll monitor it, but won’t respond.

That’s the success of more than my crack Air Force training. Three or more years ago that sort of comment would cripple my confidence. I would probably apologize for his negative experience without ever assuming he was misguided. And I would stop playing the song, probably for months!

Yesterday, he just made me smile. These days I’m a lot bigger than one or ten trollish comments. I sound how I want to sound; if I didn’t, I would have never posted the video.

That’s the same confidence you must have in your brand to make good use of the Air Force tool. If you’re unsure of the product or service you’re offering, every dissent turns into a potentially reasonable complaint.

From there, it’s all apologies, and you’ll be overrun with Trolls.

Also filed in corporate, essays, self-critique, singing, thoughts | | Comments (4)

You can download my album for free!

Tuesday, January 12, 2010

Brown Bag Demos, Vol. 1

Do you like free music? Do you also like me? The intersection of those two interests is my first album since 2001, Brown Bag Demos, Vol. 1.

Brown Bag Demos collects a dozen of my favorite acoustic demos into a single album – including many you’ve heard at Crushing Krisis, all newly remastered. The album is available for free streaming and download at BandCamp. You can DL in any format you’d like – from MP3 to Ogg Vorbis to FLAC.

[This "sticky" post will remain at the top of the page; new posts start below.]

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Under My Skin

Saturday, January 9, 2010

It’s that time again.

Decades help us mark the time, draw arbitrary lines around styles and changes in our world. Sometimes my memories of “The 80s” are actually from 1992. Sometimes that great 30s pop art I love is from the 20s.

We claim 10 years as something tangible, but can we really understand it? At age 20 it’s half of our lives! At age 30 it’s just the upwardly mobile portion. So when do we understand? 40? 50? Do ten years ever make sense as a discreet, disposable unit the way one, or two, or five do?

I don’t know, and I’ll have to decide in August when this endeavor hits its own decade mark.

By then I’ll have celebrated dozens of other tiny deca-birthdays, as my early songs are all reaching that milestone. I’ve let most of them slip by unnoticed, or unmarked, or just by playing the song once or twice.

“Crashing” marked the beginning of my “modern” era of songwriting, so I marked that one with a recording.

Today marks something else. “Under My Skin.” God, I cannot even believe I am typing this, but I wrote it ten years ago. And, I never stop playing “Under My Skin.” For the first time, this is a song I’ve been living with – regularly, non-stop – for a decade.

So, there’s my measure. This tune took me from 18 having my first kiss to 28 and about to celebrate my first wedding anniversary. 18 and unsure of what life held in store to 28 surer than ever of what I want from it. 18 and barely able to carry a tune to 28 and confidently holding the stage on my own in two gigs in a single weekend.

But, I can tell you all about that this summer. The blog covers that. What does the song cover? Continue reading ›

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Hot off the presses!

Thursday, January 7, 2010

This week has been one of the more technically challenging ones I’ve ever spent as a songwriter, but right now that doesn’t bother me because look what I’m holding in my hands…

Brown Bag Demos discs, hot off the press.

Yes, that’s right, my first physical mass-produced CD release since 2001, and it’s totally DIY by Elise and I:

I decided to put together a CD six days ago

I wrote 11 of the 12 songs from 1999 to 2009

I performed all of the songs solo in my studio from 2007 to 2010

I engineered and mixed the recordings

E shot the photo; we both retouched it

E designed the cover art; I laid out the disc art

E and I worked together to launch the accompanying new website

E originally conceived of the Brown Bag Demos name and execution

More news tomorrow, as I make my solo debut (and sudden guerrilla CD release party) at the Tin Angel – 10:30 pm, $8.

More news on buying/downloading the CD on Monday.

Also filed in songwriting | | Comments (1)

Flip Video Hell

Wednesday, January 6, 2010

Good news: wallet found!

Bad news: still in video encoding hell.

Since I’m sure someone else on the face of the internet is experiencing this issue, allow me to expand:

My project: Shoot video with my Flipcam while I record audio in my home studio. After mixing the audio, sync it to the video in Adobe Premiere for a studio-quality music video to post to YouTube.

Sounds straight-forward, yes?

The Flip is certainly straight-forward – about the size of a pack of cigarettes and operates with a single button. Its 1280×720 isn’t the crispest, but it does well in all sorts of lighting conditions, and can absorb loud sound at concerts without clipping.

That said, the sound is still through a relatively tinny single mic, so adding stereo multi-track audio from my studio marks a vast improvement.

The problem comes when I import the MP4 into Adobe Premiere. It looks beautiful! However, its timing is every so slightly off – compared to the audio track the video falls increasingly behind. The difference is less than a second, but enough to ruin the visual sync of the audio to the video.

Not only is it visible against the video, but you can hear it via an increasing echo if you turn up the audio from the Flip. And after encoding the problem seems even more pronounced.

I’ve been trouble-shooting this for 72 hours, and I can’t discern the source of the problem. So far, I have:

Installed, uninstalled, and reinstalled all of my various video codecs

Tried encoding the end project in a number of formats

Tried editing with multi-threading on my system turned on and off

Tried converting the Flip video to other formats prior to editing

At the moment I am truly and completely stumped. On one hand, it could be that I’m simply not unpacking the MP4 file correctly into a format that I can edit with.

However, my growing suspicion is that the Flip is dropping and/or inserting some frames, and it would only take one or two “skips” to throw the video off several milliseconds against my audio recording.

I lucked out on Monday with “Icy Cold,” which lags just a hair, but since then I’ve been completely frustrated.

Unless some video superhero comes through with an explanation and a fix it looks like I’ll be hawking my Flip to step up to a more pro-sumer model for my upcoming projects.

Updated: Comments from my personal video superhero, Colin, of SeptaWatch.

MPEG is a compressed format, meaning it uses a combination of dropped frames + keyframes to make up for the lack of real data. When you “decompress” the MPEG, those frames are gone forever, so they have to be recreated. This is an imprecise science. Since the Flip is recording compressed video, you’re not recording with any sort of frame-by-frame accuracy.

The songwriter’s job is never done, eh?

PS: Could it be the audio that’s off? It’s possible, but not probable – I’ve been using Cubase for over two years, and my DAW is customized for it. It’s certainly not a logical explanation

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Daily Demo: Icy Cold

Monday, January 4, 2010

Here’s a brand new HD video of “Icy Cold” with beautiful hi-fi multi-track soundboard audio. It comes with a story.

(watch in HD on YouTube and download the mp3.)

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.

Also filed in betterment, cold, college, demos, memories, performance, self-critique, songwriting, stories, video | | Comments (1)

2010, pass or fail

Saturday, January 2, 2010

In perusing the new year’s resolutions of my bloggy and tweety friends, I’ve noticed a lot of hate on 2009.

I suppose a lot of terrible things happened to a lot of people last year, which makes me almost embarrassed to admit it was pretty awesome for me. I don’t have to explain why, because you’re reading my blog, AKA Peter’s Awesomeness Tracker (e.g., wedding, Paris, music festival, skydiving, #bdc, etc).

I also accomplished a lot of personal goals. Not resolutions, mind you – intangible, mutable agreements with yourself that you might choose to honor on any given day. No, real goals – like, “Keep a balanced budget,” “Record X songs,” and “Convert home office to recording studio.” And each goal came with an associated amount of points, altogether adding up to 100 – which meant I could grade myself on my year.

(I know, right? Only I would take delight in making new year’s resolutions into an academic endeavor with a grade.)

I didn’t get a 100% on 2009, or even a C. It was more of a pass/fail thing, and I certainly didn’t fail – in grade or in the obscene amount of important things I accomplished.

The goals were good for something else, too – they let me know what wasn’t important. If I cannot bring myself to tag the last 800 posts from CK’s first three months even with my grade hanging on the line, it’s just not gonna happen.

I kept that in mind as I designed my 2010 goals. I focused less on esoteric personal requirements and more on things I could accomplish and view a product of.

It’s hardly a secret that many of my goals are related to my music – over a third! Last year one of my big goals was to get out regularly to open mics, which I did! For 2010 one of the biggest goals, with the most associated points, is playing shows where I am featured on the bill.

What a coincidence, then, that I am playing my first solo gig at the Tin Angel this Friday.

201001tinangel

I have some more to say about that (CLEARLY!!!!!), but it will keep until the week begins.

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Apocalyptic Love Song – Arcati Crisis, Live @ Rehearsal

Friday, January 1, 2010

It’s a new year!

Ten years ago at this moment I was a freshman in college with a totally new group of friends at my first adult dress-up party, about to experience my first kiss. And maybe die in the throes of Y2K.

Tonight I am home alone with my wife, and I shaved off my mustache., so I could give her a unscruffy New Year’s kiss.

There have only been two constants in my life that ten years. Music. And Gina.

“Apocalyptic Love Song” is about loving someone to the end of the world and beyond. I think it’s the best song anyone currently living in Philadelphia has written. Possibly the Eastern Seaboard. And I will not rest until Gina wins a Grammy for it. Sometimes I am brought to tears while we’re playing it, moved by the power of Gina’s lyrics and performance.

Encompassing the two constants in my life, and addressing the unknown the always lies ahead, it seemed fitting to end our concert with it tonight.

The future makes me laugh, the future makes me cry
I can see it all in the reflective square of light shining in my eye
I see ripples. I see waves. I hear cries of despair.
And all I can think to do is go on breathing all this air
But I know that for a while the sun will continue to shine
Just as long as at some point you were standing here by my side

(watch in HD on YouTube)

You can download a revelatory version of “Apocalyptic Love Song” from our most recent Live @ Rehearsal CD.

You can watch our entire web concert in sequence via our YouTube playlist.

Also filed in arcati crisis, elise, gina, under my skin, video | | Comments (0)

Better – Arcati Crisis, Live @ Rehearsal

Thursday, December 31, 2009

I love this darn song.

When it comes to my past few songs, the typical Arcati Crisis selection process is like so:

I write a ton of songs. Sometimes dozens. We sift through them, and eventually choose one because Gina or I finally get stubborn about it. If I don’t change my mind in a month or two, then we learn that song.

“Better” was different. I wrote it knowing it was going to be an AC song before I ever played it for Gina. I wrote it with counter-point, callbacks, and open harmony all built in.

I just knew. And because I knew, it’s so very satisfying to play, to hear, and to watch. It’s not much of a stretch to say it’s my favorite one of my songs to play as a duo right now, and I’m in love with our performance here:

(watch in HD on YouTube)

That’s the only way you can hear “Better” at the moment – we took a shot at recording it live, but I suspect it’s going to be one of our first fully tracked songs.

Around the big ball drop I’ll chime in with our final song, somehow appropriate for the end of the year. Then, on to solo music to ramp up to my appearance at the Tin Angel next Friday, opening for Dante Bucci!

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Total Eclipse of the Heart – Arcati Crisis, Live @ Rehearsal

Wednesday, December 30, 2009

Today was pretty crazy.

In short, I unexpectedly stayed home from work, and just as I was finally dragging my carcass out of bed a digital series of events began to unfold on my laptop (which had been in bed with me) that resulted in my being booked for a solo appearance at the Tin Angel – opening for my friend and esteemed musical colleague Dante Bucci.

Not how I expected to spend the day, and a lot of information to process (and songs to prepare!) in the next nine days. What will I play? Will I slip in a surprise cover?

Gina and I never used to be good at learning things in a hurry, but in 2009 we got suddenly alright at it. We surmised in an interview earlier this year that it’s because we finally figured out what we’re supposed to sound like. Now that we understand our sound, it’s much easier to build it from scratch.

On that topic, this is perhaps our seventh or eighth full run through “Total Eclipse of the Heart,” which we learned in two brief sessions.

(watch in HD on YouTube)

There’s still some tweaking to do, but I’m happy we captured this hilarious blast through it on video.

There are just two more songs left in our web concert; after that I’ll be presenting some solo content to take us through my appearance at the Tin Angel on January 8th!

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Under My Skin – Arcati Crisis, Live @ Rehearsal

Tuesday, December 29, 2009

I don’t want to steal the thunder of the impending essay you’re due for this song in 10 days when I celebrate its tenth birthday. (Hello, this song has it’s own freaking CATEGORY on my blog.)

Suffice it to say that after you’ve been playing something for long enough you stop feeling the feeling that you originally felt and start just feeling the song, because the song embodies the original feeling, and that is beautiful state of affairs to be in as a performing songwriter.

I have been playing “Under My Skin” with Gina since shortly after its writing in January of 2000. Even with a backbone of a mere three chords it keeps getting better, even after we retire it for months or years at a time.

This is as fine a version as any, save for one flat chord and a pair of swapped words. Otherwise, divine.

(watch in HD on YouTube)

(The pitter-pattering part of the outro refrain that crests around “just a kiss, and I don’t think that I miss you anymore” has always meant to invoke the Jackson 5 – even pre-dating my more recent obsession with the Jackson 5. I sometimes segue from that part straight into “Never Can Say Goodbye,” but could just as easily get to “I Want You Back” or “ABC.”)

Gina and I haven’t done a proper duo recording of “Under My Skin,” but she did overdub her newer bits of the arrangement onto a recording I love from NaBloPoMo 2006. You can download that here.

The best way to keep up with Arcati Crisis happenings is to become our fan on FaceBook, because I don’t always blog every little thing.

I know, it’s hard to believe.

Tomorrow we will play you our new cover, which will lead either to head-explosions or mocking, but probably not both.

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Holy Grail – Arcati Crisis, Live @ Rehearsal

Monday, December 28, 2009

Welcome back from your hopefully restful holiday weekend, and to a hopefully equally-restful post-holiday week! I’ll continue to rock you with new Arcati Crisis Live @ Rehearsal videos all week.

Today’s song is a web debut – Gina’s “Holy Grail.” It started as a simple strummer about a year ago, but both Gina and I heard something more in the chords. After a few listens I came up with the entirety of my insane lead line, which in turn pushed Gina to play her rhythms harder and punkier. We wound up with an awesome, poppy, rock tune:

(watch in HD on YouTube)

That’s the first-ever digital version of “Holy Grail,” so I don’t have an MP3 to share with you. The best way to find out about new Arcati Crisis music is to become our fan on FaceBook.

Tomorrow I have a Peter classic for you…

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What I Tweeted, 2009-12-27 Edition

Sunday, December 27, 2009

My best and most-interesting tweets of the last week.

Quotes of the week:

Chipotle must be very high in umami. That's the only possible explanation for how I could love something more than ice cream. #

Great post. RT @trevor_neilson: RT: @kanter @socialentrprnr What can Pepsi learn from Chase Fail? http://bit.ly/6XXxxb @socialcitizen in reply to trevor_neilson #

Agree/Disagree: Any best songs of the decade list that doesn't start with "Since U Been Gone" is badly calibrated. #

1,000 True Fans, a fantastic article: http://bit.ly/568LhN (re: last night, @brimil) #

Dying of LOL listening to "I Sure Hope I Don't Have To Beat Your Ass This Christmas." Master Shake is my #1 Role Model. http://bit.ly/6NXn1q #
This is the greatest X-mas song ever. I wish Master Shake could be my internal monologue. Did I mention it's live & you can DL for free? #
Oh. "Christmas is a time for forgiveness." "Forgiveness does not turn chicks on like Old Spice shower gel." #

This is BS. Vick does not deserve to be a public figure anymore, let alone win awards: Eagles vote Vick Courage Award – http://bit.ly/8Ceyx8 #
I swear, if by some outside Phillies-blessed chance the Eagles win the Superbowl I AM NOT GOING TO COUNT IT because Vick is on the team. #

Nothing puts me in the Christmas spirit quite like the last half of the first act of RENT. #

Oh: "Your a very special family of nerds that I fit in with so well." #

You should follow me on Twitter so you can read my tweet action as it happens.

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Religion / Falling Slowly – Arcati Crisis, Live @ Rehearsal

Wednesday, December 23, 2009

Today you get two songs in one post!

The first is one of our two brief single-minute tunes – Gina’s “Religion.” The fun fact about this bitingly sarcastic little agnostic ditty is that it’s one of the first songs Gina ever wrote. Its original demo was featured on CK during the first ever Blogathon in 2001.

We always joke that people probably like the 2001 demos better than our current stuff, because they are so warbly and indie rock. Oh, fickle tastemakers.

(watch in HD on YouTube)

If you’re in the slice of audience “Religion” doesn’t offend, feel free to download our most recent demo.

Today’s second song is “Falling Slowly” from the movie Once; I shared our demo of it last week. Ultimately I wound up playing piano at our appearance at the holiday revue, but I was still simply singing when we shot this rehearsal footage:

(watch in HD on YouTube)

The Arcati Crisis Live @ Rehearsal concert will be back with five more installments next week, including our two newest songs, a Peter deep cut, Gina’s magnum opus, and a new 80s cover.

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Fisher Price – Arcati Crisis, Live @ Rehearsal

Monday, December 21, 2009

Gina and I shot a nine-song Live @ Rehearsal concert last week at the Shubin Theatre as we prepped for our anchoring slot at their Holiday Revue. Here’s the first tune – Gina’s rollicking “Fisher Price.”

(watch in HD on YouTube)

Love “Fisher Price”? Download our latest Live @ Rehearsal recording of it, for free.

Upcoming songs include two video debuts from me, Gina’s righteously awesome rock single, a ten-year-old tune, and two never-heard-before covers!

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Daily Demo: Falling Slowly (Live @ Rehearsal)

Monday, December 14, 2009

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.

Falling Slowly (Live @ Rehearsal): Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

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What do you mean you don’t like Wham!?

Thursday, December 10, 2009

I spent the night at home last night – E was out rehearsing with the band while Gina and I commandeered the living room for Arcati Crisis rehearsal.

We’ve been so consumed with our open micage this fall that we’ve forgotten a bit about how much we like to just be in a room playing music with each other. An hour – a whole hour – practicing our acoustic duet of “Total Eclipse of the Heart.” In what other living room in America can you hear that?

We’re the house band at the Shubin Theate holiday revue next weekend, as we’ve been since 2003, amidst opera and flamenco and one-act plays. I tried to convince Gina to learn a Christmas song, but we reached an impasse after she declined “Christmas Song,” she wanted “Father Christmas” but neither of us really know it, and I wanted “Last Christmas” and we discovered her secret prejudice against Wham.

HELLO, SECRET PREJUDICE AGAINST WHAM? Seriously, we’ve been friends for half our lives and I didn’t know about this? Wham is like the best super-cheap jug of wine ever – cloying, a little too syrupy, but only a guilty pleasure after you realize you drank the entire thing all in one sitting and bought a second.

Apparently she just likes “Wake Me Up (Before You Go Go)” as a novelty. No “Careless Whisper,” and no “Last Christmas.”

So, yeah, no Christmas songs from Arcati Crisis, per our usual MO. We’ll play our newest stuff and unleash “Total Eclipse,” as well as probably “Falling Slowly” – which makes me nervous as hell. We’ve never done a song before where I have to just stand still and sing well.

You’ll get a preview of it next week. And if you’re in Philly and will die without attending the holiday revue, let me know via comments.

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Monday @ Downey’s Open Mic

Tuesday, December 8, 2009

I have been on an open mic tour this fall, in an effort to get my music out of our living room and into the ears of people other than Elise.

It’s not that I don’t like performing. I love performing. It makes me realize why I torture myself with all this practice. I just don’t like leaving the house. Or traveling to where I’ll be performing. Or staying there past midnight.

Otherwise, yes, I love performing.

A wonderful thing about Philadelphia at this point in time is that there are open mics within walking distance of just about anyone, which at least eases the traveling aspect. Last night E and I headed out to Downey’s on front and South – a mere mile away – for a rare combo open mic: me solo, and she as an acoustic half of Filmstar along with Glenn.

I was in better mood or voice or whatever than usual. “Regenerate” felt real and true. I love starting, singing “In a room full of strangers that were once known to me,” and wondering if I am in that room of strangers, or if I am telling a new and different room a story about them.

The beauty of playing “Regenerate” first is that if I make it through I feel relatively invincible; I tore through the rest of my set in short order (including my still relatively new cover of “Poker Face).

Elise and Glenn acquitted themselves well, with E playing guitar in front of people for the first time since 2003. And we heard our visiting songwriting friend Rob Lytle, as well as my increasing dear friend Cris Valkyria with her otherworldly first soprano siren.

It’s a good morning to be awake and alive, I think.

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Live @ rehearsal no more?

Saturday, November 7, 2009

Today Gina and I had a scheduled Arcati Crisis rehearsal labeled “Brown Bag” on our calendars, which is our not-so-covert code-word for working on a new Live @ Rehearsal CD. We haven’t released one in over a year.

We held a brief rehearsal off-mic to tune up our cover songs, and then headed into my home studio for the official proceedings.

Despite being well-rehearsed and in good voice, something felt off about it to me. I frowned over my mic at Gina after our third take.

“I don’t think this works anymore.”

She looked up from her guitar. “Hmmm?”

“This. Live @ Rehearsal. I don’t think it works anymore.”

“What do you mean? That was a pretty good take.”

“That’s my point. They’re all good takes. We could record every rehearsal this way, and have an endless amount of songs for people to hear and download. But, I don’t know if we can improve any more. I think our performances are pretty consistent, and we’re not doing anything new…”

“Unless we’re drumming with Chaz.”

“Right, unless we’re drumming. And I don’t think I can mix better without isolating us and putting up multiple mics for each guitar.”

Gina contemplated for a moment.

“You’re right. And I suppose the point of the CDs is that they were better than we’d be live, but that’s not really the case anymore.”

“Right.”

“Hmm.”

“Yeah.”

We kept rehearsing on mic, which turned up a few random gems. The mixing limitations are real, though – I can’t set up for our duets with the same level of quality control I do for my solo takes. That means further Live @ Rehearsals would never live up to the increased fidelity of my recent CK demos.

Does this mean we’re finally due for a ::gasp:: proper album? I’m not sure. But, it definitely marks the end of the second phase of our evolution of a duo. The first phase was simply learning songs and forging a sound. The second phase was becoming consistent and fine-tuning our identity.

What might phase three entail?

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Daily Demo: Crazy for You (Madonna cover w/lyrics & chords)

Wednesday, November 4, 2009

Cover: Crazy for You (live demo) ["Save As" to download from that link]
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.”)

Crazy For You - Madonna (live demo): Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

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Daily Demo: Kick Me

Tuesday, November 3, 2009

Song #238: Kick Me (live demo) ["Save As" to download from that link]
Never before recorded.

Not all Fridays are not of the TGI variety. Some of them leave you bruised and battered, wondering if you can really make it through another week – or even through the weekend.

That was the sort of Friday that spawned the chorus of “Kick Me” this spring – a day of intellectual punishment resulting in that arpeggiated major-chord melody spinning in my brain on my walk home. I sat on the bed with Elise in the afternoon sun and worked out the chords on my guitar. They seem simple now, but at the time they made no sense!

All I had for a week or two was the chorus, until one night I was waiting on the bus at 18th and Market. No bus was evident, but urban hipsters kept whipping by on road bikes with their skinny jeans and iPod earbuds. Probably listening to something obscure, I thought. Or, jazz.

In my head blossomed the phrase “You’ve got your skinny jeans, and your Love Supreme, you left me dying on the vine while you were out on the scene.”

The rest came quickly, but in bits and pieces. Somewhere there is still an extra verse of castoff lyrics floating around that I cut while sitting at the piano. I knew it was done when I tweeted the “#1 vulture in line for my body” verse, because it sounded so right once I wrote it down.

“Kick Me” was so thoroughly composed for piano that it took me months to learn the chords on guitar, especially around the key change. I’m still much more comfortable playing it on piano.

Kick Me (live demo): Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

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Daily Demo: Crashing

Monday, November 2, 2009

Song #77: Crashing (live demo) ["Save As" to download from that link]
Last recorded for Blogathon 2002.

10 years ago this weekend I went to my first college party, still very much a purposefully-naive, dewy-eyed teen.

I came home having had my first vodka cranberry and my first inklings of adult romance, drifting to sleep wrapped in the blissful denouement of each.

The following Monday morning was a decidedly dreary day, and I found myself locked out my dorm room in my pajamas. Instead of heading to French 103 I sat down in our common room – five stories from the ground with a two-story windowed wall staring out into Center City Philadelphia.

I pulled out a pad and wrote “Crashing.”

Later that day, having been let back into my room, I recorded its first rough demo and transferred the lyrics to the first page of the crisp new book I bought for my collegiate songs. Up until then I wasn’t sure how I would know it was time to start using it, but I suddenly did.

“Crashing” made frequent appearances at parties and late night hangouts throughout my Freshmen year, resulting in the first complements on my voice I had ever heard. They came as a great shock to me, as they still do. Later that autumn I recorded it for my first full length demo, Other Plans – shakily, in the middle of the night, trying not to wake up my mother in the process.

As a dreary fall turned to winter I moved on to add other songs to my slim gray book – many of which I still play to this day. Yet, it was “Crashing” I would play between classes as I sat at the dinged, old upright piano in the theatre green room. I would hypnotize myself with the rolling two chord verse, learning how to play piano in increments (and maybe a little bit about what the song really meant, as well).

It took the entire intervening decade to learn how to play piano well enough to demo it that way, and it seems apropos that it wound up recorded just as shakily and late as its original demos were, respectively.

Crashing (live demo): Play Now | Play in Popup | Download