Crushing Krisis

I’m straying from the script here – being indecisive. So, you get two songs instead of one.

Originally you were meant to get “Are You” from Trio Season 4, #4. However, listening to it tonight I was compelled to alter a flubbed change – editing it out in favor of a seamless transition.

The result sounded good, but that’s not what this highlights series has been about – I haven’t done any digital work to these recordings other than restoration, and occasional touch of reverb.

The irony is that “Are You” was intentionally imperfect – it bucked the trend of huge mixing projects that had overwhelmed an aborted Trio season that had began over a year before. “Are You” truly is a folk song – perhaps my only one – and at the time I resolved to keep it folky and untouched.

The endeavor of bringing mixing to Trio began 53 weeks earlier with Trio Season 4, #1. Actually, you’ve heard an earlier recording of the song in question – “Relief” – already during this series. I recorded this particular “Relief” in a single take, but then decided to add just a touch of harmony. And then just a touch more.

Really, I don’t know much in the way of restraint when it comes to harmony.

I haven’t heard the guitar/vocal recording without the harmony for almost four years; hearing it tonight I find myself wondering why I was so convinced it needed any harmony to begin with.

Which is the purer representation of Trio – my recovery from excess (in mixing and in perfectionism), or my first step into it (sans the excess)?

Up to you, I suppose.

 

 Are You - 10/19/2004 [3:51m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

 

 Relief - 10/06/03 [3:44m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

I’m not known for having a knack for spot-on cover songs, especially when they involve any sort of specificity in guitar playing. I’m a much more approximate kind of guy.

I’m also not known for controlled use of vibrato, or willingness to commit my falsetto to record.

It’s the presence of all of those elements that make my relatively off-the-cuff cover of Hedwig and the Angry Inch‘s “Wicked Little Town” in Trio Season 4, #5 one of my favorite Trio performances, despite some quibbles re: flatness.

(I bet some of you Googlers would love to see some chords here. Unfortunately, I haven’t played this in three years and I have work in the morning. I do recall that I’m capoed relatively high – perhaps seventh fret? I’ll come back with a transcription as soon as I’m able.)

I often remark that I’m not much of a musical fan, but I freely admit that one of my lifelong dreams is to play Hedwig. That said, I’m actually a much better vocal fit for his other half, Tommy Gnosis, as voiced in the film by Hedwig co-originator Stephen Trask.

 

 Wicked Little Town - 12/11/2004 [3:22m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

No matter how premeditated or rehearsed Trio has become over the years, it often yields surprising results – even in the control-freakish Season 5 I nailed a reinvention of “Other Plans” in single take.

When I had my tonsils removed in 2002 I had no way of knowing how it would impact my singing. I waited, impatiently for my throat to heal enough that I could sing.

As my first sans-tonsil week ended my voice started to return to normal. At first I sounded weird and too-open – like Bjork. Higher notes were less constrained, lower ones more boomy.

I decided that I had to document my altered vocals with a Trio, but with my singing handicapped my song choices were limited. As a result, on the few songs I could sing I spent more time rehearsing my guitar parts than vocals – my voice wouldn’t stand up to repeated tries at each song, so my fingers had to deliver their peak performance.

That’s how I arrived at this fantastic version of “Icy Cold,” from Trio Season 2, #15. The fingerstyle passages at the beginning and end were played exactly as arranged – I didn’t ad-lib at all (highly unusual for me when it comes to intricate guitar pieces).

At the time the addition seemed like a lark, but over the years it’s held up as one of the best all Trio performances – a one-time-only reinvention of one of my favorite original songs.

 

 Icy Cold - 6/16/2002 [5:22m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

While researching my Trio favorites I came across a recording I had completely forgotten – a demo of “Relief” recorded just minutes after I finished writing it.

The demo didn’t sound too much like the song I play today – the guitar rhythms never solidified, and the vocal wasn’t as distinct.

This version of “Relief,” from Trio Season 1, #8, was recorded just seven days later. You can clearly hear that in those seven days the song resolved very clearly into the form it’s stayed in for the past seven years.

 

 Relief - 11/05/2000 [3:20m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

Just a brief write-up for tonight’s Trio favorite, as I’ve been awake just about twenty-four hours, which included a lot of Trio remastering, walking, playing guitar, and being a miserable Philadelphia sports fan.

Trio has featured it’s fair share of covers, but I don’t think I’ve ever played one with so little preparation as “Enjoy the Silence,” which appeared in the “Boston” secret track attached to Season 2, Trio #7.

All three songs in the trio were covers of songs I spent a lot of time listening to during my trip to see Tori in Boston a month before. This very well may have been meant to be a practice take right up until I made it through the song, whereas the following two – more-rehearsed – covers wound up being train wrecks. I take special delight in how well-formed and supported the vocals are for the time period.

Tune in tomorrow for another Trio highlight, squeezed into my day somewhere between work and a jam with a new drummer (!).

 

 Enjoy the Silence - 11/25/2001 [2:16m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download