Crushing Krisis

Comic Books, Drag Race, & Life in New Zealand

krisis

Krisis has been creating Crushing Krisis since 2000, writing songs since 1996, and reading comics since 1991. He is a Customer Success and Digital Brand Strategy executive, serial organizer, parent, and feminist, among other things. Based in Philly through 2017, he now resides in Wellington, NZ.

Guest-starring with Filmstar

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Some things I learned about myself on Saturday, while performing my first gig as substitute-bassist with E’s band Filmstar.

  1. I am not actually a bass player.
  2. I am way hotter playing bass than I am playing guitar.
  3. No matter how much I beat myself up about #1, I can’t even pick out most of my flubs on rewatch unless I was making a nasty face while flubbing.
  4. I’m not actually conflicted about Filmstar.

That last one is the big news and the big surprise. When I last wrote last Friday I was wistful, thinking ahead to my imminent replacement in the band.

Before more blather, please witness our first public performance of my current favorite Filmstar tune, “Fall From the Sky.”


(I know, I’m using my first finger for everything. One step at a time, folks.)

Shortly after that performance I neatly resolved my conflicting emotions over a pint of Abita Purple Haze, a rare beer I will stop my life to drink.

Basically, I realized that – though I love both Filmstar’s songs and sound – what I really love is playing in a full, happy, committed band, with a chance to be significant without always doing the heaviest lifting in the band.

I’m incredibly happy to continue to do that with Filmstar as a bassist or in some other capacity, and I let the band know that in no uncertain terms. I do love their songs and their sound, and if I can push that further I’m all for it!

At the same time, I have to find a way to make my own music into something where I don’t have to be the heaviest lifter all of the time. Am I ever going to cede lead vocals? No – dueting with Gina is the closest I’ll come. But having a drummer, or other instrumentalists? Yes, that would take the pressure off of me – the constant beating myself up and assuming I’m not yet ready for primetime.

That’s what I love about Filmstar – that on Saturday I was not sure I was ready for primetime, but they were sure for me, and it turned out I was.

On the way home I asked E if I could be vain for a few minutes, and I put on the recordings of Gina and I playing Arcati Crisis tunes with Chaz on drums last fall. I’m still in love with them – in love with a recording of me almost a year later! That nearly never happens.

That’s what I want. I’ve got it with Filmstar for the moment, and that’s awesome. But this year I’m going to find it for myself as well.

’cause that’s how I flow

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I’m just going to leave this here…

Tracy Jordan: Lemme just say, I’m excited to be here. It’s an honor for you to meet me. I’ve got a lot of characters I’m ready to bust out. I got a character named “Biscuit”, write that out. I got another character named “Rolando”, who is a two-foot-tall Spanish hustler. [pointing to Frank] Glasses, I want you to write that one. I got another character named “Ching Chong” who loves to play ping pong. I just made that up right now, ’cause that’s how I flow. Now, I’m up for anything.

That little slice of Tracy Jordan insanity from 30 Rock is similar to the mode I get into when I start filling up my editorial calendar during months like this, except I don’t have anyone to command, “write that out.” It’s just a lot of vague ideas I came up with and scheduled with just a title, leaving it to future me to figure out what the hell I meant and how to wrangle an entire post out of it.

Monday Morning Remainders

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I performed with Filmstar for the first time on Saturday, but you have to wait a day or two to hear about the results and if I’m still feeling conflicted about playing with the band.

First, here are your Monday Morning Remainders – eight blogs I’ve enjoyed or tweets I’ve flagged.

1. Philly (and the internet at large) got up in arms last week about a so-called “Philly Blogger Tax,” which was really just the city’s business privilege license being applied to Bloggers. My virtual friend JoeBeta sussed out a sensible explanation and critique of the policy, from Technically Philly co-founder Sean Blanda.

It’s certainly a horrible waste of resources to pursue blogs with revenue in the hundreds when some companies and individuals owe the city millions in back taxes, forcing the city to do things like offer a tax amnesty to the dead beats.

2. Rocking local blog Phrequency had a flash concert for TJ Kong on the freaking Broad Street Subway. I love TJ Kong and my old promo shots were from the Walnut Street station, so in my opinion this is approximately the best thing ever.

Do not hold your breath waiting for me to do one on the El, though.

3. A Vancouver realtor’s Facebok page gained over 4,000 fans in 12 days. Crazy pyramid scheme for iPads? Nope – good old fashioned content that people give a shit about. (via @morganb.)

4. I’ll just repeat what Torrez said:

Imagesoak is a fantastic application for finding things to read and look at based on the interesting photos and images that accompany them. Nevermind what I just said, just go there.

5. Matthew Leone, bass player for the Chicago based band Madina Lake, sustained life-threatening injuries while trying to defend a stranger from brutal domestic abuse. Sweet Relief, a fund that supports musicians in times of illness, is raising funds to pay for his treatment and rehabilitation. Matthew’s band member and brother has been blogging through the ordeal.

6. Leslie Hunt was one of my favorite recent American Idol Semi-Finalists – she had a real identity and real taste in music, but was quickly kicked to the curb for her quirk. Mpomy.com blogs a video from her new project, District 97

7. Amanda Palmer’s life is so serendipitous. On break from her hectic schedule, she sees a random trio of teens whose photo she feels compelled to take. Almost after she’s gone, one realizes who she is, and catches her to tell her that he’s a big fan. One thing leads to another, and suddenly he’s playing a concert to thousands of internet viewers from her apartment.

8. Amanda’s fiancé is super-famous comic, fiction, and film writer Neil Gaiman. Neil has been in a legal struggle with Todd McFarlane since 2002 regarding unpayed royalties on creator-owned characters he developed for McFarlane’s Spawn. Neil blogs part of the judge’s new decision, which contains delicious text like:

Much as defendant tries to distinguish the two knight Hellspawn, he never explains why, of all the universe of possible Hellspawn incarnations, he introduced two knights from the same century. Not only does this break the Hellspawn “rule” that Malebolgia never returns a Hellspawns to Earth more than once every 400 years (or possibly every 100 years, as suggested in Spawn, No. 9, exh. #1, at 4)…

I hope your Monday is going well. More news (and video) on my weekend as a Filmstar coming up!

In (and out) of Filmstar

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I’m conflicted.

Today I am bolting straight from work to rehearse with E’s band, Filmstar. I’ve been filling in as the band’s substitute bass player for about a month now, and tonight is our final rehearsal before I my first gig with the band tomorrow.

(This gig which will also be my first real gig on bass and my first gig ever that involves a road trip).

(!)

I’ve been incredibly energized by playing with Filmstar, even in my temporary capacity.

When it comes down to it I am a rock fan at my core, despite all of my folk-loving and acoustc-playing. I love getting to a point when a song begins to move your body, whether it’s your hips or your banging head.

My favorite example at the moment is probably the outro of this newer tune, “Fall From the Sky”…

“Fall From the Sky” also displays the more intangible aspect of why I’m enjoying myself so much: Filmstar is the sort of band that I adore. I love riff-y, female-fronted rock. Garbage is my favorite band of all time.

Filmstar’s sound is a mashup of influences – from Glenn, the guitarist and songwriter, lots of 70s and 80s Brit Rock, like The Clash and The Cure. In that same period E is a fan of The Pretenders and Joan Jett, but there’s only so far she can push that icier delivery. She’s way more in line with current stuff like Yeah Yeah Yeahs or Eisley.

Add to that drummer Zina’s efficient rhythms, which sometimes have a girl-group swish to them, and the combined set of influences pretty closely resembles… Garbage. My favorite band of all time.

Here I am, in the position of playing a style I really like, with a sound I really like, with people I really like. Oh, and I really like many of the songs, especially the newest batch of them.

It’s temporary. We all know this. My contract states this. Actual bass-players who have been playing bass for more than a cumulative four-month span of their lives are auditioning to take the spot over full time.

And, thus, I’m conflicted. It’s Glenn’s band, and it’s Elise’s passion project, but having peered into it I realize that there’s something there that I don’t have anywhere else. And while I can find that rock for either my solo music or Arcati Crisis, I’m not going to get the Garbage vibe from either of those. I don’t have the right ingredients, and Filmstar does.

So, yeah. I’m conflicted. I’ll report back after our gig tomorrow, perhaps with some video of me as a Filmstar.