Comic Books, Drag Race, & Life in New Zealand
by krisis
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.”
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!
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
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.
by krisis
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.
by krisis
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?