Crushing Krisis

Comic Books, Drag Race, & Life in New Zealand

my music

Holy Grail – Arcati Crisis, Live @ Rehearsal

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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:

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…

What I Tweeted, 2009-12-27 Edition

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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.

[Read more…] about What I Tweeted, 2009-12-27 Edition

Religion / Falling Slowly – Arcati Crisis, Live @ Rehearsal

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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.

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:

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.

Fisher Price – Arcati Crisis, Live @ Rehearsal

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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!

Daily Demo: Falling Slowly (Live @ Rehearsal)

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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.