Crushing Krisis

Comic Books, Drag Race, & Life in New Zealand

my music

My Favorite Trio Tracks: #10 – Relief (from Trio Season 1, #8)

by

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.

My Favorite Trio Tracks: #11 – World In My Hand (from Trio Season 3, #7)

by

Today’s song is “World In My Hand,” originally recorded in January of 2003 for Trio Season 3, #7.

When I wrote it in 1998, “World In My Hand” was my first “hit,” in a manner of speaking.

At the time I had only been writing songs for a few months, and only playing for about a year, but when I wrote the lyrics out on the first page of my new poetry notebook I knew I had tapped into something both more personal and more universal than anything I had previously written.

As my songwriting has become more and more refined my older songs have a tendency to drop off of my setlists – especially songs I wrote before college. Yet, no matter how much my songs evolve, this one will always be a favorite.

My Favorite Trio Tracks: #12 – Enjoy the Silence (from Trio Season 2, #7 – “Boston” [secret track])

by

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 (!).

My Favorite Trio Tracks: #13 – Colorblind (from Trio Season 2, #7)

by

Sometimes it takes someone else to hear the good in my own songs, and if it wasn’t for Trio that good would never come out.

Such was the case with “Colorblind,” which was one of the many songs I quickly tossed off in my post- Queen of Darkness period. I had so many songs to pay attention to at the time that quite a few of them slipped away (infamously, “This Long” wasn’t recovered until last November).

Rabi saved my song and I from repeating that fate by requesting it – first in the middle of a field, and again for the first Blogathon.

I repaid the favor by playing “Colorblind” of my own accord in Season 2, Trio #7 to mark the first anniversary of us reading each other’s pages. Knowing that Rabi was on the other end of the speakers made me appreciate the song much more as I recorded it, and makes it one of my favorite Trio recordings.

“Colorblind” was brought back to life this summer in anticipation of hanging out with Rabi in NYC, and now it’s become something it’s never been before – a solidified ballad that’s finally a comfortable part of my primary rotation of songs.

I wouldn’t be terribly surprised to hear it turn up in Trio Season 6…

My Favorite Trio Tracks: #14 – Supposed To Be (from Trio Season 2, #1)

by

As of the end of Season 5 I have debuted 75 of my original songs in Trio, which – to put things in perspective – is just about as many songs as Sheryl Crow has released since 1993.

Not every first appearance was a true debut – for many songs I had been playing them for months, or even years, before they finally made an appearance in Trio.

However, some of those 75 songs really made their debut in Trio – not just their public unveiling, but their first ever recording.

For me, the most infamous first demo will always be “Supposed To Be,” from the first Trio of Season 2, recorded September 30, 2001.

“Supposed To Be” is a narrative song, a peculiar blend of “Every Breath You Take” and “Old Apartment” that would seem alien in just about any set of mine.

It has a lot of chords, and a lot of words. I can’t tell you if I had even played the song once through before the Trio other than maybe for Erika in our living room – only to assure her that it wasn’t really about her, even though the character my narrator is… erm… attached to is clearly based on her.

The lack of rehearsal makes its placement as the final tune a brave one, but apparently I had nothing to worry about – “Supposed To Be” came out perfect in a single try – so much so that I’ve hardly ever played it since.

It may not be one of my favorite songs, but “Supposed To Be” is definitely one of my favorite Trio tracks of all time.