Crushing Krisis

Comic Books, Drag Race, & Life in New Zealand

my music

2007 Song of the Day #3 – Tangled

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Today’s song was supposed to be another Madonna song.

It would come complete with a funny anecdote about how I didn’t think the chorus sounded right but couldn’t quite figure it out, and then I happened to be watching Madonna on YouTube, and she was playing it on guitar, and I was like, “Oh, look, Madonna’s playing the right chords,” and then I thought to myself:

Wow, how strange and vaguely post-modern that 24 years after it was originally released I’m figuring out how to play one of my favorite pop songs by watching a video of Madonna performing it on guitar streaming via the internet.

True story.

However, no matter how many times I tried to record the song in question I couldn’t make it to the end of a single take. It was struggling against being captured. Eventually my voice was too blown to try it anymore.

Shit, I thought, I only have an hour to choose and record another song.

As it turns out, I only needed four minutes and ten seconds, during which I recorded one of the most crystalline versions of any of my original songs ever. And, the song in question happens to be one of my favorites, which I have never before successfully recorded in hi-fi through my mixer.

The Madonna song can wait – Tangled is clearly the song of the day.

2007 Song of the Day #2 – Supervixen (Garbage)

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If there’s an album I have hopes of covering fully by the end of the year (by someone other than Madonna) it’s definitely Garbage’s debut, so the the first song on it seemed like a good place to start.

“Supervixen” is by far my favorite song by my favorite band, which might give the impression that it’s my favorite song of all time, but not quite.

It’s one of those songs I play a hundred times a year but never quite nail when recording. Tonight’s isn’t perfect, but I think any song this loosely translated from the original will always have an air of the unexpected surrounding it.

(It’s also one of those songs whose title has only a implied relationship with its lyrics, something I do with my own songs more often than I intend.)

It took me a long (long) time to figure out a way to emulate the crazy multi-layered intro on one acoustic guitar. Tonight i was having trouble counting myself into it, so i skip the first pass at it altogether. This gives the song a much more ponderous start rather than the usual guns-blazing approach, which was fine by me, since I don’t know if my vocals were up to “blazing” tonight.

Incidentally, my extra vocals on the bridge and at the end of the last chorus were originally ad-libbed during Blogathon 2002, and ever since then I’ve done it that way every time.

If you want chords, performance notes, and lyrics for “Supervixen,” read below… [Read more…] about 2007 Song of the Day #2 – Supervixen (Garbage)

2007 Song of the Day #1 – Holiday (Madonna)

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In the midst of all of my NaBloPoMoing in November I was reminded of how fun it can be to turn on my mixer and record a song – especially something I’ve never played before. In fact, my favorite results of the month were all songs I barely rehearsed and slammed through in a single take (Other Plans, Under My Skin, & Dilate).

In the spirit of that, in 2007 I’m going to slam through as many songs as I can, posting the results as Songs of the Day for your listening pleasure.

In keeping with my last post, I make no promises that this will occur every day, or even once a week. I’d just like to fill out my catalog of recordings, and to offer you more of me to hear. I plan to focus on some specific artists and albums, but past that I have no idea where this is headed. Some songs might be recognizable hits, while others will be b-sides or originals. Many could be forgettable, but a few could be gems.

My first effort is a cover of Madonna’s “Holiday.” You can read some background about “Holiday” at Mad Eyes, which is the only Madonna site I found with a complete itemized list of every one of her songs (both published and unreleased). It’s pretty awesome.

If you want chords, performance notes, and lyrics for “Holiday, keep reading. [Read more…] about 2007 Song of the Day #1 – Holiday (Madonna)

Trio Season 5 – Suite #9: Perspectives

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Trio: Season Five, Suite #9:
Songs on the Topic of Perspectives
Bucket Seat, A Few Bars of Goodbye, Bridge



Trio – the original singer-songwriter web session – returns for its fifth season featuring my own DIY music. This season each trio of songs will have a loose topic to connect them, which I will discuss between songs.

A sample of what I had to say in this Trio…

Re: Perspectives
I don’t anymore clearly recall what brought these words out of me. … And so, as a result, I occupy very different spaces in these songs depending on the mood I’m in when I’m performing them.

A Few Bars of Goodbye
I act vocally as the narrator, but that is not always where I am standing as I am performing that song. Sometimes I feel as though I am one of the characters, and it’s not always that I am the guy with his guitar. … sometimes I’m the woman. Sometimes I feel like I’m some inanimate aspect of the situation, like I’m his guitar, or I’m her ring, or any number of things in the room that you don’t see through the lyrics but I see very clearly when I perform it.

Bridge
It’s the oldest song of mine that I’ve played all this month, and it’s name is very indicative of the role it has served in my life – it’s bridged a lot of musical transitions for me, and it’s bridged a lot of gaps in relationships. … I’m not singing it to the same person it was originally written for.

You can download this Trio, or listen to a previous Trio:

Trio: Season Five, Suite #8!

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Trio: Season Five, Suite #8:
Songs on the Topic of Friendship
Standing, Martyr, Until You Awake



Trio – the original singer-songwriter web session – returns for its fifth season featuring my own DIY music. This season each trio of songs will have a loose topic to connect them, which I will discuss between songs.

A sample of what I had to say in this Trio…

Standing
It’s about both a negative and a positive aspect of friendship … leaning. This mutual leaning society that you have with your friends. Which is a good thing – that’s what friends are for. But it’s about the event where one person stands more freely than the other. You have one leaner – one Tower of Pisa in the relationship, and one Eiffel Tower – and the back and forth that creates.

Martyr
Sometimes when you are a third party really looking at a problem that your friend is having and you’re not involved in that problem it’s hard to gauge how much of a problem it really is. You have no way of knowing. They’re your filter. You don’t have any other reality other than their reality. … We all climb on a cross every so often, and this song is about telling one of your friends to get the fuck down. … It’s not that I don’t like you, it’s that I don’t believe in your problems.

Until You Awake
I had become friends with somebody through Rabi, and that person had an unfortunate incident with her health, and they actually were into a coma. … Things were not looking good for her. … I have really been blessed in my life by not only my own good health, but the good health of everyone around me, and I didn’t know how to react to this young, vibrant person who maybe would never get to hear one of my songs. So I sat down one night and wrote “Until You Awake”

I remember that I sent it to her boyfriend and he played it for her in the hospital and shortly thereafter she woke up. … I still play it because it represents the power that ever-tenuous-connection across the internet can have over you, and over your songs.

You can download this Trio, or listen to a previous Trio: