Crushing Krisis

Comic Books, Drag Race, & Life in New Zealand

songwriting

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So, should i be talking about the songs? I suppose talking about them is the way to get to know me over the course of the day, right? I still don’t know where “This Tiny Trouble” came from – i know i had just been working on a song called “Up & Down” because my guitar was tuned really low, and i tuned it to what would’ve been EADF#BD if it hadn’t been tuned so low, and i found that funny little simple riff, and then it came to me that i was singing about some kind of tiny trouble nipping at someone’s heels. It was a strange song to write because i didn’t know at any point how it would end … it was like the story was using me to write it rather my using the story to write a song. I finally finished it with that somewhat open ending, which felt like a bit of a cop-out because it didn’t say anything about what was happening in the song. It wasn’t until last month that i realized i had been writing the song about an entirely real person and the reason i left the ending open was because i wasn’t sure what was going to happen to her. I still don’t quite know what the ending will be, but i really wish she got to hear the song i unintentionally wrote for her, so that’s why it’s first. I wrote a song for her intentionally which you’ll hear later.

https://crushingkrisis.com/2001/07/4781734/

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I rocked out with recording last night, and wound up with an hour and a half of amazing audio of songs i hardly even play in a typical month of recording. The only problem seems to be that computer users with especially generic speakers are getting all clipping at the top of the songs… i assure you that i took very special care not to clip on any of the songs for more than a note or two, and if you hear that tomorrow you need to get some JBL speakers like i have :p . Meanwhile, i did record my previous song written for Mollie, but i actually went and wrote a wholly new song that’s specifically about her. I’m not going to point either one out specifically during the blogging frenzy, but they’re the two more carefully played songs in the mix – to get two takes of each i spent almost 3hours playing them (out of a total of eight). Also, Gina came down and did some interesting new stuff with me, and she’ll be making a guest appearance during the ‘thon either so i can take a 15 minute nap or so we can do a Trio. Very exciting. Don’t be alarmed as the layout gets scary while i switch to the ‘Thon layout.

https://crushingkrisis.com/2001/07/4769722/

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Songs are continuing to ambush me. Two weeks ago “Necessary Evil” came to me in the guise of a riff consisting of a single half-step and a bluesy first line that i won’t ever do justice. Before that were two other ambushes… “Up & Down” with it’s rough and tumble sexual upfrontness and “This Tiny Trouble” pretending to be a song about vintage sitcoms. Somewhere inbetween exists the still-forming “Destination,” which portrays something near the opposite emotion from REM’s “Stand.” All four for unintended, unexpected, and anything but premeditated.

Tonight the fifth song in this merry ambushing band came to me without a warning… with literally only a few seconds of idle time between the first and final lines (most of which was spent looking for my poetry book). The unusual thing about this one is that i wrote it before… last week it came into my head while crossing the street and i could really hear was the melody and a pattering drum machine. Taken out of context it seemed entirely irrelevent so i filed it away under things to “sing in the shower” by the time i reached 36th street. But, tonight, i wrote two lines neatly clipped from Ani DiFranco americana songs like pictures from a newspaper, and they somehow led straight into that pattering song i found in the middle of the street. It’s not about me or anyone i know, but i can easily see the people inside of it, and it was a lot like “This Tiny Trouble” in that it seemed as though i already knew the ending, i just had to remember it. There is a kiss. There are bodies side by side in the grass. There are shoes wet with morning dew. Though it is still newborn and all-at-once incredibly wrinkly and cute and entirely awkward and unformed, it might even make it onto Dawson’s Creek…

https://crushingkrisis.com/2001/07/4384930/

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Songs are sometimes very uncooperative. I just sat down with my guitar and banged out five different variants on a very simple progression in dadgae in the key of G, but none of them beckoned me to speak lyrics to them. It’s so funny, because inbetween writing songs i forget what writing songs is like, and i think i can force it. Sometimes i might have a line or two, but i can’t engineer a whole song worth listening to out of one line – that’s how the crap in my old poetry book mostly occurred. All i know is that it’s supposed to be the polar opposite of the sentiment of a lullabye (if not the sound) and it’s a second cousin to Under My Skin. But, i’ve tried to write this song once before, with 0 results. And, i can’t even articulate what it’s about… making people feel the opposite of a lullabye, i suppose. Riled instead of rested. Blah. Aren’t i supposed to be recording things?

https://crushingkrisis.com/2001/07/4331529/

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Today was the slowest and most intensly boring day of my life and i got nothing done. Nothing. Not a single iota. Blah. I’ve been sitting here for hours doing nothing and wondering about what i could be doing, but that amounted to just doing laundry, and i wasn’t too pleased about that. Of course, i won’t be too pleased if i have to go commando tomorrow for lack of clean underwear, but i’ll burn that bridge while attempting to cross it (and i’m sure that the burning process will involve an automatic hand-dryer on the 2nd floor of the main building the men’s room and a very wet pair of underwear. but, seriously, i have underwear for tomorrow, so don’t worry).

By the way, i’ve whored out all of my musical opinions to other places, but that can’t stop me from telling you that the Magnetic Fields’ 69 Love Songs: Vol. 1 is the most totally confusing, unexpected, and utterly perfect album i own. And, i don’t even really need the whole thing, just 2/3 of it. Even more frighteningly, Rabi and several other credible witnesses claim Vol. 3 is the one that will change my life, and i don’t think i’m ready for any further alterations at this point so i’m sticking with Vol. 1 with some occasional flirtations with Vol. 2 (kisses without any tongue, at the most…).


Incidentally, 69 and the eclecticism therein was one of the main inspirations for 25/24… not that i’m going to be eclectic in any way shape or form, but i’d like to think i’m capable of it. And there might be a surprise or two in there somewhere. But, yes, i just realized i have a whole album of new songs and i’m making an unalbum with them. You’ve heard them all mentioned here at one time or another save for the first and last songs, “Atlas Girl” and “Necessary Evil.” The latter i wrote last week and fell instantly in adoration with, and i debuted it to my happy little mailing list to absolutely zero reaction. Yay for happy little captive mailing lists that don’t talk back unless you tell them they should probably talk back. Meanwhile. “Atlas” was a song i wrote for Gina (and i don’t know if i mean that i wrote it for her to sing or if i wrote it for her, but it’s definitely one or the other) the first week we were living at Drexel and it’s pretty and simple and i haven’t played it for well over a year and a half or even thought of it and when i saw it on Saturday i knew that it was a good thing i had saved it. Simple and pretty wouldn’t have stood up to the Crashing/UMS combo i had going a little later that year, but it fits in nicely right now.

Rambling on into the sunset we go. I wrote a song in my head while walking home today but scrapped it because it was clearly a pop song because i could hear its tinny little drum machine percolating in my head. I have written 125 songs that i am willing to count as songs, and that leaves quite a few tinny misfires. And it’s been four years? I wonder if i’ll even know the (three) chords to Under My Skin in four years? I’m sure i’ll have had a wonderful devestating crush to replace UMS by then, though.

Ha, devestating crushes. Teri off at boot camp where i can only send her flat little packages, Laurel in Belfast where she doesn’t like me any more than when she’s here in Philly, and some other people. Bleh. At least they make me write songs… as if i have these girls walking back and forth in my brain in a terrible parody of Herman’s Head and every so often they dislodge a tiny idea just like when you unwedge the water from your ears after a particularly long swim. Songs have been like that lately… falling out of my mouth as if i had just swallowed them by accident and now i’m coughing them up again. Ahh… songs as hairballs… there’s an image to stick with you.

I obviously need to go to sleep, but first i will listen to the romantic masterpieces known as “Let’s Pretend We’re Bunny Rabbits” and “Fido, Your Leash is Too Long.” Love songs aren’t so horrible when they’re vaguely bestial, i suppose. And, after all, nibbling on your ears and doing what bunnies do isn’t the most unromantic suggestion in my entire music collection.

Wow, i needs me some sleepies. night.

https://crushingkrisis.com/2001/06/4278850/