Comic Books, Drag Race, & Life in New Zealand
by krisis
by krisis
An hour past showtime. I will never, ever, ever play into microphones outdoors ever again in my career as a bitchy little folk singer. The student tech crew could inexplicably not get either of our guitars to come in via our pickups, so we had to mic them both with microphones. Now, i dunno if you’ve ever seen me play before, but i shimmy around like a belly dancer with a cricket put down the back of my shirt, so giving me a stationary microphone to play my guitar at is the worst idea you could ever have. Furthermore, they couldn’t even get our vocal mics to come out of the monitors in front of us, so i couldn’t hear Gina singing anything directly, just from off to the side. After sitting there strumming a G chord for ten minutes while the sound guys did everything but get us any sort of monitor mix we could hear, we finally decided to start and see what happened.
“Punk” was a thankfully quick crash and burn, though at that point we were assuming the monitor problem would get fixed. In our naivety we managed to get some good harmony going. However, the set took a downturn during “Deadweight” when two obnoxious guys were standing directly in front of us having a conversation and we still couldn’t hear ourselves playing. I, of course, started directing all of the lyrics right at the conversationalists – which wound up getting their attention rather quickly (they especially looked up when i screamed “i can’t get rid of you even if i want to, cause your deadweight the way you serve no purpose”). “With or Without You” was quick and rather painless for me because Gina was singing, but i couldn’t hear her guitar so i didn’t know what the hell was going on. “Lost” sucked because i couldn’t hear my guitar over the reverb of our voices (which finally found their way into the monitor), so i basically just played it quick and angry (which generally works well). I stalked off to retune after that and Gina bravely attempted “Landslide” solo while the wind dueted into her microphone, after which i came jogging back onto the stage for a very brave attempt at “Under My Skin” (in which the solo was rendered totally moot because Gina had no pickup for her acoustic guitar so we couldn’t hear what she was playing). After that we were supposed to play another 20 minutes of songs, but i was basically just muttering “fuck” under my breath inbetween every lyric and Gina was totally frustrated, so we hammered out “Can’t Do” and walked right off the front of the staging area without even saying thank you. Yep… i’m a rock star in training; i’ve got the attitude and everything.
The next band’s instruments all plugged in fine and the band sounded wonderful, even though they had too much reverb. There was a chick guitarist in the last band, but i was too pissed to hang around much longer. Somehow i managed to sell fifteen demos in the midst of all of this, but that leaves me with mucho extra copies, so get your orders in now. Ugh.
by krisis
Five hours. I just ran into Gina, so … she’s here. I also dropped off my rapidly fuzzing liner notes to be copied on stock paper – had i planned this out properly i would have had the liner done digitally for today, however when it comes down to digital liner notes or underwear to wear for your show the right choice is (usually) doing laundry. Also, Gina and I were just totally improbably asked to record songs for a play opening in D.C. in July that will be playing at the Philly Fringe Festival, which means we might get to perform live there. This is ultra-tentative, but if i pursue it i think it’ll work out. See how easy it is to network when you’re not just some random kid recording dumb little concerts for your website ;-)
Meanwhile, somehow i leaked the liner notes before the demo release (i know how: i am a dumbass), so people are starting to catch wind of the thanx they received. I’m probably going to change the inside liner notes for each “pressing” of the disc so i can keep straight which ones got made when, so hopefully there’ll be some continuing surprises. But, now i have to sit at my desk and stew for another hour while my copies are being done. What fun.
by krisis
They’re all tiny facets of the same song. I do this sometimes… circle the drain. I just spin and spin and spin without ever getting to where i need to go. But, sometimes the end result is just somewhere in all the spinning. I have my guitar with me today at work and it’s lunchtime. We shall see where the day leads me…
by krisis
So, last night i did one of my favourite things in the world .. ran down the middle of the street in West Philly with my guitar strapped to my back at 2am. Okay, so… maybe it’s not really one of my favourite things. There’s sorta been a few muggings in the blocks surrounding my apartment, and while i’ve never once been harrassed in my nineteen years here in Philadelphia i feel something akin to a bullseye with legs and frizzy hair when i’m walking around with a three hundred dollar instrument and nothing nearly as threatening as a can of pepper spray. Or even just some pepper.
I had been at Bill’s place (Cast Page Update Coming Soon) just messing around with his sweet keyboard and my guitar … we managed to get a few ad-libbed songs off the ground but eventually i got tired and all i could muster were very strummy E minor chords and various and sundry Ani DiFranco lyrics, so we called it a night. I don’t think it was until i got outside that i realized how much of a night it really was. But, anyhow, i made it home in one piece, and even got into the building (despite having earlier locked my keys in the admissions office). So… yeah, that was my big adventure of the day. And, i ate a crepe with my little brother from PiNu. Very exciting stuff. Now i’m gonna go file something…