Crushing Krisis

Some songs have this sacred space in them that their writers never wanted to touch. Whether it be a guitar riff or backing vocals, i know that there are just some points in my own songs that i’ve essentially roped off in my mind as being complete. I suppose most other artists are the same way. I was just singing along to The Trouble with Poets (the Mulvey album from last week’s list) and without meaning to i ad-libbed some backing vocals going into a chorus. If i were to ever be lucky enough to share a stage with Peter (and, that would only tangentially be possible in my dreams, but still, follow me on this one) and i sang that bit, would he stop playing and turn around questioningly? Would he just give me a dirty look? Would he notice? When other people add their own voices to my own songs it usually bothers me becauses it limits my ability to ad-lib on my own, but otherwise i usually quite like it. Is that the mark of a truly improvisational and inventive performer? Or are some people just more possesive of their work than others? I wonder.

Do you know what i HATE? Site’s that decide to push their browser window in front of everone else’s when they finish loading, even if they’re minimized. As fast as i click stuff on my computer i’ve closed important windows by mistakeso many times because they decided to get in my face. Usually it’s something with a “submit” button too, which usually just makes it worse. Damned blogger…

CD’s seem pretty obvious this week. Elastica sorta took over my world after i bought their new CD, and i’ve been crushing hard on the Veruca cd (while temporarily ignoring the Nina Gordon disc). Peter Mulvey swapped a different disc in this week, Fiona and Tori plummet without any listening hours, and my least favourite Ani album makes an appearance as does one of my favourite discs ever. Oh, and dave. I generally reserve the same tepid feeling for Dave Matthews Band as i do for Pearl Jam (in that they’re good but they make me want to hide in a corner and rip my ears off), but his acoustic cd with Tim Reynolds totally blows my mind. Little did i realize exactly how good dave was at guitar! I daresay he might be a bit more kinetic than even Ani is. And the sad part is, none of the fans ever seem to know what i’m talking about when i tell them that he’s one of the best acoustic guitar players of our generation. I suppose they drank too much beer at the Band’s last concert to notice.

current top10 cds ~ 9.4.0

In case Mel of “Savvy Cynic” should happen to read this: You have no idea what sort of mental anguish i went through when i saw a search for my name produce a site called The Savvy Cynic. I don’t know about anyone else, but somewhere in that word combo i see the word “critic” and so i figured some malicious review blog was totally panning my site and i’d never see a hit ever again. I was nearly in tears until i clicked through and realized it was Mel, who i linked to earlier. Her site’s name rocks (and i am so never gonna forget it now).

Anyway, i’m almost ready with tonight’s top10 cds, and i think they might wind up posted at almost the same time as last week. Freaky. Two things i can tell you right now are: 1 Buy Juliana Hatfield’s Beautiful Creature now, ask questions later. 2 I don’t listen to Garrison Starr nearly enough. And i listen to her a whole lot. But not enough. Give us another album, Garrison!!!!

coolness: EdgeGrrl, a freshman at Drexel who was in one of my Orientation groups, just asked me to help her write a song. According to her it’s very much acoustic and she’s a little stuck, so of course after thinking of calling up Righteous Babe Records the next acoustic musician she thought of was me (shoulda been Peter Mulvey, i know). So, as soon as she gets a chance she’s sending me the Real Audio of what she’s got down so far and i’m going to see what i can do. I’m honored she thought to ask me, and i’m anxious to help her with her work; she just got out of the studio doing a record with her boyfriend. Obviously this year is gonna rock, figuratively and literally. Did i mention that Matt is bringing his bass and his amp to our apartment?? I promise to have the 1-month anniversary of Trio feature him & gina.