Crushing Krisis

Comic Books, Drag Race, & Life in New Zealand

Madonna

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Even with my cd collection continuously expanding (at a rate better than one a week last year), i never have the right disc at the right time. Matt was just playing Nevermind, and he told me to put something in to follow it up, and i just sat here and stared dumbly at my record collection. Not that i had to defeat Nirvana, or anything, but you just don’t throw on a Madonna album to complete the feeling that you get from Nevermind. I could’ve really gone for Pinkerton, but since i inexplicably don’t own that, i threw in Built To Spill’s 1994 effort There’s Nothing Wrong With Love – because it’s squeaky and sentimental while also possessing some cool guitars and rocking. So, yeah. But this obviously means i need to go shopping.

https://crushingkrisis.com/2001/03/2805460/

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Proving that a general public of music fans don’t have to be tone-deaf idiots, Village Voice has released their top 40 albums and singles of the year as voted on by subscribers. Singles really aren’t too entertaining to me, but i was very entertained to see PJ Harvey edge out Radiohead by barely 30 votes for the #2 slot of the year. The PJ album beats Kid A hands down any day, but Radiohead seems to win on every list because of more promotion and a bigger American fan base. Isn’t it sad when the popular unpopular rock bands drown out all the good ones? Anyhow, my faith in music has been reaffirmed by the fact that enough people ignored the knee-jerk reaction of voting for Radiohead to nominate PJ Harvey for praise. Otherwise, i was happy to see Aimee Mann win over Madonna, but frowned when i saw U2’s massive failure All That You Can’t Leave Behind garner more votes than the two ladies got combined. Finally, hip-hop favourites Jurassic5 found a spot on the countdown only one vote higher than Philly’s own Marah, whose album might not be amazing – but it’s definitely Philly. Like i said … this just proved that there are some actual music fans out there. And, with this year booked with releases from Ani, Weezer, Garbage, and Tori Amos so far, it looks like us music lovers are in for quite a ride :p

https://crushingkrisis.com/2001/03/2669581/

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I’m long overdue on commenting on the best music of 2000, aren’t i? To be fair, i got some of my favourite albums of last year in a post-christmas shopping spree, so i needed some time to adjust to them. However, i think i might have a top five ready to go – only, it’s not so much a top five as it is five #1’s in different categories. Here we go…

Stories From the City, Stories from the Sea, PJ Harvey – Albums this good aren’t made all that often. Crunchy rock songs, flowing earthy ballads, and the ability to turn love into a tangible wavelength of sound for three minutes at a time. Hardly a single song misfires, and standouts like “Good Fortune” and “You Said Something” are easily some of the best songs to have been released all year. A must have.

The Trouble With Poets, Peter Mulvey – It’s hard to be objective about this album, because i’ve known it for so long. The live album that preceded it featured its title track, and i had seen Peter play over half of the album live in 1999 and early 2000. But, the album’s release was anything but anticlimatic; Peter’s sparse live acoustic sound is something totally different than the textured mix found on his album, complete with sighing backing vocals and drums that just emphasize the incredible rhythms he establishes with his guitar. Every song is good, but the title track is perfection itself.

You Were Here, Sarah Harmer – I would have never bought this album, except that i came into work early one day and heard it played straight through on our local folk station. Of course, i was busy making lattés and hardly could pay the sort of attention Ms. Harmer warrants, but i definitely was intrigued by her sound. On a whim i picked up her disc in my post Christmas shopping spree, and i have to say that it’s the best whim i’ve had in years. The album as a whole resides somewhere in the vast expanse between Ani DiFranco and Sarah McLachlan, but individual songs like “HideOut” and “Lodestar” defy such easy categorization as much as they defy you to not like them. Album opener “Around This Corner” is almost too catchy to even recommend to you for fear you might never listen to another first track the same way again, the wailing “Weakened State” conjures up more angst then any Limp Bizcuit song i’ve ever suffered through while still sounding great, and “Basement Apartment” definitely deserves to hit it big on college or AC radio. This album has something for almost any fan of female folk or pop music, so i suggest you listen.

The other two albums of the year are still in flux. Do i sell out and pick Madonna’s Music just because it’s Madonna and surpassed my wildest expectations. Can i really place indy-rock Death Cab for Cutie’s We Have the Facts and We’re Voting Yes amongst some of my musical idols without a flinch? Or, is Veruca Salt’s first post-humus effort deserving of the best of recognition for it’s shining moments even when there are terrible ones mixed in… I’m altogether unsure. I’ll tell you as soon as i figure it out…

https://crushingkrisis.com/2001/02/2426773/

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Matt’s amp is buzzing. To get any kind of volume out of it you have to turn up the Gain knob, which distorts the signal a little and leaves you with this constant amplifier hum. It feels expectant, as thought some rock band’s big sound is going to come crashing out of the amp any second in a tidal wash of big guitars and growling bass, but really it’s just me sitting on the floor trying desperately to read sheet music from the Bass Cleff of a Tori Amos book.

The apartment is otherwise empty. I did a lot of wash yesterday, so the bedroom looks somewhat organized. In here is another story … everything scattered – papers, cds, jackets, shoes. It’s really the fault of this weekend; i didn’t spend much quality time with the apartment this weekend. Saturday night Drexel had their homecoming dance and i have this single glowing picture of me with a tie tied around my head as though i was some kind of savage, sweating like a horse and smiling madly. I love to dance, that’s all there is to it.

It took me fifteen years to learn how to do the mashed potato correctly. I’m not sure that the learning curve is so steep … i think instead i had to spend time learning all sorts of other little rhythmic pieces of the puzzle before i could put it all together. A decade and a half is a long time to have spent doing anything. I’ve been in school for fifteen years now… i’ve been out of my first house for fifteen years… i’ve had my Thundercats for fifteen years. it’s funny, i only have a decade on my closest cousin and he won’t ever know the same things i knew as a child. Thundercats, GI Joes, Madonna, George Michael, Casey Kasem’s countdown, Johnny Carson, Ronald Regan, the Gulf War … all of those things are vivid emotional and psychological building blocks of my life.

I’m the only one of my cousins that will remember my Grandmother. My nine-year-old cousin Dale wouldn’t have any memories of her active and laughing since he was five or younger, and all of my other cousins are only four. I’m the youngest person in the family to know her; we spent hours sitting at her kitchen table playing solitaire, lying on her living room floor watching Golden Girls every week, eating Golden Grahams before i got picked up by my carpool on the way to middle school. Last night i was on the phone to my mother and she reminded me how long my father’s mother had been in a managed care facility … time had shrunk it down to only a year, but she was out of her own home months before we left my home of sixteen years in SouthWest Philly (which she owned).

That was almost three years ago. It’s been a long time since i’ve sat and played solitaire with her, but to me it doesn’t really seem so expansive. She’d always get up and dance when she won… singing “Let the Good Times Roll” and dancing around the kitchen. I eventually learned to jitterbug so i could join her, but by then it was too late.

https://crushingkrisis.com/2001/01/2182260/

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It’s hard to get to know an album without any recognizable ‘singles.’ I usually force myself to listen to a disc beginning to end over and over until i develop some favourites to look forward to, and then i backtrack to all the other songs relative to their position in regards to my favourites. or something. Of that massive cd influx i just experiences, Madonna’s are the only albums i know anything on, which makes each album delightfully fresh yet frighteningly unknown. The latest aural fixation is indy-rock-stars Death Cab For Cutie, who i only had previously owned a scant 5-song EP by. I owned it and loved it, so over break i paid their (excellent) label Barsuk Records a visit and came away with $30 and four discs (plus one demo tape). I’ve not managed to form opinions on the rest of my order, but DeathCab’s We have the facts and we’re voting yes is a nearly flawless album with engagingly non-poetic lyrics and that nearly trademarked indy-squeak on all of the vocals. I’ve seen both the Forbidden Love EP and the album on numerous 2000 best-of lists, and it looks like i’ll be seconding that endorsement. Currently on track 3 of my fourth repetition in the third set of repetitions. And they’re all favourites, so far.

https://crushingkrisis.com/2001/01/1889461/