The Song Fight Bulletin Board

Good stuff. As a wrong-timezone person I enjoy the chat replay feature, it's like watching a bunch of ghosts talk about the songs.

Still no news from Inflatable Vegetables?

Also I now seem to have the Nick Soma song stuck permanently in my head. So catchy.

vowlvom wrote:Good stuff. As a wrong-timezone person I enjoy the chat replay feature, it's like watching a bunch of ghosts talk about the songs.

Still no news from Inflatable Vegetables?

Also I now seem to have the Nick Soma song stuck permanently in my head. So catchy.

I’m too slack to do reviews - but Vom. Your super man song was my favourite of this nurein so far. Very clever idea and very well done.

Wow, thank you! That's very kind of you to say.

Veggies is now up.

Carlo - it’s weird to read these lyrics, hard to see how you’d sing them… but you pull it off. Neat. nice horns and guitar.
Cave - i like some belew, but the vocal cadence isn’t making me happy. I do like the belew-esque guitar sounds. I do think the lyrics are a little too straight up, not enough poetic.
Grumpy - ooh love those drums. Yeah freakin dst. Great vocals.
Iveg - i don’t like your perspective change here, first “we” have to silence him, then “i” have been sitting at his feet. I see who you are. The ending is appropriate.
Lw - mmm organ. I really like this vocal, one of your best i think. I think you lose too much momentum in the bridge. But i like this a lot anyway. The yelling bit is pretty awesome.
Mandibles - the repetition of “once again” is effective. Good vocals.
Matchy - i learned something from this one. Pretty catchy.
Nick - nice harmonies. Lead is good, but i’m not fond of the lead in the chorus. Pretty catchy. Another one that loses too much momentum in the bridge.
Owl - i like the use of “never knew the guy” here to refer to peter’s denial. Really enjoying the lyrics. The instrumental outro is awesome.
Rob - i like the synthy stuff going on here. I’m not sure what’s going on with the lyrics, though.
Vom - i like the lyrical theme here. Good vocals. The combination of guitar and synth is very appealing.

Thanks, Bill. There are three points of view - the crowd, the leaders, and finally Peter. Sorry you found it confusing. Thanks for your comments.

not really, the first verse was an outside observer talking about the crowd. also, that was a fast response.

HeuristicsInc wrote:Nick - nice harmonies. Lead is good, but i’m not fond of the lead in the chorus. Pretty catchy. Another one that loses too much momentum in the bridge.

Thank you for your constructive criticism! You are right, the bridge is too long and boring. Maybe I should have made it build up in its second half towards the final chorus.
This is my first SF/Ein song, I think, where the lead vocal is double-tracked all the way through (plus some additional harmonies). Other than "Unsubscribe", maybe.

As the iVeg song is up now, here's a review for you:
Inflatable Vegetables: Vintage synthy sound. Memorable chorus. Vocal sounds a bit shaky, mainly in the beginning and end of the song.
Nice chord/key changes, they somehow remind me a bit of They Might Be Giants. I like it, though not as much as the favorites I mentioned earlier.

Inflatable Vegetables - excellent synthing, the mix of synth and guitar at the start sounds really good and the melodies are interesting and unusual. The vocal does sound a bit muddy / unclear in places, the layers in the chorus work well though.

Thanks all. I should have been eliminated anyway. Just finished rough tracks for Hazardous Waste. Will post in Ohne Ruhm tomorrow or Friday. Congrats Vom and all the other contenders!

We had not only a tie for the 4th elimination, but a tie using the usual tiebreaker procedure... so we now have a second tiebreaker. Thanks roymond!
-bill

When your tied with the tie-breaker, why would you invent another tie breaker? The precedent is both move on.

It is a way to resolve the tie, but I don't like the result nor the logic. If you're inventing new tie breakers why not look to previous rounds? Or Roy's bubble graph?

It's tough to be a judge, it's thankless.

Thank you all for judging!

Thanks, Judges! Although I wish there was one more round of immunity, because that beatbox challenge is, as they say, "kicking my ass".

My two favourites from this round got eliminated. Sorry to see you all go.

glennny wrote: It's tough to be a judge, it's thankless.

Thank you all for judging!

True, that. I've been trying to stay very objective thru all this.
And thank you for shedding light on the greats of rock/prog!

Hey everyone! Sorry it's so late, but here's the latest New Ugly review for Round 4! http://podcast.songlander.com/?name=201 ... in13-4.mp3

bennyharv3 wrote:Hey everyone! Sorry it's so late, but here's the latest New Ugly review for Round 4! http://podcast.songlander.com/?name=201 ... in13-4.mp3

Thanks for the continued Nur Ein love.

PS- hey, you're in NYC. If you're ever free on a Monday night, come down to the Sidewalk open mic. Would love to meet you in person.

bennyharv3 wrote:Hey everyone! Sorry it's so late, but here's the latest New Ugly review for Round 4! http://podcast.songlander.com/?name=201 ... in13-4.mp3

Good stuff again! Thanks for some more kind words (and low-key criticism). I appreciate the confidence boost regarding your predictions for the final but I think this next round is going to stir things up considerably, at least if my own massive struggles to cope with the challenge are anything to go by, haha.

The extra voices on my track are three or four tracks of me doing slightly-different voices and six tracks of my bandmate from Vowl Sounds (who is on this forum as owl, no relation to Owl Chemist) harmonising and / or shouting.

I particularly enjoyed the diversion into talking about Wes Anderson movies while discussion Mandibles, Mike's reasoning for not having seen any of them is that he's too busy programming computers and Ben's example of a Wes Anderson film being one that wasn't directed by Wes Anderson. As a film geek who works in computers that whole segment really made me smile.

Thanks to y'all for your kind words, and criticism also. It was a pleasure participating, as always, and I'm kind of sad it's going to be another year until the next one.
I probably won't do a shadow entry for the next round, taking some time off, but maybe I'll do one next week.

The podcast was great as usual, and your criticism concerning the timing of the guitar vs. drum machine is spot on (not sure about that vocal thing though... I don't hear that myself.) I noticed it myself after you mentioned it.
I don't have access to a drum set, plus I suck at drumming, so I use samples or drum synths in every single song (except those that feature only djembe and tambourine, or no drums at all). Sometimes I get my sampled drums to sound more natural than other times. But yeah, it's samples all the time.

BTW - you judges have a quite weird taste in music. I'm not saying that because of my own elimination, but... Cavedwellers? Matchy Matchy?! I don't get that.
(Not meaning to offend anyone the judges liked, you're all great. It's just a complete riddle to me how of all the songs, Matchy Matchy was among those eliminated. Couldn't imagine why.)

Also, congrats to Vom Vorton!
I'm curious if we're going to have a Vom Vorton vs. Merisan final round this year. Sure looks like it.

Apologies for being a little out of it during the first half. I was rushing all over town and a little frazzled after a long day.

noma wrote:I don't have access to a drum set, plus I suck at drumming, so I use samples or drum synths in every single song

Same (kind of- I'm too lazy to mic and play real drums), so that's why I'm sensitive to it. I'm sure I have plenty of songs where someone could pick this out. I try to mask it with a healthy dose of FX, mixing the obvious things lower, avoiding distinct patterns or obviously repetitive and distinct sounds (I called Vom out on this too, but more from just an awkward beat perspective), and so forth. Longer samples are typically more telling - a cymbal is easier to pick out than a kick or snare, generally, because cymbals have a wider range of variability when being played.

I kind of feel like drums are a bit of an uncanny valley thing - if they're trying to be real but are slightly off, they're a bit more jarring than just being full-on unrealistic.

Ben and Mike - thanks as always for podcast. I enjoyed it a lot this week.

Carlo Bruno Jr.
Excellent production, I especially liked the verses (the doubled vocal and the guitar sound very good). Great idea to use a mirror for the ‘never kew the guy’ line .

Cavedwellers
A real biography well done, and informative as well (I learned a lot new stuff). I also like how you made the chorus personal. + interesting metrum. I could have done such songs of my favorite artists, why didn’t I think of this.

Grumpy Mike
Great production, love the prechorus and the chorus! Cool synth sounds, and you sound real angry.

Inflatable Vegetables
Ah, smart, you act like it is about an interrogation. I learned a new saying (‘Kangaroo court ’)

Lucky Witch & the Righteous Ghost
I thought about writing about a father figure, but I couldn’t work it out. Nice indie shoegaze-like sound, it sounds like a live recording!

Mandibles
Beautiful chorus! I wouldn’t mind hearing the organ louder in the chorus. Well worked out sad story.

Matchy Matchy
I like how poppy it is, and all the fast different turns it takes, that way it is never boring! Great vocal.

Nick Soma
You worked out the theme very well! Great intricate story, well told, and I can feel it.

Owl Chemist
I’m not religious but I wouldn’t mind listening to the Bible this way. Great arrangements of all the different parts.

Vom Vorton
Clever lyrics! Great production, the chorus flows so well.