Nur Ein I Round Four "Like A Villain"

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jack
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Post by jack »

i agree that the difference between those eliminated and those not was infintisimal. everyone did a fantastic job this week. i really did not want to eliminate anyone. if more people opted out on their own, it would have been easier on the judges but that wasn't the case, and the field was so strong that there were no obvious turds to boot.

also, the tastes of the 4 judges is obviously all over the place as you can see by the scores. i'm not judging the judges but my tastes certainly run bi-polar to at least 2 of the others on a pretty regular basis. so i guess there is some built in parity involved here, which means that nobody is obviously safe.

except maybe leaf who has consistently cranked out top shelf stuff each week.

sometimes, it sucks to be a judge.
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Post by Tex Beaumont »

Niveous wrote:The judging is over on the Like A Villain fight.
Tex Beaumont ... eliminated.
Thank you linesmen, thank you ball boys - I'll meet you all in the clubhouse.

Can't say I wasn't slightly relieved to tell the truth - the pressure was getting to me - I look forward to a holiday. And I have to go inter-state for a few days next week - so at least this is an honourable exit and not a dishonourable no-show

Still, I think Tex definitely performed far better than anyone would have expected Caravan Ray to perform - so I think the whole exercise was a great success all round. The pressure-cooker nature of this competition really did bring out some good stuff

It was my weakest song of the comp - so I wasn't at all surprised by the result. Des and Ross should feel suitably disappointed though. I would have dumped Octothorpe and maybe JimT along with myself this week.
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Post by jimtyrrell »

I was happy enough with my song last week, but given the overall strength of the field, I wouldn't have been too surprised if I'd been voted off.
Still, I've gotten through, and I'll make the most of it. Nur Ein!
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Post by Mogosagatai »

Like Jack said, the judges seem kinda like a 2-on-2 match. Therefore, I wouldn't be surprised if the greatest common denominator wins. Which seems to be Leaf, at the moment.

I'm sorry to see Tex go, but, like he said, this was his weakest song, so oh well.
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Post by jack »

deshead wrote:I think most of us who entered nur ein thought there'd be some traditional standard by which our entries would be judged. I suspect the outcome of this round will illustrate that's not the case.

Glenn, Ken, and Tex had the 3 best "songs". My bet is that the judging will not reflect this. I also think anyone still left in the contest has the talent to write a clone of the entries that have already fared well, and the judges will automatically love it. I can't decide if that's good or bad.
actually, i thought alot about this and while it's hard to completely disagree with you, it's easy for me to say it's not entirely true. all 4 of us have obviously shown a difference of opinion, pretty huge actually to the point where the signal to noise ratio has been flattened with a big fat compressor. honestly, i'm really not happy about this weeks results at all. granted that's just my opinion, and i'm just one judge. i thought tex had the second best song this week and he gets the boot. that's bullshit in my book but oh well. that's also kind of the beauty of this thing too. it's not just about my opinion of whats good. i have a strong opinion and think i can usually back it up, but i'm only 25% here, and we don't discuss our votes, we just vote, so there's no power of persuasion, or pleading someone's case, or telling one of the other judges they have shit for taste just ain't gonna work.

at some point, it's inevitable that personal taste will play a big part, especially when you have a group of songs that are for the most part all pretty well done, but in many different styles. it's also obvious by now that we all have a huge difference of opinion of what is good. i'm sorry to see you go des, and it might have been an all canadian final with you and leaf if i had my way. thanks for the great music.

and tex, you too man. i loved every one of your tunes for this. keep rockin with the new ID. and thornberry, glad i could get to know your music through this, which i intend to keep listening to.

and ross, personally, i think that you had the best song (el balazo) in this entire run. great stuff all the way around and sorry to see you go man.
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Post by Niveous »

One of the best things about this for me is that I've become a fan of a lot more Songfighters that I may have missed before. Jolly Roger wowed me. Thornberry showed me he could live up to the potential. Ross Durand did some of the best music in the whole competition. I stopped thinking of Deshead as just Josh Woodward Junior. Leaf showed that he's more than the Redcar drummer. Calfborg has shown versality that I didn't know he had. # and Wreckdom have experimented and pushed the envelope. So much good music has come out of the Nur Ein and I feel honored to be a part of it.
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Post by j$ »

yeah, it's easy to imply that you could write for the judges, but the reality is could you do a Wreckdom or a Calfborg as good as their 'Pencil Me In's? A Ross Durand as good as 'El balazo'? An # as good as their 'Sleeper'? Could you match the style of Thornberry or a leaf or a Glenn Case? I for one have voted high one week and low the next for the same artist. If you look at the scoring for the 4 judges over the four titles so far, it's not as simple as a 50/50 split.

Some people have to go each week and this way, it's a bit like administering a lethal injection - none of us know whose button actually triggers the poison.
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Post by Thornberry »

ken wrote:
Two, Four, Six, Eight, Who do I appreciate... Deshead, Ross Durand, Tex Beaumont & Thornberry!! High fives gentlemen, high fives. I would be honored to buy you drinks.

Nur Ein!

Ken
Well hey hey, if you indeed live in berkeley, I am about 10 miles away ;)




Nur ein has been fantastic. In fact, let me get a little mushy on everyone here about songfight in general. I know its nothing you dont already know, but this is just such the greatest site there is. Specially reading some of the comments between some of the tighter community members, its just so cool to have a place like this. I mean, someone in Australia has now heardd my music, and Ive gotten review from England and Canada. That is just too cool for me. And hearing how diverse everyone is, and how creative everyone is, it just put the music industry in light, on how bland and boring it is. Id buy about 10 songfighters albums before anyone i can think of on a current major lablel. And then something like this sidefight is just so cool. Im sure its been hard to meeting the deadlines for everyone, like it was for me. And what do we do it for? Just the love of music, and that is just so fantastic. And i want to thank everyone involved for making all this happen and continue to happen. Its just so awesome! (tear)


-Thornberry
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My two cents

Post by Ross »

So I already posted a farewell in the other thread, but...

Thanks to all who posted kind comments about my song this week and suggested I might have made another round. One nice thing about this fight has been to feel I'm in a bit of a club - that we were kind of all in this together - and I would like to echo Niveous' comment in that I enjoyed getting a closer listen to some artists; including Jack, who hasn't fought much in the year I've been here, but who I really enjoyed listening to while looking for material to steal.

My two cents on the judge deal. We all signed in knowing what the set up was, subjective judging by five individuals. So I figure we get what we get. I for one think that in general the weekly returns have been a bit more solid than a usual weekly vote on Songfight! as far as attention to songwriting overall and less on initial appeal (or how deep an artists e-mail list is :-). It might have been interesting to see how things would have been with Jim staying on the panel (did we ever get to hear where he went).

I'd still be interesting in seeing the reviews from the fourth judge this round.

Thanks again to everyone and to Niveous for maintaining the livejournal site.

Nur Ein!

PS - Looking forward to that drink Ken!!!
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Post by Tex Beaumont »

..if I was a judge:

1. deshead
I love this song - but the production sounds a bit too midi-y. You need a live calypso steel band playing along with you. But that would have been cheating - so I will overlook it this time. This is one of my favourite songs of Nur Ein

2. ken
I didn't like this on first listen - especially the steal your heart chorus lyrics. But on second listen this really grew on me - the intensity of the single guitar is just wonderful. Great mood built up in this. Really good

3. ross durand
I actually like this better than your El Balazo. Good story. Good lyrics Nice over-the-top "rule the world" chorus. Are you using my voice pitch-shifting trick? It works well. This is really good.

4. wreckdom
Just great. Sounds a bit like Beastie Boys. The "Ha ha ha" chorus is great - makes this a bit more "song-like" than some of your other entries. Great lyrics (except for that Statue Of Liberty line - that is just stupid).

5. leaf
This is truly awesome. As I've mentioned before - Persnonally I don't really get onto this North American metal type stuff - but this is really very very good

6. calfborg
This is very good. The sythy thing gets a little too much - but I love the change at 2:00. Very good

7. glenn case
You really are quite good at this songwriting caper, aren't you! The style of it is not something that really grabs me - but I am in awe of your songwriting ability.

8. jim tyrrell
I get a nagging feeling I've heard this melody before - and not just on the Jack/J$ song. Anyway - nothing at all bad about this - just not my cup of tea.

9. thornberry
Nice moody piece. Like the guitar. And excellent vocals. Should have got through easily if it was a valid entry

10. octothorpe
The Chuck Berry guitar got my attention - then we're back to the same dodgy off-key vocals. I really don't like this.


and me,
as mentioned earlier - I think this was my weakest Nur Ein entry - I'm happy with the lyrics and the idea - but I just couldn't quite get the the sound I wanted here. Last minute addition of the hand-claps and some of the synth improved it to a reasonably presentable standard - but overall - I'm happy to accept my fate.

(BTW: I've been very happy with the way the judging has worked on this. It was a good idea that worked well. 5 judges would probably have been better - but nevermind. ...oh, and also it would be better if there were less judges like Judge#2 and Judge#4 - who obviously have taste in their arseholes... :wink:)
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Post by Ross »

Tex Beaumont wrote: ross durand
Are you using my voice pitch-shifting trick?
I'm not sure exactly what you're referring to. If it's the whispering stuff, that's a sample straight out of "Devil's Live in a Quiet Pond" by x-tokyo river god. I did however have to use time stretching to get the beat of that to line up with the beat of my drums. I used the "stretcher" AudioUnit which I found through iCompositions, if you're still using Garageband you should check the site out, they seem to always be able to steer me to interesting tools. If you're talking about the low voice doubling the lead vocals just before the chorus I actually "sang" (croaked?) that an octave down, doubled it, split the two right and left and then flanged them.

That was probably way too long of an answer to a short question, but folks have a scroll bar.
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Post by Tex Beaumont »

rdurand wrote:
Tex Beaumont wrote: ross durand
Are you using my voice pitch-shifting trick?
I'm not sure exactly what you're referring to. If it's the whispering stuff, that's a sample straight out of "Devil's Live in a Quiet Pond" by x-tokyo river god.
Yes - that was what I was referring to. I thought it might be your voice shifted up an octave
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Post by jimtyrrell »

Edit: wrong thread. D'oh!
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Post by Mogosagatai »

Better never than late, eh?


<b>deshead</b>: If you haven’t been listening to Sufjan Stevens’ <i>Illinois</i>, then it’s disturbing how accurately you’re channeling him. That said, this isn’t nearly as good as that song on <i>Illinois</i> (whatever it’s called), so I’m left with that yearning. But, this is a really well designed pop song. I hope you do more with this happy-go-lucky instrumentation. Really, you obviously put a lot of well directed effort into this. I just wish it didn’t sound like a shadow of Sufjan.

<b>WreckdoM</b>: That thing I said about how you should make your songs get funnier as they progress—well you did that here. And it’s sweet licorice to my soul. Highlarious. Too many good things to say about these lyrics. “Now who lives with his mom!?â€
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Post by HeuristicsInc »

thornberry - not that excited about this at the beginning, and i feel like the first section goes a bit long. but then there's that guitar solo and i am a sucker for that. however i think the organ solo doesn't fit sonically with the rest. this is good, but it could be better.

# - weird! different sound for you. the vocal has a weird hollow sound to it. i might like to hear of a bassline... the whole song feels like there's something missing. neat sound, though, pretty cool.

tex - toe-tappy "like a villain" section, but the transitions between the sections feel a little sudden. i love the little plinky noise at 1:34. and then it comes back as strings.

glenn - some of these lines feel oddly constructed in your rhythm, like the "bittersweet embrace" one; i guess that's because of the plagiarism thing but i feel like it should be smoother. also feels like it's missing an instrument. pretty good.

deshead - is this in a different time signature? the rhythm is pretty neat. different parts sound like they're in different songs. digging the organ solo. "we had it comin'" doesn't work for me. i do like that repeated keyboardy riff... nice.

ken - not too fond of the vocals here, especially "steal your heart" - and that gets repeated too much. this is ok.

wreckdom - kept the "no rhymes" thing from the earlier round? weird in a good way. very silly. i think this is too long for what it is... at 2mins that's maybe not a good thing. haha just saw your sig. that's a good jack observation.

leaf - nice guitars. very metallica-esque. good rhythms. way to string together that many different sources - that takes work. and to make it seem so seamless... nice. my favorite so far. vox are great.

ross - ouch, these lyrics make me feel icky. i listened to this once and i don't think i can hear it again for the review, sorry.

jimt - the vocal melodies seem a little too obvious sometimes... like it's something been heard before. and the rhymes too. the vox/piano sound good, and the song is good to listen to, though. i think i want the melody to change more from line to line. i like your guitar solo.

calfborg - like subversive pop, i like where you're going lately. pretty freaky lyrics. i like the instrumentation - the drums doing the little skitterishy thing there is a neat touch of something non-normal that adds a lot to the odd feel of the song. also i like how the vocals are nice and clear. good stuff.

favorites: leaf, calfborg

it may be because i'm not eating much today and i'm cranky, but i feel like this fight wasn't as good as the other nur ein rounds.
-bill
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