Nur Ein III Round Five "Whale"

[ujnhunter]

Uh oh. I just re-read the challenge and I'm pretty sure I didn't do that. Oops.

just pretend your kick drum is actually a spatula thwacking your noggin' and tell the judges that!

[Lunkhead]

Links added to first post of this thread, and the "songs, results, no comments" thread.

EDIT: FYI, I don't have access to the blog, so that won't be updated for a little while.

[frankie big face]

Uh oh. I just re-read the challenge and I'm pretty sure I didn't do that. Oops.

just pretend your kick drum is actually a spatula thwacking your noggin' and tell the judges that!

Maybe the judges will have mercy on me and recognize that I embraced the "spirit" of the challenge. I used an egg timer and other incidental dinnerware, but I missed the part where it said "as an instrument."

But really, what is an "instrument" anyway? And would my song have been better if I hit a pot with a stick on 2 and 4?

Mercy! Mercy!

[Spud]

I used an egg timer and other incidental dinnerware...

That's good enough for me. Too bad I'm not a judge.

SPUD

[glennny]

So the judges know, on the WSA track we have:

"pestle and mortar action" (it's not Glock)
wine glasses with several tones (pretty subtle in the mix, but you'd miss it if it weren't there
Obvious egg timer
obvious kettle
Pot filled with water

There's some very silly stuff on the cutting room floor.

[frankie big face]

Oh yeah, I used a Cuisinart to shred that guitar solo. Hey-o!

[Paco Del Stinko]

Here are the utensils I used for "Whale". The blender as a snare sound during the intro, the other stuff as percussion with the excepetion of the hot sauce bottle, which was used as a bass slide. The bass is fretless, but still didn't get 'whaley' enough during the verses, so I switched around from using the bottle to fingering. So there. Untensils

[Ross]

Here's what I used in the "Storm"

[Billy's Little Trip]

Frankie Big Face - Yes, I am a sucker for repetitive riffs. I love the first song. The intro was a bit long, but it set the stage perfectly, also with the background sounds to fulfill the challenge. The egg timer made me laugh my ass off. Then the second song, also great! Well done, and I think the challenge was met tastefully without making it look like, "hey, look at me meeting the challenge". Besides, if anyone can argue the challenge issue to the judges, you sure can.

Glenn & Rachael - Cool, nice and peppy right out of the gate. I'm a sucker for vocals meeting the beat. It's almost too much, but bounces right along. Nice vocals, very Glenn Case in melody. Cool outro, almost as if you're saying, "hey, look at me meeting the challenge".

Ken Mahru - What's the frequency Kenneth? I'm a sucker for the mouth organ, or what ever they're called. I really like your voice in this one. I'm guessing the hard panned tingy things are your kitchen utensils. I like that they are definitely part of the song. Well done as usual.

Paco del Stinko - Cool intro! I'm a sucker for a cool intro. Vocals as deep and salty as the ocean. Of course I really got off on the rock ending. It was like dessert after a perfect meal.

Ross Durand - Oh, I'm a sucker for a sweet acoustic guitar. You also worked the kitchen utensils perfectly in the mix to gel with the mood of this sailer's tail. Your voice is very smooth and tells the story so well that I'm almost living it. If you don't send this song to Mike Row to use on the deadliest Catch, I will.

The Worldly Self Assurance - Cool, I'm a sucker for a solid straight beat. Nice mix of voices to tell this story. A big sound with a lot going on with a slow flowing feel. Almost as if a whale is calling his mate. Not sure if you guys noticed, but one of the mics picked up someone peeing at the end. You should edit that out, because you can totally hear it.

[frankie big face]

BLT, you sure do suck a lot!

Thanks for the compliment on my song(s).

[furrypedro]

Man, I'm not sure if we deserve to be in this any more. I like our song a whole lot but these are really good.

My faves are Paco (one of your best if not the best), Glenn & Rachael and Ross. I'd give it to Ross by a nose, your untensils are the best. FBF and Ken's songs are great too.

[Billy's Little Trip]

BLT, you sure do suck a lot!

Don't believe a word that Lance tells you, I was just taking his temperature.
....give it a second....give it a second....................and there it is. *budump bump*
God I'm lame.

[glennny]

Six Fantastic Songs!

Whale reviews:
I’m going to be super hyper critical, the competition is high, and all of these songs are certainly among the Song Fight elite, and they’re all keepers that I’ll enjoy for years.

In order of preference:

Paco del Stinko- You absolutely nailed this one. This is so original and oh so very Paco! Hot damn, the alternative utensil percussion is great! I’m still scratching my head as to how exactly you got that sitar like sound out of your guitar. You had me with the 1st 2:49, but then the Sabbath cometh, and it’s over the top metal glory! I’m a PDS fan, and this is one of my favorites.

The Worldly Self Assurance- I’m not objective, but for the 1st time I actually like someone else’s song more than ours. I absolutely love this track. Everything fell together quite nicely and it’s felt very right through the whole writing process. Melvin continues to impress me with his mixing skills. My favorite part is the last 30 seconds, I was getting some almost horn like tones out of my guitar in trying to emulate whale calls, not sure I achieved whale calls, but I like what I ended up with.

Frankie Big Face- The whole dual song thing reminded me of the Superdrag classic Slot Machine/Phase dual song. Then part II has that descending line like Slot Machine, with the Ticket to Ride drums, this is Brit Pop heaven. Part I however has that Jefferson Starship melody “Find your way back to a heart”. I fear for your survival with the challenge aspect of the song. The gag gets old, and I think I like part 2 better. The vocals are fantastic!

Ken- What I love about this: your vocals are getting better than I’ve ever heard from you. Are you singing a lot lately? The drums song fantastic! The acoustic sounds great too! The melotron I love too! The melodica, has a great tone, but it seems to be showcased yet doesn’t have a very interesting line, especially when the vocals are out. What really surprises me about this track from you is the length. Although I enjoy the “Breaking the Girl” outro riff, and the backing vocals, I think they could have happened sooner and you could’ve been out at 3:20. I get the impression; perhaps you had loftier plans for the end and ran out of time for the remaining build up huge ending.

Glenn & Rachel- That one glass is grating. The guitar is offensively low in the mix for a guitarist like me. Vocals are very hot too. I find the drums irritating too, there seems to be a lot of banging and not a lot of melodic rhythm. There’s some gem little vocal hooks in there. I’d love to hear this without the challenge and more flushed out in its ska tendencies.

Ross Durand- This is done very well. The acoustic sounds wonderful. Your voice is very well suited for this genre, sounds really good. Did you really tune those glasses? A couple of them sound flat to me. Why is this my least favorite? I’m bored. I LOVE your mountain music harmony vocals voice.

I have no clue how the judges will collectively sway. I won’t be surprised with any results. Great job everyone!

[Rachael Layne]

Oh yeah, I used a Cuisinart to shred that guitar solo. Hey-o! (frankiebigface)

Glenn and I used our Cuisinart can opener on our track too! Hahaha... I have never purchased a $60.00 can opener in my life and never thought I would but I had a gift card for a store that I could not find ANYTHING I would normally buy and I wanted an electric can opener so I blew the gift card on a super mega fancy can opener.

[Paco Del Stinko]

I’m still scratching my head as to how exactly you got that sitar like sound out of your guitar.

It's a 12 string, with a lot of open D string(s) activity taking place. There's both a left and a right track, so between the natural chorus effect and maybe any phasing issues (Adam!...help!) bright and thin pickups through a small amp, it did kind of end up sounding like that, huh? When I had them more up in the mix it was more 12 string sounding, as you can hear when the levels come up right before the start of the heavy part. (the 12 string is on the same tracks as the heavy guitar) Here's a picture of the guitar. Dano 12 string Thanks for the nice comments as well!

[frankie big face]

Frankie Big Face- The whole dual song thing reminded me of the Superdrag classic Slot Machine/Phase dual song.

I'm totally going to listen to that album today. Thanks for reminding me about it.

[frankie big face]

REVIEWS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

(okay, that was excessive)

FRANKIE BIG FACE - Yeah, I'm not going to review myself. But here are some trivial tidbits for you. Inspired by the challenge, I thought it would be fun to create a scenario where a band is booked for a dining room and it is so totally inappropriate because they're all loud and aggressive and people are trying to eat and so they basically ignore them. I find that funny for some reason. I also like the idea of the most meek frontman in the world who can hardly bring himself to speak into a microphone but is totally fine singing into a microphone. So, that was the concept and I tried to create a very loose and live band sound. Many thanks to my just-finished-his-freshman-year-of-high-school student Austin for coming over to record the drums at 8:00 in the morning.

GLENN CASE & SPOUSE - I absolutely love the zaniness of the verse. Very effective blend of your voices. So-super-poppy-it-probably-ought-to-be-illegal chorus. The kitchen items don't get in the way, which is nice, but I also don't need them either. The bridge is the weakest part in my opinion because the song is already full of unison rhythm.

KEN - Ken, have I ever told you you remind me of The Wallflowers? Or Counting Crows? Or Toad the Wet Sprocket? In this case, I think mostly the latter. To me, this song kind of plods a bit and the melodica (or whatever) grates after a while. I don't think this is a bad song and it will likely be well-received, but it doesn't resonate with me so much. Good vocal track. I kind of wish you had done something similar to (or the same as) that drum thing at the end in the middle of the song as well to break up the 3/4 (or 6/8 or 12/8 or whatever the kids are calling it these days) feel.

PACO - That everything-but-the-kitchen-sink groove is pretty sweet. The first time I heard that chromatic guitar line after the chorus, I hated it, but by the third time, I loved it! Wow, the rock thing at the end is totally unnecessary. I mean, yeah, you could argue that everything is unnecessary, but I don't see how that little instrumental bit added anything to the song. I'm not a fan of the lyrics, but they can't stop me from liking the song. Very enjoyable until that ending. It kind of hurt my feelings.

ROSS - Dude, I am 99% sure this song already exists. It's not a genre where I know a lot of names, but this sounds awfully familiar. (And yes, I realize that can be said about many of my songs, too!) With one notable exception ("When that spout again we did see"), these are exceptional lyrics. This is a great-sounding recording, a very fine performance, a story for the ages--it is doubtful you will advance this week. J/K!

TWSA - You let the drummer mix the tune this week, didn't you? (Drums seem a little loud.) In fairness, I was interrupted at least three times when listening to this song, so it's not really getting a very fair first listen. It kind of reminds me of Pink Floyd. Lots of sounds in here. There's a chorus melody I don't like so much, but that's me, not you. I think this is the kind of song that doesn't make a strong first impression, but would not only stand up to, but improve, with repeated hearings.

For all my nitpicking, I gotta say this is a nice little collection of songs. I like all of them. Great job, everyone!

[GlennCase]

GLENN CASE & SPOUSE

Don't you mean Rachael Layne and her husband?



Thanks for the reviews, Frankie.

ROCK!

Glenn Case

[Billy's Little Trip]

GLENN CASE & SPOUSE

Don't you mean Rachael Layne and her husband?



Thanks for the reviews, Frankie.

ROCK!

Glenn Case

Dude, you're whipped.
......and Glenn is going to be pissed when he finds out that she married.

[Paco Del Stinko]

Frankie - Please believe me that I would never set out to hurt your feelings. Maybe make you roll your eyes a little, but not hurt you! Thanks for the comments, and sorry!

[Ross]

Round 5 “reviews”

It’s finals week...I am also teaching an online course for the local University for summer school (they call me “Professor Durand”).....I have a four-year-old and a seven-year-old....I am 8 weeks into a 1200 sq foot home addition (that’s around 140 sq metres).....

Two words.....

Nur Ein!!!!!

FBF - I’m gonna go ahead and weigh in that I agree with your initial assessment that you did not use the kitchen items “as an instrument.” I kinda read that as “not as a sound effect.” Funny you mention the familiarity of my song - isn’t this on the first Hives album? Interestingly effective bar band song. Kick-ass ninth grader on the skins, but no self respecting high schooler is up at 8 am - most of mine aren’t even up at that hour on school days (bu-dum crash). The first song (part two) is kinda fun, but gets a bit repetitive. Solid club rock, but patter after song 2 woulda been nice. I think I like the second half better. Very good, but If I was a judge I’d probably DSQ you based on the challenge - aren’t you glad I’m not a judge?

GnR - This starts out catchy and kinda got a little irritating to me. I think there might be one too many repeats of something. Your harmonies and hooks are good and the kitchen utensils make for good percussion. I guess I sort of figured percussion would be the main deal. I can’t pick out Rachel here, but I know sometimes your voices blend real good, I assume she’s one of the harmony vocals - just out of curiosity does she play anything besides voice? What is the shared role you have in writing - you could pm it if it’s not pertinent, I am always sort of fascinated by partnerships since I tend to like to work alone or have creative control. I think I liked Frankie’s a smidge better song wise, largely on arrangement - there’s an edge to this. But you beat him based on challenge.

Ken - Tuneful goodness. I tend to like more pitch and less percussion out of guitars - nice accordian patch. The strings are slightly “Church”-ey, but this is a bit more energetic. Nice Poetry. I do feel like it’s about 4 bpm too fast. Current leader, but I do wish the kitchen stuff was more “prominent.” Good song. perhaps a little long. Lately you’re reminding me of Cracker a bit, and you know how much I hate them

Paco - there is SO much that is good on the ears here, but in the end the song didn’t get me - some interesting moments (the end seemed a bit of a non sequiter) great textures, interesting percussion. I enjoyed listening to it, but overall it didn’t pay off for me as much as some of the others. Currently riding low (in a great stack of songs)

WSA - hmm - the lyrics bug me a smidge at the beginning - bit labored, maybe. Oooh, I’m a bio teacher - “the fish becomes a whale” - ouch This is very interesting. I wish it held together a little better, and yet I am amazed that the four of you get something so good put together each week. Glenny - nice echo guitar stuff - almost “Blinded by the light” ! another one that is really good on the ears, and yet overall structure wise is not quite selling itself to me.

I really enjoyed listening to all of these and just feel proud to be in this pack. Nur Ein is awesome!

If I had to Rank Em (not counting me - so lets put me fourth just so I can stay in)

Ken, GnR, Paco, safe spot for me, WSA, FBF (DSQ) and JBB (the Paco/WSA line is close)

Tough job, good luck judges.

Nur Ein!!!!!

[glennny]

Ross wrote:

Oooh, I’m a bio teacher - “the fish becomes a whale” - ouch

We had a discussion within the band about this. I didn't write the lyric, but I think it's a great one, and I'll defend it. 1st of all the sentence is "...as a fish BECOMES a whale." We're well aware of the phylum violation, we know whales are mammals, however this is a metaphor for something small becoming very large. (and the 2nd & 3rd times it's a simile "LIKE a fish..... ")