Nur Ein IV Round Zero "Sleep Tight"

[Billy's Little Trip]

Just couldn't resist stirring that pot,could ya?

You can have more than the required elements and be okay. If you can pull off an extra verse, chorus or solo...more power to ya. You just need all the required elements to be fulfilled.

See, even you are getting confused to which Nur Ein IV thread to post in, lol. But you did confirm a slight unsureness I was having. Because sometimes the judges are real sticklers about following the challenges to a T.

[Ross]

Just couldn't resist stirring that pot,could ya?

You can have more than the required elements and be okay. If you can pull off an extra verse, chorus or solo...more power to ya. You just need all the required elements to be fulfilled.

See, even you are getting confused to which Nur Ein IV thread to post in, lol. But you did confirm a slight unsureness I was having. Because sometimes the judges are real sticklers about following the challenges to a T.

The judges this year are different than the last three - so far we have very little indication about how they will interpret the challenges (pedro excluded)

[bambamoozle]

I was waiting for the clarification before I started recording anything, so thanks for the answer!

[Niveous]

Sorry, I posted in the wrong thread. I was checking out SF on my mobile. It often makes SF more complicated than it needs to be.

[glennny]

Sleep Tight Reviews

Over all I was very impressed. I liked every single song. Everyone met the challenge. As far as the challenge goes I thought the Chopped Liver Meat God did the best job. I liked the acts that embraced the challenge but didn’t make it feel obligatory. Wreckdom was a fantastic take on the challenge too. I’m happy Nuveau Pauvre won, even though I apparently ranked her the lowest among my fellow judges. I loved that song. Anyway here’s my reviews:

The Elite 3 for me all received A+s, and I grappled with ordering them. Alas I decided Pacos track was my favorite. I think I will have the most repeated listens to it, and it just moves me the most. Granted it’s silly, but joy is a very powerful emotion.

Paco del Stinko- The fast tempo, the stellar playing, the awesome whistling, this just kicked total ass! This song stuck with me the most. The whistle vibrato is killer! I love the tempo changes and fantastic journey this song takes. Very inventive!

Ross Durand- Sometimes you just nail a song! Your great songs are really great. There are plenty of your entries that I’m indifferent about, but this one is in my top 5 RD songs. It takes a really good songwriter to pull off such a slow tempo without boring me. I was gripped by this song. All the instruments are very tastefully placed. Your melody is very well chosen. A tasty and moving song!

Tiny Robots- I will be very critical of you guys given the reason. This is just sweet! The electric piano gives a tasty vibe! Erin sounds perfect again. Someday I hope she unleashes some Great Gig in the Sky belting, but until then I’m perfectly happy with indie chick cuteness. Songwriting is great. The Tiny Robot synth is really cool!

Todd McHatton- Great chord pattern. Amazing singing. Nice to hear the whistling counter melodies. I wish the whistling ending lasted longer and developed even more. Gem of a song!

Billy’s Little Trip- It’s all about that awesome riff! Great production and all around good song, but it’s the riff that did it for me.

Wreckdom- I approached this fight in reverse alpha order. So this song set the bar and the tone for the fight for me. I love how much the whistling belongs in this song. I love the dirty maniacal strut of this song. Very enjoyable song!

Glenn & Rachel- Whew! I was worried I’d have to deal with that direct ovation sound you used to have. This Acoustic sounds great! The tons of vocals parts are my favorite parts. Very pretty chord pattern and melody!

Andrew Reist- I love how much I love this song, even though there’s not the killer drums, nor the killer lead guitar. I really enjoyed your vocal performance. Great melody, I like the hook where you make “first” a 3 syllable word. I don’t know, it just strikes me as a passionate vocal take. This adds another dimension to the potential of your arsenal.

Frankie Big Face- Sounds like a 90’s brit-pop B-side. This is a good genre. It’s pretty breezy and pleasant. Strummy and sing-along. I unfairly expected you to be the one to offer up the polyphonic whistling. Some kind of whistling lung quartet. None the less, great track!

Nouveau Pauvre- This could easily be a Portishead song. This is bad ass! I probably spent the most time listening to this track. That fluttering wind thing intrigued me. I suspected it was perhaps slowed down whistling. So I sped up you track and played with pitch shifting etc, I couldn’t get it to sound like whistling. However that noise fits PERFECTLY with the challenge. I can’t wait for your next track! Pressure is on.

Swilington- I think the beginning is the weakest part. Something about the production. However I love the idea. This is a great song! The whistling fits well. This sounds very Unicorns and a little Ween to me. How will you ever deal with the 2 minute challenge? Somehow you’ll need to cut out over 3 seconds!. Great job!

Sheail- Beautiful guitar playing. I like the vocal melody a lot too. There’s some weird effect on vocals that is totally unnecessary and a little annoying. Nice little G and G track.

Howl Down the Chimney-Nice moody tune. The shushes work really well. The whistling is a bit pitchy. M y main problem with this song is it feels like half a song. It’s too short. It would work on a concept album like the Wall, like Goodbye Cruel World or something. This is great, but I just liked the others better.

Signboy- These are all great songs. Competition is tough. Nice use of the challenge, subtle and appropriate. It’s a little weird to me to hear distorted guitar so low in the mix. Lots of good stuff, I don’t think the chorus is catchy enough to elevate above the competition. Still, good job!

Chopped Liver Meat God- I thought the beat was boring. However the synth arpeggios are really cool. This is my favorite take on the challenge; I feel like you met the challenge and ran with it doing something inventive. This reminds me of NIN. Those falsetto backing vocals don’t sound quite right to me. I know Lord of Oats can flirt with genius so, so I’m excited to what happens next with you guys.

Student Band- Nice little jazzy tune! I dig the bass line. I’m not familiar with your work, I don’t think. I look forward to the next track.

Adam Adamant- This is pretty cool. I like your voice, I love the backing music. For both the music and the vocal melody, I’m a bit under whelmed. Hopefully you’ll hit your stride like last year in Unnatural and the Blitz (I still listen to those tracks from you). Don’t get me wrong, this is still good, just not your best.

Cock- I would give the same review to any Depeche Mode song. Nice singing. I really don’t like this genre much. That said, I still like this. Nice tight song, you’ll have no problem with the 222, I’m curious to hear what the solo will sound like.

Jon Eric- This has some good vocal things going on. Nice melodies, nice harmonies. I was a little bored by all the instruments making up the backing track.

Nigel Clements- This is just not as inspired as some of your other creations. It’s still quirky and cool, but needs more song. This sounds like a deep track on Taking Tiger Mountain, rather than a side one track of Another Green World.

Tex Beaumont- I cleaned the wax out of my ears. This is vividly cheesy. WTF Tex? I like your voice enough to enjoy listening to this, but this is far from as enjoyable as what I’ve come to expect from you. Nice whistling. This sounds like a ballad on an 80’s teen flick.

Test Week Hiatus- What key is your whistling in? Wasn’t there a spell there a few weeks ago where you were expanding from the guy and guitar genre? This sounds very rushed and thrown together. It’s actually pretty impressive with that in mind.

John Kloberdanz- 1 4 5 blues tunes will rarely impress me. Your singing and playing and whistling is all good. I just feel like this is songwriting by numbers.

Rabid Garfunkel- This is sloppy. I like the energy and the slide guitar. The lyrics are conspicuously uninventive. There’s some cool raw energy to this, but not enough of a song to stand well with the competition here IMHO.

MC Eric B- Twinkle twinkle little star, HIJK LMNOP, up above the world so high, WX Y and Z, all wrapped in your blanky what a wonderful sight, sleep tight my baby sleep tight.

[glennny]

The judges this year are different than the last three - so far we have very little indication about how they will interpret the challenges (pedro excluded)

I am a pedantic rules stickler. I also don't mind clarifications and questions. We try to anticipate all the smart ass questions and clarifications, but there are some wise ass ones that we didn't see coming. I shouldn't speak for my fellow judges. Just me.

Anyway, don't fight the challenges, embrace them and do your best.

I am only one judge, and we're all very different in tastes, since Tiny Robots andd Swilington know me very well, I thought I ought to spell out some of my tastes for the rest of you. Keep in mind, something that tickles me might annoy another judge:

I will be judging 20% of the vote up until the final round where I judge 3.3% of the vote (if everyone votes). NoTE: Tex is already playing the long game, dissing judges on behalf of the lower ranked contestants in Round Zero.

Things I love in music (easy ways to score points with me)

Odd time signatures, time sig changes
Starts and stops
Key changes, mode changes (soft spot for Lydian especially)
Harmonies, guitarmonies
Live drums
Instrument solos (especially guitar)
Counterpoint
Diminished chords

Things I hate (you might want to avoid, or do it so well you change my mind)

12-bar blues chord patterns
Lyrical Clichés (e.g. “….cloud has a silver lining”)
Plagiarism- (e.g. Merisan – “Let me In” sounds way too much like “Eight Miles High” by the Byrds)
Fade Outs- end your song, write an ending.
Bad guitar solos, you’re better off not playing one, if you can’t.
Sloppy drums


Anyway, this is a great bunch of artists, I'm very excited for the next batch of songs!

glennny

[erin.]

NurEiners, I would take Glenny's comment about plagiarism very seriously.
Glenny feels that last year, Merisan ripped off the Birds "Eight Miles High" in "Let me in."
In my own defense.....
Can't a songwriter be "inspired" without being called a plagiarist? I mean, if you really want to build a case to make a point, you could make this same comparison to all pop music. Other than the fact that I used a "similar" three chord harmony in the opening of the song, the rest of the song is nothing like "Eight Miles High". You are talking about three notes, that aren't even the same three notes that they used! I understand that this is a personal pet peeve of yours, and I too feel a little bit like most songs that I hear are rip offs in some way. However, I feel like if it works , it works. I know that I am not reinventing the wheel here. If my creative wellspring produced something similar to a famous pop song from the 60's, why is this so offensive? What if I had never heard the song before? (I am not claiming this by the way, but just for argument sake).

[glennny]

Erin,

Clearly I was alone in this, you guys won the fight after all. Perhaps plagiarism is too strong a word, but I don't know the word that is less harsh that means the same thing to the degree of that example. I picked on you guys because you already knew about this peeve of mine, so this isn't new news to you. You guys have hundreds of songs that I love, and this was the only one that really irked me for that reason.

NUR ZWANZIG!

PS that was 2 years ago

[The Weakest Suit]

Test Week Hiatus- What key is your whistling in? Wasn’t there a spell there a few weeks ago where you were expanding from the guy and guitar genre? This sounds very rushed and thrown together. It’s actually pretty impressive with that in mind.

the whistling was supposed to be the light board melody from Close Encounters (to signify the alien abduction that was the subject of each chorus). but, i can whistle about as good as i can play tambourine (as you point out every time i use it), so it may not sound like that, but that is what was intended. actually, having the whistle melody integrate into the lyrics was the inspiration to write this at all. i just didn't want to write something with a non-meaningful whistle, i just didn't have the talent to pull off the whistling melody on a live take on a song written three hours before the deadline. if i enter the next round, it will finally be with the rest of my band.

[Caravan Ray]

Fade Outs- end your song, write an ending.

Why is everyone so down on fade outs? What's wrong with fade outs? I love fade outs. I can't get enough fade out action, action, action

[Reist]

Fade Outs- end your song, write an ending.

Why is everyone so down on fade outs? What's wrong with fade outs? I love fade outs. I can't get enough fade out action, action, action

Bryan Adams.

[Billy's Little Trip]

I vote this an awesome page in Nur Ein history.

...well, except one thing. I loved the Rabid G tune. I must say, I would love to see it performed live. I can picture Rabz'z expressions. It would make it worth the price of admission.

[Caravan Ray]

Fade Outs- end your song, write an ending.

Why is everyone so down on fade outs? What's wrong with fade outs? I love fade outs. I can't get enough fade out action, action, action

Bryan Adams.

Ouch. That hurt

[JonPorobil]

Fade Outs- end your song, write an ending.

Why is everyone so down on fade outs? What's wrong with fade outs? I love fade outs. I can't get enough fade out action, action, action

Bryan Adams.

And...
Jack Johnson.

[Rabid Garfunkel]

I vote this an awesome page in Nur Ein history.

...well, except one thing. I loved the Rabid G tune. I must say, I would love to see it performed live. I can picture Rabz'z expressions. It would make it worth the price of admission.

Heh. You and me both, brother.

[frankie big face]

So that's it for comments from the judges? Pfft.

[Niveous]

So that's it for comments from the judges? Pfft.

You'll get my comments tonight and they are long.

[frankie big face]

[Lunkhead]

I would think the judges should have plenty of time for reviewing round zero now, what with all the time they've saved themselves with this whole "2 minutes long or shorter" challenge. (cough, slackers, cough)

[glennny]

Jealous you didn't make such a challenge last year Lunk?
I expect quite a solo from you.
I mean you out played me on every Zugzwang solo, I'm looking forward to this challenge.
Besides I needed to get this kind of challenge out of the way while I'm a judge so i don't have to deal with it when I'm I contestant.
If only i were a judge for the No Guitar challenge that was the death of me.

[Rabid Garfunkel]

Jealous you didn't make such a challenge last year Lunk?

It was on the table (IIRC)... but never implemented.

[glennny]

Erin said:

Can't a songwriter be "inspired" without being called a plagiarist? I mean, if you really want to build a case to make a point, you could make this same comparison to all pop music. Other than the fact that I used a "similar" three chord harmony in the opening of the song, the rest of the song is nothing like "Eight Miles High". You are talking about three notes, that aren't even the same three notes that they used! I understand that this is a personal pet peeve of yours, and I too feel a little bit like most songs that I hear are rip offs in some way. However, I feel like if it works , it works. I know that I am not reinventing the wheel here. If my creative wellspring produced something similar to a famous pop song from the 60's, why is this so offensive? What if I had never heard the song before? (I am not claiming this by the way, but just for argument sake).

Can't a songwriter be "inspired" without being called a plagiarist? I mean, if you really want to build a case to make a point, you could make this same comparison to all pop music

I don't think this is as true as you say it is. I'd like to see you point out such things in say the top10, let's do that post Nur Ein maybe.

Other than the fact that I used a "similar" three chord harmony in the opening of the song, the rest of the song is nothing like "Eight Miles High". You are talking about three notes, that aren't even the same three notes that they used

1- Similar 3 chord harmony in the opening- you admit
2- Title of the song is this 3 note harmony
3- This title is in the same meter (as it reads, different from rhythm)
4- this title has nearly the same tempo
5- the following line is very similar "And when you touch down" vs "Or I'll blow your house down"
6- The affectation of the vocals is nearly the same in this part of the song.
7- The rhythm applied to the meter is the same
8- i can't hear it and not think of Eight miles High, I mean this is freedom rock!

I know that I am not reinventing the wheel here.

You're well versed in the language of music, and i think you can be very inventive.

I feel like if it works , it works.

Of course it works , Eight Miles High is a CLASSIC!

why is this so offensive?

Because it is a huge incredible bummer. I love Song Fight for all the new music that comes out of it. When I hear something not new, from a place I thought I was going to hear something new, I'm let down.

Anyway Erin, I hope you know this is all with love and in the interest of full disclosure for my tastes and peeves.

NUR EIN!