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I Write Them Every Hundred Years (The Return of the Century Reviews)

Posted: Thu Aug 02, 2018 10:03 am
by ken
Once in a lifetime...

Re: I Write Them Every Hundred Years (The Return of the Century Reviews)

Posted: Thu Aug 02, 2018 8:08 pm
by Lunkhead
Songs posted!

I Write Them Every Hundred Years (Reviews)

Posted: Fri Aug 03, 2018 11:28 am
by Spud
Paco: Good to have you back, man. Your return got me to listen to the songs for the first time in a while. Still got the chops!
ADD: I'm going to miss me some Jeff goodness in Denver. Hope you play this at the show, it's a sing-along, for sure.
BSS: This has it all. Lovely singing, great background swells, and nice rhymes. Fun solos with nice counterpoints, too.
Harry: It felt like a hundred years listing to those vocals. I should talk.
Cat3: I like the way the music sets the base for the vocals to weave through.
Seemed as though the subject matter - a hundred years - set a slow pace for many of these. Would love to have most of them pick it up a bit.

OK, I'll try to be meaner next time.

Re: I Write Them Every Hundred Years (The Return of the Century Reviews)

Posted: Fri Aug 03, 2018 12:36 pm
by thirdcat
Arrows for my favorites/votes.

Ric Hair: A bit of a timing mess but I dig the bass. I think if it were a bit more cohesive it could work, I hear some neat ideas. Kinda funky. I like the change near two minutes. Groovy. Trippy stuff. Some cool lyrics in here too.

:arrow: Berkeley Social Scene: Great drums, nice keys, really nice vocals. Really cool instrumental breaks. Love the effect on the guitar there and the keys. Delicious soloing there after 3 minutes. Is that the ol' "The End" trick of everyone getting their turn? Sounds like you guys were having some fun and that is heard in the recording.

add: I'm not sure why but I don't like this one as much as I have most of the previous add entries I've heard. Still it's pretty good. The production/mix is real clear and there's some neat bits in here for sure.

:arrow: Paco del Stinko: This is pretty wild. Excellent instrumentaling. There's a lot going on here but I think my favorite part is actually the backing vocals, those sound really good and I think add a real nice layer to the song.

Re: I Write Them Every Hundred Years (The Return of the Century Reviews)

Posted: Mon Aug 06, 2018 2:31 pm
by Lunkhead
I forgot to mention, this is BSS's 200th entry!! (As "Berkeley Social Scene" specifically, so, not counting some other collabs we've done.) We got Paul on keys and one-time contributor Geech (who played drums on our "City in Fog" track http://sfjukebox.org/songs/city_in_fog/ ... al%20Scene ) on tambo and some lead guitar. We're nearing 10 years of BSS too. Congrats and many thanks to Ken, glennny, martyr, and Erin, for the years of fun jamming and song making.

Re: I Write Them Every Hundred Years (The Return of the Century Reviews)

Posted: Mon Aug 06, 2018 2:35 pm
by owl
Ric Hair: I think this performance needs to be tighter to get your song across. I think the vocal hook is pretty catchy, but the performance is messy, so it all sounds really scattered, like none of the instruments are following the same key or rhythm. The trippy breakdown is cool! I kind of feel like the breakdown would be more effective if it were shorter though.

BSS: I like that cheesy fake organ sound. Nice production. Gorgeous vocals! This has kind of a cool neo-lounge feel, reminds me a bit of Stereolab. This is an excellent song. Congrats on #200!

Third Cat: the guitar feels a lot more present than anything else in this track, which is a bit distracting. I like the "seems like a dream" part, the slowdown and melody there work really well. Nice synth solo but I wish the synth were mixed a bit louder. Good melody generally, it has a cool kind of hypnotic vaguely 60s psychedelia feel to me. Ooh the second synth solo just before outro at 2:30 is really beautiful, either the synth is mixed a bit louder or there's less other stuff going on so you can hear it better--my favorite part of the song, it's lovely.

add: Nice production, I like the palette of sounds you've chosen, the acoustic guitar + drum machine + wheezing organ combo is really cool. Great chorus melody, I kept waiting for it to come back around. I felt certain BSS's song would be my favorite of the fight but this one is really charming me so I guess it's a tie for favorite. Great work.

Paco del Stinko: Busy and strange, love the changeup to the slower part and acceleration back up--well put together. Well performed, but it's a bit too frenetic for my taste and I think because of that it didn't really click with me personally.

Re: I Write Them Every Hundred Years (The Return of the Century Reviews)

Posted: Tue Aug 07, 2018 3:01 am
by vowlvom
add: that lo-fi hi-hat sound is so charming, love the organ and the doubled lead acoustic guitar bits too. Not quite as keen on the vocal here as I have been on your other recent songs for some reason, but there's nothing wrong with it, just personal taste. Minor criticism anyway, because this is excellent.

Berkeley Social Scene: 200 fights is nuts, amazing work. Love the jazzy, breezy feel to this and the vocals are stellar. Killer instrumental work at the end, the synth solo reminds of the guitar-synth shredding that Daft Punk do sometimes (e.g. on Digital Love, still my favourite DP song).

Paco del Stinko: deliciously odd and manic. I really like the contrast between the classic-rock backing vocals and the noisy, weird... everything else.

Ric Hair: this is quite hard work in places, the vocals are pretty off-key to begin with and some of the lead guitar feels a bit off too. On the other hand I really love the lo-fi drum sound and the weirdo siren-heavy change-up is pretty great.

Third Cat: not crazy about the mix, all of the guitar is in my right ear and that feels weird to me. The song is OK, not your best work for me, but agreed with owl that the synth solo before the last chorus is gorgeous.

Re: I Write Them Every Hundred Years (The Return of the Century Reviews)

Posted: Sun Aug 12, 2018 10:25 pm
by Paco Del Stinko
Hi. It's been a long time, and I'm late posting here as well. Life, strange beast, doesn't allow me the amount of music time that I once had. Anyway, here I am. I wrote some hasty reviews the other night whilst having a few drinks. I was going to look at and edit them, but no time. So here they are, all scrap-a-doodles. Lame, but at least I'm in. Big kiss to you all!

add - This song is like a mid-set coffee house guy some crowded, busy weekend afternoon. Needs a kick or two and to have some dorkiness rubbed off, would be nuts then.

Berkeley Social Scene - Katamari Damacy all smoothed off. It's cruising, soaring. A washy ride cymbal on the leads/harmonies/e-bow-osity, could make it soar higher. Ping it out in the fall, soar in the summer (?)

Paco del Stinko - Song number 201 in the PdS canon. Yep. Check it yourself if you don't believe me. Song Fight, baby. Not Song Love. Messy song here, but I'll get my rhythm going. Let's fight!

Ric Hair - Whittled down and striaghtened out a lot, this would be a good broad strokes of color piece. If straightened out. A lot.

Third Cat - I'd like to hear this burst and take off, but it's a cool, dark vibe. Little dorky, but hangs on to the cool, just enough. End synth lead deserves the attention.

Re: I Write Them Every Hundred Years (The Return of the Century Reviews)

Posted: Tue Aug 14, 2018 5:26 pm
by Paco Del Stinko
Also: Shame on me for not acknowledging BSS's remarkable accomplishments. Congrats on hitting 200 and thanks for the great music over the years. Nice folks, too. Cheers!

Re: I Write Them Every Hundred Years (The Return of the Century Reviews)

Posted: Sat Aug 18, 2018 9:14 am
by Lunkhead
BSS wins! Congrats to us. add is close behind in second place.

Re: I Write Them Every Hundred Years (The Return of the Century Reviews)

Posted: Sat Aug 18, 2018 9:17 am
by Lunkhead
I don't really have full reviews in me but I did want to say I particularly enjoyed the add and Paco songs this fight. Great job y'all! Third Cat was good too (I really liked the instrumental break bit with the synth), and Ric Hair, A for effort. ;)