Nur Ein XIV Round Five "Where The Streets Have No Name"

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grumpymike
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Re: Nur Ein XIV Round Five "Where The Streets Have No Name"

Post by grumpymike »

mo wrote:
Tue Jun 04, 2019 12:46 pm
Grumpy: I listened to this a couple more times than usual, to see if I could crystallize how I feel about your vocals.
Oof, not my best work to critique vocals on, but I'm glad your comments are less about my rushed performance (with ugly timbre) and more about something I can look into!
mo wrote:
Tue Jun 04, 2019 12:46 pm
I feel like you're trying to get a lot of things out there and not giving yourself enough space to do it, so the vocal phrases feel congested to me. And the chorus, I kind of feel like that its a bit overwritten lyrically
Fair. I originally had 5x the lyrics and it was exponentially worse. Though it seems everyone wrote books of lyrics this round, the sense I'm getting is that the lyrics don't help and I maybe deliver phrases in awkward ways (elongating or shortening sustains on the wrong syllables or words).
mo wrote:
Tue Jun 04, 2019 12:46 pm
This sounds more negative than I mean it to, but I'm just trying to answer your question of what I don't like about your vocals, so it's just sort of going that way
Naw, that's not negative at all! I really appreciate it. It's good criticism I can look into and listen to how other songs do it. Honestly, I was expecting to be derided - by everyone - for sounding like Weird Al this round.
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Re: Nur Ein XIV Round Five "Where The Streets Have No Name"

Post by grumpymike »

The New Ugly for this round is live

Special thanks to Scott (Lucky Spoon) for subbing in for Ben.

These are the approximate times. I apologize for being so LOW ENERGY. As you can imagine, I'm tired and grumpy and don't have much but praise at this point. :) Scott had plenty of interesting things to share about lyrical interpretations.

Agony Sauce 2:45
BSS 6:53
Grumpy Mike 10:03
Max Bombast 14:45
Merisan 19:26
Rachel 23:45
Rain 25:25
Vowl 30:35
Faster Jackalope 36:20
IV 39:08
Lichen Throat 42:10
Sunday Colors 44:45
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Re: Nur Ein XIV Round Five "Where The Streets Have No Name"

Post by grumpymike »

I AM FREE! HOORAY!!!
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Re: Nur Ein XIV Round Five "Where The Streets Have No Name"

Post by GlennCase »

I wasn't sure we were still going to be in, but thrilled to be in the top 5 with Rachael Layne and Agony Sauce!

I'm following Frankie's (admirable) lead by sharing some of these song notes AFTER the judging has been finalized, so they can't possibly affect the outcome of the round:

Agony Sauce
1. Every line of the song (outside of the sample) is exactly 13 syllables long. Meant as a subliminal reference to the bad luck of the town.

2. The lyrics are written in such a way that they might make even more sense if you read them in reverse order from the bottom to the top. The hope is that they would make enough sense in their current form as well.

3. Mo originally had the idea of key changes that went up as the song progressed. Since this was a story from end to beginning, I made the suggestion of doing the opposite with both the key changes and the dynamics. We kept breaking things down instead of building them up. [EDIT: The dynamics breakdown might have been Mo's call. I lose track because the ideas honestly have been flowing naturally, and quickly between Mo and myself.]

4. I found the men's choir clip on YouTube. They are singing the song "Factory" by Bruce Springsteen, and the lyric is "Early every morning, factory whistle blows". I had to stretch the hell out of the timing and pitch to get it to fit our song and we lost some clarity in the process. I attempted to restore SOME of that clarity by singing four part harmony underneath it, and burying my parts in the mix a bit to blend with the choir.

5. It is definitely getting more difficult to incorporate all of the challenges, but it has been a seriously fun self-imposed challenge to see how long we can keep it going, and to see how long it would take for people to realize that was what we were doing. Yes, it's a gimmick and I have seen complaints about that. Still, in our defense: the gimmick by itself would NOT have been enough to keep us in this competition. We still have to write the best songs we can write, and we have endeavored to do precisely that. In many ways it is more of a challenge to incorporate all of the extra challenges without sinking the song.

Rachael Layne
1. I have specifically tried to make songs for Agony Sauce and Rachael Layne throughout the competition that would not be too similar. Often choosing to pick a completely different tactic on certain aspects. In this case, it was was a calculated risk to make a story song without many lyrics.

2. That keyboard riff is the first thing that popped into my head, and I thought we might have a contender when it kept getting stuck in my head over the course of the week.

3. We considered adding more things to the song, but I feared it might become a case of adding things for the sake of adding them. I liked (and still like) the sparse nature of the song.

Congratulations to the top 5! I cannot wait to see what everyone comes up with, including ourselves! We do have ideas, and I am looking forward to starting on everything.
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Re: Nur Ein XIV Round Five "Where The Streets Have No Name"

Post by Lunkhead »

grumpymike wrote:
Tue Jun 04, 2019 10:43 pm
I AM FREE! HOORAY!!!
ME TOO X2! HOORAY!!!
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Re: Nur Ein XIV Round Five "Where The Streets Have No Name"

Post by theSundayColors »

grumpymike wrote:
Tue Jun 04, 2019 9:56 pm
The New Ugly for this round is live

Special thanks to Scott (Lucky Spoon) for subbing in for Ben.

These are the approximate times. I apologize for being so LOW ENERGY. As you can imagine, I'm tired and grumpy and don't have much but praise at this point. :) Scott had plenty of interesting things to share about lyrical interpretations.

Agony Sauce 2:45
BSS 6:53
Grumpy Mike 10:03
Max Bombast 14:45
Merisan 19:26
Rachel 23:45
Rain 25:25
Vowl 30:35
Faster Jackalope 36:20
IV 39:08
Lichen Throat 42:10
Sunday Colors 44:45
I enjoyed the review. Thanks so much for the thoughtful feedback. I'm sortof impressed that you think the song is about corn?? Haha

I do not regret the barbershop quartet ;)
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Re: Nur Ein XIV Round Five "Where The Streets Have No Name"

Post by mo »

Don’t listen to Glenn, he’s on the pot
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Re: Nur Ein XIV Round Five "Where The Streets Have No Name"

Post by GlennCase »

mo wrote:
Wed Jun 05, 2019 12:15 am
Don’t listen to Glenn, he’s on the pot
ONE time, Mo. I did it ONE time.

Seriously, I did it one time... I was sitting in our backyard playing songs, and I would get 1/3 of the way through songs before realizing I was playing a song...
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Re: Nur Ein XIV Round Five "Where The Streets Have No Name"

Post by mo »

Well that’s your problem dude. Did I ever tell you about the time I did liquid acid with my friend at MIT, when we ordered a hamburger pizza and watched the Naked Lunch? I can’t watch that movie or look at pizza anymore but it was a wild night. And day.
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Re: Nur Ein XIV Round Five "Where The Streets Have No Name"

Post by vowlvom »

Can you still eat pizza, if you blindfold yourself? I don't think I've ever heard a more convincing anti-drug argument than "doing drugs might put you off pizza for life".

Edit: Also, thanks judges! Our elaborate plan to only win the rounds that don't grant immunity, thus making us as exhausted as possible, is going well!
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Re: Nur Ein XIV Round Five "Where The Streets Have No Name"

Post by GlennCase »

vowlvom wrote:
Wed Jun 05, 2019 12:41 am
Edit: Also, thanks judges! Our elaborate plan to only win the rounds that don't grant immunity, thus making us as exhausted as possible, is going well!
I am calling it, and I doubt I am the only one: Vowl Sounds and Rain Watt are going to the final round. You have both been super consistent and putting out frighteningly good songs.

Don't get me wrong. I am going to do my best to thwart this prediction by putting out the best songs we can. I am not sure that will be enough 'though. Y'all are unstoppable.

Honestly, I would personally be thrilled with 4th and 5th place in this group of artists.
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Re: Nur Ein XIV Round Five "Where The Streets Have No Name"

Post by vowlvom »

Thanks Glenn, I appreciate the vote of confidence! But this competition is far from over, and our Round Six entry is currently going about as well as everything else seems to be for me this Cursed Week (I can't sleep, I've smashed my phone and later I have to apply flea-drops to two boisterous kittens), so frankly I'm not feeling very unstoppable at the moment!
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Re: Nur Ein XIV Round Five "Where The Streets Have No Name"

Post by owl »

vowlvom wrote:
Wed Jun 05, 2019 7:53 am
Thanks Glenn, I appreciate the vote of confidence! But this competition is far from over, and our Round Six entry is currently going about as well as everything else seems to be for me this Cursed Week (I can't sleep, I've smashed my phone and later I have to apply flea-drops to two boisterous kittens), so frankly I'm not feeling very unstoppable at the moment!
Dude, I keep telling you, everyone is going to LOVE our tender yet powerful re-imagining of "Who Let the Dogs Out"! It'll be fine!

Anyway, thanks for the kind words, @Glenn-- I'm psyched to have made it this far and won some rounds, and of course we'll do our best to make through the next one, but this is such a ridiculously good group of musicians, I'll just be happy if we make another song or two we're pleased with, even if this is the point where we get sent home!

@theSundayColors, you mean it's not corn? How about pork bellies? Soybeans? I have some Theories.

@mo, that reminds me of the time my husband and I accidentally ate a drug-covered pizza in Cambodia shortly before boarding a plane with my mom. We were high as a kite walking past the scary airport security guys with machine guns strapped on, and then going to various war and genocide museums. (Oh, and sharing a hotel room with my mom. That was maybe worse than the genocide)

It hasn't put me off pizza though. Or drugs either, I guess. ;)
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Re: Nur Ein XIV Round Five "Where The Streets Have No Name"

Post by Chumpy »

Looks like we're still doing this. Air your spleen at: feedback@twojerksonevote.com.

INDEX: Et tu?
Last edited by Chumpy on Thu Jun 13, 2019 9:09 am, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: Nur Ein XIV Round Five "Where The Streets Have No Name"

Post by Spintown »

Agony Sauce
A song that actually hits home with me a little atm. You can’t tell a story backwards much clearer than this. Unfortunately, for the first time your cumulative challenges mission kinda affected the song for me a little. The sample you used threw me a bit because I couldn’t make out what was being said. It still sounded nice….but it just annoys me when I can’t pick up lyrics. Really enjoyed the end where you flipped the chorus around...embracing the backwardness of this challenge.

Berkeley Social Scene
I appreciate the picture you included with the lyrics. I’m not up on my Greek mythology, so without that image I’d have been lost with this story. Before I listened I went to wikipedia & got the gist of the Minotaur’s story, which helped. There are times when the verses sound a little clunky lyrically, but they aren’t horrible. I did really like the chorus & your delivery of it. It held my interest musically, so I guess the one thing I’d like is for the lyrics to be smoothed out a little more. For instance “terrible place”...”terrible face”... or places where you have to pause in the middle of a line so you can end it where you want to.

Grumpy Mike
Thanks for the “spoiler” at the end of your lyrics post. I mean I’d have got most of it anyways, but I never even heard the term “Glorious Mysteries” before, so reading up on all the 5 points made this easier. I think the idea & execution are fine. I can’t say much negative about it. At the moment this hasn’t created an earworm for me...the hook isn’t sticking… I’m not a very religious person so the topic you picked isn’t for me, maybe that’s part of it. But you did find a creative way to tell a touching story. That’s about all I got sorry.

Max Bombast
Your vocals again just amaze me. I didn’t know what an “oubliette” was until I Googled it. Is that common knowledge? I could just be clueless, but that might throw some people off. I liked the phrase “worms in the sky” a lot. Yeah, don’t have any complaints other than that minor one I mentioned, I really liked this. This is in the running for my top spot.

Merisan
So the townsfolk freed a killer, turned him into a cyborg, and sent him to clean up the town from a bunch of corrupt fat cats? If I interpreted that right….I love it. ;p I’d like the vocals to be louder in the mix, and maybe they could be a bit more menacing? I know it’s not told from the killers POV, but the story is dark enough I think it might have helped.

Rachael Layne
You’ve brought a wide range of sounds to this Nur Ein. This is another one that I really like. The story was simple & easy to follow even backwards. The vocals were lovely at the end of the chorus. My only minor complaint is that the music got a little too repetitive for me, but it was still interesting enough that it wasn’t a big deal. This one has singability for me, and sticks in my brain.

Rain Watt
I like the chiptunes in this. Unfortunately your story didn’t really pull me in at all, so it felt like the verses were there just to break up the choruses. The chorus wasn’t bad, and was kinda catchy. I’m not as confident with you moving on this round as I have been in the past rounds.

Vowl Sounds
Who says sequels are never better? I really didn’t expect this to take such a dark turn, but I rather enjoyed it. The vocals were clear as a bell for me until the very end. Didn’t really care for the “Satanic messages” part of the track. Really enjoyed the story though, and you probably had me hooked with it more so than anyone else this round.
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Re: Nur Ein XIV Round Five "Where The Streets Have No Name"

Post by Geech »

Spintown wrote:
Wed Jun 05, 2019 9:46 am
Berkeley Social Scene
...so I guess the one thing I’d like is for the lyrics to be smoothed out a little more. For instance “terrible place”...”terrible face”...
I'm not sure if I'm getting you here, but the use of these specific words in this way was intentional - it's a reference to Where the Wild Things Are.
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Re: Nur Ein XIV Round Five "Where The Streets Have No Name"

Post by Spintown »

Geech wrote:
Wed Jun 05, 2019 9:55 am
Spintown wrote:
Wed Jun 05, 2019 9:46 am
Berkeley Social Scene
...so I guess the one thing I’d like is for the lyrics to be smoothed out a little more. For instance “terrible place”...”terrible face”...
I'm not sure if I'm getting you here, but the use of these specific words in this way was intentional - it's a reference to Where the Wild Things Are.
Never read that book as a kid, didn't get the reference.
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Re: Nur Ein XIV Round Five "Where The Streets Have No Name"

Post by iVeg »

Sunday Colors: Did anyone catch that your song is about a failed suicide attempt, and the aftermath of living with the visible gunshot wound to the head/ [face?]? I think they missed it.

Lichen Throat: I started reading Bleak House. It's a little hard going at first. I'm going to work on my shadow, instead.

New Ugly: I hope you're healing from your sickness, Ben. Scott, thanks for filling in.
Two Jerks One Vote: Thanks for your comments, Ryan.
Vom: Thanks! This was a couple experiments that didn't work the way I'd hoped.

Since this is a shadow song, I doubt anyone cares, except me:

I wanted to do a backward song to fit the backward story. I also wanted to make the world's happiest Rammstein song. I recorded real guitar and bass parts backward, and flipped them. One of my co-workers has loaned me his iRig, but I don't have the hang of it yet. Friday I sang some scratch verse vocals over the parts, then ran out of time.

Saturday I realized the backward parts didn't work. It's really hard to get the ends of your notes to line up when you're playing live. Maybe y'all have the benefit of being able to adjust stuff in your DAW. I don't. I re-did the guitar and bass parts forward on iPad Garageband. They felt weak.

Sun afternoon, my wife had a migraine, so I sat outside under a tree in the middle of our apartment complex growling out the prechorus and chorus vocals. The takes are full of wind and birdsong. iPad's mic. I felt pretty self-conscious. Maintenance started power washing sidewalks.

At 11 pm Sunday I was drying laundry, but it was still damp, and the laundry rooms were closing. I figured I had a half hour at [other location] to re-record real guitar and bass [forward] while my laundry dried.

And Mike, the German is German. "It is not good that Man should be alone". "Selamat pagi" is Indonesian for "Good morning". All the foreign languages I have ever tried to learn are dumped in one big mental spaghetti file. If someone says a basic phrase to me in one language, I can often answer right away, but 90% of the time it's in the wrong language. :roll:

[This has been me looking for a way to avoid working on my shadow. Ok. Ok.]
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Re: Nur Ein XIV Round Five "Where The Streets Have No Name"

Post by owl »

iVeg wrote:
Wed Jun 05, 2019 1:24 pm
Sunday Colors: Did anyone catch that your song is about a failed suicide attempt, and the aftermath of living with the visible gunshot wound to the head/ [face?]? I think they missed it.
I didn't really think it was about soybeans. ;)

I did think there was arson and burn scars involved too, though. But I could be off.
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Re: Nur Ein XIV Round Five "Where The Streets Have No Name"

Post by mo »

Well tbh I eat pizza just fine. I only can't look at hamburger pizza, or else it starts talking back. Which would be fine, except hamburger pizza is really rude, like do you kiss your mother with that mouth?

The general darkness of all the stories told in this round made me very concerned about everyone's mental health though. Is everyone ok? Anybody need an ice cream?
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Re: Nur Ein XIV Round Five "Where The Streets Have No Name"

Post by owl »

I'll take a scoop of redrum raisin
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Re: Nur Ein XIV Round Five "Where The Streets Have No Name"

Post by Lunkhead »

Spintown wrote:
Wed Jun 05, 2019 9:46 am
So the townsfolk freed a killer, turned him into a cyborg, and sent him to clean up the town from a bunch of corrupt fat cats? If I interpreted that right….I love it. ;p
Yep, that's pretty much it. Lyrics are the hardest thing for me so I'm at least happy with having managed to write a bunch of lyrics that I like, that I think fit the title and challenge ok, and tell a story, and that I got them all out in only 3 minutes. :lol:
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