The Song Fight Bulletin Board

@josh, that's brilliant! Sounds so good, I never meant to doubt your challenge I just didn't realize what I was hearing.

Whoops, I accidentally skipped Rabid. I'm going to edit my reviews so they're all together.

glennny wrote: Frank- I love that you dare to be weird and inventive. I Like this, but I don't love it. This reminds me of the deeper cuts on Outside (David Bowie). I think the metal refrain should be louder. Your soft parts are crisp and in my ear, where as the chorus sounds heavy and far away. Maybe that was the intent? Interesting listen.

Thanks Glenn. I think the same plugin that makes everything crisp during the verses over-squashes everything in the chorus. I actually turned that part up (believe it or not) and I still missed. I will consider a remix. I appreciate your first comment very much. This type of competition doesn't necessarily encourage outsider art but I figured I could probably get away with it for an early round or two. We'll see.

glennny wrote: Ross- Another well crafted song.

I'll take it. Thanks for the review.

Nur Ein!

glennny wrote: A tout les monsiers- Hey we had Ralph Salmins play on our Stop You're Killing Me! We also had Martin Shaw on that same track. Nice to hear them playing with you and Frank! I love the guitars! Franks vocals here are out shining his FBF entry. Super cool song!

Not sure about the drums, but I know the trumpet is an actual live person Erik recorded. Just saying.

glennny wrote: Also I think of Alpha to Omega as a timeline, I don't think I've ever heard it used as a quality metric.

I used Alpha/Omega only as the name of the extreme positions of any magnitude. A symbol. My knowledge of English is not enough to know whether it is appropriate to designate a magnitude or another. Thanks for your review.

glennny wrote:Whoops, I accidentally skipped Rabid. I'm going to edit my reviews so they're all together.

Cheers, yo.

glennny wrote:Rabid Garfunkel- the raw energy is great. Something in the percussion is super distorted. I like the guitar tone. I assume the trash is in the percussion. It's cool, but it's very samey throughout. I think a good hook in the chorus and another riff could elevate this a lot. Gotta love the dirty vibe of it.

The percussion loops are, in fact, super distorted "out of the box." Toned 'em down a lot; needs must when the devil drives, heh.

Trash is measure #51-ish, that one "off" measure before the outro chorus. Mylar sheet (packing material, work trash, can be seen in my fb profile pic) + comb harmonikazoo produced the mosquito fart noise.

@Frankie- Ralph Salmins and Martin Shaw are actual people too. I guess that style trumpet just goes with a New Orleans beat. It sounds fantastic!

glennny wrote:@Frankie- Ralph Salmins and Martin Shaw are actual people too. I guess that style trumpet just goes with a New Orleans beat. It sounds fantastic!

Haha. Yeah, I know. I'm pretty sure Erik didn't personally sample Martin Shaw, though. We have a school full of amateurs who work for peanuts!

glennny wrote: Boffo Yux Dudes- Come and see the show! This seems like an obvious nod to the ELP classic. This is light hearted and fun. I think the joke works, maybe it's too long? I wish the chorus music varied more from the verses.

Wow! Quick reviews. Thanks, glennny.

Glad you caught the ELP homage. It's pretty obvious to anyone who's ever heard "Karn Evil 9", but given the age of the song (and the band), it's not a given that everyone would catch it. It's a bit outside our usual wheelhouse, but trying to replicate a set of Keith Emerson-esque keyboard runs with a minimum of studio trickery was a lot of fun.

And if it wasn't a bit too long, it wouldn't be an ELP tribute, right?

frankie big face wrote:We have a school full of amateurs who work for peanuts!

I misread peanuts at first and thought you said something else. But I see it's punny circus humor.

btw, I had illustrious personnel other than myself this week as well (which I did not put in my lyrics posting) in the DJRangerDen setup. thanks Chris (BLT) for sweeping a mean broom and making me sound lovely with your mad mixzy skills.

I raided the workshop garbage. Davidicus also did a bunch of parts, and I don't remember everything he used. Here's a partial list, kinda in order of appearance... I had more I didn't use.

Calliope: wine bottle/ plastic tubing for melody line
Tuba: I don't know. David did that part. Sounds like a sample to me. I did a verse/ chorus tuba part using 1 1/2" pipe, but it sounded like a moose gargling thru a digeridoo, and I didn't have time to get it in mix before time ran out.
Twangy thing and bird noises in intro: Another David part.
Percussion: I tapped aluminum can. David did metal sheet, metal bucket, cardboard box, and other metallic percussion.
Misc noises: Water in a paper cup, keys, empty paint pail, aluminum pipe, socket wrench, steel chain, spray paint, pieces of metal, cellophane wrapper, drill bits, paper composition book, vocals
Solo: gopichand [wire between a split bamboo.]
Twangy thing in chorus: rubber band

glennny, I have some thoughts for you regarding my shoehorning of the title, but I feel I should do actual reviews before saying anything about all of that. We'll call that incentive for me. For now, I will simply say thanks because the review was actually very complimentary, and that is very nice and satisfying coming from you.

No listening party? Bummer. Maybe next week?

iVeg wrote:No listening party? Bummer. Maybe next week?

I might be able to do a Round 2 listening party next week, but I can't be in front of my computer at the appropriate time tonight or tomorrow.

I'd really appreciate it if someone could step up and host the listening parties this year. I can do some of them, but I don't have the availability to do them all.

I go to most of the listening parties I can. I don't think the broadcast is that important. If we got a bunch together on a chat and discussed the songs one by one, it'd be nearly the same thing. The audience is never in sync with the host or each other anyway.

I encourage more discourse in the threads anyway, I like that better than the listening parties anyway.

Right. I like the chat. For one hour I get to sit with you, talk about the song, or whatever bunny trails the conversations start running down. Boards are slower, more methodical, less real time.

Just finished listening to the first 8. A thing I was thinking about was how much the previous song impacts out perception of the song after it. Does Adam's simple uke emphasize Balance Lost intricate and brilliant sound design? Would the Cavedwellers intro sound so pretty if they hadn't just followed CBJs ska energy and growly vocals? DJRD had this soft, flying waltz, and super clear vocals. Does that make me like Dutova's kinda muffled sound even less? I loved Frankies Bowie chorus...

And now I'm out of free time for today.

I think not. The last listening party was random order. The alphabetical order probably matters on the 1st listen, but not so much as the subsequent listens.

I randomized the list last week. I think previous listening parties have been in alphabetical order. I don't think it matters (much).

There's a Songfight chat room that's pretty much always up, whether or not there's a listening party going on. You can join it whenever, and syncronize your watches and play through the whole list at the same time if you want. Or someone can host a Google hangout like I did for only a little more effort. I agree that the chat is the key component of what makes the listening party fun and useful for the participants. Everyone's already listening on their own time, but having the group discuss things together makes it feel more communal.

Really hoping to bang out some reviews this week despite my horrendously busy April which has always stopped me bothering (not mothering) you with participation this past 10 Nur Eins - just in case I don't, the following I need to say -
*although it got a bit samey this listen was nowhere near as dire as round 0
*my top three revolved position each time I listened
*IVeg, Chocolate Chips and Nick Soma moved up my pecking order on each listen
*Adam, I've heard 'Stand By Me' far too many times already, thanks
*Touched by ... You promised me something beautiful and didn't fulfill -you were gone in my books until you described Ross as "my stoned hippy uncle" ... you jumped up about five places on that line alone ... tee hee Shame you forgot the melody in your whining about not winning so far And also no, a tous les monsieurs could try harder ...
*Monsieur Miaowwwww - I am glad not to dismiss you on failing either the title or the challenge, just simply 'cos your song's boring.
*Balance Lost - stop writing (and then hiding under heavy, awesome electronica) Tomski songs. As good as they are, that's not you. I mean, seriously, I'm amazed it wasn't about cycling ...
*Also, all those people who attempted the 'more literal than Dave Davies' challenge, failed. But it was a tough call so kudos for inadvertently trying.

A bientot! I honestly will try to expand on this. We'll see how it goes

j$

Tonight is results night, isn't it? Fingers crossed!