That Dirty Dancing chick should STFU (Baby, Be Quiet)

[Albatross]

Seriously.

[fluffy]

Word to that.

[Stubby Phillips]

OK, so I'm not up on all things Songfight, but when the hell did you move to San Francisco, Fluffy? What happened -- did you get tired of the rain? The taxes? The governor? Or just get a killer job offer?
[ten minutes later]
So I just did a post search, went back about 300 posts (3 months) and found the beginnings of your exodus from Amazon. Hope your new gig is working out.

[fluffy]

It's going pretty good, yeah. I miss Seattle though. I still wish I could have found a better job which wouldn't have required me to move.

[Smalltown Mike]

Seriously.

Nobody puts baby in the corner.

When I was 17, my girlfriend at the time made me take her to see Dirty Dancing in the theatre on a Friday night. She liked it, I hate it. Obvsiously. Guess what we did on the Saturday night? Went back to the same theatre and paid the same money to see Dirty Dancing again.

Then she bought the soundtrack, and played it constantly. That was 21 years ago, and I still can't stand hearing even a single song of that album.

Just so you know.

[fluffy]

At least back then movies in the theater weren't much more than rentals, and it took like three years for it to come out on video anyway.

[fluffy]

holy cow that's a big fight

[Spud]

So much for the rumors of our demise.

[Billy's Little Trip]

Holy f**k, Big Crouton, that is some smokin guitar. Love it!

[No Horse Town]

I'm diggin' this Jeff Travis Henderson song. It sounds like Smashing Pumpkins... or maybe like the bands that Smashing Pumpkins sounded like. Either way, it's good.

Also, the Breast Harvest one.

Also also, Vegetarian Rage. Painfully funny.

[jeffhenderson]

Acid Cadillac – Oooh, I’m feeling this. I really don’t think the lo-fi recording takes away from this. GarageBand? It’s pretty cool. That bass line just keeps taking a stroll, and I’m digging it.

Big Crouton – I love how you sheepishly take back all the sexist lyrics at the end. This reminds me a lot of Paul Gilbert. Like really a lot. Great guitar work as always. Also good drums (I’m looking at you, Andrew). Possible Vote

Adam Adamant feat RP- You have that perfect Brit-Pop voice nailed. Great mix of passion and indifference in the vocals, which sometimes get a bit clippy (not like I’m one to talk). The synths could use some de-cheesifiying. Good news when the percussion comes in. And maybe just a bit more direction in the instrumentation in general (I don’t know, it seems a little thrown together).

Blues Manufacturing Facility – I would be shocked if more than an hour went into the making of this. I suspect you intentionally made this painful to listen to, and you have succeeded.

Breast Harvest – Good playing here. I like the juxtaposition of primal scream therapy and whiny “Please be quiet” spoken parts.

Caravan Ray – Crikey! This is funky enough. Reminds me of some of those sweet 80’s dance numbers that sometimes show up in commercials for Swiffer or something.

Cynthia Size and the @eclectic spoons - Yoko Ono! It actually does remind me of Yoko, which isn’t always a bad thing. In this case it’s pretty okay. The vocal effect works. Good production.

Deux Freres – oooohh. Just a few seconds in I was sold. I like this style a lot. The vocals are a bit stretched, but the horns and instrumental section completely make up for it. The percussion seems to be competing with itself a bit during the verses. Ohh I really like the background vocals too. Possible Vote.

DJ Sponge and RyGuy – Props to the DJ. The first MC is pretty mediocre, but the second one has some flow. (In case you haven’t noticed, I have no idea what I’m talking about when it comes to rap. I’m such a poser)

g4meboy – I have nothing constructive to say.

Hell Biscuit – This is nice. I like the chord progression in the pre-chorus. For some reason I get the sense that you’re reading the lyrics as you sing them

Hello Blue Monday – I suspect you are somewhat new at this. If that’s the case, this isn’t all that bad. The lyrics are quite decent. What you need to work on is keeping your vocals on pitch. It sounds like you could be a good singer, but you a little unsure whether you’re hitting the right notes. I suggest figuring out the melody on the piano or guitar, and then try singing along with it.

Jason’s Innocence – It sounds a bit like Devandra Banhart if he was a little less good.

Jimmy Jet and his TV Set – You sound like that guy who pulls out his guitar around a campfire and makes me jealous because all the ladies are attracted to him because he’s so much better at playing guitar, singing, and writing songs than me.

Lopez and The Destroyers – This song drifts between being really funny and not funny at all. I find the opening couple lines hilarious for some reason, but I don’t really find the rest all too funny. The music is top notch for the genre of “Hey dude, let’s throw together something for SongFight, it’ll be funny.”

Lord of Oats – Sometimes I wish had a machine that took what imagined in my head and turned it into a recording. I feel like if you had done that with this song, I would really like it. There are some good musical ideas, that just don’t quite get through in the performance. Some pretty good guitar playing.

Melvin – When that solo kicks in at 1:40, I really started getting into this. This towers over the others in terms of recording quality and performance. Possible Vote

No Horse Town – Franz Ferdinand! I like the propaganda/Uganda rhyme. The guitar seems to have no clear direction, which isn’t really to my liking.

Pop Quiz Chicken – Tom Petty! Yeah I like this. Great song structure, background vocals, etc. This is just good old-fashioned rock and roll a la the Beatles and the Who. Possible Vote

Punglect – This sounds like the score to a lot of the 80’s horror movies that MST3K riffed.

Sockpuppet - Catchy little loop you got there. I don’t really care for the vocals. For some strange reason the melody reminds me of musical Oliver!

Thanks For The Frisbee – This is very nice. This is how guy and guitar songs should sound.

The Worldy Self-Assurance – This intro makes me expect greatness. Good stuff. I could do without the constant guitar noodling in the right ear. Your voices are really good, like Melvin and Jordan Seavers.

Vegetarian Rage – You’re building a consistent track record of semi-humorous, semi-awesome, lounge-style, super-catchy songs. I think you win the award for most creative play on the title.

Wages – Your voice always makes me want to put on some flannel and veg out like it’s 1991. Nice guitar work and great song-writing. The vocals sometimes nail it and sometimes miss the mark.

Weakest Suit – I like the sound you get in the verses, but not so much in the chorus, which is a little lack-luster with just the voice and guitar and interspersed drum hits. I’m surprised people

Huge fight, but there were a lot of good songs.

[No Horse Town]

No Horse Town – Franz Ferdinand! I like the propaganda/Uganda rhyme. The guitar seems to have no clear direction, which isn’t really to my liking.

Oh no, I hate Franz Ferdinand! Oh well...

also, weird coincidence: my gal just got 'where the sidewalk ends' outta the library today for our kid, and randomly opened to.. "Jimmy Jet and his TV Set". Strange. Does this portend that good things will happen if I vote for him?

[g4meboy]

g4meboy – I have nothing constructive to say.

Could you then at least say something critical? I kind of need something to know where to move on.

[Reist]

g4meboy – I have nothing constructive to say.

Could you then at least say something critical? I kind of need something to know where to move on.

Don't worry about it dude - this is only the first review - there will be more to come, and you can get criticism from those. I could always take time to criticize you, but I don't have enough time right now to review all these songs.

By the way, it was a joy to play on the Big Crouton track this week.

[sausage boy]

g4meboy – I have nothing constructive to say.

Could you then at least say something critical? I kind of need something to know where to move on.

At least he recognised yours. Mine was omitted entirely. Probably for good reason.

What a monster fight! Takes me back to the good 'ol days.

[jeffhenderson]

g4meboy – I have nothing constructive to say.

Could you then at least say something critical? I kind of need something to know where to move on.

At least he recognised yours. Mine was omitted entirely. Probably for good reason.

What a monster fight! Takes me back to the good 'ol days.

Whoops. Sorry, it's easy for a song to get lost in a fight this huge. It took me 3 hours to type up these reviews. Here are the last two:

G4mBoy - Sorry about the lack of a review. I know it's frustrating when you put work into making a song and somebody just brushes it aside in their reviews. The reason I was being such a hater is because I am so sick of the nerdcore genre, that I am afraid my reviews wouldn't be very fair. Your song could very well be the Citizen Kane of nerdcore, but that would not be reflected in my review. But like Andrew said, there will be more reviews on the way with many more constructive/critical things to say.

Sausage Boy - It sounds like the effect on the synth purposely makes every note dissonant, which I am not a huge fan of. But I can see why you did it, it certainly contributes to the horror-zombie atmosphere consistent with the lyrics. I can probably expect a lot more of this type of stuff in next week's fight.

[fluffy]

What a monster fight! Takes me back to the good 'ol days.

Whose good ol' days are those?

[RWB]

Jeff Travis Henderson - I didn't know what to expect with this one. I've been listening for the past 2 months to every song, and this is by far the best. The vocals and chord progressions are very smooth, and this is music that I would really listen to in my free time. The lyrics are very surreal as well, I don't know what else to say besides this is great. Great. I don't think anything can beat this one.
Great Job, I hope to hear more of your stuff.

[5/5]

xx
Cynthia Size and the @eclectic spOOns - The intro threw me off a bit, I wasn't sure what you were going for at first. The digital touch is pretty nice, and is pretty pleasant to listen to. However, I can't understand much of what the lyrics are. This is still pretty good though.

[4/5]

xx
Hello Blue Monday - Okay, first off, positive. Good acoustic guitar work. Sounds pretty clean, and is a nice progression.
However, vocals, not so good. Voice is kind of cracky, and very off from what you are playing.
Keep trying.

[2/5]

xx
Pop Quiz Chicken - Very nice intro and drums. Reminds me somewhat of weezer. I really like the vocalist. The back-up vocals are pretty cool, when you do them right. The back-ups on this aren't that great. They have their moments, but since you didn't use them sparingly enough they lose their effect I think? Either way, don't take it too hard, I really liked your song.

[4.5/5]

xx
Blues Manufacturing Facility - the intro really got me interested in this song. This is very unique, and I like it alot as well. There are alot of good entries this week. However, I was expecting the whole time to explode in a blues-y riff, instead at the end I got some really off key sounding notes. Not bad, just not great.

[3/5]

xx
Sockpuppet - Ahhh, techno. Pretty cool stuff, but I put techno is a whole other place than traditional music. While I enjoy it occasionally, it just doesn't seem quite like some guy pounding away on a guitar or piano or any other instrument. Stuff done like that on computer, while they take just as much work, seem like cheating or something I guess. I liked how your song went, nothing bad about it, but nothing stand out.

[2.5/5]


xx
Jimmy Jet and his TV set - Another above average entry, the acoustic guitar work is really cool on this one. The vocalist knows what he is doing, and the chorus is pretty nice guitar-wise. The reeling sound in the background is interesting, I don't know if it was intentional or not, but I think I like that. Good job.

[4/5]

xx
Breast Harvest - Yeah. Just what I expected. No. Bad. Blah.

The screaming is really.... obnoxious. I could see how you were trying to be funny with this, and it most def was, it got me to laugh a bit. The guitar work was pretty good, but I am not much of a fan of crazy noise, unless it's animal collective or something. Either way, try again. Or not, that's okay too.

[1.75/5]

xx
The Worldly Self Assurance - What!? This beats Jeff Travis Henderson in surprise! This is really good too, it is so well put together for only a week. The vocalist is really good, and I love the folky-ness of it?
It has charm, that's for sure. It sounds alot like a local band around me I have heard, but still different. Great job men.

[5/5]

xx

that's all I can listen to in one sitting.[/b][/i]

[fluffy]

Sockpuppet - Ahhh, techno. Pretty cool stuff, but I put techno is a whole other place than traditional music. While I enjoy it occasionally, it just doesn't seem quite like some guy pounding away on a guitar or piano or any other instrument. Stuff done like that on computer, while they take just as much work, seem like cheating or something I guess. I liked how your song went, nothing bad about it, but nothing stand out.

It would be cool to hear some vocals or something, or something else besides generated beats.

it wasn't techno
every song here is produced on a computer in some way
there were vocals
the beats were not generated
sorry you didn't like it

[No Horse Town]

it just doesn't seem quite like some guy pounding away on a guitar or piano or any other instrument. Stuff done like that on computer, while they take just as much work, seem like cheating or something I guess.

Cheating? What, technology is cheating? And here I thought we all enjoyed its benefits. Guitars and pianos are cheating, too - let's each of us get two rocks and bang them together, then we'll really be "pounding away".

[g4meboy]

G4mBoy - Sorry about the lack of a review. I know it's frustrating when you put work into making a song and somebody just brushes it aside in their reviews. The reason I was being such a hater is because I am so sick of the nerdcore genre, that I am afraid my reviews wouldn't be very fair. Your song could very well be the Citizen Kane of nerdcore, but that would not be reflected in my review. But like Andrew said, there will be more reviews on the way with many more constructive/critical things to say.

Then don't view it as nerdcore. View it as a (rap) song. As I said in my introduction, I refuse to use "nerdcore" as an excuse for shitty music versus good music. The subject matter was Baby, Be Quiet, I wrote and did a song based on the subject, with my own twist. I would like a review on my SONG, not my GENRE.

I'm sorry if I sound like a jerk, but I find it very insulting that you are writing me off because I'm nerdcore. I want to make good music. Not "good for nerdcore music." Be harsh if it's a sucky song. Just say it's a sucky song and not a sucky nerdcore song.

Equal rights![/soap box]

[Lord of Oats]

Well, no worries. You certainly have not made the Citizen Kane of Nerdcore. Regardless of any inherent genre bias, it should be pretty apparent to any listener that the nerdcoritude of this song is not the reason it's bad.

I'm tempted to attempt further criticism of the 'not my thing' approach to (not) reviewing, but I won't, because in the end, there's one thing everyone can agree on: You're not going to beat a review out of anyone. Especially someone who doesn't like the kind of music you're making.