Nur Ein V Round Six "Headphones"

[Niveous]

Boop Boop: This is the hardest one to vote for. It speaks to a personal crisis that I've been feeling. This is highly experimental. It clearly took a lot of work and shows an amazing amount of creativity. At the same time, it has created a song that you can't sing along too (or at least without a great amount of difficulty). So, do you lean towards praising the experiment or do you wish there was more song there than art? I'm going to lean towards the latter. Great work, Ben. Genius take on the title.

Minty Handy: The piano playing is nice as ever. There's a hum in there somewhere. The disappear and then silence line was okay. It's all a bit safe, which is surprising for the penultimate round. It's not spectacular but it's not bad. At worst, it's a bit sleepy. At best, it's the middle of the road. If you get to the final 2 with this song, I feel it won't be because this song was amazing, it was because it was solid.

Chris Cogott: It's a groovy little tune that had my girlfriend bopping along. The use of silence is well done. It's an okay tune. I kinda feel like there's a hundred songs like this one in the Songfight archive. I'm not saying this is bad but it doesn't wow me. If it weren't for the fact that I'm listening to this song repeatedly, this song would probably be something that I could hear and it would play in the background and I wouldn't react to it. It's fine, just kind of generic.

BSS: BSS decides to play series MVP K. Mahru in this one. Can he get them to the finals? I was worried with the layered style of BSS that they wouldn't be able to handle the challenge but they did it. The harmonies in this song are very nice and I love the guitar solo. I think the song dragged on one verse too long, as it got lyrically threadbare by that point. All in all, this is a pretty well done song and one of the better in the round.

Milo: Did he shush the audience at the beginning or did he toss them in a black hole? Shutting out the world as the silence is an okay use of the silence, not the best. There are some questionable lyric choices but there's a great groove here. It's nice to see Milo get back to that. This song is probably the song that's going to stick with me the most after this round is in the record books. There are points where I wish that there was a killer guitarist putting down some licks to fill up some of the spaces, but this is really nice.

[Ross]

As Frankie said a couple of rounds ago, this is tough. Trying to give fair rankings, balance all the components , then see how other judges come to quite different conclusions... It is an interesting experience for sure.

It gets much harder this late in the game, trying to rank the songs for what they are and not in relation to the songwriter's record thus far, it seems to me that each song should fight each round on its own, anyway. All five contestants so far are clearly proficient artists with different artistic sensibilities, I guess the ones that can rank most consistently near, if not at the top will persevere.

I think this round will be close, so many ways these might have been ranked.

Congrats to all that made the top 5.

Nur Ein!!!!!!

Bss - While I totally get your take on the silence, and I know you could make a convincing argument for it, I am not totally bought in, except maybe on the later part. The song take is fine, I think you are making fun of the adolescent headphone thing, but I can't quite tell, which is probably a good thing. Excellent lead vocal by Ken, everything played great. Unnecessary but interesting guitar instrumental section.

Boop - I am torn between wanting to reward you for the undying artistic vision of what you are going for with the song theme and the production schtick. A very interesting way to go with the challenge and title combo. And yet you've made something almost entirely unlistenable. So the Question I face is where does that leave it in a contest such as this one? To what extent should a ranking reward idea, execution, listenability, etc... I think I would have liked it better with more progress - if it started out with the headphone jack problem that slowly gets solved over the course of the song instead of staying consistently difficult. This would have given it a little ear reward for the listener who sticks through it. In the end I also thought it was a too long without some similar resolution. Not a fan of the radio shack/what do i lack lyric. I suppose the final results will show whether your use of silence was, in fact, judicious.

Chris Cogott - easy on the ears, perhaps a little too much. I wish you changed the texture of the song more from verse to verse and such, like no harmonies on the first verse or something. Nice contextual guitar solo. I like the story aspect, a little like a nouveau "Bus Stop." I feel like you wussed out on the silence.

Milo - nice use of major 7 chords. The cell phone line was a good idea, but didn't lie well. I like the idea of the headphones as escape, but much here did not work for me. Just never developed.

Minty - interlude too long. I think I like where you meant to go here, but I don't think the lyrics ultimately made it work for me. The piano is pretty, but the drop to minor is a bit pedantic.

[frankie big face]

Boop - Not a fan of the radio shack/what do i lack lyric.

I think this just goes to show how different we are (not just you and me--the whole panel). I thought this line was spot on.

[Caravan Ray]

I think this just goes to show how different we are (not just you and me--the whole panel).

You misspelled "planet" at the end there.

[frankie big face]

I think this just goes to show how different we are (not just you and me--the whole panel).

You misspelled "planet" at the end there.

Oh, har har. Thanks for chiming in.

[MintyHandy]

I HAVE MY LIFE BAAAAAAAAAAAAAAACK!

That was a hell of a lot of fun. Which is to say, it was like pulling teeth out of my own head. But I learned a lot about how to do this as task and process, rather than inspiration and luck -- I've never worked that way before.

Thanks to all (judges and others) for the feedback, with particular emphasis on the "here's what you could have done better" stuff, and while being at the bottom of this week's voting doesn't surprise me in the slightest, I could not be happier that I got five points from JB -- as simple as the arrangement was, and as sparse as our performance was, I really like what I wrote this round and I'm glad a few other folks did, too.

I feel like I'm in amazing company to get this far, and actually came out of this with a couple of songs that I think are worth tweaking and re-recording. Can't ask for more than that -- although BSS was one of my two "if I can beat them, I can retire from SongFight!" targets, so I'll be entering Nur Ein VI (and shaking my fist at those damn BSS kids in the meantime!)

NUR-FUCKIN'-EIN!!!!!!

EDIT: Oh, and the song was supposed to be about my disapproval of the transformation of radio broadcasting from musical tastemaker to political rabblerouser. I tried hard not to make the lyrics on-the-nose -- and went too far, apparently. Heh.

[ken]

BSS, just curious, was anybody in the band listening to Missing Persons this past week? It's got a little bit of that "Words" vibe to it.

i don't think so.

My inspiration this week was more along the lines of Surrender by Cheap Trick.

Congrats Ben, sorry Milo, Chris, Handy. See you in the final round. Prepare to be crushed!

Ken

[Lunkhead]

Congrats to Boop Boop, and condolences to those eliminated. I am honestly stunned by these results, and am excited to make it to the finals for the first time. Ken and Glen did most of the work on this one, so thanks to them for that. Ken and Erin's vocals were my favorite part.

I thought all the songs in this round were pretty good. Here are my irrelevant rankings/reviews for the other songs:

Minty Handy - The lyrics don't seem 100% there yet to me, but this is really beautiful. Well played and well sung. I like the simplicity of the instrumentation and the lo-fi recording, and nice idea bringing in your wife to sing harmony.

Milo Dunderville - Groovy and very enjoyable. I really liked the sad sack lyrics and the mellow 70s kind of vibe.

Boop Boop - Definitely way too long, and I would have ranked you higher if the shorting out sound had changed (either gotten better or worse) or maybe just stopped for a longer time so the music came through fully for a bit. Still, I liked the concept a lot and I also got into the music a lot in spite of the noise.

Chris Cogott - Well performed and recorded, but I couldn't really get into it. It just felt a little corny and a little too much the same tone throughout the song.

Anyway, great job to all the participants in this and previous rounds. Thanks to the judges for their work, too. This should be interesting...

[Spud]

Boop
Here's how I listen to the songs. First I download each one to my hard drive, which is getting easier week by week. Still wish there was some way to grab them all, but oh well. Next I copy them all the my .mp3 player, which is not an iPod or any kind of a phone. It's a stick. I put it into my car and I use a 1/8" stereo cable to hook it up to the aux input on the sound system in my car. I proceed to listen throughout the day on Monday whenever I am out. Thing is, it has a short in the headphone jack, so I have to be careful to make sure I am getting stereo. Usually, I have to hold onto it, pressing slightly against the side of the jack to make sure that contact is made. Consequently, as you can now understand, this song drove me absolutely crazy. Ben, you are lucky you didn't kill me in a car accident so that I still give you some credit for a brilliant concept. Still, I question the judicious part of the challenge.

BSS
Once again I am unsure how judicious the silence is. I would describe this as halting. There are a lot of layers in there that may or may not be contributing, and it seems you are having some trouble bring them all to a hard stop and get them geared up and going again. It seems to me that what you are going for would have to be executed flawlessly to work, and that's got to be tough in a short period. I went looking to see if I could give you extra credit for some clever lyric that I might have missed on listening, but didn't find them.

Minty
Basically, I like this. The lyrics are potentially interesting. But you're kind of in a box here, you haven't given yourself a long enough song to really have them build to anywhere, and yet, it's too long for the pretty repetitive music you've set them to. In the end, there's not much to hold my interest. The silence is so much a natural part of the composition that I missed it the first few times. While under normal circumstances, that would probably be a good thing, In this case I am looking for something to hold onto here, and if you would have done something unexpected with the silence that might have helpd.

Milo
I like the way you say headphones. Other than that, I find the lyrics kind of annoying and the music boring. I am not a big fan of people walking around stoned listening to their iPods. I don't find it any less antisocial than talking on your cellphone in public. Or are you telling me that you only do this at home? So what, that little invitation at the end mean that you've got a splitter, so that we can each listen on our own headphones? I guess I am getting cranky and wanting something a little more fantastic this far along in the competition.

Cogott
Your take on the halting silence is executed with more precision that BSS, and I like it better. It's used a little more conventionally in your song, but I guess it's a trade-off. I can't believe how sappy the story is. Meet Boy. Meet Girl. Boy Meets Girl. They like the same kind of music, so they get married and have kids. Oh man, it hurts. Your music is nice, but not outrageously so. In fact it's a little ordinary. Well executed, though.

I am at the end, and you all get a 3.

[Niveous]

Hey BSS & Boop Boop. We are almost at the end. Can I get those band photos now?

[BenKrieger]

Prepare to be crushed!

Oh I'll prepare, for sure. I hope you do the same. The kid just went down...time to make the donuts...

[BenKrieger]

So, do you lean towards praising the experiment or do you wish there was more song there than art?

I like meatloaf and beefheart, depending on my mood.

[HeuristicsInc]

Still wish there was some way to grab them all, but oh well.

if you want to try firefox, there is a plugin called "down em all" that i use to get all mp3s linked from a page. same thing i do at songfight.
-bill

[Niveous]

Ok Milo Dunderville, now that you've been eliminated, wouldn't this be the part where you do a reveal.

[MintyHandy]

Don't encourage him, or he'll open up his raincoat. o.O

[Lunkhead]

Is Milo actually Deshead? I always thought there was something about his singing that reminded me of Deshead's voice.

[LMNOP]

My preference would be to have Milo walk off into the sunset, never to be heard from again. The truth is so underwhelming that it would be better left unsaid.

But it was never my intention to fool or disrespect anybody so here's your reveal.

You might remember that Albatross got it right after the second song. I PM'd him to express my amazement and to say that I didn't think I'd be made until I played the a capella card. As it turns out, I was never inspired to do so. I may not have this right but what I think he heard was the similarity between the little chromatically ascending nonsense syllables (in harmony) that I threw into "Stranded" in the last minute and the little chromatically ascending nonsense syllables (in harmony) that appeared in the second measure of "Brand New Car" a million years ago. [both excerpts in the mp3 attached]

My favorite parallel is that " '97 " is not the first song I've ever turned in for a sidefight which tells a story from the point of view of a dead-by-song's-end historically-significant criminal with a horn section and sax solo by my friend Dave. I sang as Clyde Barrow in the "The Jig (Is Up)" for Jim of Seattle's extra-long sidefight, also a million years ago.

So there you have it.

[Lunkhead]

Wow, welcome back. (Last fight date as LMNOP 5/18/2006?) Nice work in Nur Ein. I enjoyed your songs.

[Niveous]

That's what I call a successful comeback. Great work, LMNOP.

[Chris Cogott]

Nice to finally meet you Milo-LMNOP. I always thought something was a little strange. You were a little too quiet. Even more than me. Great songs. I also enjoyed them a lot. Now I'll go back to the archives and check out your other stuff. Good Job!

[Billy's Little Trip]

I still don't know who you are, but the old schoolers here seem to admire you, so, hi.

And I agree, your submissions for NE5 were damn good. I enjoyed them and I still am, because they are on my NE5 play list.

[MintyHandy]

Welcome back, LMNOP!