Melvin HXARO

[The Secret-Hxaro Santa]

only half the people submitted their entries but santa forgives them. he also welcomes them and anyone else to send them in late and join the party. in the meantime here is some hxaro love for the not much around these days melvin. happy hxaro melvin! - santa

albatross-thank god for memphis

deetak-we were not meant to be

durand durand-couldn't have been worse

generic-god hates penguins

king arthur-walking the border

paco del stinko-empty wednesday

[Rone Rivendale]

Are you f'ing serious? There was a Hxaro for Melvin and no one thinks to send a message to ME about it? HELLO?!

[ujnhunter]

and anyone else to send them in late and join the party.

Go Rone! It's your time to shine!

[jimtyrrell]

I wasn't invited to this party either. I might barge in late with a present picked up on the way over.

[king_arthur]

Well, everybody was invited:

viewtopic.php?f=14&t=6884

...ya just had to be paying attention... and Santa wasn't telling the rest of us
who else was playing...

I've been having some mixing problems of late, and they seem to have infected this
cut as well, so if I can figure out what the problem is and solve it, I may update my
track in a day or two... (actually, probably not until early next week)

And I'll wait a few days before I do this, for any stragglers, but I will see that all
the tracks get copied into the songfight hxaro archive...

Charles (KA)

[glennny]

ummm

I got a PM for a secret Hxaro, and I've been working on it.

I went to this thread, all the time thinking it was talking about the guy/band I was working on, and today I am shocked that there was another one going on. At it was Mel and I wasn't invited.

I hope to find the time to do one.

[jack]

so glenny (and others) who may be confused.....

there were/are 2 secret hxaros taking place. one was/is organized by "the secret hxaro santa" (this one) which was open to anyone, as king arthur referenced to a link earlier.

the other was organized by niveous and was seemingly by invite.

they are for 2 different people. one was for melvin (the one organized by the secret-hxaro santa). one is for someone who is still secret, which was organized by niveous who now seems to have gone away for awhile due to some crisis.

the one for the mystery person is still in effect. if you want to participate, PM ken ASAP for details. if you know who it's for, don't say.



hope that clears things up some.

[Caravan Ray]

one was/is organized by "the secret hxaro santa" (this one) which was open to anyone, as king arthur referenced to a link earlier. .

Yeah - I overlooked this one too.

But Melvin ain't here - so there is no harm in jumping on board late. Shame I am now out of action due to moving

[Paco Del Stinko]

Yeah, Santa tells you to keep it quiet. A nice little batch of songs there, though. Send some in and see if Melvin picks up the vibe and comes back. Maybe one from Johnny "Melvin is the death of music" Cashpoint would do the trick!

[j$]

No, no, no, Paco, no fair! It's Melvin's Hxaro, my opinion is meaningless!

[deetak]

Here is my simple acoustic cover of Melvin's "We Were Not Meant To Be"

http://tinyurl.com/deetakmelvincover

[melvin]

Wow! Guys, I really don’t know what to say. This is amazing. Every song has impressed me. I’d like to write reviews to express my thoughts in more detail, so bear with me and I’ll post them soon.

Above all, THANK YOU to everyone who has submitted a song, and to whoever organized this! What an honour!

[Ross]

How’s a bout a little Songlove! for the Melvin Hxaro

I wrote these on first listen - cover first, then original. Nice job to everyone and of course to Melvin for his consistently strong hundred-and-two songs that upped the ante for production and high quality “indy rock” at the site.

Albatross - “Memphis” - rockin’ groove, I love how it kicks in after the first verse. Kickin bass. Nice organ solo as well. Really catches the feel of a blues groove song.
Original - cool solo front porch bluesy thing - nicely expanded by albatross to have a live bar feel straight off the porch.

Deetak - “We were not meant to be” - A bit of a very earnest Tiny Tim here. A very sweetly and heartbreakingly delivered love song. Reveals the lyrics nicely.
Original - a bit of a rocker. Deetak really mixed this up. Excellent original/cover combo here.

Generic - “God Hates Penguins” - delivered earnestly - sounds like a penguin “We are the World.” Everything sounds great - guitars, harmonies, organ. One of your best productions, I’d say. Great massive vocal ending.
Original - Oh, one of those things that started all the Weezer talk, with the Mersey style backbeat and all that. This is actually almost Ramones-ey when you get the chorus. IT rocks, but dare I say - Jon’s may be a little more effective interpretation to my ears. Of course he had more than 5 days to think about it and didn’t have to write it

King Arthur - “Walking the Border” - down and dirty border music. Charles - you are rockin on this one! Nice to hear you Roll rather than rollick, I guess Melvin brought it out of you. Nice solo - and I love the hot guitar sound (what is your guitar set-up for the lead on this?).
Original - bops along pretty nice. King Arthur’s is a nice port of this to Jimmy Buffet Florida border rock. I like all the little change-ups in this - nice variety of sounds throughout as well. Another cool pair of performances.

Paco - “Empty Wednesday” - Sounds like Paco right out of the gates. Nice Crescendo!!!! The first bridge is great. Paco - you sound so good doing a more traditional song like this. Oh man - dueling guitars are rockin’ my socks off! I love the subtlety of the harmonies in the mix. Bound to be good when you start with a winner!
Original - This is so appropriately atmospheric. Your style of production and the writing are incredibly complimentary - Paco really took it up a notch on the rock, but these are just two different sides of sad and angry angst. In Paco’s video he is throwing shit all over his appartment - in yours it is a melancholy stroll by the local river a la Ringo in “Hard Day’s Night.” No wonder this one.


Great set of songs - I love how each of the originals is so Melvin (although Mempis is a little out of the archetype) but each of the covers sounds so much like the artists own material. Speaks to the strength of the songs. Congrats Melvin - Good stuff!

[Paco Del Stinko]

Melvin - HXARO

Done while drinking me some Guiness. I don't like beer in cans, but these 'on tap' ones are pretty darn good!

Albatross - Thank God For Memphis - This great. A bit of nerdage, rocking all the way down to Memphis with a pink bunny on the dash. I don't know where the timbale bit came from, but it's great. Listening on headphones, I can totally dig the organ action. Classic Albatross bass playing and tone, but the voice excels here. And that drum programming is the nuts! Great vibe, great fun. Love to be a part of a live presentation of this, especially as surprise guest Melvin came out on stage in an Elvis cape.

Deetak - We Were Not Meant To Be - Beautiful. The direct approach serves this wonderfully. Poetic imagery with the flying through the air lines and near delicate guitar, this is romantic in so many ways. I don't know where you come from, Deetak, but it's a special place in the world that you occupy, at the very least in an artistic sense. Melvin, you are awesome. But hearing this, I can't see this as being created by anyone but the performer here. Wonderful.

Durand Durand - Couldn't Have Been Worse - Instantly recognizable by the horns, drum programming, and voices, this is both Melvin and Durand at the same time. Nice bittersweet vibe, the horns only make me sadder. Not because they are bad, by any means, but, I dunno. Like something that's gone away, reflecting the lyrics. Temporary, like the seasonal theme. The kazoo makes me wonder for a moment, but it belongs where it is. Really, the overall mood and tone of this song is what sells it most. The sweet breakdown stroking your hair as it tells you the truth about life.

Jon Eric - God Hates Penguins - Whoa! Freebird for one chord! Not a joke-song writer by any means, JE is a perfect tongue in cheek guy here. The church organ is perfect and the vocal support is grand. I keep waiting for the big POW! of drums to come in, but am glad that they don't, as it makes it even more service-like. Maybe a greasy reverend delivery might've fit, but that certainly would have reduced the class factor. Poor penguins, waddling with their Buffalo wings. The smiling audience appreciates this at the pub, I'm sure.

King Arthur - Walking The Border - What a nice smushing of identifiable SF!ers here. I want to read a religious theme into this, knowing a bit about KA, and that the Big M is a right-winger type(!), it certainly doesn't matter. This rocks with finger snapping, denim wearing goodness. Great to hear Charles let up on the reins and toss out some tasty licks, classy and cool, totally delicious. I love the straight forward chorus, and the change back to the verses: seemingly simple, but so strong. Sounds like Charles, and could be his own, but still hear Melvin within.

Paco del Stinko - Empty Wednesday - So many songs to pick from, I chose this one as both a fave and for being something I thought I could handle. No Mel here, on so many fronts, but I really loved doing this. Paco del Emo? I dunno. But it sure was fun to do. Both of the background voices ares within my range, but only for a couple of takes, so I had to speed one of them up. This forced me to mix it further back than I might've ordinarily. Anyway, I love the theme of the song and got a great kick out of Ross's video interpretations in his reviews.

Melvin, come back when you're ready, you're a master.

[Albatross]

Hey Paco, thanks for the feedback (and Ross too). Those timbales were provided by one Mr. R. Garfunkel, in the end I decided to have him make use of his real timbales because my fake ones sounded lame.

Oh, and the drums aren't programmed, I play a mesh head e-kit. Someday I'd like to have it not sound so "programmed", but that may be a goal I never realize.

In any case, nice job by all involved here. Long live Hxaro!

[Rone Rivendale]

At this point, the only way I can submit a cover is if I do it acapella (or however it's spelled).

Edit: Instead of listing a bunch of excuse, I'll just say I can't do it at this point in time. Unless someone actually wants me to do it acapella.

Edit: Or even if Melvin wants to give me the original Brimming With Tears track minus vocals I'll sing it over that! lol (don't care if it sounds lazy)

[furrypedro]

I had a bit of catching up to do here so I did 2 covers to make up for my lateness, a carbon-copy and a reinterpretation. These were much fun to do and I got some international friends to help out.

Too Far Away
Adonai

Happy Hxaro Mike!

thanks to Glennny for making me aware of this

[Paco Del Stinko]

Great work there, Peedy!

[furrypedro]

and there is still more work to be done

[Rone Rivendale]

So I took Melvin's original Brimming With Tears and I used Goldwave's "remove vocals" feature and it kinda worked. It took out the verse vocals and it took out 1 of the 2 vocal tracks on the chorus.... sooooo.... hehe.... I made a duet.

http://www.lightningmp3.com/live/file.php?id=21273

[Spud]

That is just wrong.

[Paco Del Stinko]

Oh my. Good news is, this might bring Melvin out of retirement to save his name.