Ancient Chinese Curse (Interesting Times reviews)

[Niveous]

I don't have a chance to write reviews for this week's fight as that's typing time that I'm currently struggling to find. But I did listen and vote. Votes went to BSS, BLT, Narcoloungers, Mailbox, J$ and Madgin. The songs by Dachis, Mann , Mullet, ShotPounder and Paco were also okay but didn't garner votes. PiGPEN's was interesting lyrically but failed in the followthrough.

[PiGPEN]

*got a review out of someone not doing reviews*

[Niveous]

Well, yours was one of the most interesting songs in the fight lyrically. I just wish the music could have captured that.

[glennny]

Yardboy- Pretty good poppy song. I hate the acoustic guitar tone. Pickup direct? Vocals are excellent. Nice harmonies. The sound is way too cheesy for my sensibilities. I hate the lyrics. Bowl of cliché soup. Well played, well written, very well sung. Overall I don’t like it.

Weakest Suit- Weird effects on your vocals. The music is very lumbering. The vocal performance seems reluctant. Nice whiney indie rock vocals. Melody doesn’t grab me. No hooks to really grab me either. This is not offensive, but ho-hum overall.

Todd McHatton- Off the bat I absolutely love it. Feels very 59th st. bridge. Yeah this gets a vote. Love the dynamics and very very very tasty guitar solo. Vocals are great. There’s a lot of gentle subtle interesting nuance to this, topped with excellent vocals and harmonies. Not to mention hooks galore. This is a keeper.

Sven Mullet- I’m feeling Pretenders at the beginning. Maybe Greg Kihn. Break-up song? Nice structure. I think this is a weak tie to the title, but I don’t care that much. Alright nice break down, but then no delivery on a solo of any instrument, rendering the breakdown pointless. I hear that arpeggio plenty in the song.

Shotpounder- Smalltown Mike at his best, what a great voice! The chorus is kinda weak, at least compared to the verses. Drums sound awesome! Freakin great guitar tone! Bass line is very nice and funky too. The Blister in the Sun reference I could do without. The “take a swig” bit is wonderful. I wish the title was “take a Swig” and you could drop the “interesting times” chorus. The moments where the guys say “GIRL” is my favorite moment of the fight. Anyway, this is overall awesome and deserves a vote.

PiGPEN- Not my thing, I find it monotonous. This is a skip. Although I have listened all the way through 3 times now.

Paco del Stinko- One of the catchiest choruses of the fight. Paco just rocks! I can’t listen to this without laughing with joy. It’s just freaking brilliant! A vote getter from me. Maybe the winner? Seems the most solid through and through song of the fight to me. Extremely well played and written, hilarious and fun!

The Narco Loungers- Well your voice is good, but I don’t like it. I’m asking myself why, best I can come up with is maybe you’re oversinging? Maybe the melody isn’t interesting enough? You can sing to be sure, maybe you just need a better song. The acoustic playing is pretty. Yeah, I just don’t like the song writing, it’s killing me with its obviousness. If you were in the Bay area I might give you the ultimate insult and call this “ Quality Rock”.

Melvin- My WSA brother. He warned me that I would hate this. He was right. It’s to the point of Loathing. I have to tell you I spent all weekend a couple weeks ago fixing up the house while the family was out of town with the Melvin catalog blaring. 94 songs of genius. The King of Song Fight? (my world anyway) Well the production is phenomenally good. The writing is weak in my view. Dream Weaver? Seriously? WEAK! Then there’s that asshole at the beginning, perhaps more ignorant and wrong than Ann Coulter, I forget the guys name but I recognize his voice, I watched that whole link once upon an April. Anyway, yeah I really hate this track. I still love you Melvin, we established we don’t agree on politics, at least we agree on Rock.

MC Eric B- you’re not serious.

Mailbox- YES! I love it! You need to submit more often! I take it you’re a piano player. Very cool stuff. Reminds me of Ben Folds. Drums are really cool too! This get’s a vote. The writing reminds me of Badly Drawn Boy. Well done!

Madgin and the Party Bears- Wow this is cheesy. I am not rocked. It’s really uninteresting to hear that we live in interesting times.

Jonathan Mann and the Not So Flats- This should be too long, but I’m actually in to it for the duration. The acoustic playing is fantastic, doesn’t have to be flashy to be excellent just play with conviction in time and it sounds great! Love you voice. The melody reminds me a little too much of “On the Turning Away” by Pink Floyd. The long acoustic strum song reminds me of my early youth. My parents used to put me to sleep to Sad Eyed Lady of the Low Land. Good job, just short of a vote I’m afraid to say.

Johnny Cashpoint- I have to admit that the hook to this song has stuck with me all week. I dig the Love and Rockets drums; the guitar tone is also really cool! The vocals really work well even though they maybe arguably over effected. I really dig this. It’s a keeper and a voter getter.

Jan Krueger- Very cool riff! This has a Fairport Convention vibe to it. I really enjoy all the harmony singing. Well done, not quite a vote grabber for me, but I enjoyed it!

Hijack and the Requests- I don’t get it.

The Hand Formula- torture.

Flvxxm Florvm- Cheesy lyrics, nice boppy rock n’ roll ditty. The vocals need a lot of work. It sounds like an unsure 1st take. The voice is good, but the delivery needs a few more takes to get better conviction and timing. Nice fuzzy guitar solo, wish there was more!

Electric Needle Room- This is not interesting.

Dante LeChunk- Wow I hate your guitar tone. Turn down the reverb! This is some New Age drek. Your playing is pretty good. I’m all for guitar instrumentals, I just have aesthetic problems with it. At least it’s only 2:17. I’d rather hear a nicely recorded Spanish guitar.

Chumlords- This is fun. This reminds me of “They’re Coming to Take Me Away”, it’s some kind of bastard child of Kim Fowley and TSOL (Code Blue!). This is a keeper. This gets a vote. Well done!


The Booty Chesterfield Trio- This rocks so severely! It’s just sooooooo huge with that strutty groove. The band sounds fantastic. The guitar isn’t playing mush but it oozes coolness. I think you may have just sold me your album. Yeah this gets a vote. I can’t make out the vocals, but it’s probably better that way, the vocal snarls are great!

Billy’s Little Trip featuring Paco del Stinko- The production is great. The playing is awesome. The vocals really need a stronger melody. Solo is way too short! You could really stand to have Paco’s vocals play against yours. I mean, he’s got like 5 different voices to sing with, I think you could use a couple. Your voice is good , but maybe a bit too little variety with it. Of course a catchy melody would do the trick, or a catchier riff.

Adam Dachis- Nice harmonies, the genre is not my thing. This is a bit cheesy. Lot’s of clichés make me cringe. At least it’s short.

Berkeley Social Scene- We had a really hard time getting together during this fight. So what you get is the 9pm the night before the due date version. When I saw the title I started writing riffs in odd time sigs. I came up with a chord pattern in 13/8. (Arguably 6/8-7/8) which is somewhat natural to me after playing “Jacob’s Ladder” for the last twenty years. Anyway the other riffs and chords stemmed from that. Intro-Outro is in 6/8 and the chorus is in 7/8. Anyway, showing up to jam night I had music to be recorded. So we went with it. These guys are super professionals. Martyr on bass Lunkhead on fuzzy guitar and Ken on drums. I was playing acoustic. The initial recording had issues. Running out of time we decided to at least get all of the parts down on tape and I could edit them together later. The acoustic didn’t come through, but the drums sure sounded great on what was supposed to be the acoustic guitar track. So I overdubbed the acoustic, and the 2 outer solos. Edited it together. And Lunkhead over dubbed his middle solo in the morning. Anyway, I agree there could be more variance verse to verse, but it all just rocks my world in a big way. I’m not objective but I love it!

Votes go to:
Todd McHatton
Shot Pounder
Paco del Stinko
Mailbox
Johnny Cashpoint
Chumlords
Booty Chesterfield Trio
Berkeley Social Scene

[Billy's Little Trip]

Adam Dachis - nice voice - nice song - vote
Berkeley Social Scene - noisy - confusing - killer guitar - vote
Billy's Little Trip featuring Paco Del Stinko - great guitar - cool lyrics - crappy voice - no vote
The Booty Chesterfield Trio - great beat - great vibe - fat drummer - cool guitar riff - vote
Cumlords - love this song - love the rolling rrrs - love the riffs - love the lyrics - vote
Dante LeChunk - nice instrumental - relaxing - vote
Electric Needle Room - I like a song with a good whistle - vote
Flvxxvm Florvm - cool jam - vote
The Hand Formula - I like a song with a good ukulele - vote
Hijack & the Requests - I like a song with a good infectious injury line - vote
Jan Krueger - cool guitar - kind of a meat puppets vibe - vote
Johnny Cashpoint - cool guitar - cool vocals - catchy groove - vote
Jonathan Mann and the Not-So-Flats - nice folk - cool guitar panning - great group chorus - vote
Madgin and the Party Bears - great intro guitar groove - nice voice - cool guitar riffs - if Kansas and Jethro Tull had a baby, it would be this song - vote
Mailbox - nice and bouncy - cool voice - great clean recording - perfect use of half steps - vote
MC Eric B - disqualified for stealing Cumlords lyrics - no soup for you! - kidding, I know you wrote it - great lyrics - nice song - vote
Melvin - Dream Weezer - vote
The Narcaloungers - nice voice - good music - good recording - like it - vote
Paco del Stinko - flavorful voice - so thick and meaty I could cut it like a steak and dip it in A-1 - is your guitar filled with delicious dairy? because you just rocked my face - vote
PiGPEN - nice build - cool groove - cool lyrics - vote
ShotPounder - cool song - cool licks - cool recording - jam toast - vote
Sven Mullet - Ahh, guitar - cool riff - I've got a fever and the only prescription is more cow bell - good ol fashion fade out- great jam - vote
Todd McHatton - love it - cool guitar - nice voice - you can't see me, but I'm wearing my ship captain's uniform and dancing like Steve Martin - vote
The Weakest Suit - I like it - nice melody - good lyrics - I like a song with a good long ending so that I have time to balance my check book before the next song - vote
Yardboy - nice acoustic guitar - nice voice - nice harmonies - good lyrics - vote

[Paco Del Stinko]

BLT - Funny. You voted for everyone but yourself. While I still have yet to vote for myself, even with the multi-vote system, I've never run the rest of the ticket!

[Smalltown Mike]

I really dig the Cumlords track, very Jello Biafra but very well done. Nice work. I also dug—as I always do—the Jonathan Mann track. Very cool, great work as always.

The ShotPounder track details a fantastic weekend in Westport, Ma with a bunch of the Gert boys and their lovely wives.The drums and Rooster were programmed by me, guitar was played by the Almighty Hip Cola, who also mixed and mastered (and kicked in second verse vox, plus the wonderful "Girl!" and "Whiskey" vox). Any of you who need professional mix or master work, I highly recommend you contact Hip Cola; he worked magic on the new Brad Sucks CD and mastered my Jam Toast CD, too. And he's funny as shit, too.

Oh, yea: the shaker was shook by me.