...but it turns out it was just indigestion. (ITILY reviews)

[Eric Y.]

knock yerselves out, kiddies.

[Poor June]

knock myself out??? O_o... i can think of a few people that would like to see that

[DELETED]

DELETED

[diode]

Jeremy gets the vote. Level is creative and quirky too.

[Poor June]

dave stile: i guess i'm not too impressed with minus of emotion applied to the song... it sounds too... i don't... the guitar bit a lil' ways into the song is pretty cool...
you seem like you have some talent though... tis nice... tops

drinkdrankdrunk: everything is sort of quiet... sept for the drums... and the snare sounds too panned... needs a more subtle sound if it's goin' to be overall quiet... i dont' feel that one thing should overcome the rest of the track too much...
but i guess that's me... like the concept of the song... just really the drums are really breaking the mood... and the feel of the song... it's hard to pay attention to the song itself over 'em... but for the feel you get a tops

jeremymartin: love the warmness of the mandolin sound... it'd be nice to have some small backin' mandolin riffs behind it... nice voice... really nice feel... some of the things you say i don't understand well... but i don't mind... it's still pretty...
the track is dyin' for some backing to come in... this would be so great if just a few things come in... nothin' to really ruin the mood... just like maybe some back vox... and some back riffs and what not... just mellow... really nice stuff and i think this would probably be the best... as it is... it's a tops pos. vote...

levenivelo: not really vote worthy or nothin'... but i laughed pretty good about it... pretty great... thanx for the laughter\m/

maxthecat: nice production... and i really dig the guitar... sort of has a bluegrass feel but without the bluegrass feel if that makes sense haha... but i love that stuff so it's awesome...
this will probably get my vote unless somethin' else is better... beautiful song \m/...

me: i like the song... wished i had better production... much love

svenmullet: really warm production like the sound a lot... voice sounds really nice in this... i don't really hear any mistakes... i like this song a lot... this is somethin' that i could easily listen 2 outside of sf...
i think this is gettin' my vote \m/...

top 5
5. drinkdrankdrunk
4. dave stiles
3. jeremy martin
2. max the cat
1. sven mullet

sven rised to the occasion and conquered... :::tips hat:::
i thought i loved you...

and maybe i still do... :::tear:::

[Jim of Seattle]

Expectations: I suspect Max the Cat will pull this one off, though if Level Nivelo or Sven bring their A game there could be some competition. This one's Max's to lose. Now let's have a listen...

Dave Stiles
Arrgghh.... the cliche police must be off eating donuts. Those lyrics are almost laughable. This is very sincere, but comes across almost as dated and cheesy as my stuff. Ouch.

Drink Drank Drunk
The song is kind of slow and too-heavy. Reminds me of people trying to dance with lead weights in their boots, or else a 45 played on 33. Seriously, though, I'd try it a step or so higher and faster. This way it's too slow and dull.

Jeremy Martin
The banjo or mandolin or whatever it is doesn't really work for me. I kept expecting the "band" to kick in at some point. Perhaps it's the style of the song, or the picking style, or the wuality of the voice or the recording, but it sticks out in a not good way. The song itself is pretty. Keep the song, but I'd try a different approach to the production.

Level Nivelo
Hehe, OK. I don't get it exactly, but I enjoyed the brief ride. Sorta.

Max the Cat
Fantastic groove going. I like the tune, especially that break to falsetto. I kind of get the feeling this is like the second draft, and it needed a little more time to get just right. For example, the spacey effects don't add anything, and there seem to be some unnecessary stray guitar licks thrown in there. But yeah, I like this a lot.

Poor June
I'm overlooking the production problems, because it's obviously all you got to work with at this point. That's cool. The problem I have with the song is that your vocal line doesn't have any direction. Sounds like you improvised it over the chords in about 5 minutes. It follows the same basic shape over & over, and that keeps me from getting musically involved.

Sven Mullet
Whoa! This is a real surprise. Some very sexy chords going on here in the beginning, and I love the subtle backing vocals. That bridge at 1:35 doesn't work for me, I'm not sure what you're doing musically. I'd go back and get a little more adventurous with that section, but the verses are keepers. Has a very Dylan Nau sound to it. Actually, after 1:35 you kind of lost your vision and seemed to fall back into familiar Sven Mullet territory, abd relied too much on the fuzz, but that's OK, this is really nice.

Winner: Max
Runner-up: Sven

[Poor June]

Poor June
I'm overlooking the production problems, because it's obviously all you got to work with at this point. That's cool. The problem I have with the song is that your vocal line doesn't have any direction. Sounds like you improvised it over the chords in about 5 minutes. It follows the same basic shape over & over, and that keeps me from getting musically involved.

thanx for overlookin'... (my voice has been a lot of hit and miss lately... i think it's partially at the time i was chain smokin' and drinkin' soda haha...) i'm workin' on actually doin' healthier things for my voice... but sometime...

however i think the last minute has some pretty decent musical stuff happenin'... like a decent beat... the violin thing... and it has a backin' piano solo(nothin' big just somethin' that flows)... as well as strings... and back vox and what not...
my songs rarely build to the last bit... it's a bad habit... i need to make somethin' that can keep attention through the whole thing... (as well as work on gettin' the vocals down better)...

and you're right bout the vox... it sort of threw it together after i got off the phone with an ex... so it was sort of inspired... and i didn't wanna ruin the mood... so i went with it...

[Eric Y.]

dave stiles - the vocals are a touch too nasal-sounding, which is a little bit annoying, but besides that i like this one quite a bit. not as much as your song last week though. second place.

drink drank drunk - the beginning arpeggio sounds like you're making sure the guitar is in tune um anyway, i like the guitar on the right side more than the one on the left side, and the snare drum is way on the left side too and way loud. i'm not sure i like the way the drums are recorded in general. vocals also sound a bit dead. sorry folks this just doesn't work for me all that much.

jeremy martin - terrific mandolin-sounding thing; lovely singing, and i don't think there is too much reverb on the vocals but there is too much depth to it or something -- the reverb is just way too fake sounding.

level nivelo - the switching back and forth from mono to stereo is messing with my head. i think i'm not as amused as i am supposed to be by the ending.

max the cat - the guitar sounds very lindsey buckingham. uhh trying to remember the name of that song.. "looking out for love"?(*) i keep expecting you to open up into a big chorus like that song does. actually this whole song sounds rather fleetwood mac-ish. your singing, especially the "oooooooooooh"s are nice.. the part around 1:20 and 1:50 doesn't really work as well as some of the other higher-pitched stuff does. you repeat the title one too many times at the end. third place.

poor june - i don't think i like the vocal melody much or the way the vocals are recorded. the piano part is alright, but i particularly like the other synth parts (strings and woodwinds, i think) that are layered over top of it here and there. the last line really works well, IMO.

svën müllët - most of the song sounds like one of the more mellow songs from stone temple pilots' third or fourth album, except with a different singer. nice how towards the end it adds a little bit of heaviness with extra guitars but doesn't really alter the tone of the song significantly. not sure what else i can say about this song besides the fact that i dig it a whole bunch and you got my vote.

(*) ok i looked it up, "big love" is the title. i think the similarity is intentional, but correct me if i'm wrong...

[Märk]

Mullet-ey reviews, rated by types of sandwiches:

Dave Stiles: Whoah, who does this remind me of totally? Something from the 70s.. I can't put my finger on it. This is really cool buttrock (coming from a guy who usually ends up being buttrock) Good performance all around. I like this. A clubhouse w/hot mustard.

DrinkDrankDrunk: Like the house band in a Celtic-flavoured pub at around 2:30am as they're telling people to get the fuck out. Well done, and a nice song which I enjoyed listening to. A microwaved sub from 7-11 at 3:06am where you sneak some of the chili and nacho cheese sauce in it, and everything tastes better because you've been at the bar since 3 that afternoon and closed the bar down and are very drunk.

Jeremy Martin: I'm a sucker for nylon guitar, providing it's played well. You're just sort of arpeggiating a few chords. The vocals are awesome, and this is mastered very nicely, maybe a tiny bit too much 'verb on the vocals, but then again, maybe not, it fills the sparse arrangement out nicely. About on par with the other two songs so far. This is a shaved roast beef on a kaiser w/cheddar, and like some mayo and tomatoes and black olives. Toasted.

Level Nivelo: I hope this kicks into something. Ouch, DON'T LISTEN TO THIS WITH HEADPHONES ON. Oh, I'm sorry that ending was dumb. Didn't like this, sorry. Please don't let this discourage you though. Peanut butter and jam. Still tasty, but you could have had something else, y'know?

Max The Cat: Well performed, but I kind of glaze over after a couple minutes. Vocals are very good. Vaguely Bruce Cockburn or Sting-ish... I hate to cop out and pull the genrebias card, but I'm not really loving this. I hear too much of this type of music on the radio, and that's actually a promising comment for you, right? Ham and Swiss, with lots of mayo and black pepper.

Poor June: I've been missing too many fights, because this is actually the first Poor June song I've heard.. (well, minus the MC Crapalot or whatever) I think you said it best yourself re: production. This is a nice song, and your singing and piano playing is compelling and keeps my attention the entire song. The occasional clipping distracts a bit, but it doesn't happen often enough to dock you points or anything. I like this a lot (thanks a bunch for the nice review+vote, BTW) This is a beef dip with fancy-ass jalapeno jack cheese, and a pantload of hot peppers.

Sven Mullet: (me) This is about the 5th mix of this song since last Thursday. Yeah, I'm sick of hearing it sort of. I redid the vocals for the verse part on Sunday, and added a bunch of stuff to what had originally been a finished song. I think I did okay with this. hint: It sounds better (as do all my songs) with headphones on. This is like a meatball and mozza sub from Subway with lots of hot peppers and green olives.

I'll listen to all these again and decide on the vote, right now I'm split between Dave Stiles, Jeremy Martin, and Poor June. Decent fight, ppl.

[Justincombustion]

DrinkDrankDrunk: Like the house band in a Celtic-flavoured pub at around 2:30am as they're telling people to get the fuck out. Well done, and a nice song which I enjoyed listening to. A microwaved sub from 7-11 at 3:06am where you sneak some of the chili and nacho cheese sauce in it, and everything tastes better because you've been at the bar since 3 that afternoon and closed the bar down and are very drunk.






Bingo! We were going for the "Drunk guys with arms around each others shoulders rocking and singing" genre. Man, there's one of them there genres for EVERYTHING!!!

[Jim of Seattle]

Poor June
I'm overlooking the production problems, because it's obviously all you got to work with at this point. That's cool. The problem I have with the song is that your vocal line doesn't have any direction. Sounds like you improvised it over the chords in about 5 minutes. It follows the same basic shape over & over, and that keeps me from getting musically involved.

thanx for overlookin'... (my voice has been a lot of hit and miss lately... i think it's partially at the time i was chain smokin' and drinkin' soda haha...) i'm workin' on actually doin' healthier things for my voice... but sometime...

however i think the last minute has some pretty decent musical stuff happenin'... like a decent beat... the violin thing... and it has a backin' piano solo(nothin' big just somethin' that flows)... as well as strings... and back vox and what not...
my songs rarely build to the last bit... it's a bad habit... i need to make somethin' that can keep attention through the whole thing... (as well as work on gettin' the vocals down better)...

and you're right bout the vox... it sort of threw it together after i got off the phone with an ex... so it was sort of inspired... and i didn't wanna ruin the mood... so i went with it...

Well, I wasn't even talking about the voice. I was overlooking the recording quality. The voice isn't so terrible. (A few takes more and you'd have it.) The recording really masks what you were probably going for with the added stuff in the last minute. I'm guessing you wanted that expanding feeling from new instruments coming in, but I can barely hear them. Again, the recording equipment is probably all you have to work with, and it's better than it used to be at least!

[joshw]

Scoring Key: (Production, Performance, Song)

David Stiles (7, 7, 6)

It kinda came and went without leaving much of an impression on me. It was proficient, but there wasn't really any reason for me to get up out of my chair and rock out. Just a little too generic or something. Perfectly pleasant, though.

Drink Drank Drunk (7, 6, 6)

The drums, esp. the snare, are too loud in the mix. This is ok, but there's not much distinguish it from the average 6/8 four-chord strummer. The one thing that this really needs is a strong melody. Like David's song, it's perfectly pleasant and proficient, it's just not moving me. By 2:30 I'm bored.

Jeremy Martin (6, 7, 7)

Mmmm... mando. Very pretty, though way too much reverb, and it sounds too mono. This is beautiful. "So confused" and some of the rest of the lyrics are a little melodramatic. Rewrite the lyrics to another topic and you have a classic. As they are, they're doing their best to sink this otherwise killer song. I'll ignore them for now and focus on the rest. Strings on the second verses would add a lot. Maybe harmonies.

Level Nivelo (7, 7, 6)

I'm hearing a little Mailboxness now that I know it's you. Great mando or uke. Interesting crazy effects. This song was, in fact, discontinued in error. You had a neat feel going. Finish it sometime.

Max the Cat (7, 8, 7)

Nice Kottke-ish guitar action. This has a good groove. The verses repeat too much. Instead of 4 reps of the same riff, try throwing it off to a different chord between the 2nd and 3rd. Awesome little bridge thing. The overall feel of this isn't doing tons for me, but I do like this.

Poor June (6, 6, 6)

The piano sounds too distant and mono. Your songs always sound like they were recorded well, but then miced as they were played through a boombox across the room. The lyrics are melodramatic. The music is pretty, though. Are you micing a keyboard instead of plugging it in direct?

Sven Mullet (8, 7, 7)

I thought this was that John Mayer song at first. Wow, my ten-year reunion is coming up next year. I ran into my high school principal the other day. I was apparently in trouble enough for him to still remember me nine years later. He was fairly nice, though. Maybe he didn't really remember me after all. I just can't wait for my ten-year reunion. I'm going to bust through the double-doors, baby. Oh right, the song. It's pretty good overall. Didn't really move me anywhere, but had some nice elements.


And it's Max the Cat by a whisker.

[astrolamb]

David Stiles - This is well done, but not to my taste. Somebody said it sounded 80s-ish and I agree with them. Given to comment on anything I'd say that this really longed for some bottom end - the bass drum was out of the mix and I didn't hear any bass guitar at all. Bass would help a lot, otherwise everything else sounded pretty good.

DrinkDrankDrunk - You sound like you may be a little drunk. Which is good in that this sounds loose and fun. I would enjoy seeing this live - maybe like Mr. Mullet said, as a closer.

Jeremy Martin - Excellent vox. I like the scarcity of backup as well - it is well suited to this tune. Great job . . . just the kind of thing I wish I could've pulled off for girls back when I was in the dating pool.

Level Nivelo - Not much to comment on here. I had my headphones on and there was a slight pain involved from the wierd panning and the abrupt noise at the end of the music.

Max The Cat - I thought I loved this song, but for those silly electronic noises. Maybe I'm out of touch here, but it seems like a trend lately to implant random electronic sounds into otherwise good songs. This song is very cool, don't get me wrong, but the noises completely removed me from the vibe. Even later on, when you'd rebuilt the vibe and dragged me back in, the noises came back and - well - it didn't work for me. I wouldn't rant about it like this if I hadn't really liked the song otherwise.

Poor June - Piano players cheese me off because I am a musical idiot and anybody who can play the piano well is by default my better. That's about all I have to say about this. I have to go practice my over-distorted fifths now.

Sven Mullet - Very cool. I could go through and say I liked this, and this, and this as well, but that would just add up to the whole song so . . . vote.

[spoken]

Spoken is Jeremy Martin. now you know.

Thanks for the reviews so far, just wanted to let you know I did this song mon night from about 11:00pm-1:00am. writing and recording. theres a good reason why it sounds mono and has bad production. I recorded it live with one mic and a set reverb right into the computer with Sound Recorder. so really there was no production. the sad part acctually is that it took me 2 hours. i've been busy latly, but soon i hope to enter some well produced stuff. about the words, its just what happend. i wanted to write like those realy simple words that kinda tell a story but include lots of little things that don't matter. so thats my atempt at that. but i did tie it in to the title with some leftovers from my last relationship.

and to the person that said my words were sinking the song (you know who you are) thanks for that one, are they too deep for you?
what exactly sinks it anyway, i formed sentences and the're somewhat interesting. i don't see how they bring the song down, if anything they would just not help the song. so please let me know so i can write less drowning words next time.

[c hack]

and to the person that said my words were sinking the song (you know who you are) thanks for that one, are they too deep for you?

They're too shallow for me. As in, too generic. There's an infinite number of songs out there about broken hearts. You gotta make yours stand out somehow.

what exactly sinks it anyway,

The reverb, mostly. Way too much. Also, even if you're David Grisman, solo mandolin just doesn't cut it. Gotta have some other instruments.

I thought I'd post this, since I probably won't get a chance to do full reviews, and it seems like you care. Keep 'em coming.

ps- why the hell can't people make their usernames and artist names match!? Grumble...

[Justincombustion]

Well, I'm not one to be able to say anything about the quality of the recordings, other than "I like it" or "I don't" I gotta say Sven's song got my vote. And if he doesn't win it's a travesty of justice!!! JUSTICE I TELLS YA!!!

[spoken]

There's an infinite number of songs out there about broken hearts. You gotta make yours stand out somehow.



ps- why the hell can't people make their usernames and artist names match!? Grumble...[/quote]

the title is "i thought i loved you" and your saying it shouldn't be about love?
that is classic. ha ha. and if theres so many broken heart love songs that tells me it works. and i thought i could have a different login and still show my name, like on the old system...oh well

[c hack]

the title is "i thought i loved you" and your saying it shouldn't be about love?
that is classic. ha ha. and if theres so many broken heart love songs that tells me it works.

Cliche lyrics suck. End of story. You can get away with it if you're Schubert -- basically, if your music is so good that interesting lyrics would just get in the way. Otherwise, sit down and write some good lyrics, fer cryin out loud.

and i thought i could have a different login and still show my name, like on the old system...oh well

You can. It just annoys people like me who like to easily be able to associate who I'm talking to with what songs they've done. Yeah, I'm talking to you too, C. Layne

[joshw]

and to the person that said my words were sinking the song (you know who you are) thanks for that one, are they too deep for you?
what exactly sinks it anyway, i formed sentences and the're somewhat interesting. i don't see how they bring the song down, if anything they would just not help the song. so please let me know so i can write less drowning words next time.

But they're not interesting. There's not a unique angle. It's saying the same thing every other angsty love song has ever said. If that's what you're going for, that's fine, but I've heard the same thing way too much before.

I think Ben Gibbard of Death Cab for Cutie is the master of writing *good* love songs like Transatlanticism and We Looked Like Giants from this, or this, this or
this. He goes beyond saying "oh, I'm so confused, I hurt, oh woe is me" and says the same thing with a good story and interesting angles.

I did like your song a lot, but your lyrics need work. Seriously.

Welcome, BTW. Hope you'll be able to take the heat and stay in the kitchen, because if you learn to take criticism of your babies, you'll grow a lot as a songwriter.

[c hack]

I think Ben Gibbard of Death Cab for Cutie is the master of writing *good* love songs like Transatlanticism and We Looked Like Giants

Arr, I've been meaning to check them out for a spell. So I be went to their site, but avast! their booty was 404. By my bleached bones, it's hard to be a landlubber.

[spoken]

ok, cool just wondering why they made it sink, good advise.
acctually, they do kinda suck. i used to be much better at lyrics
anyway josh, i really like your stuff and i pretty much allways vote for your songs so just to let you know. and don't worry you can tell me im a sorry sack of somthing unpleasent and i'll still post songs.

[Gemini6Ice]

I listen, save the song if I really like it, then pick my vote from the mp3s I've saved. I have no "musical education." This is totally based on personal taste.

Dave Stiles- This seems like quality classic rock. I couldn't get into the tune, but its quality made it an almost-save-to-disk.

Drink Drank Drunk- I love your name. I hate the harmonica.

Jeremy Martin- You are a male (old) Jewel.

Level Nivelo- Is that a ukelele? The end shocked me. Great job. I unfortunately didn't enjoy it enough to save it, but you're definitely in the running for my vote due to your great twist.

Max the Cat- Try to sharpen your voice. It's so round in this song that your words seem to run together. Saved.

Poor June- I didn't think I'd like it from the beginning, but it's very good background music. I found myself liking it. Saved.

Sved Mullet- John Mayer meets a decent tempo. Saved.