Nur Ein II Round Five "The Thing Most Easily Forgotten"

Post by **Lunkhead** » Mon Jun 18, 2007 2:19 pm

Wow. Thanks everybody and judges for the positive feedback! I'm not sure what we're going to do about this next round though. We'll see.

drë · Post by **drë** » Mon Jun 18, 2007 2:39 pm

Bore at work and looking for new music i came across this. I keep forgetting all about this Nur Ein thing, but theirs always good stuff to be heard from this sidefight.
So since am Bore, here are some thoughts:

Abominominous : your vocals truly shine on acoustic tracks like this, when their not being buried by distorted guitars, and heavy drumming. Like the lyrics and theme. Enjoyable.

Billy's Little Trip : Are you trying to sing like Luke Henley? Listen to yourself fool... that said theirs nothing wrong with that, cuz i dig it allot.
the song gets messy during the chorus?(fast part, multi vocals), if that part was cleaner... who knows? But i love the looonnnnggg vocal melody part. Lyrics are not bat at all.

The Bovine Recyclery : man do i find that fake British ascent annoying.. Makes me want to punch him on his teeth. but then again, its just Phat starting out his song. the effect on the guitar is a bit annoying, but then again it seems like your going for a vocal opera here. Your very good at creating characters with your voice, very convincing.

Frankie Big Face : i guess your a hopeless romantic, and that might be an understatement, but danm can you write good songs. i would have rather heard this song with just the 2 vocals and 1 acoustic. dump the electric, it doesn’t add anything and it just gets in the way. Or have replaced it with a 2nd acoustic softly following the chord progression(on the 2nd listen, it seems like its already in there, so just dump the electric).
Reading the lyrics now, boy can you write a love song.

Merisan :i find it hard to get into this one...its like the acoustics are too overpowering over everything... it has this thumping sound. i just find it odd, its like its trying to be soft delicate folksy song, but yet theirs 10 things going on at once.

Puce : guitar riff/tone reminds me of a Beatles song(am not even a Beatles fan) but it has that quality. Very creative on the guitar playing: chord picking, establishing a bass line, then some bending, and finally some strumming.
if she was "the thing easies to forget" would you truly be singing about it?
The offset on the 2 guitar strumming is annoying, wished they’re were in sync and maybe a bit slower. The rest of the song is good.

Tex Beaumont and the Dirty Hearts : nananana's, beer, girls and humor the Tex Beaumont signature. Lyrics are freaking awesomely hilarious, with really fun music. cant believe you didn’t make it to the next round, this is tops.

Plat · Post by **Plat** » Mon Jun 18, 2007 3:12 pm

Plat wrote:Well, it's been fun .

Thanks for the feedbacks; see you in AAW land perhaps.

frankie big face · Post by **frankie big face** » Mon Jun 18, 2007 3:51 pm

dre wrote:Reading the lyrics now, boy can you write a love song.

Thanks man! That's pretty much what I do, so it's nice when someone notices.

Post by **Lunkhead** » Mon Jun 18, 2007 5:05 pm

I enjoyed all the songs in this fight, on a side note. I think I liked Puce, BoRe, and Tex ever so slightly more than the rest, but they were all enjoyable. Congrats to those proceeding into the final four and congrats to those who made it this far. I'm excited to listen the epic works in the next round, though I think this is probably the lamest challenge yet. If I were the judges I'd be really sick of listening to all these songs and instead would have said "2 Min. or less".

Phil. Redmon. · Post by **Phil. Redmon.** » Mon Jun 18, 2007 5:21 pm

I know what you mean, but at lewast there's only 4 left, you know?

Can you imagine if the opening round, 0, had the same challenge? Holy cram, like, 6 mins X 30 ish entries? Manio!

Billy's Little Trip · Post by **Billy's Little Trip** » Mon Jun 18, 2007 6:02 pm

I find myself having to cut my songs down most of the time, so this would have been a fun one for me. I've been wanting to do a "Bohemian Rhapsody" type song for ages and just haven't had a reason.
Good luck guys, I'm looking forward to being blown away.

mo · Post by mo » Mon Jun 18, 2007 6:13 pm

i think i speak for at least two of the other judges when i say that some of us were disappointed that the musicians in round 5 did not take fully advantage of the looseness in the wording of the challenge to use the guitar or vox as substitutes for other instruments in creative ways--i.e. sampling guitar noises for percussion, beatboxing, low guitar notes as basslines, etc etc. Maybe the challenge should've spelled that out for everyone, but I like to think of songfight as a place where people break boundaries for the hell of it.

some random other comments:

puce: strangely disappointing, although strongly creative. the vocal melody is very hedwig and the angry inch stylistically (or at least rock opera-y), which i like. normally you have a crapload of stuff going on and it gels, more or less. this time i don't think it does.

bovine recyclery: good energy, good fun.

abominominous: whoever said that your vox sound better when naked has a point. there's more feeling that leaks through.

tex: good energy, fun song. but then after about two listens i started skipping it.

merisan: gorgeous harmonies, and harmonics. i was also somewhat overwhelmed by all the stuff going on at first and thought it was a bit messy, but then i got sucked in listening to the harmonics and started thinking, you guys should stop writing lyrics and just do the sigur ros thing, except with harmonies.

frankie: this is a pretty solid song, although some of those lines do ring a bit cheesy. on the other hand, i'm pretty sure frankie could take me in fair fight, so i'm going to buy some brass knuckles now.

blt: honestly, this song kind of sucks. Maybe because you did it as a last minute thing, but the energy isn't there, the progression is kind of stale too.

Adam! · Post by **Adam!** » Mon Jun 18, 2007 6:24 pm

I was very surprised to find out I made the cut. Alarmed, even. After looking at the judge scores, it seems that I only stayed in by a fluke of the numbers (four of the judges would have cut me. As would have I). I actually hated my own song, and writing it--or more accurately my seeming inability to write anything at all--was a bad experience that made me very emo for about a week. Note: When I say I would have cut myself, I mean it in reference to qualifying. It didn't make me that emo.

I truly thought Bovine would make the final four (my ranking scheme was exactly the same as Judge #2), and I'm sad to see Plat go. But I'm secretly glad I don't have to compete against him, because he is a force to be reckoned with. Also sad to see BLT and Tex go: you guys brought the rock and the international flavor to Nur Ein, respectively. Perhaps I will have to pick up both torches?

Billy's Little Trip · Post by **Billy's Little Trip** » Mon Jun 18, 2007 6:40 pm

Mo, you want to know something. I actually changed my song at the last minute because I thought I should respect the challenge as it was given. Trust me, I'm an almost endless pool of creative sounds from both guitar and vocals. I demonstrate a little taste of that in almost every song I do.
I changed this at the last minute to stay true to a voice and guitar.
I did what I felt, and that's all that I am, nothing more.

But, I feel strongly enough about this song to finish it the original way that I heard it in my head, with screaming guitars and drums and bass and chicks and guns and fire trucks and hookers and drugs and booze and every other thing I feel like adding to it.
Thank you for your honesty Mo. The truth stings a little sometimes, I think I'll go drink way too much now.

Billy's Little Trip · Post by **Billy's Little Trip** » Mon Jun 18, 2007 6:47 pm

Puce wrote:Also sad to see BLT and Tex go: you guys brought the rock and the international flavor to Nur Ein, respectively. Perhaps I will have to pick up both torches?

Awwww, *huggies*

That was nice Puce. But you last remaining bunch are truly in my top favorite list, so everyone continuing to round 6 deserves it 100%. I love you guys...and girl. Rock on!
NUR EIN!

Adam! · Post by **Adam!** » Mon Jun 18, 2007 6:48 pm

mo wrote:i think i speak for at least two of the other judges when i say that some of us were disappointed that the musicians in round 5 did not take fully advantage of the looseness in the wording of the challenge to use the guitar or vox as substitutes for other instruments in creative ways--i.e. sampling guitar noises for percussion, beatboxing, low guitar notes as basslines, etc etc.

Aww, man, I cry now (still emo). After Ross's use of a dulcimer was frowned upon last round, I was so sure that this kind of stuff would be off-limit due to it not being in the spirit of the G'n'G challenge. I'll give you one guess as to which way I would have gone had I thought it would be ok.

Post by **Lunkhead** » Mon Jun 18, 2007 6:48 pm

I don't know about anybody else, but I felt like last time the judges expected us to follow the challenge fairly strictly, like the point wasn't to just replace your guitar with something that sounded like a guitar. So this time I felt like were were expected to only use guitar and vocals, as guitar and vocals, rather than just replacing the bass and drums with equivalent tracks created with guitar. Like if someone had just recorded a bass line on the guitar and pitch shifted it down an octave, I expect judges wouldn't have liked that. Ditto for playing your guitar like a drum kit too much. But frankly at this point I have given up trying to guess what the judges think, as I have proven to be fairly incorrect every time I've tried to do so. For us we just try to make the best song we can and meet the challenge at least "enough" and only as much more than that as benefits the song...

EDIT: Wow, so I'm not the only one who felt that way about this challenge, apparently.

Billy's Little Trip · Post by **Billy's Little Trip** » Mon Jun 18, 2007 7:22 pm

After Ross's use of a dulcimer was frowned upon last round

I felt the same way. I felt that the judges didn't like their challenge taken lightly or pushed.

Tex Beaumont · Post by **Tex Beaumont** » Mon Jun 18, 2007 7:58 pm

mo wrote: low guitar notes as basslines

I used low guitar notes as a bass line - can I come back in?

(...actually, cancel that - I would really hate doing a 6 minute song. I will vote for whoever submits 6 x 1 minute songs with the same title)

bz£ · Post by **bz£** » Mon Jun 18, 2007 8:04 pm

Billy's Little Trip wrote:
After Ross's use of a dulcimer was frowned upon last round
I felt the same way. I felt that the judges didn't like their challenge taken lightly or pushed.

Hey, I thought it was fine, and would also have accepted banjo, mandolin, sitar, oud and possibly even lute. Hell, I would maybe even have let a guitar slide if it really sounded like it wasn't a guitar. In fairness, I did rank that song rather low but it was because I liked all the other songs better; the dulcimer's presence didn't factor in to the equation at all.

You shouldn't be ignoring the challenges, because that will piss us off. I think the ideal is to make your song sound like it meets the challenges naturally: you aren't including a kazoo solo because we told you to, but because it sounds like it belongs there. You know? There were some excellent examples of this in No One Else but not so much this time around. At the very beginning I said not to ask if something meets the challenge; instead, you should use your song as an argument that whatever you did was okay.

I'm also one of those judges that mo was speaking for earlier. "Guitar" for me means a lot more than strumming open chords on an acoustic. The range of sounds you can get out of a guitar is enormous. Of course, I've also had a considerable number of people say things like "I like that synth" about songs I've done that were guitar-only, so, whatever.

In general, if you've been making your songs sound worse in order to avoid pushing the boundaries of the challenges, you've been aiming in the wrong direction. At least, in my book. I think Sam's going about things the right way when he says:

Lunkhead wrote:For us we just try to make the best song we can and meet the challenge at least "enough" and only as much more than that as benefits the song...

Next challenge is pretty cut-and-dried so y'all shouldn't have to worry about it. But don't make the mistake of thinking that it is an easy challenge! If your six-minute song sounds like it should have been cut down to two and a half, it is probably not going to make me happy, and I suspect that I am not alone in this. But I have said too much, perhaps.

Billy's Little Trip · Post by **Billy's Little Trip** » Mon Jun 18, 2007 8:27 pm

bzl wrote: In general, if you've been making your songs sound worse in order to avoid pushing the boundaries of the challenges, you've been aiming in the wrong direction

Well, I didn't think I was making it sound "worse".

But I guess that's subjective, lol. Either way, it could have sounded better.
I just felt the need to cut out the gimmicks and stuff because of what I interpreted. But as I've said, I'm not known for my good choices.

But I am known for my emoticons.

Post by **Lunkhead** » Mon Jun 18, 2007 8:28 pm

Just out of curiosity, it would be interesting if the judges would post some links to the undoubtedly many six-minute long songs they've done. Particularly the ones that aren't mostly improvised.

EDIT: What the hell, I might was well skip being a smart ass and just come right out and say that I think this challenge blows. Six minutes is a seriously epic length for something written and recorded in six days that's actually supposed to be good. Most of us do songs in the 2-3.5 minute range, so even just five minutes would be enough of a challenge, I would think. (Our song this time was nearly 4 minutes and already we got one complaint about it being long.) It just seems a bit over the top...

Billy's Little Trip · Post by **Billy's Little Trip** » Mon Jun 18, 2007 8:29 pm

By the way, I

Judge #2 this time.

Adam! · Post by **Adam!** » Mon Jun 18, 2007 8:47 pm

Lunkhead wrote:Six minutes is a seriously epic length for something written and recorded in six days that's actually supposed to be good. Most of us do songs in the 2-3.5 minute range.

Don't worry, just do a regular song, but at 40 BPM. I'm sure that'll be fine.

Billy's Little Trip · Post by **Billy's Little Trip** » Mon Jun 18, 2007 9:03 pm

Puce wrote:
Lunkhead wrote:Six minutes is a seriously epic length for something written and recorded in six days that's actually supposed to be good. Most of us do songs in the 2-3.5 minute range.
Don't worry, just do a regular song, but at 40 BPM. I'm sure that'll be fine.

This man has a head on his shoulders.

mo · Post by mo » Mon Jun 18, 2007 9:13 pm

to be clear, i wasn't aware that any judge frowned upon the use of dulcimer per se, just that ken's review found the dulcimer didn't expand the song past what a guitar would have done. i personally didn't give a fuck, it wasn't a guitar.

but whatever, if there was a miscommunication about the challenge and what some of the judges were thinking, then that's something to be careful about in the future. in my own mind, vox and guitar only was never intended to limit competitors to a single genre, as it were. sorry that wasn't made clear.

as someone who usually does songs around or under 4 minutes, i'll just say that pushing that boundary is what makes this challenge interesting--doing a good, solid 6 minute song is hard. otherwise, what would be the point of having it as a challenge?

so let's everyone rev up and nur ein our way to the finish line!

Nur Ein II Round Five "The Thing Most Easily Forgotten"

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