Sounds kinda pitchy dawg (Adele in the Car reviews)

[Lunkhead]

That is a long past its prime reference to original American Idol judge Randy Jackson. Best I could do off the top of my head...

[iVeg]

Must have got buried in your spam folder. Sent my Adele in on Feb 24.
And I'm sure it does sound pitchy

[josh]

Dammit Del Stinko you went the same direction as me only way better....

[Paco Del Stinko]

Heh. Grape minds think alike. Yours is catchy, I dig it. reviews to come.

[Lunkhead]

Must have got buried in your spam folder. Sent my Adele in on Feb 24.
And I'm sure it does sound pitchy

Try again, and I'll let you know if it comes through this time. If it still doesn't come through PM me.

[iVeg]

Resent. Received another "got it" message. Thanks!

[GravityJohnson]

Hi guys. I'm from Macaque Attack, first time song fighters,and we submitted an entry to the 'Adele In The Car' songfight on the 26th Feb but it doesn't seem to have been posted. We did receive the confirmation email saying that you had received it. Just wanted to check if there were any issues? Thank you.

[Lunkhead]

I pretty much only check the fightmaster email when I go to post the fight. Other fightmasters seem to be monitoring it at other intervals and I have no idea what if anything they are doing in terms of dealing with the spam or what. There is also some kind of automated archiving that happens and I only recently was told what was going on with that and I already forgot what the deal was. I still am not sure what if any spam filtering is happening. It's basically a total mess that should have been replaced with a Web submission form 10 years ago. Unfortunately it's hard to reach a consensus on how to deal with it so it continues to be what it is. I got the iVeg resubmit. Will process tonight hopefully. GravityJohnson please resubmit and let me know when you've done that and I'll check the email and let you know if it came through or not.

[GravityJohnson]

Hi Lunkhead. We've re-emailed the track to you and have received the confirmation email again. Sorry for the slight delay, we're UK based so there's a bit of a time zone difference. Thanks for your help. (Macaque Attack)

[Lunkhead]

Got it this time. I'll get it posted hopefully tonight (US West coast time).

[Lunkhead]

Both entries have been added. Thanks for re-submitting.

[GravityJohnson]

Thank you

[Chumpy]

BSS - The verses about taking acid are great, and I like the vocal delivery and melody. Don't like the chorus though, it drops rather than lifts, which leaves me blah. The bridge melody works well, but I felt it was missed opportunity for lyrics and vocals. Good idea of hallucinatory Adele acting as your psychedelic guru, and appearing in your car during the last chorus. Points for concept.

iVeg - I like the feel at start, the piano, the high/low pass filtered intro vox, and the soft road sounds, all quite nice. After a few listens I realized that there aren't any rhymes in the verses, and only the 'fun/lungs' rhymes in the chorus. This surprised me, because it all works because of the way you sing it, so bravo for that. I dig the bridge, especially the organ, it's a high point in the song for me. Unfortunately my ears don't like the 'kill me' line, they think the 'me' is slightly off, which distracts. There is a lot of good stuff here but I feel like the literal approach to the song title is taking the easy way out. Too on the nose.

Jerkatorium - Fun fact, I recorded all my vocal parts for this song in my car.

Macaque Attack - Favorite song of the fight. The concept is fun, you pick up Adele hitch hiking, and it's a drag, because she's depressed, and just ate a bunch of fish & chips, and omg may start to sing. Drive on driver! The 80s beats and rhythms are done perfectly, and the chorus lifts me up and makes me feel happy, especially in the penultimate one where most everything drops out and you really hear the strummed clean guitar and the vocals. Love it.

Micah Sommersmith - Oom-pah with accordion, fun little ditty. I like the phrase '12-tone crud' quite a lot, poodle-bop and yodel-whip less so. Thankfully I'll be dead before either of those become popular.

Paco del Stinko - This is very well crafted. I like how you slowly bring in each element, just solo guitar and voice first, and then the melodica, then the panned right rhythm guitar on the right, and then the bass, and then the full band kicks in. The lyrics are really good too, and tell a nicely creepy story. "I came to with Adele in the car" is a great opening line, unusual smells, fluttering heart, sepia grey, very nice. I might worry that it starts too slowly, but patient listeners (probably everyone who listens to SF songs every few weeks) will get it. The concept reminds me a bit of Husker Du's Diane, another really creepy song.

Zack Facco - I totally dig the Gordon Gano style vocal delivery. The muppet 'la-la-la-la-la' BVs are awesome, and may be my favorite part of the song. I think the occasional timing issues and the recorded-in-a-garage homemade sound just add to the charm. The ending is kinda underwhelming though.

[MicahSommer]

Berkeley Social Scene - Any particular reason to go with spoken verses rather than sung? It seems like maybe the words got written and then there wasn’t time to come up with a melody. I do like the choruses.

inflatable vegetables - This one might be my favorite take on the title - imagining a friendship with a pop star. That said, I think the lyrics need a little tightening up. The instrumental track is all right.

Jerkatorium - Great, clever, tightly constructed lyrics as always from Jerkatorium. This one is melodically less engaging than some of your recent work, though the pre-chorus and chorus are nice, and the backing vocals are great. The lead vocal is decent but I don’t think the a cappella intro works (though maybe that’s intentional given the lyrical content).

Macaque Attack - I like it. I wish you had posted the lyrics because they were sometimes hard to make out, but I enjoyed the vocal performance and the catchy instrumental production.

Micah Sommersmith - This one’s mine. I don’t particularly care for it.

Paco Del Stinko - Musically, this one takes too long to get interesting, though when it does it’s enjoyable enough. I’m not a huge fan of the lyrics either (seems pointlessly cruel), though I must give you credit for maintaining the rhyme scheme throughout.

Zack Facco - The vocal affectation at the end of each line was confusing, then briefly compelling, then annoying. Otherwise the vocals were pretty good. I’d have liked the instrumental performances to be a little tighter. And again, I’m not such a fan of the whole murder angle, though at least this guy gives some reasoning for it.

[josh]

Inflatable Veggies: Vocals are a bit off here and there. The lyrics are interesting. The organ is a nice touch.

Berkeley Social Scene: Don't you guys usually use live drums? Not that the electro drums were bad, but for a rocker like this, it's a little stiff sounding. I like the guitar sound. The idea of tripping out and seeing Adele is funny. Lots of great lyrics.

Micah: It's a great verse and idea but too short! The accordion (assuming it's an accordion) is awesome.

Jerkatorium: Very catchy and high production value. Killer guitar solo. A pop sensation. Vote!

Del Stinko: Love the lyrics. Creepy feel and good use of a sparse growing arrangement. Wild guitar solo ending! This one's my favorite, vote.

Macaque Attack: Damn, well done. Very professional sounding. The beats are interesting and well produced. Vocals are spot on. Cool sounds. I'd definitely have voted for this one, but it wasn't up yet when I did my civic duty :-/

Zack Facco: The instrumentation came easy on this one. I think it's better then a lot of what I've done in the past, so I'm at least improving, but I'm still trying to figure out drums, so yeah, it's "loose". Didn't care for the vocals / lyrics. Took a lot of effort to come up with anything and in fact I tried to cop out and get one of you guys to do it last minute. Haha.

@chumpy & Micah: Thanks for the reviews! I really dig Violent Femmes so that's a nice complement.

[GravityJohnson]

Berkeley Social Scene - I like the mixture of spoken and sung lyrics, I think that's works well. Perhaps beefing the whole song up with another layer or two of guitar might have worked, but overall I really like it. Very catchy.

Paco del Stinko - This is my favourite of the fight I think. I kinda like the sinister feel it has. I reminds me of 'Diane' by Therepy? from their Infernal Love album, albeit without the strings. The drums and bass coming in a good way into the song works really well. Even the guitar solo at the end has the right creepy feel about it. Great work!

Inflatable Vegetables - Nice tune. As Chumpy previously mentioned, the lack of rhymes works for the most part, with a couple of exceptions. The piano sounds a little 'thin' for my personal taste, but I really like the Hammond style organ towards the end. The bridge is particularly good!

Micah Sommersmith - This sounds like it could be a Ween song, and for me that's a good thing! For a little ditty like this I think it was good to keep it short and punchy as you have. A good fun tune.

Zack Facco - From it's very Nirvana style first few seconds, it turns into a late era Frank Black style tune. I really like the vocal performance with the exception of a couple of the stretched out words. The backing 'la la la' vocals I really like, but wonder how well they fit the style of the rest of the song. Ultimately though, this is a really catchy and very decent tune.

Jerkatorium - Cool and instantly catchy tune. I really like this. Good production with nice separation between the instruments. I think I'd have preferred a 'proper' abrupt ending rather than the fadeout, but that's just personal taste. I think the a cappella start works excellently, and the piano really gives the song that light-hearted happy feel. Quality stuff.

My votes go to Paco del Stinko and Jerkatorium, two very different styles but both very nicely done. But good work one and all!

Thanks for the feedback on the Macaque Attack song, all comments (good and bad) are always welcome. See you next week for 'Whiskey Drinker'

Cheers,
Alan - (https://macaque-attack.bandcamp.com)

[Lunkhead]

Berkeley Social Scene: Don't you guys usually use live drums? Not that the electro drums were bad, but for a rocker like this, it's a little stiff sounding.

i'm not sure what is making you think they are "electro drums". It's Ken on the drums per usual.

[josh]

Haha... It's funny I listened a few times and I was convinced they were software. Guess he was right on

[fluffy]

Ken is a living drum machine. He has the soul of a TR-808.

[josh]

"So, so you think you can tell, synth drums from Ken". Yup, I feel dumb.

[glennny]

I've played with a lot of excellent drummers over the years. Ken is arguably the best. When it comes to keeping time and hitting every drum just right, he is by far the best. He's even that good without a click track. I've edited improvisational sessions with Ken on drums, and it's just a dream. He makes everything really easy as an editor. This is not the first time he's been mistaken for a drum machine or software, and that's because what they are aiming for is what Ken sounds like. I have a lot of fancy loops and software, and excellent sounding drums, but when I get Ken behind a kit and it's miked properly (like he has it) there's no contest, best sounding drums I ever work with.

[Chumpy]

... This one might be my favorite take on the title - imagining a friendship with a pop star.

I'm pretty sure the title is in reference to the popular Adele Car Karaoke video. Also, I think the mum bob is on point, but I think 'triumph' is overstated.