I can't find my (Vanishing Twin reviews)

[Pigfarmer Jr]

So y'all better post a bunch to make up for it.

[Pigfarmer Jr]

Hope our lyrics don't vanish. Better post them here:
viewtopic.php?f=5&t=12236

[Lunkhead]

Songs posted!

[BoffoYux]

Update - Link for the 'Vanishing Twin SongFight LP - I'm working again so might be delayed until 10p EDT.
See you there!

Tommy G


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M_5imEUeXEQ

I’ll be hosting the LP next Monday 2/7 - I’ll add the link to this post later.

Looking forward to this fight!

[Smalltown Mike]

Look at me! I wrote reviews. Everybody gets a ‘dig’ and everyone gets a ‘but’. Not everyone gets a vote.

King Arthur
Dig: reggae is not something I expected from you. The organ’s nice and your lyrics are always good
But: some of the instruments are really obviously not real, and that detracts from it.
Vote: sure, because you’re always you, even when you’re doing reggae.

Buku Chauney
Dig: Uh …?
But: I don’t know what this is. Sped up? Glitched? On purpose?

Razor Brain
Dig: The synths and instruments are nice to hear
But: there’s some timing issues here and there, and that first vocal that comes in is really abrupt.

Night Sky
Dig: the vibe, the bass, the harmonies
But: the drums need a bit of work. They’re really quiet and not-so real sounding. Might try a an obviously artificial cheesy 1980s Casio preset? — or try to get the drums more real.
Vote? Yes!

Rone Rivendale
Dig: that you keep making music
But: I don’t have a lot to say about this, sorry. Genre bias?

ShoehornTC
Dig: This is really good. Nice mix, Dead Milkmen vibes here and there (who I saw in 1988 in Toronto!). Yea this is really good. I like it when the chorus comes in. Nice breakdown after the lead.
But: I think the vocals need some variety in the rhythm/length of lines/etc.
Vote? Absolutely. This is great.

Adam Rabin
Dig: that’s a nice melody and nice vocals right off the start. Simple but pretty with some weirdness in there, which is always nice.
But: the chorus could benefit from some doubled vocals and harmonies in spots, just for variety and build.
Vote? Absolutely. This is well done.

Brown Word and the Big Whine
Dig: this caught me off guard; not your usual style, right? Nice to hear it. It’s got a nice haunting quality to it.
But: I think your vocals could come up a bit. They get buried here and there. Some of the guitar gets boomy sometime, which I bet someone here could tell you how to avoid better than me. No! Not the fade oooooooouuuuuuutttt … personal bias.
Vote? Yes — the experiment into new territory is a success.

Berkeley Social Scene
Dig: the keyboards. Your guitar leads are always nice, the spaciness of this one is great. Nice build in the lead.
But: this is a bit of a muddy mix for y’all — the guitars are really loud, sort of drowning everything out. Drums are hard to hear.

WreckdoM
Dig: Well, I certainly knew which song was Wreckdom. Digging the drums, and I like the second part more than the intro part. The drum programming is very cool. And the weird haunting … everything. You should probably get this one in a David Lynch movie.
But: there’s not really a “but” for this one. It’s very cool, not necessarily something I’ll spin regularly, but it’s def. interesting and well done.
Vote? Yes!

John Gillespie
Dig: it’s got a very dream 1980s vibe too it and I like the opening guitar licks with the layers.
But: vocals could be more front and centre in this, they get lost. Dynamics on the guitar might help too, because it’s a pretty steady strum throughout. Drums too.

toby roktot
Dig: Great intro, nice clean guitar sound. The guitar throughout is nice.
But: the vocals could come up a bit, but they’re also a bit over-acted in that 70s Bob Seger kind of way. Yea, there’s a genre bias there on my part.

Gil Sans
Dig: Great vibe.
But: there are some timing issues here and there that muddy this up a bit.
Vote: Yes, but for one reason: You ALMOST made me say “too short,” they hypocrite that I am. I do think this could benefit with a full song treatment — another verse, more chorus etc etc.

Lichen Throat
Dig: The drums are interesting enough (though some variety would be good) and the music in general is more musical than some tracks of yours I’ve heard
But: your vocals are really loud in the mix, which sort of drowns everything out. It would be good to hear this with the vocals mixed a bit lower, to hear everything else.

The Mellfire Trifecta
Dig: This is so f’ing heavy. (All right, true story: The ‘Fire and I worked together in an actual office a loooooon time ago. We wore ties. It was a magical time. So I can bug him.) Your melodies and chord progressions and vocals rhythms and turns of phrases are always lovely.
But: where’s the screaming lead and … and … the ending?
Vote? Yes, for branching out.

Duncan Martin
Dig: that’s a nice chord progression in the chorus, and the harmonies work well there. Dig the melody at the end.
But: the doubled vocals in the verse is too much, I think. It’s nice when it comes in for the chorus, but needs a variety. Like, it nees to be something new.

shrts
This is the first time shrts has had three members. The almighty thehipcola on bass and wah-lead, ne on vocals and guitar, and my long-time friend (he hates when I call him that) Scott on drums. shrts gets a lot of “too short” comments, but — do y’all not know about the existence of short songs? Not everything is Thick as a Brick.

[mholland]

Night Sky
Dig: the vibe, the bass, the harmonies
But: the drums need a bit of work. They’re really quiet and not-so real sounding. Might try a an obviously artificial cheesy 1980s Casio preset? — or try to get the drums more real.
Vote? Yes!

Thanks for the review and the vote. The drums are MIDI, but they were played by a real drummer on an electronic kit. I can hear them just fine, but I was down to the wire on the mix, and added compression to the bass that brought up the overall volume quite a lot right near the end. I probably should have livened the drums up a bit and/or brought them up in the louder parts after I did that.

[mholland]

Finally reviewing again after failing to write anything up on my last several fights. These are brief, but I'm happy to elaborate on anything.

Adam Rabin: Nice. I like how you create a great creepy, dramatic atmosphere with some pretty simple instrumental parts. Well composed, nice vocal performance.

Berkeley Social Scene: Nice unrestrained rock jam. Good guitar and drum performances and nice synth counterpoints. I'm losing the vocal in the mix, and I feel like the guitar in the right channel could come down a fair bit.

Brown Word and the Big Whine: This lighter, airy vocal approach seems to work really well for your voice. Nice lyrics; nice musings on the actual biological phenomenon. A little more dynamic variation would be nice, but overall I like it.

Buku Chauney: Always down for a blues jam. Some nice guitar leads. Distortion on the vocals is a bit overboard, wish I could make them out. Eighths are a little too straight for my tastes, especially the keys and drums (there's a little swing in the bass that I wish the other parts would pick up). Swing it, man!

Duncan Martin: Nice vintage folky Duncan Martin. Thoughtful and interesting lyrics, and once again, bonus points for biology. Nice performances, particularly the vocal layering. Really like the harmonica-like synth on the way out.

Gil Sans: Dig this a lot, just wish it was longer. Nice vocals, guitar, and composition. Just left me wanting more.

John Gillespie: There's a lot I really like about this--really dig the first 20 seconds of the intro. Nice arrangement and performances. But there are some dissonances between the chimey clean and distorted guitar parts that I have a tough time with (they kick in around 0:21).

King Arthur: Fun lyrics and composition. I like that you play around with varied musical styles that make use of horns (this applies to this song, but it's also kind of a meta-review, because I haven't written reviews for the last few fights that you've been in, but I have noticed). If you ever want to supplement your MIDI horns with live saxes, hit me up.

Lichen Throat: Gotta love a Jekyll/Hyde song. As we both know, our musical taste Venn diagrams are nearly disjoint, so I don't really relate to the music, but I really enjoyed the lyrics.

The Mellfire Trifecta: This is among my favorites in this fight. I like the lyrics on social commentary grounds (I guess I like biology, literature, and social commentary). Nicely composed and performed.

Night Sky: This is us. Myth of Daphne and Apollo as told by Sally, with some biographical details filled in. Awesome backing vocals from my stepdaughter. Steve came correct with the New Orleans beat in the verse.

Razor Brain: I really like the chorus (the "out for a drive... I-75" rhyme is a lot of fun) and the synth lead out of the chorus is nice. The rest doesn't really grab maybe because the timing is rougher outside of the chorus.

Rone Rivendale: There's a certain 80s video game sensibility to the instrumental part of this that's kind of fun. The vocals aren't really my jam, but I get the impression you've were around in the old days and have returned, so welcome back!

ShoehornTC: This is really enjoyable. Don't have much else to say, except solid performances that are still just loose enough to feel organic and live.

shrts: Really solid arrangement and performances, including epic guitar leads. I admire that you got something like a chorus in just two bars, but yes, I'll say it... too short!

toby roktot: Really nice, heartfelt vocal and guitar performances, nicely recorded and mixed. No complaints.

WreckdoM: I like the instrumental parts a lot. Not so into the trippy spoken vocals and samples, but I'm not really ever on the WreckdoM wavelength, so put that down to taste.

[Duncan]

Duncan Martin (me):  This was sort of a tribute to those r-strategist organisms who throw a bunch of offspring out into the world and hope a few will survive.  In the process I learned the term "mülerian mimicry," which is where you don't have your own defense, but you mimic an animal that does.  Apparently viceroy butterflies taste terrible, so monarchs have evolved to look similar to them.  I agree with Smalltown Mike that I go a bit overboard with the harmonies in the verse.  I think I should probably just record them as I always do, because I enjoy it a lot, but then cut them out or have a friend edit them down to something sensible. 

John Gillespie: This is a really chill intro, with some nice "brown notes," as Dean Ween says. I'm struggling to settle into the melody, but I also kind of like how unsettling it is.  Overall a very enjoyable listen and the lyrics are cryptic but hold a good coherent narrative -- kind of a Jeckyll and Hyde thing going on here.

Razor Brain: This has a lot of nice nostalgic notes to it.  The beginning made me think it would really go into a mysterious place, but it sounds like it's more of a tale of someone moving away and not being all that in touch with her family (but still somewhat in touch). I like that. But the contrast of mood vs. story almost seems like it needs to be exaggerated for this to work better. Like she should either be completely gone and it's a dramatic tale of loss, OR the narrator should be clearly overdramatizing it.   There's a game called SET where the card characteristics have to be all the same or all different. This made me think of 3 cards that aren't quite a set because  they are different, but not different enough.   None of that took away much from my enjoyment of it though -- great entry.

Buku Chauney:  Sped up blues with weird vocal distortion.  "My bebe, she keeps me up all night."  That's all I could make out.  Shame, because there's a good groove here. Coulda been something.

Brown Word and the Big Whine: I love hearing this other style from you.  You show better restraint than I do on the doubled vocals. These are cool chord progressions.  It reminds me a bit of Fairport Convention.  I like how you take one stanza to tell a story and then the rest of the song is a reflection on that.  It has a bit of a shrug-core feel -- this thing that happened long ago is what it is, and the song is just taking a moment to say "huh, that's weird".  Andy Shauf's "Claire" is kind of like this too.

Shoehorn TC - Feeling those good NRPS and Byrds vibes, maybe Ween's Help me Scrape the Mucus off my Brain. Actually this really reminds me of the Beatles' foray into country folk pop on Help! -- Namely George's "You Like Me too Much." It sounds really good, well mixed too.  The world can't have too many of these tunes.  I can't really tell who the characters are here.  I'm thinking they are high-schoolers in the summertime, maybe before their summer jobs start and they're going through their days but essentially Beavis and Buttheading their way through it. 

Night Sky: This is putting me in a Ry Cooder and Michael Hurley mood.  And a bit of Lou Bega!  Wikipedia says Daphne was a river nymph, who disliked the advances of Apollo, so her father turned her into a laurel (or bay) tree (a favor to her?) right as Apollo tried to kiss her.  This is a great interpretation of the title.  Bravo.  Love the lyrics and performance.  If I had to critique, there are a few flat notes, but who cares.  -- is Songfight about the recording or the composition? what's a song?  Everyone has their own criteria.  I tend to vote as if these are all demos, and select whichever songs have album potential.

Shrts: Lots of Kinks ("Girl, You Really Got Me Now") mood on this one. I like your vocal style on this. The message is cool too - "You may be better than me but it doesn't mean squat if I'm not around for you to compare us."  Nice and quick -- works well as a 1:21 song, or could have a wild wah-pedal vocoder interlude. 

Rone Rivendale: Imagine being a parent and taking your kid to this show! Very enjoyable and entertaining.  I like the various movements on this one. The old "creepy magician" song.  Right up there with the candyman, the travelling preacher, and the miracle medicine man.

Adam Rabin: This is a really thoughtful song.  I like how the bad memories and the love both make their way to the farewell moment.  Kind of a moment of acceptance.  I don't know if there's some autotune on the vocal, or maybe it's a phaser, but it sometimes makes things a little bit too digital-sounding.  I like the general cavernous feel of the reverb though.

Toby Roktot: Who are these Beatles everyone's talking about these days?  Were they any good?  Nice image of walking with a ghost -- maybe your past self. Then with John, then with your mom, or whoever you're remembering at the time.  I think I have that right.  Nice sleepy tune. 

Lichen Throat:  I read it before I heard it, and had a very different tune in my mind. Your singing voice is really coming out in this one more than others -- I like that.  The lyric phrasing is really tight -- not always in the performance but definitely in the writing.  The doubling of the vocal sounds good at the end.

Wreckdom: This song is where things would have gone if the Rowers had Kept on Rowing, Showing No Signs of Slowing, and Wonka had never stopped the boat. No complaints here. It's a fantastic bunch of images and thoughts delivered with great style.

King Arthur: This sounds a bit like Steve Forbert, similar voice -- I like the Prince prints line, and the general take on the title.  I didn't know that about Mizor and Alcor.  I think the chorus had the strongest lyrics and phrasing -- nice flow, nothing seems stretched or mis-stressed and there aren't any awkward rests. The rest of the song works well too, but I'd probably make some small changes for the syllables and lines to flow more naturally so that the rhyme doesn't come down like a hammer. (I mostly felt this on "It's an effective tool")

BSS: Your arrangements, timing, and mix are always pretty solid rock fare. And I like the energy level of this one.  The melody seems a bit meandering at times, but not bad.  Halfway through, that bridge feels good, where it goes a bit quieter and then into a guitar solo.  The guitar solo goes to some nice places with a mighty fine crescendo.  It's pretty hard to hear what's being said though, so I can't comment on the lyrics.

Gil Sans: That was over fast. It's the start of a good concept.  I like what I hear but it doesn't really go anywhere yet.  The guitars sound a little out of time in a couple parts.

Last But not Least, Mellfire Trifecta: This song could be about so many assholes -- which ones?  Rob and Doug?  Eric and Don Jr?  Or those weird Bogdanoff twins who just died?  I think I like some of your more Mellfire-y songs more, but that's more about style preference and not the quality of the tune. This was also fun and I respect the genre variety. 

[Toby Roktot]

Duncan wrote… Toby Roktot: Who are these Beatles everyone's talking about these days? Were they any good? Nice image of walking with a ghost -- maybe your past self. Then with John, then with your mom, or whoever you're remembering at the time. I think I have that right. Nice sleepy tune.

Thanks Duncan…
I really appreciate the review and enjoy all your songs.

The song is about twins, boy, girl… boy lives, girl vanishes.
The entire song is the boy living and the girl…ghosting .
Just them talking, walking….being brother - sister…
Asking each other questions, comments…..that sorta thing.
Cya

[Toby Roktot]

Shrts - Heck, I just started listening and this is the first one…..no need to continue. Can’t be anything any better. VOTE !!

Adam Rabin - This is an ok song. I’m just not connecting with it.

The Mellfire Trifecta - Really nice energetic number. I could pogo to this.

Brown Word and the Big Whine - I get an Alanis Morissette vibe with your song this week. That is a compliment….I like her stuff.

Night Sky - At first, the 4:20ish length put me off. But….after listening, I wanted to listen again…so I did. Really good song and it doesn’t feel like a looong song at all.
VOTE !

Duncan Martin - You never disappoint me with your submissions. Some I like better than others but that’s normal. As you can tell by now, I don’t have much tech-notes to offer. Just what appeals to my tone-deaf, blown-out, tin-pan ear drums.
And, this one appeals nicely…..VOTE. (ps: Heading to Canmore next week to ski)

Berkeley Social Scene - Hmmmm…..not y’all’s best imho.

Buku Chauney - This is too cool to be discounted…. I don’t care I can’t understand all the words. Guitar is awesome….. I have to VOTE for this one !!

Rone Rivendale - Rone, you definitely belong in the 60’s at a Greenwich Village coffee house. Yes, I was there, a bit young but, with my mom and aunts. I didn’t like the smoke, but really liked the music. Your stuff brings back fond memories.
Thank you….VOTE !!

Lichen Throat - I love a good story and your song is definitely a good story.
I agree with Duncan, your vocals are more musical this fight.

Gil Sans - Nice, brief ditty.

John Gillespie - I like the song and think it could be much better if your vocals were more in front. Music is good, but in this case, I think the vocals should drive the song.

WreckdoM - Well, I had to listen to the part about the nipples a couple of times.
Eclectic is too mild to properly define your tune this week. BUT …… I liked it….again !!
VOTE !

King Arthur - Ah, the King comes through with another fine song. Lyrics are fun and I did not know about the two stars in the handle….I will never again look at the dipper and not try to make out those two stars……. VOTE !!

Razor Brain - What’s not to like about a girl on a motorcycle!!

ShoehornTC - I really like this tune. Not much else to say….. VOTE !

[Lunkhead]

Duncan Martin wins!

[mholland]

Congrats, Duncan!

[rone rivendale]

Can't even fight the fact I was dead last. That was prob my worst entry this year.

Congrats Duncan.

[Duncan]

Wow! Thanks everyone who voted (or didn't, but still listened). That one felt like a more earnest recording than most of mine. Maybe that was the special sauce, who knows. Great way to celebrate my first birthday at SongFight.

[MellyP]

Listened and liked Duncan. Congrats!!