Melvin: The verses are definitely the bits that do it for me here; obviously I like my jangly guitars but I like that it's simple and sweet. There feels like more space to add stuff and that other guitar in the background works well. The chorus is a good tune but as it rocks out more I feel like the tempo starts to hold it back too much so it feels ploddy and lacking in dynamics, places like this are exactly the points where I'd love to hear you do some angular stop-starts/tempo change/key change/or something totally random and winding and/or complicated.
Zipline: I'm digging this quite a bit, but at the same time I feel frustrated that the format of songfight doesn't allow you to spend longer on this song. I like the lo-fi-ness to an extent but in places it really does hold this song back and I'm not talking about the singing which is pretty cool. I think it's partly the stop-start bits; I like them but in order for them to work best they need to be tighter, and that could probably be said of most of the song. So I would love to see you do this live after you'd practiced it a bit, and cut that mid-solo by about 70%. good stuff.
#: Hmm, you woulda thought after 80+ songs you'd have learnt to play instruments and sing. the chord pattern is generic and boring; I can take some clipping but there's too much here, that's not a big thing especially as this sounds like a live recording. The lyrics are amusing in places but they don't scan too well and the structure is pretty infantile. vote!, nah not really but sounds like you had fun so who gives a rats ass about votes.
Gigavolt Sound Machine: Ah, sounds like you're not too comfortable with your vocals, no worries, the vocoder melody is okay. The elements here are all okay but not amazing and they aren't able to carry the tune for the duration. I mean, the drum pattern is cool but it doesn't develop, and the synth isn't interesting enough to be repeated as much as it is, also one can hear too much of that patch, next time use a few nicely contrasting sounds and switch them around to try and get some more texture and dynamics. Nothing bad here though, nice try.
Chonchi Station unt das Power Converters: Electro mashup! yes, you should wash your hands. hang on, is this Damien Verrett? I heard a song creeping through the mess for a second there, and the bloops are starting to sound more whimsical rather than sinister. Okay, hope you don't mind but I'm skipping ahead to hear if anything else happens......ooh, it does, back we go.....ha, totally random change there, but a fun one. and there's a perfectly good song tacked on the end here. Okay, so not a total waste of time. Simulating randomness can be fun but not usually for the listener and I'd be interested to hear more of this if you got the Song/Wacky-Shit balance slightly more even and/or focused.
Ninja Bachelors: Bill Hicks fan are we? who isn't I guess. You sound familiar too, but I'm not sure since the vocal style doesn't sound natural. There's actually nothing wrong with this at all, it all flows nicely, no lines with too many syllables or dodgy chords. But then, there's nothing fantastic about it either like stirring lyrics or magic chords. It is what it is, well done.
Front: I think this is the first fight I've actually entered with thee and I don't think I was gonna win it anyway so I won't hate you this time. I really like the way the drums are cut with all the tiny gaps between the sounds making the beat sound all jerky but still with flow. Man, you put so much more effort into meter and words than I do, the lyrics fit the song like a glove, their not all totally inspired but I'm just picking holes now. Excellent. apart from the ending.
Several Thousand Dollars in Motion: good name (though I'm glad I'm not gonna have to say it too often). You win the "nicest sounding voice by virtue of being female" award this week. Though having said that I do really like the delivery as well, it makes me think of...well, let me just say this song would be perfect if I had a friend who lived exactly the right distance away for me to hear this on the journey there, or was fifteen minutes long. hmm, one more listen......shall I d/l this.....yeeaah go on then. thanks
Luke and his cheery song about incest and sodomy: Now I think about it this probably says the title to me more than the other songs cos it's so, um, you know. Anyway, what it lacks in subtlety it makes up in humability and very black humour. I like this, but it's not your best and you know it, the music will bore you after a week or two i think and the lyrics hold very little mystery, I'm not trying to advocate needlessly obscure but some of your imagery is really amazing and it's appears to be largely absent here.
Steamy Heapey and the Shambolic Squares (yes, you): Not digging the gay house. The vocals are a welcome remedy for the campness, and some lyrics worth listening to. This is actually fucking brilliant, I'm never gonna be able to review a song for yours without mentioning Phoenix Nights but that's why it is brilliant and I'm gonna assume unless you say otherwise that that is what inspired this. My favourite line is "for every Brian Eno there's a bloody Brian Ferry". If the vocals were clearer I'd go and play this to all my mates but as it is I think they'd miss the point. Maybe I missed the point and this is really crap, who knows?
Our Dog: Let's not beat about the bush, this is a totally rockin tune. Taking that into account I found this totally hilarious on first listen, but on repeat it needs more gravitas and that's where you need to be careful. You could just go for well done generic gruff rock vocals, but I think that would sap all the invention and edginess out of the track; what it needs is some dark gutteral screeching like either Frank Black or these guys
http://www.myspace.com/letourenemiesbeware (listen to 'fools, philistines'). That's all you need to scare the crap out of people. yes.
Quesadilla Explosion: ooh, I dunno why I was expecting this to be more emo, this is way more jaunty and upbeat than I remember you guys being, it's cool though. D'you know Mock Orange? reminds me of them big time. This is excellently done. I like the tune, but don't lurve it, it i definitely one of the best here, if not the best. cool
Jimmy Jet: Sometimes you can get away with stuff like this on songfight, but in this fight in particular it feels like your trying to fight fire with rubber. It sounds like it's form the Chili's stable of funky indie and....well, you don't need me to tell you this is seriously missing some funky drumming. Anyway, I'm not a big fan (particularly of slap bass) but you sing and play okay.
Klownhole: Wages has always had an impressive set of vocal chords so it sounds good having a band behind him. Is that Jeff doing the uber-widdling? cool, but there's nothing I can say here that I've not said in other Klownhole reviews. Good collab though, I'd say you've all benefitted from each other's input. I didn't get all the way to the end of this.
...and,
Wages: This is quite a good song, moderately well played. That guitar solo makes it feel a lot less well played but after that when the other guitar chords come in it's cool how it takes the song up a notch. You still sound unsure as to exactly what notes you're trying to sing, I know it's difficult to pin down a melody in only a week, I find it frustrating cos when you do it right it sounds really good.
Billy's Little Trip feat Paco: So, do you umm rock often? you do? good. I've never been a huge fan of the minor key (not sure how else to put that), classic rock stuff but that's just cos I like the Smiths so you needn't worry. This is very good, at points when I'm thinking it starts to suffer from sounding a bit generic it throws in a massive hook with crunchy guitars, and you can't argue with a massive hook. Squuuueeeeeeaaaaallllll.......bow-bowbowmeeedlymeedlymeedlymeeeeeeeeeeeeEEEEE!!!!!! (I don't think me typing 'air guitar' in brackets would've conveyed what I was feeling properly). well done, you should get Leaf to drum for you on a track.
Paco: nice intro, but see what you've done here is shot yerself in the foot by making (or contributing to) 2 awesome songs and therefore dividing the total Paco vote which leaves it wide open for me to once again write the history books so that it looks like I was a better musician/songwriter than you, which (it could be argued) isn't necessarily true. Anyway, enough silliness, this is cool cos you've got 2 things: A) the funk, and B) the rock, and all without sounding even remotely like RHCP, for which I commend you. Even without the backing vox your voice lends a theatrical feel to the proceedings, it's pretty versatile which is cool. One thing that troubles me is that in spite of your considerable talent you never stray anywhere near my stylistic mood of choice - that being ethereal and twinkly - and as such I'm gonna vote for somebody else. I am a bastard.
lots of good stuff here. too many to pick my favourites, I'm gonna have a long hard think about who to vote for....