You Shake My Snake & You Rattle My Brain-Rattlesnake Reviews

[Lord of Oats]

Goats are indeed ruminants!

[Teplin]

My Reviews:

This title was all about the rock. Unfortunately, with so many songs in the same basic genre, they all sort of ran together. So to make things more interesting for me I separated 'em into two separate fights and pretended the ROCK!fight was a battle of the bands.

ROCK!fight:

*Blue Ribbon* Billy's Little Trip with Spud and Paco - This is great. Something about the vocal delivery reminds me of "Whose line is it anyway". Anyone ever watch that show? When they'd make up a song on the spot? It reminds me of that, and that's not a bad thing. Everything from the frantic drums to the lyrics fit the feel of the song. Wins the prize for "most fun".

*2nd Place* Corn on the Cob - Ok, I get why you did it, but it still sounds like you're singing while eating corn on the cob, and I can't quite get past it. Other than the vocals, this is some awesome stoner rock. The "end of the world" outro makes the song. Wins the prize for "best atmosphere".

*3rd Place* R. Mosquito - The performances are chaotic, full of energy, and spot on for the genre. Anarchy! This is one of the few vocal performances of the fight that I BELIEVE, if that makes sense. It doesn't sound like something you recorded in your basement, it sounds like a bad bootleg of an authentic, balls out punk rawk show from back in the day. Unfortunately, it loses points because the audio is so clipped. Lo-fi is usually fine with me, but this is just trashed. Wins the prize for "best attitude".

*Honorable mention* Paco Del Stinko - Yeah, slide guitar, that's what I'm talking about! Great chords and arrangement. Not your best vocal performance, although I like the deep, half spoken part. To me, the sound conjures up the desert, so... wins the prize for "best use of theme".

Meatknob - The opening reminds me of the Toadies, one of my favorite 90's bands. Pretty well done. I can't find much to complain about, but for whatever reason the song doesn't grab me. Wins the prize for "best keyboards in a rock song".

Steve - This gets better as it goes. That one part has a David Bowie feel. It's clear that you're the most comfortable on horns, and that's what sounds best in this song. Wins the prize for "best solo" for saxaphony goodness.

Weakest Suit - Cars-tastic. Amusing lyrics. Yeah, I'm digging this even though the playing isn't the tightest or the vocals the best. Good work. Wins the prize for "best lyrics".

The Hell Yeahs - Well done. Well recorded and performed. The song isn't grabbing me but I'm not sure why and it bugs me. Wins the prize for "best rockabilly".

Ford's Theater Disaster - My biggest problem is that parts of this sound really muddy. The song is alright and the performance sounds competent, but it's plagued by production problems, and it doesn't stand out enough in other areas to make up for it. Wins the prize for "most evil sounding vocals".

Styop Quoons - Wins the prize for "best intro". But then it goes on too long, and I wanted to hear it kick up a notch and really start rocking after it was over. I would have cut that sample in half, and brought in some heavier guitars. The screams made me chuckle.

.............................................................................................................................................................

Otherfight:

Attention All Units - High quality production. This isn't usually my thing, but... I'm a delay/reverb junkie, and I think the lush atmosphere is what saves it for me. Yeah, I dig.

Chadderandom Abyss - Eerie how we both used backwards vocals in a fight that didn't suggest them. Or maybe backmasking just sounds more... snakey. I don't know if it's just the fact that I knew you were sick, but it gives me the image of a man singing this from his sickbed in the middle of fever and delirium. The wallpaper is faded yellow and peeling, and the room is lit by a single bare bulb.

Coderlyte - I like the spaghetti western feel. Not the biggest fan of the vocals. Playing needs to be tighter. Great concept but the execution could have been better.

Dutova - Good effort. Not rockin enough to be in Rock!fight. Better production might have helped. More compression? Less effect on the vocals? Hmmm, not much else to say about this one.

Elaine Dimasi - Seems like either the vocals were rushed, or you weren't as comfortable with the song, because your singing usually sounds much better than this. My favorite part is the hand percussion part, it sounds great. The song itself is good too.

Heine - Reminds me of some of Pink Floyd's stuff, especially some of the vocals. Did anyone else say that? Not enough variation for being as long as it.

Manatee Matinee - I basically like this. Surreal and freaky in a good way. I think this could have been tightened up, it gets too repetitive in parts. At first I thought you were saying "Daddy, there is a heron, right?" which would have been more surreal.

Oddbod - I dig the feel of this one, with all the keyboards and organs. Very mysterious sounding. Yep, probably my favorite of the non-rock category.

Quimby - This has got to be the first time I've heard a recipe in a song, bonus points for the sheer oddity. I like the whistling. This is adorable.

Rone - I haven't been around long enough to hear your improvement, so I can't judge it by that. If wanting more positive reviews is your thing, the biggest thing you need to work on playing and singing in rhythm with the beat. It's not your guitar style, it's just that everything is just too disjointed for most people to enjoy. So that's something to work on before you work on more complicated beats, etc. And get a pop filter, or make one of out a nylon and some wire. Either that or stop caring about getting positive reviews and just do what feels right to YOU.

Ross - Sorry man, I've got a severe country allergy and my doctor advises me not to listen to this too much. Genre bias. Otherwise, same comments as usual... you've got the voice and the recording skills, but your chords and melodies are tired and well worn.

Test - I like the vocals when you double them. Very nice. I like the synth when it comes in, very unexpected.

Tungsten Chic - FOR THE LOVE OF ALL THAT IS HOLY, TURN IT DOWN! IT'S THE MUSICAL EQUIVALENT OF TYPING LIKE THIS! MOST OF IT IS SO CLIPPED IT SOUNDS LIKE IT WAS RECORDED THROUGH A SPEAKER YOU KICKED A HOLE IN! OK I ADMIT I LAUGHED AT THE "RATTLE MY TIMBERS, OH YEAH" LINE. BUT I CAN'T FAIRLY EVALUATE THIS BECAUSE IT'S SO PAINFUL!

Make Spoons Not Knives - As an experiment in recording techniques, this was a success. I'm very happy with how the overdubbed layers of hand percussion, and the pitch shifted slide guitar, turned out. Those were both last minute inspirations.

As a song, hmmm. I can certainly see the need for some editing. 8 full measures of the synth part is too much for even me, and I started skipping the second repetition when I'd listen through it during mixing, which should have been a clue. For some reason I felt the need to pad it into a 3 minute song, and it probably would have worked better shorter. I'm puzzled when people say there's no song here at all, but then, I'm used to listening to instrumental or nearly instrumental artists like DJ Shadow, Diplo, and Four Tet.

[jast]

Quimby - This has got to be the first time I've heard a recipe in a song [...]. This is adorable.

Good thing I can give you more of that, then. Excerpt only, sorry, copyright and all that.

[ElaineDiMasi]

So, Rattlesnake, I unplugged it. Kind of reset the system. Here's the video. Now what?
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[Billy's Little Trip]

Rock it, Elaine!

[Teplin]

It was cooling seeing it done live! I actually like it stripped down like that.

[Heather. Redmon.]

Yay! That was fun!