Happily ever after...? (Grim Reality reviews)

[Lunkhead]

Obligatory review thread.

[Spud]

And it's a wrap. Thanks, Sam.

[furrypedro]

Inflatable Vegetables: Genius.

[hillbilly]

that's what Boethin supposed to sound like, great guitar work. Like this dirty mood.

[Jerkatorium]

Whenever I listen to the submission from The Worldly Self-Assurance (and I've been listening to it a lot since yesterday) I'm struck by how much the chorus and bridge sound like Jordan Seavers. Lovely work.

[iVeg]

Can someone explain to me how the VERSUS fight thing works?

Enjoyed the Grim Realty angle of the BSSvDT entry. I guess that's the grim reality of realty in your area. Studio in DT for $2300+ ?
When I was looking up DT, saw the Stronger Than fight. Brought back memories.

Lots of LONG songs this week.

[ken]

Inflatable Vegetables: Genius.

Agreed. Well done!

[Lunkhead]

Can someone explain to me how the VERSUS fight thing works?

Enjoyed the Grim Realty angle of the BSSvDT entry. I guess that's the grim reality of realty in your area. Studio in DT for $2300+ ?
When I was looking up DT, saw the Stronger Than fight. Brought back memories.

Lots of LONG songs this week.

"X vs. Y" was just a way Song Fighters would label their collaborations a long long time ago. In fact, it looks like the first instance was Duboce Triangle Vs. John Benjamin Band's "My Sister" from 2001:

http://sfjukebox.org/songs/my_sister/Du ... min%20Band

We wanted to "bring it back" I guess.

You can see all the "vs" artists here:

http://sfjukebox.org/artists?artistName ... ply+Filter

And listen to all the "vs" songs oldest to newest here:

http://sfjukebox.org/songs?artistName=v ... ply+Filter

[iVeg]

Oh. Too bad. I hoped it was something more bizarre and strangely beautiful. Maybe like trying to write and perform in the other band's style, but do it better than them?

Is there overlap with BSS and DT? Other than being from the same megalopolis?

@furrypedro ... Thanks! Hope the broke and jobless is just a story, and not your reality.
@ken... Thanks!

[furrypedro]

@furrypedro ... Thanks! Hope the broke and jobless is just a story, and not your reality.

Nah, I am both gainfully employed and well fed. Thanks for your concern (does this invalidate my artistic integrity?)

[stateshirt]

Sorry everyone, Inflatable Vegetables wins.
Really dig the Balance Lost track too.
This is a fun fight. Nice job y'all. Next time I will not get so carried away with the synths.
Wait what am I saying, of course I will.

[Niveous]

There aren’t any reviews this week. I can understand with the holidays and whatnot. But this is Songfight and one of those elements that make this place great is that it’s a sounding board. You make a song, someone tells you what they think. Now, I’m not a big fan of reviews myself. Karen O of the Yeah Yeah Yeahs recently said

“It’s a pretty dangerous hole to fall down, reading your own reviews, so it’s not something I personally do. All you can do is try to make albums you can stand by and be proud of, that are a snapshot of where you were at the time.”

That’s kinda how I feel about reviews as well. BUT you also make music to be heard and you never know if people like your stuff unless they tell you. This has all been a longwinded way of me saying, here are some quick reviews for Grim Reality.

State Shirt:
I enjoy the atmosphere created in this song. I’m not really hooked by it so I imagine in the future, it will be something I listen to for ambience. 5/10

Jerkatorium:
Fun little guy and guitar tune. There are some sparks of something good here, especially in the lyrics. I’d like to hear more for Jerkatorium. More experimenting and finding a good niche would suit this well. 5/10

The WSA:
A very mellow feel. The composition is solid. If this was a part of a WSA concert, I could see this as the pull out your lighters part of the show. But at the same time, it would be the part that drags the show down because it’s such a meandering bit of adult contemporary except for that solo. 6/10

Balance Lost:
Pete Glover consistently produces some of my favorite Songfight songs. I hate when I reference other bands in reviews because when I look back at the reviews years later, I feel like I’m a pretentious prat. Nevertheless, this reminds of listening to Big Audio Dynamite back in the day. I love the energy of this. 8/10

BSS:
This is a straight forward BSS tune. They have been making songs like this for years. In fact, if someone told me this was an excerpt from the Bending the Worlds album (Worth checking out on last.fm), I wouldn’t be surprised. Seeing as I worked on Bending the Worlds and love that side of BSS, I dig this. 8/10

Gregg Boethin:
I get what is supposed to be happening here and I can’t figure out why it misses the mark. I think there’s something a little off with the vocals. It needs to be a bit grittier to pull this off. There’s potential for a kind of Bad Things (True Blood theme) type tune. But the vocal doesn’t convey the feeling of the song enough. 5/10

Dime Novel:
There’s not a lot going on here musically, so the lyrics and the delivery have to do more to carry it. There isn’t a strong hook or a very interesting story in the lyrics, so the song just goes along without making an impact. 3/10

Johnny Cashpoint:
I’m not a fan of the keyboard effects in this as they grate in the headphones. The story of the song is hilarious. That’s a plus and a minus, add in that the song is so short that it doesn’t make a big impact in the memory and you’ve got… 5/10

Barbies on the BBQ:
I’m happy to hear a song that is trying hard to get a hook over. The vocals are very big in this mix. I feel like the singer is sitting on my chest and singing straight into my face and my ears are struggling to get all the musical bits because of it. I see potential here, even if it’s not the type of song I would listen to often. 5.5/10

Dragon 32:
Instrumental. No score.

The Lookouts:
I love when things get weird. Musicians can’t be afraid to go new and different places. If we don’t, how do we progress? Now, that being said- not every experiment is going to be a success. I’m happy to say, this one worked for me. Sure, it has some sharp edges that need to be smoothed but it made me rock in my chair while listening and made me curious to how this all came together. 7/10

Paco del Stinko:
That crusty Paco sound with crunchy guitars and his distinct vocal sound, either you dig it or you don’t. I dig it. This isn’t the most interesting song, except for some damn good bass work on that bridge. I found myself afterwards with no clue what it was about because nothing stood out lyrically. Flawed but it has its charms. 6/10

Inflatable Vegetables:
I feel like this is the type of novelty tune that I would hear during a radio morning show or maybe on a Dr. Demento, except I don’t think the humor was strong enough. Eh. It’s okay. 4/10

BSS vs. DT:
I’m not in love with this joke. I do love the lyric, “We have a lot of sadness you can rent to own” though. BSS does a great job on this and I’m guessing Mo of DT is leading the splendid guitar wankery. By around 2:30 and the Bahamas part of joke comes in, you’ve lost me. 4/10

DT vs. BSS:
This is what I had hoped a DT and BSS would be like. Damian put down a fun vocal. There’s so much great energy. Who’s handling the keys on this? Sam? Whomever it is, I commend them. I really wish that the chorus would have stuck around. This song would’ve been such a great sing along if they would have drilled the hook home. 7.5/10

Excuse me?
Jo Ann with some guitars. Progress! It needs some tightening up. It still feels like poetry over a guitar. And then there’s the conversation part which includes the horrible detractor of laughing at your own joke. I feel like this suffered by being in the same fight as DT vs. BSS as they both occupy the same space but one is done far better. 3.5/10

[Lunkhead]

Re: BSS, DT, etc.

Both Mo and Damian happened to be in town at the same time. Mo likes to come jam when he's in town. Damian's a bit more elusive but I think since Mo was going he came along too. Damian basically improvised all the lyrics and vocals for the two DT/BSS songs. Since Mo was there I played keys instead of guitar, on all three songs. The unicorn song was the one where we actually tried to write a song, with parts. We ran through that one a few times to get the final take. The realty song was a lot more improvised. I think we only recorded that twice. The BSS song was just a straight up jam. Damian was taking a break, so I went over to the mic and sang Ken's lyrics off the cuff over the jam. It's actually a much longer jam but Glen worked his editing magic on it and whittled it down to "only" five minutes. It's all a bit excessive, admittedly, but we had a fun night.

[iVeg]

@ Lunkhead. Thanks for the explanation. Sounds like a fun time. Cudos to Glen for editing the jam to only five minutes.
@ Niveous. Thanks for taking the time to review all the songs. When I did my listen through, I had a piece of paper for notes, but didn't have much more than what I already posted. Thanks for the Eh review. I wish it was better, but that's your opinion and you backed it up. I have no problem with that.

[Excuse Me?]

Thanks for the review Niveous. I was hoping it wasn't so obviously me. Been a while since I tried writing a new song. Iintended to do reviews, and will try to get them out- rehearsals + the flu for the past week pretty much wiped me. I didn't even get a battle cry done, sigh

[furrypedro]

1) Best xcmas gift ever

2) Nicest review comment ever

Balance Lost:
Pete Glover consistently produces some of my favorite Songfight songs.

Made my day

3) I really enjoyed the Iveg track, also State Shirt - SF seems to be a place that begs for "singles" and SS submitted what felt like an album track but was an awesome album track so these were what I voted for.


5) Btw, I didn't touch the WSA track this week. Like a leg that got pins and needles after you've sat in a weird position too long I was numb and useless.

[Excuse Me?]

Is there a way to download all the songs at once, like an album? What if the songs are no longer posted? Thanks

[furrypedro]

As far as I know there is no way to download the whole batch of songs in one go, only individually. The songs will always be available in the Music Archive section of the site which can be accessed from the front page (just below the "Post on Boards!" button).

[Niveous]

Do you use Firefox? If so, there is a nifty add on called Down Them All which allows you to do multiple downloads in one click. That's how I pick up the fights. I go to their corresponding page in the archive and one click will put them all in the folder of my choosing.

[jast]

Is there a way to download all the songs at once, like an album? What if the songs are no longer posted? Thanks

Feel free to use http://jk.gs/songfight-download/ if the other options don't work for you.

[iVeg]

Congrats FurryPedro. I'm glad the winning song was one I voted for.

[jb]

Is there a way to download all the songs at once, like an album? What if the songs are no longer posted? Thanks

Well, there's no automatic *download*, but there is a "stream all" link at the bottom of every fight page.

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