Paper Cuts (Paper Thin reviews)

[Rabid Garfunkel]

Try not to get blood on the carpet, hey?

[Aardwolves]

I'm only here to make other people sound better by comparison. (You're welcome.)

[rone rivendale]

Thanks Aard. I usually fill that role but I've been quiet lately.

[Aardwolves]

Thanks Aard. I usually fill that role but I've been quiet lately.

Maybe if we both entered a fight, we'd make each other sound better.

[nyjm]

Whoa. 30 songs? Yeah, apologies up front; this is a busy week and it'll take me some time to get reviews.

My own schedule notwithstanding, Rabid: fabulous art for this fight.

[Rabid Garfunkel]

My own schedule notwithstanding, Rabid: fabulous art for this fight.

Hey, thanks.

[Billy's Little Trip]

What a fun group of songs this week. I've just got three things to say to you.

Aardwolves - nerd love song - cute - I like it

Andrew Reist - dramatic - old school - great vocals

Bax - cool guitar - short - not bad

Billy's Little Trip, featuring Steve Durand and Aardwolves - Steve blows the brass like no one else - Tiffany is talented and has a cute voice - our manager, Paulie Stankovic danced

The Booty Chesterfield Trio - loud - moshable - awesome!

Enter It In The Art Show - fun - interesting - art show worthy

Flvxxvm Florvm - cool guitar - vocal distortion would be awesome - cool tune

Grass Stained - reverb makes it hard to hear anything - melody is nice - like it

The Hand Formula - minimal - interesting lyrics - artsy

Jonathan Mann - simple - nice lyrics - good voice

Leyvamonster - cluby - eloctro dance - interesting

Lords of the Ring - cool beat - cool electro sounds - fiscally dramatic lyrics

Melvin - bye bye weezer - hello flobots - You should change your name to Midas, because everything you touch turns to gold

noah mclaughlin - real bassy - cool guitar - not bad

No Horse Town - hard to hear the vocals - like what I hear - very cool tune

Octothorpe - swingy - political - cool

Paco del Stinko - Where did you get that axe and what are you going to do with it? - What's inside of it? - This fucking ROCKS!

PiGPEN - like the intro and the continued riff - interesting change as always - I like it

PITRE Consulting - elctro goodness - interesting sounds - good background music

Primitive Screwheads - love the slide guitar - unique as always - love it

Ross Durand - folk with an edge - great guitar - great story

The Royal Pajamas or Something - this is a fantastic arrangement of sound - this music makes want to lay some spoken word over it - this is how my brain sounds, if you could hear it

Shotpounder - love the open snare - groovin' rock, yes - I dig the pounder

SomeGuyCalledNoel - cool story - nice voice - pretty good

Suckweasel - nice guitar - nice voice - nice song

Sven Mullet - rock_n_spankin' roll - love that guitar solo bridge - I love it when a guy plays his guitar with his intestines (from deep within)

the testtesttests - *taps the mic* is this thing on? - nice folk - not bad
Todd McHatton - volume way too low - cool melody and flow - I like this

The Weakest Suit - You always manage to entertain me - Uh oh, lmao!!! - I like this song

Good job everyone! From the low fi to the extreme experimental, this is a great bunch of takes on paper thin.

[Rabid Garfunkel]

Ho-kay, here's the first impressions of the fight. These are not formal reviews (those'll come), just me sittin' in the tub, drinkin' beer, scribbling notes whilst going through the fight beginning to end. Exact transcription of the notes, so expect occasional gibberish, heh.

Key: + = like; 0 = okay; - = dislike.

Aardwolves 0

Andrew Reist +
(???) Kick left channel? Snare rt channel? Epic. (Edit: my wife's going through the fight too, and you've got her... "moist as a snack cake". Nice work... you talented bastard )

Bax -

Billy's Little Trip, featuring Steve Durand and Aardwolves 0
Twee intro-worst Woody Allen ever. Pixies?

The Booty Chesterfield Trio +
Killdozer!

Enter It In The Art Show -
Where's my hacky sack? Eggshakers = no.

Flvxxvm Florvm +
Yum. Bass right channel?

Grass Stained 0

The Hand Formula -
Waiting... creeped out

Jonathan Mann 0
Simon & Garfunkel "Punky's Dilemma"?

Leyvamonster -
Lightstick juice drips from my ears

Lords of the Ring -
? John Carpenter & Trent Reznor walk into Brundlefly's teleporter

Melvin +
Nice subsonics, solo is right

noah mclaughlin 0
How is this not clipping? Wow. "Drummer" has at least three hands. Okey - clipping in solo. Whew.

No Horse Town -
Holy histrionics, Batman

Octothorpe +
Please add this to your live set.

Paco del Stinko +
Bringin' the neck punch back. Stonehenge!

PiGPEN +
Flip flop synth & vox (ed. levels-wise)

PITRE Consulting +
Nice trip

Primitive Screwheads +
Yay us. God, the 3rd verse lyrics are stupid.

Ross Durand +
Fuck me, that's hot. Send this to Robert Rodriguez, yo.

The Royal Pajamas or Something +
Groovy. Don't ruin it w/ vocals/lyrics please... thank you.

Shotpounder +
Tasty

SomeGuyCalledNoel 0
Nice fingerpicking. My inner Art enjoys this, but...

Suckweasel -
Genre bias. Give the bongo player something to do or cut him.

Sven Mullet 0
Mullet rape! Not to be confused with Muppet rape. Dirty, dirty bridge/chorus. Yay half step phrases.

the testtesttests -
Clean your tape heads.

Todd McHatton 0
Ow! Dynamics? (Stopping doesn't count.) Mix ruins this. Ride faders.

The Weakest Suit 0
Heh. Send to Kate Moss.

[jast]

Me next! Don't miss the bonus post-deadline song at the end of this post. Or do. See if I care.

Aardwolves -- The transition to the bridge is... not there. That threw me off the most. Feels like something got cut away there. Other than that, the song is pretty good, though it doesn't really captivate me (that's optional though, isn't it?). Your vocals need to be louder in the mix, and perhaps loosen up the performance a bit. Plus points for the librarian boy!

Andrew Reist -- Huge reverb fits in well with the pads. Great vocals! I think the septime jumps in the chorus are a bit random. The pieces which have only drums and pads feel a bit hollow. More guitar might have done a good job of making things sound more whole. Overall, not quite my kind of music but quite good beyond that.

Bax -- Cool guitar. Bit short. Vocals sound rather dry, perhaps adding a hint of reverb could have been interesting.

Billy's Little Trip -- Again, great mixing! Everything's just right here. I don't like the vocals (mostly stylistic preference) but they're pretty good, as is the performance of everything else. I think the guitar in the outro could have done with a tad more body. Anyway, voting! Caveat: there's a typo in the ID3 tag.

Booty Chesterfield Trio -- I really don't like this, so don't expect much of a review. I think it's clipped in places. Performance and engineering seem to be good.

Enter It In The Art Show -- I would have reduced reverb/delay on the vocals and turned them up. The screamy guitar stuff gets boring. Too random for my taste.

Flvxxvm Florvm -- Love the guitar. Nice song, great chorus (though the lyrics are hard to understand in there). The guitar in the right channel during the solo is a bit out of rhythm at times. Doesn't really take much away from the song, though. You almost didn't make the voting threshold (the intonation is below my usual criteria but this song is just too cool to dismiss it just because of that), but only almost.

Grass Stained -- Todd's cleverly disguised second (first?) entry to this fight. Same remark on the vocals at last time: step away from the mic or EQ away LOTS (especially plosives! "PPaPPer thin" really doesn't do that much for me). The ending got cut off. Not my kind of music but performed well enough.

Hand Formula -- I hope that's supposed to be effects and not some kind of instrument. I almost can't hear your vocals. No cake.

Jonathan Mann -- I think either the vocals have too much or the guitar not enough reverb. They sound like they're in different rooms. If they were part of the same take, perhaps more or differently placed mics? The falsetto bit needs better intonation (otherwise the vocals are just as good as expected). Apart from that, this is a good, simple song.

Leyvamonster -- The string sample is annoyingly loopy. Tune your instruments to match! The chorus vocals sound phasy; to me that's not a good thing. The C-64 style samples are way too loud (relatively) and the vibrato is too slow! Sounds like a broken record. If it weren't for the tons of (what I consider) gratuitious effects (deliberate pitch shifting artifacts, overdriven vocals, ...) I might like this.

Lords of the Ring -- While this certainly works and everything fits together, I don't like this kind of stuff and I think the vocals are a bit sloppy.

Melvin -- Wow! That starts out incredibly fast-paced... I got hooked immediately. Rap still doesn't appeal to me but I can't help but like something that does its thing so well. That's a vote! Caveat: the energy curve is pretty much at max all the time, it gets a bit fatiguing.

noah mclaughlin -- Tons of bass! It certainly sticks out in that regard. I would have cut the bass a bit. Occasionally clipped. Good guitar(s), decent vocals, cool background vocals in the chorus. All in all it doesn't really hold my interest but it's at least okay.

No Horse Town -- Turn up the vocals. Not my kind of thing, apart from that it's okay.

Octothorpe -- The vocals don't blend in well with the rest. The guitar/bass aren't tuned to match. Not my kind of thing either.

Paco del Stinko -- Not quite my kind of thing either but closer. The chorus rocks. Interesting bridge, really adds to the song.

PiGPEN -- The samples sound hacked off (hard attack, long sustain and cutting off notes doesn't work together that well) and are too present in the mix for my taste. The rest of this song is not my... well, you guessed it.

PITRE Consulting -- A tad less bass in the beginning please? Minus points for lacking vocals. Other than that, it gets an "interesting" from me, mostly in a good way. I can even stand it being rather crowded because it's a well-organized crowd.

Primitive Screwheads -- Fun. The vocals are somewhat uneven.

Ross Durand -- Great intro, good vocals, amazing mood. In fact, what comes after the intro is just as great. I'm voting for this.

The Royal Pajamas or Something -- Can I have this with a shorter intro? Oh, there's nothing after the intro. Minus points for lacking vocals. Other than that it's actually intriguing, despite (or because of?) being a bit random. Cut off at the end.

Shotpounder -- Energetic and feels complete. Cool lyrics. You almost didn't get my vote because the vocal sloppiness puts you slightly below the bulk of the other votes but I decided the song is too good to leave out so I'm violating my personal informal rules for the maximum number of votes this time.

SomeGuyCalledNoel -- Good guitar playing (though a bit buzzy in places). Good vocals, consider turning them up a bit in the mix (and make them not clip as happened at the beginning of the second (?) verse). I like this song. Voting.

Suckweasel -- Well-mixed right from the start (give the vocals a bit more power though?). I like how everything very gradually crescendos (crescendoes?) towards the chorus. Good song. Voting. (I was typing that I'd liked another guitar added and as I did, there it was... good job reading my mind!)

Sven Mullet -- Ick, that intro sounds seriously detuned (and less twanginess on at least one guitar would have been nice). Good song though and the rest of the performance is good enough. Okay, now that I've heard the "crush" bit: good song except for that. Nice solo.

the testtesttests -- Better than the band name had suggested to me. I don't find it particularly exciting but it's still good enough.

Todd McHatton -- Ah, the other submission. Clipped! I definitely like this one better, anyway. Really made me come back alive (it's 2:14 am as I type). Interesting chord progressions. Fits together well. Voting.

The Weakest Suit -- The tremolo on (part of) the vocals is SO not cool. I think vocals and guitar don't complement each other well in the "paper thin" parts. Is that supposed to be a good ending? Stopping suddenly is okay, but this is to the point of sounding cut off... the song is innovative and otherwise well done though.

So that means votes for: "Billy's Little Trip feat. Steve Durand and Aardwolves", Flvxxvm Florvm, Melvin, Ross Durand, Shotpounder, SomeGuyCalledNoel, Suckweasel, Todd McHatton.

===

Now for the bonus I promised. You get to hear a really revolting rough demo of what I'd planned to submit to this fight. This is a vocals only song and those always take longer because it takes more takes to fill the soundscape. I wanted to make things fit better together than that, really, and I recorded more than half of the samples while writing this, within two hours or so. The mixing is not exactly very refined either (overcompressed too). I was going to make it a lot more sappy at first but then I decided not to. That decision influenced the timbre of some pieces of it, too. On the other hand, I didn't get as far with the new lyrics as with the old ones (which had an additional bridge and a third chorus).

You can download it here: Jan Krueger - Paper Thin

[leyvamonster]

Leyvamonster -- The string sample is annoyingly loopy. Tune your instruments to match! The chorus vocals sound phasy; to me that's not a good thing. The C-64 style samples are way too loud (relatively) and the vibrato is too slow! Sounds like a broken record. If it weren't for the tons of (what I consider) gratuitious effects (deliberate pitch shifting artifacts, overdriven vocals, ...) I might like this.

you have good ears- the effect is actually called "broken record"...

[Billy's Little Trip]

My own schedule notwithstanding, Rabid: fabulous art for this fight.

Hey, thanks.

Yeah, I forgot to mention, I like it too. Reminds me of the early Letterman days. And the first thing I thought of for this title was telling the butcher to cut my pastrami paper thin.

[Rabid Garfunkel]

In a search for "meat slicer", this picture had the most appealing color scheme/palette. That, and that no-one else submitted cover art is why you're seeing my silly little photoshop for this fight.

But I really like the colors. Rather vibrant.

[Saucalito]

The Weakest Suit's song is Pop Rock beauty. Short, relentless, cool lyrics, good hook---fuckin love it.

[Smalltown Mike]

That Billy's Little Trip, featuring Steve Durand and Aardwolves track is wicked awesome. Cool everything, but c'mon, when horny Steve Durand kicks in it's pure gold. Totally brings it up to a higher level. Great work. Best SF track I've heard in a long while.

[Billy's Little Trip]

Wow, thanks, Mike. Yeah, I knew I had to have Steve in on this song. I heard his trumpet the second I started writing the music. As usual, he blew his horn and then he blew my mind.

[melvin]

Wow, thanks, Mike. Yeah, I knew I had to have Steve in on this song. I heard his trumpet the second I started writing the music. As usual, he blew his horn and then he blew my mind.

Jeebus! Seriously, this track is amazing! Nice work, guys.

[glennny]

I'm LOVING the Melvin track!!! Now there's a groove!

[nyjm]

noah mclaughlin real bassy

noah mclaughlin How is this not clipping?

noah mclaughlin -- Tons of bass!

Yeah... about that... the file I sent did not sound that bass heavy on my computer, on speakers and headphones, but when I download it at home I hear what you're all talking about. Even weirder, it doesn't sound that bassy when I download it here at work.

*scratches head*

[elmaji]

How it works: I rate songs from 1-10. Anything above a 6 gets a vote.

AArdwolves: NA/NA- The cut was too rought, too compressed, too hard to understand. I can't make out any of it. Sorry, I frankly can't review a song in this state.

Andrew Wreist: 8/10- Great Instrumentation and vocals. Lyrics detract from a perfect score.

Bax: 6/10- Too short, great lyrical work. Instrumentation is simple but efficient. IT could be a 8 if it was twice as long.

Billys Little Trip:8/10- Good Recording, good instrumentation as far as drums go. The opening little piece feels cheesy. The LA-LA-LAS and the first part of the second half detract possible perfection.

Booty Chesterfield Trio: 6/10- What do we do when we fall of the horse? Get back on. For further reference: repeating the same short lyrics over and over does not a song make.

Enter it in the Art Show: 9/10- Excellent Prog work, well crafted: this is the example of a proper expiremental song and many here could take note of it as a example. Great all around.

Flvxxm Florvm: 6/10- I'm sorry...but its cheesy. Cheesy. Cheesy. The Lyrics are good but you need a different vocal style.

Grass Stained: 10/10- Are you sure you're not the Ruby Suns? The comparisons here are uncanny. Excellent use of soundscape, vocal accompaniement, unconventional instrumentation. By far the best track to come out this time.

Hand Formula: 2/10- I know what you're getting at, and you fail at it.

Jonathan Mann: 4/10- YOU. ARE. NOT. ADAM. GREEN. But if you are, 6/10: not your best effort chap. By a longshot.

Leyva Monster: 6/10-Good intro Lyrics, then it falls apart; the music is not bad, but that synth could sound better.

Lords of the Ring: 1/10- The only saving feature is the drums. They are good. Your lyrics are horrendous, as is most of the instrumentation. Back to the chalkboard.

Melvin: 7/10- Great choice on the cuts, You're rapping isn't perfect but its sufficient, the production values exceed here, but the vocal performance doesn't make up for it. Althought the writing is decent.

Noah Mclaughlin: 3/10- The instrumentation is decent, but the lyrics and vocal delivery are way, way, lacking. Work on it.

No Horse Town: 4/10 - Lyrics aren't very good. Instrumentation is lacking, recording is lacking as well.

Octothorpe: 2/10- MY EARS!!!! Clipping is unnaceptable. Seriously, get a mic.

Paco Del Stinko: 6/10- Haven't I heard this somewhere before? It's predictable and stale. Good recording and mixing though.

Pigpen: 5/10- Do you think you're Kevin Barnes? DO YA PUNK? Well..its not a bad impression of him...but vocals are far too low, instrumentation far too cheap , and lyrics far too tacky.

Pitre Consulting: 2/10- For what it is its decent, in comparison to everything else its uninteresting and unnoticable.

Primitive Screw Heads: 7/10- Excellent Lyrics in the beggining but it devolves into just ok. Superb delivery. The instrumentation is a bit simple.

Ross Durand: 8/10- Great clean guitar opening, good recording. Excellent Lyrics. This is a proper Country song, much more alt-country, but its great!

Royal Pajamas or Something: 5/10- Get a new synth, please. The drums and percussion are good, but everything else is lacking.

Shotpounder: 6/10- I just don't like it.I got nothing constructive to tell ya...sorry.

Some Guy Called Noel: 10/10- Excellent lyrics, excellent instrumentation, recording, vocal delivery. I love it! Absolutely perfect. Second place prize.

Suck Weasel: 8/10- I feel I've heard this before, The Police? Its very nice all around. Mixing could use a bit work.

Svenn Mullet: 6/10- I disliked the vocal fx. A lot. I stopped listening

Test, Test, Tests: 6/10- I LOVE COMPRESSION ARTIFACTS. No in fact I hate them. Sounds decent but I cant tell throught the compression.

Todd Mchatton: 9/10 - I like it, a lot. Guitars a bit too loud.

Weakest Suit: 6/10- HAHAHAHAHAHA , I get it....no...really...its just ok.

[Paco Del Stinko]

Hmm...wondering if Grassstained isn't someone with a closet rape fixation.

[PiGPEN]

Hmm...wondering if Grassstained isn't someone with a closet rape fixation.

More like necrophilia.

[WeaselSlayer]

http://www.lightningmp3.com/live/76029- ... ley_pt.mp3

Hey doodz. I didn't get my shit together in time to get in on this fight, but I did write a song for it if you wanna hear it. If not, you know... don't listen. Reviews to come!