Rumor Has It That You've Lost This Fight (reviews)

[BBABM]

ok finally got some time...

Bob Lazo: i really like the music, there are parts where the bass comes through really loud, and that is a little distracting, and the little organ(?) notes are the same way. i liked the lyrics at parts, but some of them seemed kind of cheezy. all in all a good job, just not quite refined enough.

Josh Millard: i like the slide guitar, a lot. however, there are a few places where it is not quite on the right note, and it makes a harmony that hurts a little. the vocals are great, and the cohesion with the backing vocals is flawless. all in all a good, well put together song, but it lacks something to set it apart from a million other sad love songs.

Cannibal Parrot: i like your music, but im not sure if it's really a song or background music. it feels like it should be that song playing during the credits at the end of a movie. nothing really to keep me interested, or to want to hear this song again. not that i would be pissed if it came on, but there is just nothing to make it stand out.

Berkeley Social Scene: i like the vocals, kinda dark and mysterious. goes well with the kinda creepy guitar. the dr. dre like high pitched notes, especially towards the end, are a little piercing. I probably should have voted for this song too.

Gnorling Snormal of Eloise: oh my goodness those birdcalls hurt my head. now ringing phones? it is a loud annoying noise bonanza! i appreciate what you are trying to do, it just hurts way too much.

Hoglen & Wages: experimental or not, it's a groovy song. i assume it's about the "paul is dead" rumor. cool theme. again one that i should have voted for, but it didn't hit me on first listen. the drums sound a little muffled. the horn part at the end is cool... wait that is not the end... that should have been the end.

Rik Gerblick: your voice sounds like the dude from bare naked ladies, but you missed a few notes. other than that it's a catchy tune. a little mainstream for my tastes, but well executed.

The Elephant Choir: i love it. did and done. i feel like it was written for some creepy stage musical... like sweeny todd or something equally disturbing. is that all the same person? the only part that could use some fixing is the very end, i'd get rid of the studio banter. just sounds like you were too lazy to cut it off, but great song.

Ux Mpuzm: lol... im glad that you have proven to us all that it is possible to have a song where all the words are sung backwards. however, this could have been accomplished in 45 seconds, because there may be a theme to the lyrics, but i am not going to take the time to try and reverse all that.

The HATE noise: i voted for this song because the beat is nasty good... and the dude says "back to riding a bike" and that made me laugh. the falsetto chorus is a little much, it sounds like a dude singing high, and badly. it might have been better if it was a woman singing this part. i really really like the little guitar riff in the beat though.

Naked Philosophy: i like how the song starts, even though it feels a little mechanical. but when it gets into the song, i find my self caring less and less. there are definite stipe-like vocal changes going on, but like REM? not really. in my opinion it felt unnatural, and like you were fighting the flow of the song. i liked it, but it is lacking a little fluidity.

King Arthur: nice, rockin! again a song that didn't hit me at first, but upon reexamination, i should have voted. i also like this better than the other songs i have heard from you, mostly because it is faster, and really rocks. honestly i'd like to hear you put some serious umph into the lyrics at parts. for most of it the singing works, but other parts (the one that comes to mind is towards the end where you say "what everybody thinks they know" or something like that) i want you to belt it out, on the verge of yelling, maybe get a little gravel n there.

Feat: beat is cool, but it keeps going forever, and the little scratches dont really break it up. the words are interesting, a cool story about a monster, but while they rhyme, and have a cool rhythm, they are missing laughs, or something cause i couldnt really get into them.

Steve Durand: for some reason to my ear, the bass and voice don't really go together all that well. i like the 70's style funk rock thing going though. it's like the "vegas" theme. the flute goes well with the style.

The Chthriplings: i really really like the music, and that is why it got the vote, but the lyrics kinda lack. given, for your voice that may be as angry, and loud, and hard, and gritty as you get. but it needs more. way more. also the guitar is a little too buzzsaw in my head. i don;t know if there is a way to even it out a little bit.

Bad Boys: i got a vote cause i'm me. i really like this song, but i recorded it badly. i've already ripped myself a new one over this song, so i'm going to let myself off easy for now.

good job everyone.

[BBABM]

Are you a Rush fan? The hook of this song is the guitar chords after the tagline. It sounds just like Bastille Day, okay slightly different

i am a fan... i don't live and die by rush like many do, but peart is my favorite drummer of all time. i have heard that song, but couldnt place it so i looked it up on the youtube... and behold! you are right, it does sound surprisingly similar. weird. not intentional i promise, but quite cool. I'll get your vote next time.

[ujnhunter]

The Rumor Lives Strong

Chth Riplings- This sounds soooooo drunk. White Stripes school of guitar and drums. Why no bass? It seriously needs some bass. That guitar tone is so trebly and bristly. I like the last 35 seconds better than the 1st 89 seconds. Lyrics I try to ignore, but sometimes a clever line or an offensive line jumps out. You’ve offended me “…I know it’s just another song”. I hope you get beaten up on the boards for that. A lot. Not bad, just needs bass, a more lively 1st 2/3rds, better lyrics, maybe some guitar tuning. Who’s in this band? Is that really Cock on vocals? That makes me suspect Noah is on guitar. All you New York song fighters play together right?

Thanks for the review, R. Mosquito is on guitar... it's a pure Cock track, no outside involvement this time. I don't think I've ever played with anyone from New York. We're actually a multi-coastal group... California / Connecticut. In defense of the line that you dislike... the "just another song" wasn't supposed to be taken as our "song" but as a "story" one might tell if they were lying... you know... spreading rumors... but I'll be the first to admit that I'm not completely happy with all the lyrics. Also about the people wanting "angrier" or "harder" vocals, I guess I could have done that... but seeing this was (obviously?) a White Stripes-esque ditty... I wanted it to be more bluesy and not as hard rock... not sure if I accomplished either. Ah well.

[JonPorobil]

Rik Gerblick: your voice sounds like the dude from bare naked ladies

Rik probably gets that a lot, but I didn't hear it in this week's song. Go back and listen to his "Love Me a Little Bit More," though. It sounds like an outtake from Maybe You Should Drive. Of course, I'm a bit fan of Barenaked Ladies, so I mean it as a compliment. It might be that my disappointment with his track this week stems from the fact that I was expecting BNL and got Filter instead.

[JonPorobil]

Chthirplings - I redownloaded, but this time I only seem to have gotten the first 1:55. Why won't the download finish, I wonder? (It also seems to have omitted the bass. Terrible ftp interface, if you ask me.)

[reve]

Chthirplings - I redownloaded, but this time I only seem to have gotten the first 1:55. Why won't the download finish, I wonder? (It also seems to have omitted the bass. Terrible ftp interface, if you ask me.)

[BBABM]

It might be that my disappointment with his track this week stems from the fact that I was expecting BNL and got Filter instead

imo the dude from filter has a more raspy, nasal voice. riks is much better, and not quite as abrasive. this song reminds me of "brian wilson" by bnl, with the acoustic guitar, and the echo-y drums (until the electric lead comes in). but dude has good range, projection. not super stoked on the song, but he has an awesome voice.

p.s. you are 100% correct about "love me a little bit more"... even the guitar style in that one is spot on.

[Rabid Garfunkel]

BSS: What's up with the mastering? The individual frequencies are all bouncing around like goodness should, but the summed stereo metering's solid and static, stuck... it's weird, man.

More to come, that was just a knee-jerk reaction to looking at the bouncing (or not) LEDs and the iTunes EQ meters.

[Rabid Garfunkel]

Cock: Nice swing at the White Stripes sound, but... Meg(?)'s kick is compressed to hell & back, as is the rest of her kit. Get it pumpin'!

[Rabid Garfunkel]

I should really compile these into a single post...

Hoglen & Wages: Can a song grow on one in a single listen? Well, yes. Y'all've put into a song almost everything I like about The Police. Good on ya.

Josh Millard: Why oh why didn't the banjo play that last note? Sorry I said we should start a band, I'm totally outclassed, sir. The faking of the pedal steel wasn't bad at all, yo.

Steve Durand: Nice! Though the keys muddy up the spectrum

...and that's the fight. One listen, while my wife maintains at least a hundred point lead over me in Scrabble. Here's the iTunes five star ratings:

King Arthur *****
The Gnorling Snormal of Eloise *
Bad Boys At Bat Mitzvahs **
Rik Gerblick ***
Berkeley Social Scene ****
Bob Lazo ****
Cannibal Parrot **
The Chthirplings (damn you Lovecraft) *****
The Elephant Choir ***
Feat **
The HATE Noise ***
Hoglen and Wages *****
Josh Millard *****
Naked Philosophy **
Steve Durand ***
Ux Mpuzm *

5 & 4 stars get a vote, the rest have my undying appreciation.

(Final score: 465 to 250. Ouch! She bingoed a triple word spot as her last move.)

[JonPorobil]

(Final score: 465 to 250. Ouch! She bingoed a triple word spot as her last move.)

Holy crap! Now I wanna play Scrabble with your wife!

What was that last word?

[Rabid Garfunkel]

DRILLING. At least the G was already on the other triple word square, otherwise that would've been... bad.

[TheCapitalistYouth]

Just checking in to say HATE noise is a great song and deserves to win. The beats are great, the rapper is great. I'm not a fan of shit talking but the track and flow more than make up for it.

[Eric Y.]

a little mainstream for my tastes

Wow, how wholly undescriptive. What sort of quality are you describing when you say "mainstream"? Essentially, what you've just said is, "this sounds too much like something that people might like, for me to like it."

While we're at it, I'm about 99% certain Jon Eric has never actually heard a Filter song.

More to come.

[BBABM]

Wow, how wholly undescriptive.

fair enough. what i meant by this is that it sounded too formulaic, and scripted. the lyrics, though well sung, were lacking a youthful edge. it sounded like it could be any song i would hear on the radio. It was very good, very well done, well sung, well written, however there was nothing to set it apart as something special. i guarantee that people would like, and listen to this song. i personally don't really like the style of rock and roll played here, much to the style of adult top 40 alternative bands, like BNL, john mayer, nickleback, fuel. good tune, huge market, not my style. to help fix it in my ears, he would cut the "start today" line cause that sounds cheesy. the drums would be changed from the little snare thing (though cool) to a bigger part, they sound like they are just playing along, and not a necessary part of the song. the lead guitar was cool, but the effect sounded straight out of 1989 bon jovi. im sorry for being vague in my review, i was trying not to be such a huge dick, because it was a very good song.

[JonPorobil]

While we're at it, I'm about 99% certain Jon Eric has never actually heard liked a Filter song.

Ah, now it's more accurate. To be fair, the specific Filter song I was reminded of was "Take a Picture," which I know isn't representative of their sound.

You're Rik? I had no idea.

[Eric Y.]

I'm not anybody. Sorry if that was misleading. Just responding to what I'm reading. Also, not trying to call anybody "a huge dick" -- again, just offering my two cents. And speaking of two cents:

************

Good afternoon, Song Fight! Here are some more opinions for your enjoyment. A couple days early this time around, so now I actually get to participate in the voting!

badboysatbatmitzvahs - Very story-driven, but it's so dynamically static (oxymoron!) that, try as I might, I can't seem to stay focused on the words. Not sure what else this needs, but it seems to be lacking something to draw me in.

berkeleysocialscene - The singing is really nice, the arrangement well-done. I wish more people were able to fill up this much sonic space without sounding muddy or resorting to really extreme equalization and panning to separate the parts. I wasn't quite as enamored with the bass part as I was last time (I think that was you guys), but the singing and drumming and rhodesing and mandolining were all great.

boblazo - The bass tone is really squished flat, which really keeps me from enjoying this as much as I might have otherwise. I do love me some Urge Overkill, after all.

cannibalparrot - It sure is tough getting used to a non-weighted electronic keyboard keys when you've always played a regular "real" piano, isn't it?

chthriplings - Nothing personal, but I've never been a fan of this newfangled no-soul "blues-lite" music.

elephantchoir - This is really missing some frantic tambourine action. Also would really benefit from an accordian, either in place of, or as a supplement to, the piano part. With these few small changes I think you'd really nail the mood here. I really enjoyed the background "rumorsrumorsrumorsrumors" parts.

feat - If you're really trying to get the word out to discredit these rumors, you might try raising your voice a bit. I guess the guy (whose name escapes me at the moment) who did the record-scratching for Dr. Octagon must've fallen on hard times if this is the type of work he's doing now?

gnorlingsnormalofeloise - Next, please...

hatenoise - That refrain and hook seemed so promising, but the verses really disappointed. The lyrics really failed to impress.

hoglenandwages - I like this song a lot, the singing and the music and the trumpets and guitar leads and the drums and everything, but the subject matter is just a bit trite and gimmicky for me. We already have "Looking Through a Glass Onion" so do we really need another song that basically covers the same ground? Also, fun trivia! My favorite song of all-time about the Fab Four was one that was done by the Pre-Fab Four. By a strange coincidence, some parts of your song (such as bits of instrumentation and harmony, etc.) remind me of a couple different songs from the same album. UPDATE: damnit, damnit, damnit. I want to love this song, everything sounds so good, but these lyrics are just killing me.

joshmillard_tris.mp3 - The bass, drums, banjo, singing, and guitar solo parts are all great and you really seem to achieve what you're going for with this song. The only thing that bugs me is the tone of the slide guitar part. Somebody with better ears than me or more knowledge about this sort of thing could probably articulate this better than I could, but I feel like you might've been better off using a different pickup setting, or something. I dunno. Even still, it only bothers me occasionally (mostly during the chorus I think) -- each time I've heard the song after about the first two, I think it has grown on me little by little.

kingarthur - Man, right from the start that lead guitar really reaches out and grabs you. And then that repeated phrase at the end of each verse pretty much seals the deal. This is really good stuff.

nakedphilosophy - I like that lead-in. I'm really curious, was this inspired in part by "The Invention of Lying"? Either way, fun times.

rikgerblick - A few times throughout it felt like you were going to really let loose and start belting it out, but this feels rather over-restrained, up until practically the very end. And then it ends.

stevedurand - Between that flute part and bassline, this really has a lot going for it. The horn section is a nice touch, too, but I feel like it's kind of under-used. I mean, it seems like you use that as a punctuation after every few lines in both the verses and choruses alike, and I would have preferred to see it changed up a little. Like, in one of those sections I might have liked for the horns to have played some sustained chords behind the vocal lines, instead of always those little marcato bits. I also think the brief little instrumental piece after the last words was kind of out-of-place. If you wanted it to end so suddenly and surprisingly, it would've been better to just cut after the final word; on the other hand, if you wanted a musical ending, the part that's there is fine but it should have built up to a somewhat bigger and grander finale instead of stopping where it did.

uxmpuzm - Wow, I seriously cannot believe I just sat through this for four minutes. Chop up and reverse the vocal track all you want, there's no hiding the fact that instead of writing a new song for this fight, you just submitted a Polly Darton cover. Busted.

Well. If we only had one vote to cast, I'd have a tough time choosing between the Elephant Choir and King Arthur songs. Fortunately, we no longer live in the dark ages, and I can vote for both of them. I'll vote for somebody else too, think maybe I'll have a cage match to the death between everyone else, because there were a lot of good things in this fight.

[BBABM]

Also, not trying to call anybody "a huge dick"
************
badboysatbatmitzvahs - Very story-driven, but it's so dynamically static (oxymoron!) that, try as I might, I can't seem to stay focused on the words. Not sure what else this needs, but it seems to be lacking something to draw me in.

i know you weren't calling me that... i have a tendency to be one sometimes, and im still new here so i was trying not to.... and as for my song, what it is lacking is for something to happen in the story rather than just bunch of description. its a good backbone for a story, but nothing happens. i am working on a third verse that talks about the fire, and burning bodies or something to liven it up a little from a boring love song. thanks for listening and responding!

[king_arthur]

The old guy checks in. I know I go on about stereo separation a lot, and, listening to my own track this week, maybe I've taken it too far... but, still, I hear a lot of songs where it seems like all the instruments are right in the middle (and recording a guitar in stereo and then panning the tracks left and right still leaves the "guitar" in the middle - put both tracks over on one side so it sounds like the guitarist is standing on the left side of the stage or something).

Thank you to everyone who had nice things to say about my song this week, but I'll be pretty surprised if I'm in the top three, even...

reviews in alpha order, but listened to the songs randomly:

Bad Boys At Bat Mitzvahs

The phrasing of the vocal on this one reminds me of what goes
on in rap songs, where there are a lot of phrases that run
together, rhymes at unexpected points... somehow, it doesn't
seem like it's working so well in this style... for me, it's
making it hard to follow the story... for this style, I think
you want to put some breaks in the delivery so that the listener
gets where one though ends and the next begins. I got to the
end and I still wasn't sure what "the rumor" refers to - if
he was "the roomer" who lived at a boarding house, or what.
I think there's an interesting story here that just needs to be
told a little more clearly. And maybe followed through further,
don't cut it off at this point.

Berkeley Social Scene

I'm liking this, there's interesting stuff going on in each ear, the
lyric is at a good point between blatant and just confused... this is
a song I'd want to listen to a bunch more times just to figure out
the story. Just about the point where I started thinking the chord
pattern was going on too long, it went some fresh new places. The
harmonies are cool, the lead guitar is doing what it needs to. The
high synth-y thing could maybe drop out for a section and then come
back in, but that's nitpicky. This one came up about 2/3 of the
way through litening to the fight, and was immediately my favorite.

Bob Lazo

Okay, the rawk. The drums seem a little too cleanly recorded to
be part of what's going on here, maybe everything needs to be put
through a wash reverb so it all mixes together, sounds like it's a
bunch of people playing together in the same room. Some dynamic
variation might be in order as well, even on the breakdown around
1:40, the guitars don't back off very much. Could use a bit more
vocal.

Cannibal Parrot

A minute in and I'm thinking that the piano is too "normal" for
this to be a "sound performance" piece, I'm still waiting for
the song to start. Guess this is what it is... 3:30 in and I'm
thinking that I wish there was more musical variation instead
of it just building and building and building. Okay, maybe I
missed something, but I didn't come away with the sense that
the sound clips tied together to tell a story. Very end, learn
how to "fade out" that ending sound, don't just let it clip off...

The Chthriplings

Good rock voice. Seems to me like this needs a bass, or at
least more bass in the drum EQ, or are you going for a White
Stripes kinda thing? Kind of a long intro for such a short
song, maybe it just needs more song...

The Elephant Choir

If I was mixing this, I would look at putting the piano a bit
out to one side and the guitar(s) out to the other and then
get the vocal centered. And the vocal and guitars have a
definite "computer mic" sound while the keyboard seems more
"directly recorded" clean... if all you've got to do the vocal
and guitars with is a computer mic, you might work on making
the piano sound more, umm, consistent. Try to make it sound
like the whole song was recorded in the same room at the same
time.

Feat

Thematically, I'm reminded a bit of Frank Zappa's "Cheepnis."
The music does sound right for a Saturday afternoon sci fi
monster movie... tho' it seems like the progression here is
just piling up information about a moment in time, rather than
telling a story piece by piece, and I think more of a story
line would have been more interesting.

The Gnorling Snormal of Eloise

Can I just say "not my thing" and move on? even if you're
building the lyrics and vocal from clips, I'm wanting more of
a sense of story, I want to have it make sense to me why you
picked those particular clips and put them in the order you
did...

The HATE Noise (featuring Anonymous)

Okay, I just don't care for "raps about how I'm the best
rapper ever" and that seems like that's what this is.
The chorus bit ("so come on, come on") is catchy, that'll
be stuck in my brain for a while... if I liked this sort of
thing, this would be the sort of thing I would like...

Hoglen and Wages

I'm old enough to know most of the details of the story, not
sure who a couple of the people in the opening lines are.
Yeah, for me, the lyric is almost too blatant, too many clues.
Listening on headphones, I want the instruments spread out
in stereo more, and if the vocal is just being doubled, put
those more in the center (separated a little). Yeah, I
like how the horns work. The ending bit... well, yeah, I
guess the Beatles would have done that, so, okay. The
ending bit, I think that it's the dropout transition that's
not working, if you'd done a crossfade there, not let it fall
all the way out...

Josh Millard

Liking this. Liking this a lot, sounds good, lyric is good,
well EQ'd (I listened to this one right after mine, and it
made mine sound all midrange-y in comparison). Well done.

King Arthur

Hearing this in the context of all the other entries... maybe I've
overdone the stereo split a bit, however much I encourage it in
everybody else. And the EQ is maybe a bit too much midrange-y.
I've been watching a bunch of Bollywood movies lately, and using
those for inspiration. For this one, I tried to listen to the
rhythms of Bollywood movie music and get something going along
those lines... I've been doing a lot of harmony vocals lately -
on my recorder, tracks 9-16 are stereo pairs, so 9-10 get the
drums, and then the remaining six get backing vocals in pairs...
not expecting this to be a winner, but glad some people enjoyed
it. Need to make a point of listening to my mixes in the context
of some other well-mixed songfight songs.

Naked Philosophy

Liking this, liking the vocals, everything is sufficiently in tune.
The "ahhs" about 1:00 and some of the stuff that follows is... odd
choices for melody notes... but it seems like you sing the same notes
on following passes. I like the big dynamic difference between the
verses and the chorus. Seems like it ends in a weird place in the
story...

Rik Gerblick

Good voice for your style. Not sure if I like the echo on the drums,
I listen on headphones and I would prefer more going on with the
stereo field - everything is pretty much sitting right in the middle.
The lyric... I want there to be more of a progressing story line, it
just seems like all the "at the time" going on, there's not quite
the sense of "I did this, and this is what happened" that I'm wanting
to hear. Well done overall, nicely recorded. Ending seems a bit
anticlimactic musically.

Steve Durand

Instruments in the intro sound out of tune... especially for a "jazzy"
song like this, I want everything in tune. The horn bits _sound_ great;
assuming you recorded them one at a time, why aren't they spread out
across the stereo field? Yeah, at the end of the song, I feel like
it's a very serious story line, but the music is a bit too "novelty"
to tell that story. I like dramatic stories and I like the Aquabats,
but I don't buy the Aquabats doing a dramatic story.

Ux Mpuzm

Yeah, what everybody else said.


Votes: Berkeley Social Scene, Josh Millard, Naked Philosophy, Rik Gerbliik.
Maybe some others.

[bartok2112]

Eric Y. wrote:

cannibalparrot - It sure is tough getting used to a non-weighted electronic keyboard keys when you've always played a regular "real" piano, isn't it?

>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

I am not sure what you mean by this comment. The keyboards used were all controlled from a Kurzweil PC88. It has weighted keys and I have been playing it for about 13 years. All inflections and accents were placed just where I wanted them. The opening piano line was constructed to create a 4 part canon where the accents would cycle around in various places against the straight ahead 4/4 drum beat.

This is my first song fight on my own (though last week I was the sax player on BSS and Ziplore), so I really appreciate everyone's comments so far. Someone earlier made a comment about the EQ on the piano part being too bright - that I can go with. This comment was just plain useless.

- Paul

[glennny]

damn it!
I want to be "bartok2112"
nice choice!
That comment is like when a good drummer who keeps good time is accused of being a drum machine because his timing is too perfect.

[bartok2112]

king_arthur wrote:

Okay, maybe I
missed something, but I didn't come away with the sense that
the sound clips tied together to tell a story.

Well, it wasn't really supposed to tell a story, at least in the sense of a narrative. Think about it as if something had upset you, and you are sitting around stewing over it. Different thoughts keep floating into your head, some maybe uninvited, and you hear these thoughts in voices that are familiar with . The listener does not know the voices of people in my life, so I picked voices that are familiar to most folks in the form of movie/tv clips. I tried to build it from introspective to plain angry.

Very end, learn
how to "fade out" that ending sound, don't just let it clip off...

I will try to figure that out better next time. However, wouldn't you want Sarah Palin clipped off?

Thanks - Paul