Phyllis Wheatley Reviews

[Spud]

You want a more clever title for the review thread, get her before I do.

[melvin]

MC Thundercheeks: This is stupid and sounds terrible.

Melvin: Not much to say about this. It’s from the heart.

BSS: RIFFAGE! I don’t really approve of using the poet’s words as the song lyrics. To me, you’re just reading something instead of saying something. Maybe an exception would be if the music itself was adding some kind of commentary or perspective, such as by its genre or references, but I don't think that’s the case here.

The WSA: I wrote a bit about the making of this tune in my review of the last fight. It's basically Glen’s composition with drums by Ken and vocals by the rest of us. Jeremy’s bridge vocal was an 11th hour addition, and I’ve had it stuck in my head ever since. What a fantastic vocal melody and harmony.

Toby Roktot: Amusing lyrics. Nicely written. Musical elements don’t feel as inspired.

Gregg Boethin: Just when I was starting to lose faith in this fight, thank you. This is stupid like MC Thundercheeks but it’s redeemed by sounding good and being really funny.

Inflatable Vegetables: My fascination with you continues to grow. Another hilarious tune that demonstrates spectacular writing, melodic sense and musicianship. I love guitarmonies. Wow! Who are you?

Rub a Dub Dub: I really like this. Solid in every way. Chill, well-played, well-recorded, well-performed. The fundamentals are all there, so I’ll say the one thing missing that takes a song like this from merely “good” to “worth listening to again” is a hook that I can remember when the song is over.

Thanks for the tunes, fighters.

[jb]

Wow, this title really shut a bunch of ppl down! It's like Rockapolousaninjananophone 2014!

Gregg Boethin: nice chops, don't really get it.

The WSA: verse vox feel disconnected from the music. lyrics a little drab. chorus is good tho, gotta say, gels much better and I can tell that's the part you guys really fell in love with while writing it. Wish the spoken part wasn't in the bridge... or needs a momentum-building thing to get me back into it. I do like the melody tho.

Rub a Dub Dub: Dunno 'bout them lyrics man, but overall nicely done. Like that organ. The panning might be a bit too separated...

Veggies: I appreciate a good Wikipedia song. It would have sounded completely different and probably been much more dramatic, but this is the kind of angle I would have taken had I written a "Phyllis Wheatley". I really appreciate your sound and the unique vibe you bring to the fights!

toby roktot: wellllll, uh, I guess I'd say if you're gonna do stuff like this, you gonna have some kinda magic writing shit goin' on. kind of reminds me of a more solidly rhythmic Octothorpe song...

MC Thundercheeks: kind of like a profane, less-inspired Starfinger. holy shit it goes on for forty forevers

BSSsss: Might have been cool to just recite the poem on top of the music, King-Missile style.

Melvin: lead vox might be a TAD too far front. i like the tired gritty pseudo Mascis vocal style tho. the part with "life's like that with ups and downs" struck me as very pretty. wish the lead vox were mixed into the chorus more. i like it though. the "uh huh" parts are nice too. I like the use of the pad in the back.

[hillbilly]

Melvin, you may be starting something new, at least new to me, like this raw underground sound.

[iVeg]

I woke up in a Soho doorway, a policeman knew my name. He said "You can go sleep at home tonight, if you can get up and walk away"
@ Melvin: You expect a straight answer?

BSS: That's Martin on vox, right? With his vocals on this song, I probably would have done strictly on-key bgvs on the chorus, maybe the prechorus, too. I don't have a problem using PW poetry lyrics. The whole song was not what I would have expected with the lyrics, tho. That could have been a good thing. I really like the instrumental parts. It just didn't quite work together with the lyrics.
Gregg B: Silly lyrics, really strong imagery, strong chorus melody, whole thing's well sung. I also like guitar parts, esp solo.
MC TC: Going for contrast with PW poetry? You achieved your goal. I didn't like it, tho.
Melvin: Liked the lyrics. I think for verses, it was ok to have vocals so in front, but chorus may have been stronger if the keys and electric guitar were hotter in the mix.
Rub-a-Dub-Dub: Good reggae vibe. Very good instrumental parts.
Toby R: Dark and spooky. I thought it was ... you realize she's been dead for over 200 years, don't you?
WSA: My favorite. Chorus is great, and the bridge is strong, too. Like all the instrumental parts. Wish I could understand the spoken word part. I was singing along with this one.

Veg: I read a bunch of PW poetry, and struggled with most of it. I did read Wiki, of course, but also read up on the Phyllis Wheatley Clubs. They were social clubs, started to help the women who were moving north in the late 1800s, early 1900s. At first it was housing, jobs, but then they expanded to fight crime, feed elderly, etc. Very cool stuff.
Musically, wrote this one on keys instead of guitar. I was happy with it until I started looking up gospel harmonies, and realized how bland mine were compared with REAL gospel harmonies. I thought my vocals sounded super thin, but the takes I recorded later weren't as good, so I scrapped them.

So - question for you BSS/ Glennny/ Ken/ Melvin/ WSA... Do you each write a song, then try to figure out which one will be the BSS song, etc?

[glennny]

So - question for you BSS/ Glennny/ Ken/ Melvin/ WSA... Do you each write a song, then try to figure out which one will be the BSS song, etc?

The whole truth is that every song has its own story. There are however some tendencies.

WSA- We typically all go off and write something then present them to the group and try and make a decision on which one to go with. September was a Melvin catalyst, No Vacancy was a Furry Pedro catalyst (the glennny track for No Vacancy was proposed, but we went with the FP idea). For Phyillis I wrote the demo that we developed. At this point we want Frisbee to start us off on the next one (no pressure Friz).

BSS- We actually get together in the same room every Tuesday night. Typically Ken has written some lyrics ahead of time. Then we jam as a band and write the parts together. We record the band live and then overdub solos and vocals. We never know who is going to be the lead vocalist, but I think of Martin as the 1st string, and me as the last string.

Rub a Dub- BSS was already done, WSA was already done. Tuesday night BSS decided to make another song. That's our new friend Victor on vocals. (he's also on rhythm guitar on the BSS song). Lunkhead missed the BSS session, but he provides the bass and the organ on this song.

I'm digging this small fight. I hope to do reviews soon, I'm almost finished with my No Vacancy reviews.

[iVeg]

I'm glad to find I was right. I had a sneaky suspicion Rub-a-Dub was you all in yet another disguise.

[Toby Roktot]

Awesome album cover glennny.....vote!

[melvin]

Seriously best album cover ever by Glennny! I am having it framed.

[iVeg]

I like the cover, but prefer his No Vacancy cover. These are my two favorite covers he's done. For some reason, No Vacancy isn't in his art archive.

[jb]

Agree! These are great covers! Glennny, you should post some hi-res versions to the boards!

[furrypedro]

Ditto re: artwork

[glennny]

Thanks everybody!

This has inspired me to photograph my artwork and put it up on Art Pal.
www.ArtPal.com/glennny

They'll do framing and printing for you etc.
If there's an image you like and you would just like a large version of the image, send me a PM and I'll send you a large version of the image, and you may do with it what you will.

I'm enjoying ink on paper these days, and I'm enjoying Song Fight oriented stuff. If anyone has an idea they would like to see me execute, please feel free to let me know.

cheers!

glennny

[Toby Roktot]

Melvin you're right, i had to grunt to get this one out !!! lol

jb OCTOTHORPE !!!! my hero !!! thx !!

iVeg like Dr. Hook said "...necrophiliacs lookin' for dead ones...". haha

Glennny i'm collecting your cover art....outstanding stuff...thx !!!

[Spud]

This has inspired me to photograph my artwork and put it up on Art Pal.
http://www.ArtPal.com/glennny

NSFW?!? Really?

[glennny]

I don't know where you work. You can turn it off with a couple clicks. I thought I'd error on the side of caution.